Month: November 2018

Not just a Nativity

Today Ava and I  set up our nativity scene.  She loved all the figurines and explanation for each.  For me it brought up memories of Christmases past.  Times of putting up our nativity in my childhood home with my mother and grandmother.  I loved to play with all my grandmother’s nativity pieces, some of which I still have today. The little wax lamb on the right is from my grandmother’s scene.  The pieces in the picture are from my mother’s nativity. 

It also brings up memories of my MIL’s house on Christmas Eve.  We all  stayed until midnight so one of the grandchildren could put baby Jesus in the cradle.  It was not an easy feat with a total of eight small children, gifts still to be put together and placed under the Christmas trees and eight very hyper kids waiting for Santa.  We did it out of our love for a very caring woman, grandma Marra.

These are some of the memories I hope to pass on to my grandchildren so on Christmas they will experience the meaning of giving, sharing and loving.  Although it may be bittersweet, it will be forever in their heart.  Your holiday may not include a Nativity scene, but memories made during time spent with family is tradition in itself.

Placing Baby Jesus

She decided to draw a glitter picture for the Baby Jesus.

Liv slept through all of this, but she will be in on it next year.  What will we be doing tomorrow?

Stay tuned for our Christmas tree hunting this weekend….weather permitting

Gia I Want..Toys, Toys & Toys

This is the best time of year for the girls. They are both old enough to appreciate the season, not only the receiving but the giving.  It creates such excitement for both them and me.  I love to see their eyes light up pointing out t.v. ads or even print ads.  I especially like the print ad because they go through all the pictures and circle exactly what they want (which happens to be just about everything).

  • Their Favorite.. Any type of LOL doll

These dolls, if you don’t know, come in tons of packaging. The girls love to unwrap each individual package and uncover what may contain a small doll, lil sister doll and pets and  many other items such as accessories.  I would say the price range would be $11 to $80 plus depending on type, number of items in a container, type of container etc.  Here are a few examples. 

L.O.L. Surprise! Glam Glitter Series Doll with 7 Surprises

Glam Glitter L.O.L.

And the more expensive set with extra plat pieces

L.O.L. Surprise! Bigger Surprise with 60+ Surprises

  • Poopsie Slime Surprise Unicorns

This is new to us this year and seems to be a big hit.  Anything slime!  This is even coming from a granddaughter who does not like to have her hands wet or “yucky” in any way.   

Or 

There are tons of other options out there and don’t want to take up too much of your time.  So hope you enjoyed some of our favorites.  The girls are two and five.  Liv, the two year old loves Peppa Pig.  The list goes on and on… Oh, and Tucker is hoping for the girls to get some new toys for him to steal.

Reminder the joy is in the giving.

Starting off the holiday season

Today we started off our Christmas season with breakfast thanks to ERA AJ Cali Realty, a realty company my husband is an associate.

 The family was over enjoying mimosas and lots of yummy (my grandaughters words) carbs(my word)

The adults were busy eating, drinking and sharing quality time while the girls were off playing party dress up and being grizzly bears.  Yes, both.  I only have a dress up picture.

DRESSES FROM BLANKETS

The grizzly bear theme has been prevalent these past few weeks and is pretty funny. They fill their pop up tent with play food and gnaw on it.  Wish I  had that picture to show.  Not sure why grizzly play, but it keeps them busy while the adults continue to eat, drink and be merry.  

By the way, you can catch a glimpse of our “Merry” in one of the photos. Elf on the Shelf season has begun.  Kinda keeps the girls in good behavior..at least for a while.

Happy Season to all!

Eat Cake and Cupcakes, of course!

Here is Ava describing what we are making today.

Cupcakes!!!!

Counting how many to make

Counting Cupcakes

Adding the batter and other ingredients

Ava did a great job decorating the finished cupcakes, plus we had extra to make a cake too.  She wasn’t so aggressive when decorating the cupcakes, but I turned my back for a second, just one second and the bottle of pink sugar was on her “Pinkalicious” cake.  I must say it turned out beautiful and was PinkaDelicious.

The finished product.

Livie was feeling under the weather so Ava made the cupcakes to cheer her up.  Livie did not get to try the cupcakes because her mom read there was a recall on confetti style cake batter.  She dumped the cake and cupcakes later to find out this brand was not recalled.  Oh well, the thought was there and better safe than sorry.  I’m sure Livie will join in for the next batch making session.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect upon the things in life that are really important. For me it is a reminder that material items, while nice, are not what my soul requires to be happy.

As Thanksgiving come and goes it is important to remember what I am truly happy for. I am happy to be blessed with an amazing family and friends who are no longer friends but are my family. These wonderful people will be cherished forever in my heart. For those of you who are in my heart, but not in the pictures know that I love you just as much. I didn’t have a picture I could post.

Happy eating. Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh Fun Day!

Sleepovers, Snow Days & Snowmen Oh Yay!

Ava smiling when finding out school was cancelled.  Building a snowman with Tucker and, of course, homemade hot chocolate (sounds special huh.  Umm well was unprepared for the snow so I had to improvise on the hot chocolate but I will take the credit.  Heard it because I had no mini marshmallows.

Ava wants to preserve the stump of the snowman.( It is all that is left after some sunshine. :0)  She would like me to package it to bring to her house.  I suggested making a whole new snowman at her house with her dad’s help.  Thank goodness she likes that idea, otherwise,  I would have been loading the stump into a cooler as she can be quite persistent.  Hope Liv will be feeling well enough to partake in the fun. 

Have to leave some fun for dad! 

Things don’t always turn out

So we planned on seeing Frozen on Broadway.   After much debating and thought, with cost in mind, we decided on a Thursday nite, 7pm performance.  I purchased the tickets as a Christmas present for the girls, their mom and dad and my husband.  We planned on going into NYC early so we could enjoy a dinner before the show.

Things were planned to a “T”.  Everything in place the day before and then life happens.  Unfortunately, Livie became ill and went to the hospital for testing.  Luckily, things turned out better than expected with her.  Thank you, Jesus, Mary and Joseph.  Luckily friends were able to come with us to use the tickets LIv, my daughter and husband couldn’t.

Unfortunately, things again took a turn for the worse.  The weather in the northeast decided to “rain” actually snow on our parade.  We were all in the car, my husband, Ava, my friend ( I wrote about her in a previous blog) and her pregnant daughter.  We set out in this snowstorm which sent drivers in our area into at tailspin. No pun intended.  We were on the road for hours, literally four, to get 15 minutes down the road.  We realized we would never make it into the city for the play.  We gave up those plans and luckily Stub Hub will leave a credit on the account.

Ava was only mildly upset and mostly because she couldn’t bring a toy from the show  to her ailing sister.  We promised her a sleepover and all was good.

Ava’s Drawing

After a stop for dinner, a well needed reprieve from the drive,, we came home and drew Thanksgiving pictures.  Ava is very understanding and happy just being with us.  I enjoy that the most and I know the teenage years may present themselves differently.

So the start of this Thanksgiving season reminds that I have a lot to be thankful for even though life may take a left turn when you want to go right.  I am thankful for Livie”s road to recovery, my family and good friends who are loving and very patient (our pregnant Krissy must have been very hungry and did not complain once). 

Sometimes life’s curves are not as bad as they seem in the moment and hectic days can reset your internal self.

A rose by any other name…

I was ecstatic to learn I was going to be grandma. My heart was filled with joy for the upcoming adventurous journey. I was told that there is no greater joy than becoming a grandma. I could not understand at that time how different it was from being a mother. After all I had experienced the joy of childbirth and motherhood. I had two children. How different could it be.


How unchartered could these waters be I asked. I raised two wonderful, loving, caring adults. Still, I wondered what my role would be.  I began wondering what my grandchildren would call me.


For me,  there was much decision put into what I would want to be called. I just didn’t find grandma fit the bill for me, so I explored. Glamma was a consideration given by some friends. I thought of Noni.  but for me it reminded me of an older woman with short, curly hair dyed the color of violet and permed to the max who had armloads of love. I just described my Noni, and I knew there would be high expectations placed upon me by me to be her. I’m not sure I could’ve fit the bill.

Nope, I needed a name that was all mine. Many suggestions were offered. Nanni, Granny, Opa to name a few. None of them would work. I liked GG but learned it was short for great grandma. If I’m so blessed I will be called GG some day.  Some day when I had more experience in these unchartered waters and earned a simple two initial name. For now I chose Gia. Easy peasy to say, right.

At the big reveal, I learned I would be having a granddaughter. I was thrilled even though I was so sure it would be a boy. Disappointed, not in the least. I already was thinking pink and purples, every shade. I also like turquoise and beige to be gender neutral.

It’s now been five years since I’d  decided to be called Gia.  Since then I’ve been blessed with two beautiful granddaughters and am no longer wondering what  my roll would be.  It is to be loving and supportive to these cuties. The waters continue to change but I am no longer on unchartered waters.

A rose by any other name is still grandma.
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Gingerbread Men

Being crafty, the girls and I decided to decorate felt gingerbread men.  They loved the idea and the really good part was I purchased them at the dollar store.  Maybe we should be doing turkeys!

Cute

Ava describing the project

Package Opening

Let the project begin.  Although the packaging says for 5+, with supervision Liv had no problem with this project and actually was very easy for her.  You can judge this by the final completion of the project.

Liv & Ava’s Finished Project

A fun time was had by all.