Thanksgiving - 2008

This year's Thanksgiving was pretty awesome! I started the day at CVS and K Mart. I got there early to get my deals and I actually had competition. LOL. Then, I went home and jumped right into the kitchen to finish up my cooking and baking. We had to have an early dinner since Esteban had to work at 4pm. While I was messing around in the kitchen, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was on and I enjoyed it as much as ever. It was really cool this year, I though but I could barely get Jayden interested. When Santa finally came through, I couldn't even get him to pay a bit of attention. Grrr.

Now, Esteban doesn't really understand traditional Thanksgiving Day Fare. He doesn't care for turkey. "Can't we make a chicken instead?" He doesn't like cranberry sauce. Mashed potatoes aren't his favorite and he's not fond of stuffing. And when it comes to sweet potatoes, he's emphatically against them. Well, there goes Thanksgiving! So I always have to find a way to Puerto Rican it up a bit. You know, mingle the cultures and flavors.

My sister and her family came over for the feast. She made her cranberry sauce from scratch and a sweet potato casserole. I love sweet potatoes. I made the turkey and I used a recipe from a Puerto Rican cookbook, which required I marinate the bird for a couple of days before. Yum! I made arroz con gandules or rice and beans. Then I decided to try a stuffing recipe I found by Aaron Sanchez. He was an Iron Chef contender, but he didn't make it. Sorry Aaron. Anyway, it was a chorizo cornbread stuffing and it was delicious! I also made a corn souffle which was a big hit and surprisingly enough, I got the recipe from 160,000 Recipes, an iPhone application. I also made roasted butternut squash and a green salad topped with dried cranberries and pecans. Very tasty! Besides being rushed to get everything on the table, all went well.

For dessert, I made a pumpkin pie and fall themed cupcakes using the sprinkles that I picked up when I was in the Amish country in September. I also prepared a sugar cookie dough, thinking the kids would enjoy decorating them sometime after dinner, but it never happened. That's ok because the cupcakes were a huge hit! And believe it or not, we didn't have seconds like most people traditionally do on Thanksgiving, but we sure did re-visited the cupcakes!

My sister spent the night and the next day we hit the Black Friday sales. We were focused and smart with our shopping and spending. I was happy with my finds and deals. Now, I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping, plus I picked up a couple of gadgets for myself! Yeah!

Crash Landing

What Jayden never even attempted, Maya mastered at 19 months. One night before bed, I noticed Maya was trying to fling her little leg over the side of the crib and I thought, any day now she'll be climbing out. And she did. The next day, I put her in her crib for nap and she popped right out. Twice. Note to self: convert the crib. That night just after story time, I was picking out the kid’s clothes for the next day. I was on my way to back to Jayden and Maya’s beds to say prayers, but I stopped to turn on the kid’s lullaby music. And I heard a crash. I turned around and there was Maya on the ground, screaming her little head off. She must have tried to pop out of the crib but instead of going on the side and landing in Jayden’s bed, she flew out of the front and fell face front onto the floor.

I was beside myself with worry and despair. I snatched her up and started to rock her and console her. I felt a huge bump on her forehead so I ran to get some ice. She was so mad about it, but finally she gave in and I was able to ice it down quite a bit. And Jayden kept asking, what happened (as if he didn’t see it with his own eyes)? What’s wrong (I wanted to say Duh! But of course I didn’t.) What’s that? ICE! (Grrr.) Jayden, please keep quiet and lay down. Maya got a boo-boo and it hurts. Why? What happened? And on it went.

Finally, Maya fell asleep in my arms and I don’t know if I was relieved or even more anxious. I held her for quite some time, and then lay her in bed, but I felt uneasy. I kept checking back to make sure she was ok. The next day, I was very disappointed to see that not only did she have a knot on her head, but she had quite a shiner. Poor baby. I converted the crib immediately. And Maya is slowly recovering from her injuries.

Christmas Morning, well, sort of...

First of all, if you are a parent with children who own lots of electronic toys, you need to get to CVS right away and take advantage of their battery sale. If you spend $20 on Duracell batteries, you get $15 of it back in Extra Care Bucks! I stocked up and went through 3 8-packs already, re-loading all the toys! Jayden and Maya didn't know what to do or what to play with first. It was awesome and not to mention, a great opportunity to check all the toys and get rid of those that weren't working at all.

Birthday Party Weekend

This was the weekend of birthday parties. Here's Jayden at party#1. He could choose whatever he wanted to paint on his face and he chose Santa Clause. Do you think he's telling me something? He's not looking very jolly, is he...
Then they made him a hat to go with his new face, but that didn't seem to brighten up his day at all.

Maya got a cute little butterfly.

Here's Maya all stressed out on the pony, even though Daddy is by her side.

Here is my girlfriend Maria and her granddaughter.

Here's Kris Kringle on the pony. Yes, we forced him on there. It's not everyday you get to ride a pony!

Here's the birthday boy, Devonte and may I say, he was the only one who went on the pony willingly.

Then, party #2 was at my sister's house for Sebastian's 1st Birthday. Here's Esteban in the kitchen, making himself useful.

Chooch was having a ball in the bouncehouse.

Jayden actually went in this time. Amazing!

Even Maya went in and had a blast. She cried her little heart out when we took a break and got out.

Maya takes a swing at the pinata!

Mari and the birthday boy!

Many Trips + Many Coupons = Big Savings

Ok, this might not be the best deal ever, but I was so happy with myself. I made 8 stops in all, which I know sounds like alot, but most of them were either on the way to work or on the way home from work. I made 2 stops during lunch and both were local (within a mile).

I got 6 packs of Goody's Ouchless hair accessories, 1 pre-school toy, 4 packs of Schick Quattro razors, 2 cans of broth, 4 cans of soup, 4 boxes of Celestial Seasonings, a package of wax paper, two packs of ziplock bags, 2 packs of cough drops, a set of Thanksgiving Day cookie cutters, one toothpaste, one chapstick, two packs of tissues, 4 packs of gum, 2 boxes of Gorton's Fish Fillets, 8 pencils, 2 packs of Hallmark cards, two packs of party favors, 1 piece of Fall decor and a Halloween costume for:

$21.24

Day at the Park

Esteban and I were home together so after breakfast, we took the kids to downtown for a walk. Jayden decided to take his bike with him and he did pretty well, until he decided to take his helmet off. Then it was no bike for him. Here he is while he was still cooperating.
He's determined.

Maya loves it when Daddy chases her!

She loves the sand. She was squeezing it in her fingers and throwing it around.

Then she got to try out Jayden's bike.

An ice cream cone for a treat later that night...

A happy ending to a happy day!

Trick or Treat!

We planned a full day of trick or treating. Esteban had to work tonight and I didn't want him to miss out on the fun. So we took the kids out in the morning to downtown Clermont. Unfortunately, we missed the activity which was from 9-11am. Downtown businesses were handing out candy for the local daycare. Even so, the kids collected some candy and had a good time.
An older gentleman passed by and offered to take our picture. That was very nice of him.

See how Maya eyes the candy bowl...

Jayden and Maya were intrigued by the vampire which spoke in a creepy vampire voice.

Here's Maya when we got home and I took away her candy pail. She had the same reaction when I removed her ballerina costume, which was a gift to her from my co-worker.

To calm her down, I gave her a lollipop.

Later that evening, we had dinner and got ready to trick or treat in the neighborhood. Crazy Jayden had a meltdown because I wanted to take a picture of him with his Spidy hat on.

He cried so hard, he made Maya cry. Well, it was the combination of the crying and the mask that did it!

Everybody's in the wagon and we're all set to go! PS The wagon is definitely the way to go for Trick or Treating!

Our first stop was at Mark's house. Elizabeth greeted us with a cauldron of candy.

We started at about 6:15 and there were still no sign of trick or treaters. The first 45 minutes was tough 'cause it was hard to tell who was participating so we started by only visiting those homes with Halloween decorations. Then, as it got darker and the trick or treaters started to arrive, it became easier. Jayden was so excited. He kept screaming, "That way, Mommy!" And Maya was running back and forth from the wagon to the houses. It was so much fun to watch them. I wish Esteban could have been there with us.

Afterwards, we met Maria and her family at Real Life. They were having a huge Halloween event. The church was huge, beautiful and packed! There were kids everywhere. They had trick or treating, a bounce house, live band and tons more. We didn't get to see it all, but we hung out for a little while and headed back home.

Devonte the Ninja and Spiderman hung out for a while!