More Scenes of Christmas

These are just a few photos I took over the month of December

This is our elf, Jolly Bob Toph. He appears on December 1st and keeps an eye on the 3 Js and reports back to Santa each night. Each morning he's in a new place in the house and it's always a game to see who is the first one to spot his new location.

Jensen left a note and a snack for his arrival.


Jordan had her first basketball game of the season on Dec. 2nd. RMS crushed Crosby 42 - 2!



My Christmas village has really grown. We got our first piece as a wedding gift TWENTY YEARS AGO and now it spreads around my dining room. I love each and every piece and would be so disappointed if the 3 Js didn't go pick out a new one for me for Christmas. This year I got the Historic Chicago Water Tower.



The kids' tree upstairs in the game room.


A sleeping child...there's nothing cuter.


I found this in Jackson's room one afternoon. It cracked me up!


A Christmas craft.


Jensen got to open a present early when a package arrived from Grandma Fuja that contained two live frogs and an aquarium to set up for them.



Goofing around with my camera.


Jackson played in his first middle school band concert. He's the little one in the santa hat.


These are friends Ethan and Haley Harper who are also in the band. Ethan is Jackson's age and Haley is Jordan's age.


Everything is wrapped and ready.


Making cookies for Santa on Christmas eve. Who puts cashews on the sugar cookie? A Fuja that's who.



All I wanted to do was take a nice picture of the kids and this is what I get.


I caught our mischievous elf playing around on our gingerbread house before his departure back to the north pole until next year.

Christmas 2010

It was mostly a techno christmas around here.

Jordan got a laptop from Santa. I don't suppose we'll see much of her anymore.


Santa brought THE FAMILY an iPad...not Jackson...THE FAMILY.


And now Jensen has the iPad and Jackson can't bother to look up for the picture because he's busy playing on another gadget he got...a PSP.


Then there was this little bright spot of non electronic gadgetry.


And this one.


And then there was the clean up.


Thank you to everyone that shopped for, wrapped, and shipped gifts to Jim and I and the 3 Js. Everything was perfect and very much appreciated. Especially the $15 I won on one of the scratch off lottery tickets Jean sent! Were there any other big winners at the Fuja family get-together? Kaity, did you take pictures? We'd love to see them if you did.

A special thanks to my dad and Dyann for traveling here to spend Christmas with us. I'm kicking myself, but I didn't take even one picture while they were here. :-(

Merry Christams to all and to all a good night.

Hmmm...

This past weekend I was contacted by my freshman (and sophmore) college roommate, Lori Kaizawa. I had not been in contact with Lori since we graduated 23 years ago. It was great to hear from her, but also daunting trying to encapsulate the last 23 years of your life in an email. I remembered this blog that I had abandonded earlier in the year and looked it up to give her the link as a way to give her a glimpse into my life now. I started reading some of my previous posts and it struck me how much I loved reading it. I'm so glad I have these everyday things preserved to go back and read any time I want. I went back to my first post in 2006 and read all of them from that year. The kids look so young!! And it wasn't that long ago. It made me want to try to start blogging again. So here goes.

The most recent events of note around here were halloween and the end of kfl football. I have already sent these pictures to Jean but thought I'd post them here for everyone to see.

Halloween night Jackson's football team had their 2nd playoff game at 6:00 p.m. That meant that we couldn't really trick or treat that night...which was not that great for Jensen. So, we sent her with a friend and she had a really great time. It also meant I didn't get many pictures. I took a couple of her at the house before we left...she looked scaaaaarrrry!




The football game did not go the way of the good guys. You can tell by the expression on the boys' faces. It is the end of KFL for most of those boys...next year they move on to middle school football. Coaches were crying, boys were crying, parents were crying. It was quite something to see.



We got home about 8:30 and Jackson got the dregs of the candy that was left on our street. He wasn't much in the mood for trick or treating anyway...

Jordan did dress up this year, as a nerd, and went trick or treating with a few of her friends but I didn't get any pictures of her.

Another interesting halloween weekend has passed...

Project 365 Week 29

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Met some friends at the Children's Museum in Houston. They've recently expanded it so it's a little better than it used to be. All the kids found parts of it they liked. Jensen loved pretending to be a vet in the "animal hospital." Went to Spaghetti Warehouse for lunch afterwards.

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Jackson's going to give KFL football a try. The tryouts were today. They had a series of drills they had to do, they had to get weighed (official weight: 63 lbs.), and they had to fill out a questionnaire. One of the questions asked which other sports you play and Jackson put lacrosse. The coaches all stand around and evaluate the kids and ask them some questions. One of them asked Jackson which position he played in lacrosse and he said "attack." The coach said, "I don't know what that is but I like the sound of it!"

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This is the book Jackson is reading this week.

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Starting to gather the football equipment we need. He's holding onto the helmet because it won't fit over his hair. You think it might be time for a haircut?

No photo for Friday

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Jim and Jensen went on a father/daughter date to the Mudpie and they picked their projects up today. Wish I could have been there to see Jim painting his mug...

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I bought this pineapple today to add to our kabobs we were having for dinner. It was sooooo juicy and good. The kids didn't like it nearly as much as I thought they would...but I sure enjoyed it.

This explains exactly how I feel

"Life can be overwhelming and absolutely crazy, but it’s OK. I wield a camera. I freeze time, so I can play it back S-L-O-W-L-Y and better appreciate the moments of complete bliss that are plentiful and so very good."

I read this today on another blog (Stacy Julian for those of you who know of her) and it immediately hit a chord.

project 365 Week 28

This is Mom/Kid Beach Week! I hope you enjoy the photos half as much as we enjoyed the week!

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3 moms hit the beach!

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We're back at the Beach Club for the second year in a row...nearly a year after hurricane Ike and things look pretty good.

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Unfortunately for us the elevators to the 2nd and 3rd floors of the condos still aren't repaired (we got our workouts unloading and re-loading the cars) and they're still working on fixing the dune walkovers...but we managed okay.

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We spent the week doing things like playing board games...

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Playing Wii...

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Chillaxin'...

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Chillaxin' in our own special way...

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And frolicking on the beach.

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Have you ever seen such great beach hair??

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Nothin' better than falling asleep when and wherever you want!

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We ended the week with lunch at the Rainforest Cafe on the way out of town...

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...and had this special dessert.

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I arrived back home to find these back-to-school catalogs in the mail from the week. I was soooo not ready for back-to-school.

Project 365 Week 27

This week was mainly marked by the 4th of July...I don't have a picture for every day but I picked seven from the week to share.

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Denise is leaving today and I want to get a picture of her and the kids together. However, it's virtually impossible to get all three Js to cooperate for any given photo. There's always one who's in a mood.

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This is Spinach Bread...a recipe we made up and have been making for YEARS...since the days we lived in Boston. It's basically like a stromboli. Store bought pizza dough rolled into a rectangle. Layer mozzarella and parmesan cheese, spinach, pepperoni and some spices. Roll up, bake and slice. Yummy appetizer or even dinner sometimes.

Fourth of July

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Jordan helped decorate the swim team float and walked in the parade handing out candy.

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Jackson and Jim helped decorate the cub scout pack float and also walked/rode in the parade.

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That left Jensen and I to watch the parade on our own.

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This boy LOVES fireworks!

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Three people going to play golf.