Dear Santa...

I was going through a box of old school stuff of my kids..... 

and came across their letters to Santa back in 1989! 

Adam was in 3rd grade, and Stephanie was in Kindergarten. I'm not sure if they did these in school or if I had a sneaky plan in mind, but if you promise not to tell them..... shhh.... I was Santa!!  I apparently tried to write with flourishes and make my letters nothing like I really wrote them. I can tell it was me, but I think they were fooled!

We always left milk and cookies for Santa (do you think he ever got tired of milk and cookies and just wanted a beer and peanuts instead?!!)  Of course, Santa had to eat it all and leave crumbs and traces of milk behind!

I love it that they each drew a picture of Santa -- 

Adam's is so skinny (he always drew skinny people for some reason) 

and notice the RED mustache and NO BEARD!

and Stephanie's is just a big head....

and hmmm,  no beard either!

I really cherish these Santa letters because the next year was the year of the...

BIG  QUESTION!

Adam told me he wanted to ask me something ..... and led me into the garage.....

He leaned against the car, me against the washing machine.  I knew this would be a BIG QUESTION. (And, frankly, it wasn't the BIG QUESTION I thought it would be! LOL!)

Big intake of breath. Serious looks.

So, Mom, tell me the truth   (uh-oh)

Is Santa real??

OK, quick thinking here -- but I knew the only thing to do was to come clean. This kid was SERIOUS.

So I launched into the "Santa isn't a real person, but is the spirit of giving" talk. That he's fun for everyone to be excited about.  etc, etc.

Adam seemed to take all this in pretty well -- and agreed that he wouldn't let on to Stephanie.

And then he said.....

So I guess it's the same for the TOOTH FAIRY and the EASTER BUNNY too.....

All gone, in one fell swoop......

~ sharing on Alphabe-Thursday where we are studying the letter D



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Zipping Through the Air!

So, would you ride a zip line? Way up in the air, suspended from a wire? Just a harness between you and certain death?

Um, not me! But that's what popped into my mind when thinking of a Z letter! Hard to believe we're at the alphabet's end and will start a new round of AlphabeThursday next week!

I knew my son had ziplined (zip lined? zipped? Not sure what's the correct terminology in the world of flying through the air...) so I went thumbing through his FB pics and found a couple and lifted them! (He won't care!)

Back in 2007, Adam went on his first out-of-the-country trip which was also his first by-himself-on-his-own vacation. And what a trip it was! A trek starting and ending in Cancun, Mexico and visiting various places in Central America -- camping, hiking, horseback riding, snorkeling, visiting Mayan ruins, meeting other trekkers from around the world, seeing places he might never have, eating exotic food -- what a great trip for a young man! He was in his late 20's and I was so excited for him to be a part of this trek! 

looks like a trekker....

So, out of his zillion and one photos, I found the zip line ones...

Yikes!

note that blue sign with the Mayan temple!

over the tops of trees

after the zip

Adam's in the center back

 Where they were...

Tikal, in Northern Guatemala

Adam said these was one of his favorite Mayan cities with its "beautiful sunsets and sunrises, Howler monkeys and.... terrible food" 

The Grand Plaza

Temple of the Great Jaguar

more temples

This is just a tiny part of his trip -- he was gone for a couple of weeks or so and visited Mexico and the Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and Belize.


However, this post is supposed to be about zip lining, soooo.....

Wired Zip Line Course

Have fun on the longest zip line in Texas!! (about an hour from Dallas) 

Hmmm, I'm thinking I won't be doing this anytime soon!

How about you?

~ sharing for AlphabeThursday where we are studying the zippy zip-lining letter Z
~ sharing those blue skies (and the blue Mayan Temple road sign) for Blue Monday


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Lobsterama and a Movie

Today, my son is 33! In fact, as I am writing this, he is officially 33! Time-wise he was born at 10:15 in the morning :)

Look at that! Still wearing a bib!!

He sneaked into this world a little early -- I had not even had my tour of the delivery room and had not one iota of what to expect! What a wonderful experience though! All grown up now and doing what he loves to do -- working in the film industry, producing indie films, going to film festivals, partnering in a historic theater. A dream life! 

When he was in the third grade, they had career day and the kids were to dress up as what they wanted to be when they grew up....

His sign says "Actor"

I think he got that pretty close!

Last night we had our family celebration dinner at Lucile's, a fabulous restaurant in Ft. Worth. They were having Lobsterama so of course we all had lobster! 

I had never eaten a fresh Live Maine Lobster before -- lobster tails but never the whole shebang sitting on my plate! Boy, was it good!

We all had to indulge in a bit of dessert! 

I got a peach cobbler, with ice cream :)

Yum yum and more yum!

The guys got Cherries Jubiliee -- flambeed  and served with

three scoops of ice cream! 

They shared and then dipped their spoons into my peach cobbler!

He said he should have worn his lobster shirt!

Then we met up with my daughter (she couldn't go to the dinner) and went to the screening of Adam's latest movie -- it's film festival time in Ft. Worth! The film is called Bob Birdnow in the short form and the official (long) title is Bob Birdnow's Remarkable Tale of Human Survival and the Transcendence of Self.

Excellent. If you get a chance to see it when it airs, do so! It's about a man who is giving a motivational speech and has a melt-down in the process. Well acted and very emotional. Basically one man speaking, but he paints such a picture that you feel you are right there with him, experiencing his life as it happens. It actually began as a play, and became a movie.

Adam produced and was also assistant director on this movie.

Star... Barry Nash

So, Happy Birthday to Adam -- I got interrupted a few times while typing this and it's now past 12 noon --- I suppose I'm out of the delivery room now and am a real Mama!!


sharing the various blues at Blue Monday (even though that lobster's red!!)
and at GRAND Social


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Hope it's not an April Fool joke.....

Yesterday, our son came over for Easter lunch (he's always up for a home cooked meal!) and surprise, surprise -- he finally moved all most of the way out!!!

His moving out process has lasted about eight or so years.....

(I'm sure some of you can identify with this!)

He really surprised me -- after we ate, he jumped up and said that he was going to get all the book boxes -- he had bought a number of bookshelves and now had a place for them. 

I was giddy!

I counted twenty (TWENTY) boxes!!

Full of books

books and CDs that couldn't be housed in the shed.

The boxes had been in two closets....

spilling over into a corner in my hubby's office

CDs, DVDs, 35mm film reels,

even empty DVD cases for crying out loud!

and then he got the metal wire shelving unit that used to be in his room,

and some more stuff that had been in the shed.

His SUV was filled to the brim!

Hope this wasn't an April Fool's joke 

and he brings it all back.....

Does this innocent face look like he'd play a joke on his mama?!!

sharing at Smiling Sally's for Blue Monday  

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A tribute, with gratitude, to my brother

My brother's birthday was last week and I did something that I don't usually do for his birthday -- I sent him a gift!!

Or rather, I MADE him a gift and sent it to him  : )

This was taken in 2007 

We stopped exchanging gifts years ago and now just send an email message or a cute online card. But this time I got an attack of the crazies and decided to crochet him a scientifically nerdy gift. He is, after all, a chemist, and a professor, and does research having to do with dental sealants. I dunno, I just crochet and paint and embroider.   :p

We are like two peas in a pod!! Yeah, right. I remember him trying to help me with math -- a very frustrating experience for both of us to be sure! It definitely didn't take because I still count on my fingers!

But I doubt that he can crochet! He can paint though. Beautifully. And way, way better than I can.

This was taken sometime in the 80s and is one of my favorite pics. 

We're both a bit grayer now (OK, a lot grayer...) !!

So, Mr Earl N. Meyer Flask (that's Erlenmeyer flask to all you chemists out there...) has gone off to play on a shelf in my brother's office, next to an Indian coffee pot apparently -- I hope they don't trade liquids, Earl's looks like his might give you a tummy ache!

I put some fiberfill (or, as Noli calls it, "fluff") in the top so it looks like vapor coming out...

and, of course, he looks like that's a scary potion he's mixed up!

My brother did many things for me as I was growing up -- things that I remember and am grateful for to this day. He was 12 1/2 when I was born. Gotta put that 1/2 on there, but now he tells me that somehow our ages are getting closer as we grow older... huh? Has something to do with that math he never could get me to understand... My hubby agrees and tried to explain it to me, but to no avail!!

Anyway....

I'm sure he did a lot of babysitting and changing of diapers, but I remember the sweet things he did that brothers often do not do with their little sisters. Like take me on a picnic with his girlfriend, and letting me ride in his soap box when he was racing with the other boys on the street (this thrilled me to no end), and writing letters to me when I was in high school (he was in the Navy stationed in Bahrain at the time) and talking about the things that concern a high school girl -- boyfriends and dating and popularity. He gave me good advise that my mother probably wouldn't have talked to me about. I still have those letters.

As a child, I would save half of my popsicle for him and leave him notes on his pillow telling him goodnight and that I loved him. He was the one who indulged me with my imaginary friend (Moosie, who looked like a monkey), carrying him around by his tail like I did. He would stick me under his desk and tickle me with his toes when I bothered him too much while he was studying. He was the one who consoled me when HIS dog died and I was the one who found him.

After getting his Doctorate, he moved to Holland to work with Unilever (parent company of Lever Brothers) and lived there about four years. The summer before my senior year in high school, he gave me the gift of a trip to visit him -- for the summer! What an experience that was!

He was tantamount in convincing my father to let me move out of the house, and move to New Orleans (from Baton Rouge where we lived) for my first "real" job and an apartment of my own. He lived in Slidell across Lake Pontchartrain from NO and so was near enough to come to my aid if necessary. This was a turning point in my life, as my father was very strict and didn't allow me much leeway in how I lived my life or the decisions I made.

And so, I wanted to give a little tribute to my brother and to let him know how much I love him. I'm sending him a link to this post -- just watch him blush!

I'm also linking this to the Blogging Business Artisans team challenge for this month. As team members we participate in at least six challenges each year, the themes determined by our team members. This month's theme is Gratitude and we are asked how gratitude plays a part in our lives and to create something that shows that gratitude. So my little flask is a tribute to my brother, for his birthday as well as all that he has meant to me.

And, one more tribute to you, big brother! This is an Etsy Treasury that I made for another team (from my Magnolia's Attic vintage shop) -- the Etsy Vintage Team. Just for the nerdiness in you!! (Although I don't consider you to be socially inept as nerds are wont to be....)  : )

A Scientific Experiment






                       
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