It's Christmas, All Over Again

The Crawford yuletide season begins here: historic downtown Castle Rock's 74th Annual Starlighting...our third year participating in small-town Americana, one of the big selling points of this community.
Live nativity, hot chocolate, carolers, horse-drawn carriage rides (see last year's Starlighting entry regarding our avoidance of that epic line, even though it was lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with...them?). Dang this economy! Budget cuts means no fireworks this year, but I'll take out the thinned crowds anytime.
But, baby, it's cold outside...

After what seems like oodles of posts featuring "normal" shots, may I present Shane, back in true form? I have no idea how this is even physically possible.

The blessed event (a daytime pic would be more instructive of how cute that star looks perched on Castle Rock, but would entirely miss the point).

Matt still can't believe he spent a Saturday afternoon bundled up on Wilcox Street just to watch someone flip a switch, but it's all good: it gives me eighteen kinds of goosebumps to live in a town where you can still have a civic ceremony wherein someone offers a prayer, carols are sung, and regardless of your level of belief in the traditional trappings of Christmas, you respect others' rights to honor those traditions. Model it, America. It's our only hope.

Decking our halls: Gracie, donning a holly berry wreath as a crown. She's rarely without one.

Trimmin' the tree...we sprung for a live one this year (we didn't get our act together in enough time to procure a permit to cut our own tree at a state park nearby, but Lowe's is scenic, right?). Thanks to many, many years of Grandma K's raiding of Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments and bringing them to us each Thanksgiving dinner, we have more flair than any tree can possibly hold. Each of those ornaments is a special story and memory, and I get overly sentimental and (don't tell anyone!) not a little snippy when one is dropped. Watch your back when you come near my tree, people.

Evie placing the traditional U2 disc on the top of the tree...how the kids wished we did something more traditional and predictable. They've come to the wrong house for that, now, haven't they?

All Dressed Up and Nowhere To Go...

All Hallow's Eve.
Halloween is a mere notch beneath Christmas in this hacienda...we nabbed the crew on this gorgeous late October afternoon many hours after the 7 a.m. warm-up for Eve's far-away swim meet, and immediately before we put socks on Shane and headed up the street to a neighborhood open house. Hated to blow them off early, but it must needs be that we race home for our traditional mummy dogs and orange soda floats, and the usual wrangling over whether or not their candy buckets were sufficient for their needs. Daddy did the honors this year, while I stayed home, doling out candy to hardly anybody at all. Hmph.
The boys suffered the worst indignity possible this holiday: mom ordered the wrong costume size for the coveted Clone Trooper WITH FULL HELMET costume , and were forced to wear last year's gear. By the purest of miracles, they woke up alive and socially acceptable the very next morning and every day thereafter.

The mammoth snowstorm three days prior to Halloween held all of Denver hostage, which isn't a bad thing: school cancellations, loads of sledding and hour upon hour of movies, popcorn, homemade cookies and computer games kept us delightfully behind the eight-ball with holiday prep. The ward Trunk-or-Treat went off without a hitch, and even provided these great snow piles for our goblins' lounging pleasure. I'm sure they were every bit as comfortable as they looked.

Alice, walking through her Wonderland with all the other Pre-K students in their custume parade.

Officially THE cutest Halloween party craft idea I've ever seen, and I've worked quite a few soirees in my time. I'm horrified to acknowledge that it wasn't of my making. But is it cute enough to birth another child, just so I could use it at their Halloween party someday? I didn't think so, either.

Finished product: two carved, two painted, all cute.

Shaney-Shaney-Bo-Baney-Banana-Fana-Fo-Faney-Me-Mi-Mo-Maney...

October 30, 2002. Lovely day to deliver a boy. So I did. Seven years later, he guts pumpkins. It's like we've come full circle.
Our boy Shane...the only words that do him justice are "irrepressible" and "uninhibited". Myriad adjectives apply and all, but will inevitably fall short when describing my super-bright, energetic, single-minded, perfectionistic angel baby, pictured here with his current love in life: the Power Miners (cue dramatic music and strobe lights here).
Mrs. Yoshioka's first grade classroom has proven to be a whirlwind of delight: little man can't wait to bound out of bed, inhale an Olympic-sized amount of breakfast, and head off to Clear Sky to run and giggle and push all the boundaries the way only Shane can. I've mentioned before that kindergarten was not his favorite experience, and to watch him blossom in this environment has done all of us a world of good.
Shane just wrapped up his fall soccer season, and has been wowing all comers in his swim stroke clinics (still has a backstroke that'll knock you out!)...and when you're an athlete at this level, your nutritional needs can be best met by this sample lunch: four (4) chocolate-chip cookies, apple juice, Starburst, Smarties, two (2) Tootsie Pops, and a couple of fruit-flavored Tootsie Rolls.
When he blows out the candles on that birthday cake, here's my wish: that he always holds that unbridled enthusiasm, joy of discovery, tenderness and confidence. I love this kid like crazy cakes, and I dare you to resist him.

Nine is Fine

This past October 12th, the day before the trek, we found another nine-year-old in residence...and of course it's unbelievable, because just last month I gave birth to a whopping 10-lb, 2-oz. boy who didn't cry or fuss and was easy, easy, easy in comparison with his older sister...
Ty has always been so bright and imaginative, obsessed with how things work, a true engineer at heart and in brain, just like daddy (as if he wasn't his physical twin as well). His sense of humor just knocks us out, and he's turning into a case study as to whether those traits are inherited or come purely from environment; either way, he's set to be all quirky and sarcastic. Luckeeee.
Three weeks ago, I'd never heard a whisper about this Power Miners stuff, now it's all he cares about. Ty is the mega-Lego-junkie, but if I didn't think it was good for his neural development and kept him from novacaining himself with video games all the time, I'd never go along with it. A boy and his brother spending hours building? I'll take it every time, and shower him with as many kits as his growing skills demand.
Ty's sad to see his soccer season end, but, maybe, due to the magic of Rocky Mountain autumns, the season can just go on and on, what with rescheduled snow games and all. He's gearing up for basketball, and still dreams of the return of baseball season, especially now that his beloved Angels and his almost-as-beloved Rockies are done for the postseason.
I adore this third-grader with the wide blue eyes...he and I have endless inside jokes and when the day arrives when he no longer runs into my arms every time I come home, or if he no longer tells me I'm the best mom in the world; if he ever gets to the point where he can't quitely whisper to me all his fears and concerns and trust me to either soothe his anxiety or steer him in the right path, I think my heart would absolutely break. Just an upstanding kid, that Ty Clark Crawford. I'll keep him for another two weeks.

Fall Frickin' Break '09

A caveat: we haven't taken a family vacation since December 2007. Having set the stage, I'll hold forth about our spectacular Fall Break Tour of Joy...the greatest perk of the Douglas County School District is its bestowal of a two-week Fall break, which falls smack in the middle, more often that not, in weather like this: no snow, really, just a fog that froze in the night to provide spectacular views and pictures as it killed all of our foliage. A drive through Southern Utah, Arizona, Nevada and Southern California? Sounds perfect.
After Eve recovered from her fever during the break's opening weekend, we trundled Shane and Grace, stubbornly clinging to their 102-degree temperatures, into the car and off we went...we couldn't bring the sickies into the home of a family friend, so we settled for a Motel 6. Normally, any hotel is a treat, but we are now discerning customers, and the well members of our party were heard to groan. The temple grounds, however, did not disappoint. And the trip' s first In 'N Out burger stop? I'm still speechless over the memory.

Upon arrival in San Diego we traded out the sick contingent: Shane and Grace happily recovered and passed on the pain to Ty and Matt. But while there, Old Town, In 'N Out (the kids were converted!), two days of Sea World and a morning at Coronado Beach, the marine layer was stubborn and made our water-drenched Sea World experience a shade more miserable than we would have liked. The best weather was granted to us for the BYU vs. San Diego State game, always entertaining, not only because we dominate on the field, but mainly because the Cougars represent so well. No one's drunk, no one picks a fight, loads of families in blue and white rising and shouting, lining the stadium sides just to shake hands with the Cougars as they file off the field to the boos of the Aztec fans...

Above, a picture of Mother's Beach at Cornona Del Mar, a favorite while we lived there, and having it just down PCH from Ruby's is like icing on the cake, or the Orange Fifty-Fifty shake, if you're at all like me...

Two days at Disneyland (complete with an Angels playoff win or two, along with a Bronco trouncing of the Chargers, as well as the obligatory screwed-up Carl's Jr. drive-through order), a great visit with our now home-away-from-home ward in Fountain Valley, and then, we're on our way home? Unbelievable. But just guess which album we listed to on this leg of the journey?

There should be a pic of the Brigham Young statue on campus somewhere in here, but I'm too lazy to go back and fix it. Use your imagination.

Actually relieved we didn't attend the BYU vs. TCU game: what a disaster. But a huge shout-out to College Game Day for broadcasting from the stadium, and while those Cougar boys did not play well, they didn't quit, and they didn't lose composure. Whatever else, Mendenhall runs a clean crew, and I love that whole Tradition, Honor and Spirit thing that they've still got going after all these years.

Colorful Colorado...and whatever else the world has to offer, it ain't this.