Snow Trip

We went up the Palm Springs Aerial Tram a couple weekends ago to enjoy the snow. I love going up the tram because it saves us from having to do mountain driving. Plus, it is such a beautiful ride and the kids have a lot of fun.

The kids enjoyed sledding and luckily all four of them fit on the sled.

Of course, Elysha and Sam wanted to be pulled back up the hill, much to Chang's annoyance.


The little snowball in Joey's hand eventually became the head to this snowman...


It was a group effort but Joey really put in a lot of work to get the snowball to this size.



The snowman was bigger than Sam. When I say "group effort," I mean that we had to work against Sam. It might look like he's trying to put in the snowman's arm, but he actually kept pulling everything out.

Our cutie pie Elysha...and Sam, behind her, pulling out the snowman's hair.

Ta-da! Okay, Sam is blocking the snowman and Elysha's face is covered by her snowball but I tried to take a nice group shot and after 30 takes, this is the best one...

Day Two: I Only Had One Drink...

The girls are out of school so it's me plus 3 kids. Alright, so it ain't 8, but still, I consider it a great achievement that no one has run of out the house with their hands waving in the air like a mad man screaming, "she's really lost it this time!" Of course, the biggest potential culprit of such lunatic behavior would be me, but I have remained sane and sober--actually, that is the great achievement of the day.

In fact, not to toot my own horn, but yesterday, the girls and I made this together:


The hardest part of this project was keeping Sam from eating all the candy. I had to keep giving him other candy or white trash sugary snacks to keep him at bay (ehem...not that I actually have Twinkies or Ding-dongs in my pantry...)

Today, we spent the day at Giggles N Hugs. My friend chose a booth and she situated herself and her kid in a way that I had to have my kids sit in a row on one side and me on the other. My darling little angels were all sitting quietly and eating. My friend with her one kid was extremely impressed. "They're so good!" I smiled smugly and replied, "They ARE good. What can I say? I've trained them well." I couldn't help but feel like just maybe, I have it all figured out.

As we left the kiddie play area, Sam's didn't want to go. So I was trying to carry him in one arm, and three jackets and my purse in the other. I can only carry a screaming, squirming Sam for about 50 feet before he breaks free from under my arm (I usually carry him under my arm like I hold an evening clutch, though considerably less elegantly). After he breaks free, then I usually have to drag him by his arm. If people are around, I pretend to get him to stand up so it doesn't look too abusive. We got to the valet area and I just dropped him and let him roll around on the asphalt. I usually wait for the inevitable raised eyebrow from a nearby adult who could potentially call child protection services on me before I pretend to care.

Tonight, I wanted to go to Lawry's. Last year, we went and it was a wonderful experience. The kids were all so well behaved so the thought crossed my mind to make it a family tradition for Christmas. More logical parents would think twice about such an occasion considering the meltdown that I had just experienced at the other restaurant. But nope, the chance the eat at the happiest place on earth was just too enticing for me. I thought I would tempt fate.

Luckily we got seated right away but when we got to our table, I realized that it could not accommodate a high chair (i.e. Sam would not be strapped down). Again, I should have known better but the thought of waiting for a better table was unfathomable. Now, I wasn't just tempting fate, I was playing chicken on fate's high speed freeway.

A five inch smear of mashed potatoes on my dry clean only dress, and a dinner (for Sam) that consisted only of chips and hot fudge sundae later, we made it out alive. The girls were so well behaved. They were trying to choose between "O Holy Night" and the Chipmunk Christmas song for the carolers to sing, but decided to choose the former after finding out it was my favorite song.

Multiply that chip that Sam's holding by 20 and throw in some hot fudge sundae and there you will have Sam's dinner tonight at a prime rib restaurant.

Despite all the chaos (and a mischievous caroler putting his hat on my head), I was happy--prime rib, wine, and Christmas cheer. And, I got to wear my boots! What more can a girl ask for?

Merry Christmas!

Just as Good as a Tissue

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I was really hoping to do some damage so I planned my outfit in order to accommodate the large intake of food on turkey day. We first took my mother in law out for lunch at a Korean BBQ place (Shik-Do-Rak). Then we were stuck in traffic forever trying to get to my cousin's. Typical SoCal traffic--it took two hours to get from point A to point B even though it should have only been an hour. It all worked out because it gave us time to digest. My cousin and his wife really went all out, ham, turkey, and all the delicious sides. Of course, what Thanksgiving meal would be complete without kalbi jjim, kimchee and other Korean sides. I ate everything--twice. Yum yum!

We hung out at my mom's for the rest of the weekend and ate some more. It was a great weekend for me as I slept a lot, ate my mom's cooking a lot, and sang karaoke a lot. We know we are extremely blessed and we are so grateful to God--happy Thanksgiving!

But back to the reason why I entitled this post, "just as good as a tissue." The girls learned how to play "Go Fish" with their cousins this weekend so when we got home, the girls wanted to play again. We were sitting on the ground playing and Sam was weaving around us playing with his toys.

Achoo! Sam turned to me and said, "nose!" I looked at him and he has this five inch booger string hanging from his nose which was smashed horizontally against his cheek. He started to move towards me and turned his head down like a rodeo bull ready to bump the tossed rider. He grabbed me by the shoulders and went in for the kill. As he got closer to my shirt, he started to turn his cheek so that he could begin the booger transfer. I was trapped. His full 30-something pound frame on was me. I tried to break free but he just wrestled me to the ground and kept trying to wipe that snotvine on me. I finally managed to pry his grip off my shoulders and I quickly jumped up.

When he knew he lost me for good, he decided to go to his plan B. He wiped the booger string with his fingers and mashed it into his hair.

The funny thing is when his nose is running, he usually grabs the bottom of his shirt and wipes his nose. I usually do this for him when we are out and I don't have a tissue handy. And there may have been one or two times when I've done this at home and I'm just too lazy to get up and get a tissue. Recently, he realized that he can wipe his nose on his shirt by himself, which is great because when he does it in public, I feign disgust.

Tonight though, he must have been inspired by Calvin and Hobbes or his dad paid him five bucks because he was determined to wipe that snot trail on me.

Who me? Dear, sweet, innocent me?