Family is made by love, not just blood.

(a note to my fellow English nerds: figuring out the commas in this post was difficult, and I'm sure I've screwed some of them up. Oh well.)

We are blessed: we have a HUGE family of people who love, nurture, and care about us, and not all of them are blood related. The short version is that Kyle and I both have divorced parents who have remarried, divorced again, and married again. We explain to people that our kids have five sets of grandparents, and here's the breakdown (in no particular order--we love you each equally).
-Kyle's dad, Geary, and his new bride, Sheri

-Kyle's mom, Linda

-my dad, Scott, and his wife, Janet

-my stepdad, Tom who has been in my life for twenty years (if you just stumbled across my blog, my mom died a year ago)

-Jan, my dad's ex-wife and the mother of my littlest sister, and her husband, Rex. Jan has been in my life for twenty years.

Now for blood siblings:

-my full sister, Linsey (who conveniently dates Kyle's brother, Matt).

-my half sister, Katie

-Kyle's sister, Shawna, her husband, Franklin, and daughter, Taylor

-Kyle's brother Matt (who conveniently dates my sister Linsey)

We also have stepsiblings who are important in our lives.

-Kristen, Tom's daughter, has been my stepsister for almost 18 years. She has three kids (Camden, Morgan, and Mitchell) and a husband (Jeremy).

- Steve, Janet's son, has been my stepbrother for 7 years. He has a beautiful wife, Anne. I would love for them to have a kid soon!!!

-Kevin is Sheri's son who we have only met once, but really liked. He has a wife and a kid on the way.

Grandparents:

-Kyle's maternal grandmother, Otero

-Jan's mom, Ruth (who just moved to Houston from Sun City West, AZ)

-Sheri's parents

So...adding up the members of "immediate" family, I get at least 27 people. That's a lot of love!

If I count the people related by blood, I get 9.

So there you have it, people. Family is made by love, not just blood.

Now, that isn't to say that this family was created without some bumps and bruises along the way. There were certainly some big ones. But, time sure has a way of healing wounds, and love and caring sure can trump anger and hurt. I know several people who are currently struggling with divorces and newly blended families, and I hope this gives you some hope. Things may hurt now, but they won't always. The morning after I learned my parents were getting divorced, I made the announcement to my friends at the bus stop, and one of them told me, "at least you'll get lots of Christmas presents." True. I do, and so do my kids. I'm appreciative, but more important than the gifts are the people who share their lives and love with us.

Here are some family pics from Christmas celebrations of the last few days:

The kids and Tom

Garrett and Linda




The kids and cousin Taylor


The kids and cousins Morgan, Mitchell, Camden (and girlfriend Crystal)


The kids, Jan, aunt Katie, and Ruth


Brothers and sisters

Our little family.

The kids, cousin Taylor, and PaPa Geary

It occurs to me how many people are missing from these pictures. I sure need to make an effort to capture everyone on film (or digital file)! I'll do better!

The BEST NIGHT EVER!!!

...declared Braden after each boy received a phone call from the one, the only....SANTA CLAUS!


Thanks, Linsey, for giving Santa our number. I wish you could have seen the awe and the joy...I wish I had had a video camera with me. His mouth dropped, his eyes bugged out! Too cute!

Folks, if you'd like to give Santa your number, you can do so here: http://www.kroger.com/Pages/default.aspx . Click "Ring in the Season."

Mira Maestra! Este!

Question: What does sheer joy and excitement looks like?
Answer: A busload of kindergartners running wild at a Christmas tree farm on a cold, wintry day!

Kyle and I took off a day of work to chaperone Braden's field trip, do some Christmas shopping, and spend some time together during such a busy time of year. It was a blast!

Here's Braden getting off the school bus. I almost didn't recognize him because he had reversed his reversible coat. I was looking for red; he was in navy.
Kyle became the measuring man. The kids would run wild through the trees shouting, "Mira! Maestra! Este!" (look, teacher, this one!) and all the kids would run to it, Kyle would measure it, and Senora Saenz would discuss (in Spanish, of course) if tree was too big or too little. I'm thankful that Braden was on a Spanish day during the day of the field trip, as it was awesome to watch him listening and responding in Spanish.

Some of the little boys picked up on me calling Kyle by his name, and soon a group of them, with their cute Spanish accents, were yelling "Ky-yle, Ky-yle!"

Question: You know what is impossible?

Answer: Getting a group of kindergartners to pose for a class picture.

Looks like Braden is just about the right size. We'll take him home.

After Jason's dad (el papi de Jason) cut down the tree, all the kids assisted in carrying the tree to the needle shaker and net wrapping machine. Braden's in the back here, not really helping, because he said the needles poked him.

We took a family picture.

The kiddos took their snack on a hayride around the Christmas trees.

What a great day! I'm glad Braden goes to such a wonderful kindergarten, and it was fun to experience it for a day.

Why my purple sweater is in the trash.

It was a beautiful purple sweater
Cowl neck, the perfect fit.
It looked good on me-
Everyone said so.

I loved that sweater.
Brought out the blue in my eyes
Cozy and warm on a cold
wintry day.

It was a beautiful purple sweater.
But one three year old
and a "cowbunga"
off the coffee table
while my back was turned
And the sweater was in shreds.

A visit with Jan

Last Saturday (was that really only a week ago?), the boys and I spent a few hours visiting with Jan. She was going to take them to the movies while I graded papers, but their behavior that morning proved so awful that I had to follow through with my threat of not going to see the movie.

(plus, I kinda wanted to visit with her and put off grading papers for a few more hours).

We tried to take a picture of the three of them, but the boys were in a super-silly mood. Finally, we got a good one, though.

Kindergarten choir performance (alternate title: my kid will not be a professional performer)

Braden's kindergarten Winter Fest performance tonight.You'll have to mute the Playlist player at the bottom of the page to hear the sound of these videos. Enjoy!

Saturday evening, I told Braden how proud I was of him. I told him that I looked at all the kids up there and was so thankful that he was my son. He beamed, then asked me, "is that because I did the best?"

"uh, no. It's cause you are my son, and I love you even when you aren't the best."

Thanksgiving and more...

What a busy Thanksgiving! Linsey and I spent almost all day on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, in mom's kitchen cooking, reliving memories, and catching up. Linsey prepared several casseroles, I made breakfast strudels for Thursday morning and a pumpkin cheesecake, and then for dinner we had another family over for a big chili supper.

On Thanksgiving morning, we woke up eaaaaarly (6 am!), loaded up into the truck, and drove to downtown Houston. We set up camp on the edge of Discovery Green to wait for the Thanksgiving parade (official name: HEB Holiday Parade). At the end of the parade, just before Santa Claus, we saw what we had been waiting for: Taylor and Sheri and the miniature horses! Taylor is the boys' cousin and Sheri is PaPa's wife. How cute are they dressed as Santa's elves? Sheri is a fabulous seamstress. After the parade, we met up with Grandma Scheele and Aunt Shawna...a quick pause for a family picture. Fabulous! Notice the toys the boys are carrying: when we picked up the parking pass from Jan that morning, she slipped Linsey some cash to buy the boys something frivolous...something Kyle and I would never buy them. How sweet of her!Thanksgiving Day was actually very stress-free thanks to great advance planning. I whipped up the cornbread stuffing, we baked the casseroles, the men smoked the ham and turkey, Kristen and family came over with salad and rolls and voila! A beautiful dinner served on our special china. It was our grandmother's china, and mom treasured it very much. Mom would have been so very pleased that we were all together on Thanksgiving and that we all pitched in to create such a beautiful, delicious meal with relative ease.

After the grown-ups ate, we cleared the table for the kids. Here they are chowing on some chocolate pie brought by Kristen. Morgan (the only girl--think she is spoiled?) has a strong aversion to beans. When Linsey placed the pie topped with chocolate morsels in front of her, she wrinkled up her nose and said, "beans?" Assured they were not, she easily cleared her plate.

This afternoon (Friday), Linsey, the boys and I went to Schlitterbahn in Galveston. After 2pm, they have reduced price tickets for their heated, indoor areas. We had a blast! Garrett went down this little frog slide approximately six thousand times. The same slide is in the kiddie pool at Adamson's Lagoon and he will NOT go down it. What a change a few months make!

We had a blast in the river!

This pirate ship in the kids area was our home base for the afternoon. Doesn't the brotherly love make you smile?

All in all, this Thanksgiving was wonderful. Special times spent with special people. New experiences. Two very sweet little boys. My heart is warm.