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lil c: Mom I have a question about this Math problem!
Me: hold on, I’m trying to figure out how many cookies I need to order for our cookie booths. Give me a minute.
lil c: Ok but we have a lot of cookies in the garage. Why do you want more?
Me: Yeah I know but we need more for this weekend’s 3 booths.
lil c: is this your new job?
Me: Yeah this year I’m the cookie monster remember?
Lil c: Laughing uncontrollably
Me: why are you laughing? It’s a lot of work you know? And I do have a real job on top of this too
Lil c: (noticing that I must not be in the best of moods based on my answer) you meant you are the Cookie mom right?
Me: yes what’s so funny about that?
lil c: I think you need a break, you said you are the Cookie Monster!

Then we both burst out laughing. YES I need a break!

So on a lazy Sunday I took a stroll into a Barnes & Noble, something I love doing, I love being surrounded by all the knowledge, the smell of new books, looking at people curled up on the floor with a piece of literature, so into what they are reading they don’t see the world around them, it’s a great thing. (Mainly a reason I’m not turning to digital reading anytime soon). So after hours of browsing the aisles and sipping on my gingerbread latte I decided it was time to let the Happiness Project in and so I walked out with the book, an open mind and a willing to make that resolution of book per month really happen.

So Step 1 of buying the book completed, Step 2 was Getting Social. I looked on the website, I liked the Facebook Page, followed Gretchen Rubin on Twitter, checked her blog out, and signed up for the toolbox. After checking all of that out and putting myself into the mind frame of what my happiness project will mean to me personally, I was ready to actually sit down in my comfy chair to begin reading the author’s journey.

And along came Step 3 – So I read the 1st chapter, which was January of her journey and her focus on Energy, or better yet on boosting energy. She explained different areas such as bodily energy, Restoring energy by de-cluttering, Tackling tasks and just acting more energetic. So far I’m liking the book, she spent more time than needed explaining about how she de-cluttered her house from top to bottom and I kept thinking, that the mere thought of de-cluttering drains my energy out, but it might be worth it…

Regarding Bodily energy, that seems simple enough!

• going to bed earlier to at least get 7-8 hrs of sleep. I think I can try that out. I’m going to try to go to bed by 9:30 (lets not count today since here I am on my computer writing about this)

• So I said be in bed by 9:30, and manage to be sound asleep by 11pm, lets see if that’s manageable!

• Some tips I picked up:

- get ready for bed early (wash face, brush teeth, pjs…)
- Turn down temperature in the room
- Lower lights to help induce sleepiness.

Tossing, Organizing and Restoring

This portion doesn’t seem half as exciting to me, but there are 3 areas that really could use it: My closet, my office and my crazy junk room (which used to be a guest room).

Tackling Nagging tasks

Oh this is a great area, no procrastinating on these daunting tasks. Laundry comes to mind, if I did that more often, it wouldn’t pile up and become such a big task.  Hmm that should be easy enough to start doing, not sure I want to, but I can see the happy outcome at my fingertips on that one. And of course the junk room is another one to tackle and that just kills two birds with one stone doesn’t it. Interesting I’m beginning to feel empowered and wanting to get on it as I write about it.

And last but not least – Acting Energetic

Hmm switching tasks when you begin to feel tired, can help you wake up, sure I can see that, it also needs quite some active manpower to accomplish, but I can certainly try that one out. I’m a good actress, I should be able to fool that body of mine into not feeling tired even when I’m dying for a nap. If when you are having fun you don’t feel tired, maybe the key thing is to think about having fun and change the mind frame… Lets get that started.

So between what Gretchen wrote from her experience and my own thinking of how it could affect me, I think I have some things that I could start working on. Lets see how that goes!

I loved playing with Lego and I think part of it was that my Dad would help me build the most detailed houses, with windows and doors and trees and cars, and I had a collection of Lego people and I could spend hours and hours playing with my Lego. I never wanted to put them away, because the houses my dad helped me built were perfect.

They weren’t pink and that was ok! Believe me being that pink and purple were my favorite colors, I had enough of that elsewhere and my primary color Lego were just fine. I totally relate to the ad from 1981, because that was exactly me!

I do have to admit, that I’m sure that if Lego at it’s time had a selection of Lego female characters and that I could have had a set that would let me build my own restaurant, shop and whatever else, I would have wanted it in addition to what I had.

But this brings me to my original reason for this post. I don’t like the marketing of Lego Friends being targeted for girls while implying that the other sets of Lego are for boys.  I hate gender differentiated marketing for children. It makes me feel disappointed that Lego had to create a whole new set of Lego as they were a different brand almost.

Don’t get me wrong, as I said I would have liked some of the items that are now in the market back in my day, but I think the way that they portray them is wrong. They should still be marketed as Lego just as the others, and they could have kept to the primary colors. All we needed was some Lego people with long hair or pony tails or whatever, and then some sets that would let us build some of those cool aspects of a city, like your store, restaurant, bakery, vet, school… you name it.  But it wasn’t needed to have a whole new page and add all the bling and glitz and glamor to the sets, because now they are clearly just for girls.

Am I wrong to think that if they had created a set called Lego Cities that could have been for both genders.  You could build your houses, police station, Fire station, restaurant, banks, stores, etc and that wouldn’t have been a great idea for both genders?

So as a consumer in a house where we love Lego, would I buy any of these items for my daughter? The answer is yes, if she wanted one of these sets I wouldn’t say No. But we would incorporate them to the ones we already have, and I’d reinforce the idea that Lego is for all kids (not girls vs boys), because guess what, some of the Lego she has, are from the 80s yep! And for the record, she has NEVER ever ever said anything to remotely even hint towards the idea that Lego weren’t meant for girls. We’ve spent hours and hours non-stop building towers to see just how high we could go, she’s built fences and castles and structures for her Barbies (with blocks and with Lego).

A couple of years ago we got her a bucket that had pink Lego incorporated into it where you could build a car and a house, and she really liked it, but she builds an even bigger and more complex house with the rest of the Legos she has not even caring or thinking about colors or types…

So even though I’m disappointed with Lego’s strategy to market to girls in that fashion, I will keep my rant to this post and will continue to do what every parent should do: Educate your child and show them values and morals that you want them to have as an adult.

BTW, we all want the Harry Potter Lego sets next, and we don’t think those are for boys!

So this year I don’t want to do the same, I want my focus to not be on changing me, because I like me, but just to improve or continue to do things that are good.

Bettering thyself:

- Weight -> I’m not going to kid myself, of course I’d want to lose weight, but I’ll be realistic about it. I am just planning to be more conscious of what I eat and how much. Try to cut back. Because I know myself well enough to know I will not follow a diet nor become a gym addict anytime soon

- Happiness -> Stick to what makes me happy and my immediate family of 3 happy. That means I must learn to say No once in a while and not always help when I’m asked a favor, especially if that means my whole world gets turned upside down to accommodate the favor. Even more important in the case of those who always ask and never give.

- Work-life balance -> Working from home has made boundaries a little less noticeable. I will make a point this year to shut my office door more often, and to take a break for lunch sometimes, because it is a much needed escape for the brain. I’ll have to see how to work this out, so far last year I was good about Friday lunches, but that is just not enough.

Projects that I want to make sure I continue and do more of in 2012:

- I want to pick up on my scrap-booking, there are several started and not finished, or some that are in thoughts but not started.

- I want to start (as I never did it in 2011) my “cooking club”. A once month gathering of my friends who like to cook and eat, pick a theme and have everyone cook something that fits the theme.

- Continue to do home improvements. So far we’ve been good at that. Just need to keep up with it.

- Need to get back to reading more, I’ve been lazy at picking up a book for reading pleasure. I need to at least read a book a month.

- Continue to write. It was such a positive thing for me to write this year, I need to keep doing it.

and last but not least remember that Life gets a hell of busy, but still need to have fun!

12. December: A time to be Merry

Between all the different choir performances, Pancake breakfast, celebrating Christmas really early because Carolina was going to Spain, celebrating holidays with friends, house improvements and yummy eating. December is one eventful, overindulgence of goodies, fun with family and friends month that is a great finale to the year 2011.

Merry Christmas

11. November: A time to be Thankful

I decided to write about things to be thankful for, one for each day of the month, and that made me feel a lot more positive throughout the month. It’s not just about giving thanks, but accepting it and also recognizing that there are plenty things in our everyday life to be thankful for.

10. October: Pumpkins, witches, and Party oh my!

Between our day trip to Elgin for some pumpkin patch fun; Literacy night at school, our creativity unleashed in Halloween decorating the house, our cookies and our cupcakes, and the grand finale of the month the Halloween party, this year’s theme: Fictional movie character.

Bellatrix, Hermione Granger & Deatheater

Our Halloween cupcakes

9. September: Rollercoasting fun!

NI Family day was the highlight of September no doubt! In the pic is Rafa, Pao, Claudia, Marco and Carolina. They got drenched on the ride… Anja and I got drenched taking the pics

Splashed!

8. August: Bittersweet month that ended in the happiest place on earth

Another angel to watch over us, we had to go up to Syracuse to say goodbye to Grampi. On the happier side we got to spend our Anniversary in Syracuse with all of the family and had some great laughs remembering the old days.

With the sad part mentioned above also comes a happy part which is that Mimi and Papa had to come back to the US, and since they were here… graced us with their presence for the rest of the month! From all the loss we experienced we were all in much need of a happy place to turn to and the happiest place on earth is called Disneyworld and that’s where we went for a whole week on indulgence and birthday celebrations!

Family trip to Disney

7. July: Summer summer summertime

I had to go get my little c back, we had a blast in Spain for a little bit longer and then we had to come back… Summer was filled of pool time, summer camp, robot camp and lots and lots of playtime in the sun!

We also had to say goodbye to Abuela Ino who at 96 decided it was her time to turn into an angel and watch over us from up above. We really miss her, but we are so grateful that we got to spend lots of afternoons with her between June and July.

my sevillana

6. June: Spain!

Carolina goes to Spain with Mimi and Papa, goes to school for 2 weeks, makes new friends, goes to summer camp and learns lots of Spanish

School in Spain

5. May: Family time

Mimi and Papa are in town what more do I have to say. We get spoiled rotten! Visit to the Salt Lick, good eating, celebrating Mother’s day, painting Carolina’s bedroom, end of school year parties and lots of lots of love.

Mother's day at the Arbol

4. April: eventful month

Papi’s bday bash, our biggest event of the year for work Impact 2011, Easter hunting, Disney on ice comes to town!

Disney on Ice

3. March: Activity full month

Carolina’s spring choir show about Bugz, Spring breaking, Papi’s got a new ride, Austin Rodeo, Archeology weekend… we didn’t stop for a second!

2. February: Snow is in the air

I’m beginning to see a pattern here, we don’t get white Christmases in Austin, but we get a one day snow day in February… Fun for everyone!

2/4/2011

1. January’s highlight was friendship.

Our good friend Erika came to visit us in Austin and we had several activities of girls night out, a few dinners, Karaoke night, afternoon coffees, taking all the kiddos to the circus. You name it, January was filled with a lot of good friendship moments like the one I’m sharing below

Girls just wanna have fun!

YS37Sh96

I’ll start with my own, because they are close by and I know them very well.

Tree #1 – Carolina’s tree

This is the “smallest” tree in the house and Carolina and I picked it out when we lived in our first apartments here in Austin. The living-room there was a bit small, so we picked this tree, pre-lit for easiness and we used to put it up on the table in the corner of the living-room so it looked much larger.  At the time the tree had a little bit of everything on it (non-breakable) so Carolina who was then 2 1/2 all through 4 years old wouldn’t break anything… So this tree with the nice history of mommy-daughter stories evolved to be just her tree when we moved into the house. It started out with taking all the stuffed animal sorts of ornaments, and characters, and each year we’ve added new characters she likes and it’s gotten more and more girly each year so as you can guess it’s become a pink and purple full with characters kind of tree, and we love it.

Tree #2 – Our Living-room tree

This tree was bought by Marco when he lived in his apartment, his living-room was a bit narrow, hence the narrow but tall features of this tree. We now place it in the corner of our living-room near the entrance area to the kitchen, it’s important for it to be narrow as otherwise it would occupy too much room.  This is the tree that is red and gold, no characters or special ornaments, the focus on this one is Christmas colors.Tree #3 – Our Foyer Tree

This is the tree that I like the most, it’s special to me because it has ornaments of all kinds, all colors and from all around the world. It has ornaments I made as a child, from family vacations, from special moments such as when we bought the house, 1st Christmases, ornaments from special trips and special ornaments I’ve received as presents throughout the years. Looking at this tree reminds me of special moments, places and people.

Tree #4 – The Castro’s “fun” tree

I call this one the fun tree because it has colored lights, lots of tinsel and is the kids favorite because it has a lot of things on it.

The first time I saw it, Pao proudly took me by the hand to come and see it, and as she explained why this tree was better than the other one, I could just tell that the sisters had a blast decorating this one, and that’s what made it so special. It just warmed my heart to hear her telling me about the special features of the tree.
Tree #5 – The Castro’s Foyer Tree

So in comparison to the their fun tree (above), this one is more formal or classic. I like that it has white lights and it’s color scheme is green, bronze and gold. But my favorite part of their tree is their handmade snowflakes, they are all beautiful and unique with their jewels.

Creativity always blooms in this family and that is one thing I love about them.

Tree #6 – The Requa’s Tree

One of my dearest friends from when I started living in Austin is my friend Danielle. She loves green, so of course her tree highlights her favorite color.

This year the tree is special as it’s in her beautiful new house so my favorite highlight is a hallmark ornament of a green house, that says “new home 2011″ that her thoughtful husband Bob gave her for Christmas

Tree #7 – The Driskill Tree

This year Carolina is part of the older kids Choir and their special event around Christmas is to go sing Holiday songs at the Driskill hotel in dowtown Austin.

I don’t remember ever going to the Driskill in the holiday season, but it’s beautifully decorated. Their tree is impressive because it’s right in the middle of the foyer so you can see it from both entrances and it’s huge (you can’t miss it!). The ornaments, as the hotel, is very antique like, and for that reason I think it’s special.

It was hard to get a picture of the tree alone that day given that there were so many families there for the choir performances, but this is the best one we had.

Tree #8 – The school’s Tree

The 2nd Saturday of December, the school always has Pancake breakfast with Santa, and the choir sings and you take lots of pics, etc. They have a few trees that they put up every year, I in particular like this one with all the shiny ornaments. It’s not traditional Christmasy colors, but I like it because it’s shimmery and kid type colors which makes the school auditorium/cafeteria look bright and at the same time warm and cozy. It’s too bad that the decor is only up for this Saturday and not up for the whole 2 weeks that school is in session in December.

Tree #7 – The Rubio’s Tree

In comparison to the trees above, the Rubio’s family tree is real pine. It’s very bold with the colored lights and different color balls. My favorite thing about their tree is that they always hang candy canes from it, yummy starburst ones that on occasion I’ve been lucky to get one!

This year they have a special ornament that we brought them from our trip to Disney to mark a very important and special life milestone, their baby’s 1st Xmas
These are the collection of my favorite trees from 2011 Season.

And this season begins the weekend after the Halloween Party. It all starts by taking all the Halloween decor down and the First tree up is always Carolina’s, this usually happens before thanksgiving sometime in that first week of November. (Yes! that early!).

I’m just going to tell the rest of the story with pictures and captions…

As we take out all the boxes from the attic, Mocha checks everything out

While we decorate we tell stories, I make c laugh with anecdotes from when she was little

This tree is full of favorite characters and a lot of girlyness

I help decorate, but this is lil C's tree and she rules

The grand finally - Carolina's angel

Then along comes the week of Thanksgiving break. My first highlight is drinking my 1st cup of gingerbread latte in the nice red holiday festive red cups!

Then usually putting our gingerbread house together comes next, this year we had some help our friend’s daughters, so all three girls helped in the process of decorating and eating an occasional candy here and there too, they are quite sneaky!  The rest can be told in pictures…

The candy

putting the walls up!

gingerbreadman decorating

Decorating

Ta-da here it is all completed!

The tree in the livingroom gets decorated the day of Thanksgiving and is only decorated with red and gold

And then the grand finale is our big tree in the foyer, this is my favorite of them all, not only because it’s HUGE, but because it has special ornaments from around the world, some from my travels, some as gifts from others travels and special ornaments we’ve found over the years. I at least add 1 ornament a year to it, so you can imagine how full it gets!

And not only do we decorate our trees inside, we also put ornaments on the trees outside, along with the reindeer, moose and snowman that light up our garden and the icicles lights from the roof and the decorated front door windows with  jelly stickers that reflect Christmas and winter motives.

Window decor

So yes our house completely transforms for Christmas starting in Early November and goes all the way until after Reyes

Chicken Parm Sliders:

Ingredients needed:

Package of ground chicken (or turkey)

Fresh basil

Grated Parmesan

Salt & Pepper,

Minced Garlic/Garlic powder (optional)

Arugula or baby spinach

Fresh Mozzarella (cut in medallions)

Tomatoes (I like to use cherry tomatoes)

your choice of buns (Hawaiian roles, or mini ciabatta are my reco)

olive oil

How to make the sauce:

In a pan put a tsp of olive oil and throw in your cherry tomatoes (low fire), stir them around a little.

When they get a little soft, grab your potato masher and mash the tomatoes down to create your sauce.  (You can use whatever you want to do this, but the potato masher works best a tip I picked up from Rachael Ray)

Put in a pinch of salt, and Basil to taste (I like a lot of basil)

That’s the sauce! (easy peasy done in 5 mins)

Preparing the meat:

In a mixing bowl, put in your ground chicken or turkey. Salt & Pepper to taste (even could add some garlic powder but not necessary), pour your grated parmesan in and mix it all together.

Then make your patties.  Note: you can make them small for your sliders or you could make them bigger to make it more like a hamburger, recipe works either way.

In a pan fry up your patties until they are cooked.

Assembly of the slider:

Grab you bun of choice (toasted or not depending on preference)

Put a dab of the sauce you made on the bottom slice, then put your patty on top, place your mozarella medallion, your arugula/baby spinach, a dab more of sauce on your top slice of the bun. Put top on and ready to enjoy!

Hmm I just made myself hungry!

1st Friday of December the tradition is that Papi takes the day off from work and spends his day volunteering at the school as part of the WATCH D.O.G.S. program at Carolina’s school.

So there was Papi at school at 7:10 am greeting families and helping students out of their cars on a foggy, gloomy, rainy, chilly morning.

Then he has several things to help with around the school, at the front office, in Carolina’s classroom, he went to Specials with Carolina (Today it was art and PEWE). He got to eat lunch with the 3rd graders and went to recess with them. Then he helped in the Art classroom and at the Library, recycled, and again was in the car line afterschool helping students get into their cars. Long day for our Hero! I took the picture below in the library with my iPhone (not the best quality) when I went to go grade Math Superstars. Then believe it or not he went to work for a few hours.

Dads of Great Students

While our hero of the day went to work and I finished grading Math Superstars Carolina and I got into the car and ran a few last minute Cookie Mom duties for Girl Scouts. My little camper as we went around Austin fell asleep exhausted in the car…

Then I went to Costco to get some things for tomorrow’s Christmas party, got to eat some samples as I perused through the aisles and then searched for flowers. Every year at the beginning of December I buy a mix of flowers with berries and some pine branches and pine cones to make a Christmasy arrangement. Here’s this years:

My Christmas floral, berries and pine arrangement

Filed under: Family, Reflections, Traditions Tagged: Christmas, Family, flowers, Holiday, parenting, School, traditions ]]> https://ccarretero.wordpress.com/2011/12/03/countdown-to-christmas-day-2/feed/ 0 ccarretero Papi & Carolina WATCH DOGS Xmas FLowers