Christmas Card Bloopers

A friend shared an adorable idea with me about having Finn dress up as Santa and Roscoe as his reindeer. I knew that Roscoe would cooperate - I threw some antlers on him, and he was good to go. Getting an 18 month old to stay still is another story. Throw a Santa hat in the mix and you can forget about it. So, we did. And this ended up being the card we sent out.

Card read: Wishing you the happiest of holidays . . . Seriously.

And here were some of the others that didn't make the cut:

Too dark. Besides Finn looks as though he's saying "Sup Girl, can Santa get your digits for Christmas?"

Cute, but neither of them were looking in the right direction and you can't see enough of Finn.

 "I don't know who keeps taking the ornaments off the tree."

"We're done, right mom? Ok, good."

"Mom, do you want this ball? You do? Ok, I'll bring it to you."

"What are these doggie? But you already have silly ears - you don't need any more"

Finn: Get this hat off me. 

Roscoe: Get this kid off me.

 "I hate my life."

And a Merry Christmas to all!

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Christmas Decor

I love Christmas decor and am just antsy to have a "forever home" that I can go crazy decorating. Moving around every few years is hard because you don't really know if your decor will work in every house. So we don't own too much (although I'm sure Miles will beg to differ), but it won't stop me from pinning a billion ideas for the future.

Right now I'm big on a mostly gold theme. I sprinkle in bits of champagne color and other neutral colors that blend well. We own a fake tree, but the compromise is that one day, when we are actually home for Christmas, we will put up two trees - one fake and one real. I grew up in dry Arizona and we had a fake tree my whole life. I like that you can buy one tree, with lights already attached, and not need to worry about watering it or cleaning the carpet each day. Miles grew up with a real tree and loves the fresh smell and the enjoyment of picking out a tree with the family and bringing it home. I'm fine with two trees anyway - one that can be a theme for the OCD side of me, the other that can display all of our random, home made, special ornaments.

Here is our current tree - thankfully after a few days of it going up, Finn lost interest, but for those first few days I had to re-arrange some ornaments as he was pulling some off and bringing them to me and saying "ball". . . errr, good job kid, now leave it alone!

 I never found a tree topper that I liked,until my mom sent me this butterfly and I thought it was perfect:

I have a lot of Cale related items on the tree, specifically a lot of pretty little butterflies. For Christmas of 2010 my sister-in-law sent me an ornament with his name, birthday and cute little baby feet. That ornament is now the first to go on the tree every year. And while I want to always include him in the holiday decor, I don't want it to just be about him - it's not Cale's tree, but rather our family tree.

So I've included other ornaments that either have significance, or I just thought were pretty - fish for our little Finn, I fell in love with the globe ornament I snagged a few weeks ago at Kohls, and the sparkly french horn makes me smile and think about my sister. In fifth grade you could try out an instrument and join the band. I picked the flute. Kate picked the hardest of the bunch - the french horn . . . .she was no longer in band by the time middle school rolled around.

Here are some pictures of other items in the dining room near the tree:

Moving into the family room, the only thing that is really decorated is the mantle. This was the hardest to decorate because of the stockings. For Christmas of 2010 I just put up two stockings, but it killed me that I wasn't putting up three. We didn't decorate last year as we were getting ready to put the house on the market, so this year I was faced with having to decide how I wanted to display our stockings. I felt like having one up for Cale would be nice so that he was included, but would it just sad and more depressing? I played around with it a little bit, but ultimately decided to do something my friend Brandy did. I hung a stocking for Cale, but it's hanging from a bookshelf in the room near the other stockings, but not along with them. Right now his sketch is by the stocking, but I've ordered a Christmas Tree from Carly Marie and will frame that and put it on the shelf instead and his sketch can go back to the mantle where it normally is displayed (as shown in the bottom right pic). I may even change his stocking and make it a bit smaller and more unique from the rest, but for now this is what I have:

I ended up making our stockings this year. I wanted something either with burlap or linen, but when I looked on ETSY they were at least $20 per stocking. So I went to Hobby Lobby and bought fabric I liked in matching fabrics (the stockings themselves are canvas) and made four for $40.16 and I have a ton of fabric and lace left over. I was going to take pictures of the process and blog about it, but that didn't happen and who really cares. If you are interested, I followed this tutorial which was really helpful.

My next sewing project will be to make a tree skirt that matches the stockings. I'm thinking something along these lines, but that will probably wait until next year.

So there you have it. Christmas decor a la Casa Hidalgo.

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Too Much

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' To this day, especially in times of 'disaster,' I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers - so many caring people in this world."

-- Mr Rogers.

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

I just don't even know what to say. No one does. But this blog is cheap therapy for me, so I will ramble away regardless.

I don't remember when, but awhile back I was sharing a story of loss with Miles and was just saying how it's all just too much. There is so much sadness in the world. I don't even remember what event or tragedy prompted this particular conversation, but of course I connected with with our own sadness over losing Cale,  over the fact that his entire life that was cut short, over the sadness of losing Daren, and the confusion as to how to make sense of any death that occurs during war. How Daren died a hero, not only doing a job that protects our very way of life, but wanting to make life a little better for others - for children who should have a peaceful future and for and a nation that can't rid itself of evil and of terrorism that is killing their people (and ours), and moving their nation backwards.

And at the time I just felt overwhelmed. I just felt sad. I told Miles it was all just too much. And then he said it is a lot, it's a lot to deal with and a lot that doesn't, and won't ever, make any sense. But it wasn't too much.

He meant that for us - for our life, for going on with our day-to-day events, it wasn't too much. Because we will still go on living. We will still try our best to give Finn everything he needs, raise him right, teach him how to be kind and loving and confident and determined. We will still try our best to enjoy life and make the most of it and in the process, should we be so lucky, make it mostly happy, mostly wonderful.

Yesterdays tragedy in Connecticut . . . it just seems like too much. And it seems foolish to say that it's not. There have been far too many terrible things happening in our world, in our own country, over a short period of time. But everything, EVERYTHING, is so much more tragic when it happens to a child. They were just babies.

When I was pregnant with Finn I wanted to do everything possible to ensure he was safe. I got extra appointments, I was induced early, I took precautions that I thought could maybe help change his outcome. He made it, but was it because of everything that we did? Not necessarily. Most of that was to help me cope, to keep me sane. But taking deliberate steps to prevent another tragedy was something I needed to do - for both of us. I know that each time a Soldier is killed in combat, the military does the same. The unit will take time to see how things could be made safer, what different courses of action could be taken next time. Can we improve the uniforms, the equipment, the vehicles. . . so much has been done to protect our Soldiers to the best of our ability - I honestly believe that. But it won't ensure they all come home. There is still evil in the world. There is still free will.

There's no answer to any of this. I wish there was. I think that's why I struggled to fall asleep last night. Because I can't solve anything, but how to we collectively solve at least some things? I just don't know. Right now I just am sad. I'm heartbroken for all those families who are forever changed. Who don't know where to go from here or what to do next. I don't understand their pain. I hope I never will. I can barely understand my own grief at times. But at some point, we will want to move past the tragedy. And help others in the process. We will want to take whatever steps possible to ensure that something like that won't happen again. We will want to not feel like it's too much and go on living and do good . . . for all those who weren't so lucky.

via

Edited to add this: 26 Moments that Restored our Faith in Humanity This Year. A must to read for today.

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Do Good - for Rich and Daren

After Daren was killed one of the first calls his parents made was to Pat and Mary Donahue. The Donahue's live in Wisconsin and have been good friends of the Hidalgo Family long before I came in to the picture. They are wonderfully kind and loving people. Mary's son Rich was best friends with Miles' older brother Jared. Over the years I've heard so many stories about shenanigans Rich and Jared were involved in and things they did together. They even signed up for the Marines together only Rich enlisted and served in the 24th Marine Regiment, a reserve unit out of Wisconsin and Jared would later get commissioned as a Marine officer after graduating college. I remember hearing a story about how Rich would give Jared a hard time about wanting to be an officer and told him he'd never salute him. Jared was commissioned in December of 2005, a year prior on December 13, 2004 - his best friend Rich was killed in Iraq.

It's almost hard to imagine - that two families who had already been close would go on to both lose a son in the war on terror, and understand each others pain and grief in such an intimate way - a way you hope that no one would ever understand. But I've learned over the years that this world really isn't as big as we think. Far too often are we connected not only by happiness or circumstance, but by tragedy and pain. And those connections are often times some of the most beautiful and enduring connections we form in our life.

I'd like to share the tribute video that was made for Rich. It's similar to the one that was created for Daren. Please take a few minutes to watch it and say a prayer or send a loving thought to Rich's family - who not only grieve for the son and brother they miss and the eight years they have been without him, but who celebrate the life he had and impact he left:

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Last week I tried to donate blood. I have been wanting to donate for a long time but I knew I'd have to wait a year after coming back from Afghanistan, but by that point, I was pregnant with Cale and you can't donate while pregnant. Then I was pregnant with Finn and never found a good time after he was born to go donate. So it was on my "to do" list before getting pregnant again. I got pregnant for the third time sooner than I expected, but after my miscarriage I decided that I could, and should, finally go donate. So last week I had a friend watch Finn and I went to the blood bank that is on Fort Hood - I wanted this particular one because all the blood donated goes directly to Soldiers or their family members. When I got there I saw a sign that said they needed platelets in my blood type so I asked about donating those. I filled out the paperwork and met with a girl who reviewed everything. Because of the baby aspirin I take daily, I was prevented from donating platelets (can't take aspirin for 72 hours prior to donating), so I asked if I could at least give blood. One of the questions you have to answer is if you've ever been pregnant. The girl looking over my paperwork asked when my last pregnancy was. I told her I had a miscarriage and gave her the date of my D&E. She awkwardly wrote this down, never bothering to pause and say "I'm sorry" or God forbid anything compassionate, and continued to review the rest of my questions. She then left to go check about me donating blood and came back and told me I'd have to wait - that it had only been six weeks from my miscarriage and it has to be over six weeks. My eyes starting to get teary - from frustration with not being able to donate when I've been looking forward to it for so long, and for the smack in the face reminder that the reason why was because I had a miscarriage too recently. Another nurse asked me if I was ok (she seemed confused as to why I was upset, not sympathetic as to why I might be) and I just hurried out of there so I could get in my car and call my sister and cry. It just sucks - when you want to do something good and you can't.

Anyway, the reason I shared all that is to just encourage anyone who reads this, who is able, to go donate blood. You could save three lives. THREE. I should have found the time earlier, but will try again soon. I'm motivated by stories like that of Nick Vogt, an Army Lieutenant who received 500 units of blood - the most of any casualty survivor.  I'm so thankful that he was able to be saved by the donations of others. I wish the circumstances were different and that Rich and Daren could have been saved. I wish they were here with us now, but they aren't, so it's especially important that we go out and do good for others . . .for them, because of them. It doesn't have to be by donating blood either, but it's the holidays and there is no better time than now to just go out and do a little bit of good for others.

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Aaron Rodgers Day

Today is my boyfriend's Aaron Rodgers Day! Like no joke, the state legislature of Wisconsin has declared 12.12.12 to be Aaron Rodgers Day (umm, he's the Packers Quarterback in case anyone was wondering).

And those classy Wisconsinites aren't stopping there - they are turning today into a donation drive for the Midwest Athletes against Childhood Cancer which Aaron Rodgers supports - because he's so darn classy himself.

Happy Aaron Rodgers Day to all, and to all a good night!

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