Christmas Hangover

Posted in Holidays and Seasons by

I feel like I have a hangover…I think it’s the after affects of the holidays. There is always such a big build up to Christmas and then BAM, it’s here and just as quickly, it’s over.

Friday and Saturday were a lot of fun for us. We had lots of quality time with both our little family and with the extended family. It was so much fun to see Christmas through Isabella’s eyes. She was in wonder at all the presents and really enjoyed playing with her cousins on Christmas Day.

Here she is, standing on her tip-toes, trying to get at one of the gifts in her pile. Notice Samson is trying to attack from the other side and get at one of CJ’s gifts. They’re double-teaming us!!

Christmas Morning

It really struck me just how much she’s grown since last Christmas, when she wasn’t even crawling or anything (she was 3 months old). She pretty much just laid around while the rest of us enjoyed the day. This year she was a full participant and it was so much more fun!

I got some really great gifts this year. CJ did awesome and every single gift was great. He got me a nice wool dress coat. I am seriously lacking in dress coats so this was perfect and totally unexpected. The only ones I have are the Couch Coat, which isn’t heavy enough for really cold days, and one that I’ve had since high school. The one he got me is red, so it matches Isabella’s little dress coat, and is sassy too!

He also got me a bright green Champion workout shirt and a Pittsburgh Steelers warm, fuzzy blanket – which is AWESOME!

 The most creative gift he got me was my ornament (we exchange ornaments every year that are supposed to show something about that year or it could be representative of something we really like). He found some Christmas-y letters and spelled out “BLOGR” (yes, we know that’s not how you properly spell “blogger”, but it makes it more fun…that and he somehow misplaced the other letters). It’s really cute and it symbolizes this blog, which has been so much fun for me to get started and build up over the last couple months.

(the other ornament is a football cradled inside a trophy that says #1 – because no matter what, the Steelers will always be number 1 in my book!)

[A note about the above pictures of me – first, yes, I am wearing a Santa hat in every one. Why? Because it’s festive! That, and Isabella insisted on it. Secondly, yes, I am also wearing Christmas jammies. Why? Because it’s festive! If you look closely, you’ll notice they’re the same pj’s from last year’s Christmas card only they’re a size too big for me this year – boo yah! Finally, I am not wearing any makeup in last 2 pics and I hope you’re happy. I’m putting myself out there for you all because that’s the kind of gal I am.]

CJ did pretty well too in the gifts department. I got him a garment steamer (what? You don’t all get those for your husbands/boyfriends?),

a new Kangol hat (the only kind of hat he’ll really wear)

Showing it off to Isabella

and a 2011 Marvel calendar. His ornament was Ironman, because he’s my super hero (all together now…awwwww).

[A note about CJ’s pics – yes, he too is wearing a Santa hat in every picture. Why? Because it’s festive! And, Isabella insists he wear one too. Secondly, just to clarify, no he did not just come in from his secret job as an air traffic controller. He was cold in his red t-shirt so he put the green sleeveless one over it. Hey, back off, my man has style! Finally, yes, CJ tends to look drunk in every picture. He either looks drunk or is waving in almost every picture ever taken of him. It’s his thing. It’s what he does. I’ve learned to laugh about it over the years and you can too.]

Isabella hit the jackpot too. There are too many pics of her to show them all, so here is one of my favorites:

Dancing in her Elmo slippers

 

Yesterday, reality hit as I got up and looked around at all the “stuff” to be put away. There were bags and stockings lying around, toys to be pulled out of boxes, food to be eaten, decorations to be tucked away and general all-around cleaning to be done. I am somewhat of an organizational freak and hate clutter. As I scanned the living room, I saw toys everywhere and I started to develop a tick. Our house is not that big so we don’t have the luxury of setting up a separate playroom for Isabella. Therefore, every room in our house becomes her play room. But, I also don’t want her stuff to take over. So, I had to develop a system.

I started with going through all her toys and deciding which ones were keepers and which needed to go. The ones that we kept got put in 2 piles – those that she still plays with and those that she’s outgrown but we want to hang on to for the next baby (no, I’m not pregnant, just planning ahead). The ones that were to go were also sorted – toss in the trash or give to charity. Once that was done, I cleared out a canvas tote box from her room and began cleaning up the living room. All the small toys and stuffed animals got put in this box, which was then tucked against the wall, out-of-the-way. I paired down her books (over time, all her books had moved from her bedroom to the living room) and only kept out new ones or those she’s really in to right now. Those went on the bottom shelf of the coffee table. Big stuffed animals were tucked away into a bench we have. It looked so much better when I was done…that is until Munchkin got up and started playing. Then things were back out and scattered all over, as shown in this picture.

That’s ok though. I’m fine with mess while she’s up and about, actively playing with everything. Heck, it makes it more fun some days. It’s when she’s in bed and there’s still stuff everywhere that I start to itch.  I have a plan in mind for how to get even more organized and still give Isabella her own play/toy corner, once the Christmas tree comes down. I’ll tackle that project next year (seems so weird to say that doesn’t it?).

Today it was back to work. Oh how painful it was when the alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. I had fitful sleep anyway (more Fantasy Football dreams…I know, I have issues) so I was really tempted to hit snooze and skip my workout, but I didn’t.  I was a good girl and got my booty downstairs to our “gym” (aka, my collection of workout DVDs, weights and an elliptical machine).  I am only working 2 days this week as CJ is having dental surgery on Wednesday, but 2 days will be enough. In fact, it will be more than enough. I’m working from the mall these 2 days and am the only one here from our group. Bob is at the West office, the Brit is back home in England, the Texans are in Texas and the Indians are either smoking the hookah working from their hotel or at the west office. I like the quiet, but I also like the hub-bub when people are here. Hopefully I can get a lot done these 2 days and then relax and not think about work while I’m off.

It was a long day but it’s done now and I just have one more to get through until vacation. Kind of fun to have a Monday and a “Friday” right next to each other in the week!

How was your Christmas? Are you glad or sad that it’s over?

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Merry Christmas from the Traders!

Posted in Holidays and Seasons by

‘Twas the season of Christmas, when all through the house, our creature was stirring – Samson had found a mouse! The stockings were hung; tree decorated with care, in anticipation of a joyous holiday to share!

Isabella wasn’t crawling, but walking instead, while visions of Elmo danced in her head. And Sarah was working while CJ stayed home, to take care of our daughter and be Mr. Mom.

The year passed so quickly, gone by in a wink, seems like just yesterday Isabella was only a “think.” And now she’s grown, aged over a year, but such joy she has brought, and is truly a dear.

We look forward to watching her learn and grow, but not to her repeatedly saying “No!” She loves to dance, hug and kiss, she is really and truly a sweet little Miss.

We love all our family and have such wonderful friends. Our lives are blessed and greetings we send. Wishing you all a wonderful year –

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all some good cheer!”

 

Christmas Eve: SAC, Samson and Santa Hats!!

Posted in Family, Holidays and Seasons, Samson by

Today is Christmas Eve. The first gift the universe gave to me was a day off of work! Yee ha!

Traditionally, Christmas Eve is a time for our little family to be together.  We do our own thing and then get together with the rest of the family on Christmas Day.

Growing up, the Atencio family had its own traditions. We would open one present on Christmas Eve, which was a big tease and lots of fun.  We always went to midnight mass so we would stay up and watch A Christmas Carol to pass the time. My dad would guffaw with laughter at the exact same spot every time (when the charity guy comes up to Scrooge and says “Excuse me sir, you don’t know me..” and then Scrooge says, “And nor do I wish to”). If you know my dad, you know that he rarely guffaws at anything. Inevitably, one of us girls would fall asleep before the movie ended and my parents would have to wake us when it was time to get dressed for church. Then we’d pile in the car and head out. It was always freezing and so when we got back, my mom would make hot cocoa and we’d warm up with that and some cookies. Then we’d crash in bed and anxiously await Santa’s arrival.

Here I am with my sister. This was taken Xmas Eve 1994, right before we left for church. I was 18 and she was 20. Don’t you love our shiny purple shirts? No we didn’t dress to match on purpose, we just happened to have the same taste in clothes. We don’t look-alike at all, do we? Although, she looks more babe-a-rific here than I do.

Don't you love the look on CJ's face?

CJ and I have tried to start some Trader family traditions of our own. When we were first married, we would drive around town and look at holiday lights while drinking hot cocoa. When we got Samson, we brought him with us and he got car sick and puked in the back seat. We’ve left him at home ever since. Last year we didn’t go look at lights because Isabella was so little…and we were buried in snow. We won’t make it out this year either. That tradition will have to wait until Isabella is older and can enjoy the light show with us.

Samson's bday breakfast

Christmas Eve 2010 started out with me making pancakes for everyone. Isabella enjoyed them immensely, as did Samson. Since today is his birthday (he’s 5, can you believe it?), I put a candle in his pancake and we all sang “Happy Birthday!”

Then we all got dressed and headed out to the SAC Museum because they had a couple exhibits CJ wanted to see and we thought it would be a great place to let Munchkin stretch her legs. SAC is pretty much a big hangar of airplanes so there was lots of room to walk and we didn’t have to worry about her breaking anything.

Isabella was really in to the Christmas trees they had there. We liked the planes, she liked the trees. I guess that would be about right for a 1-year-old.

(It kind of looks like I have a bomber jacket on in this picture. I’d like to say I coordinated it that way on purpose, but I didn’t. She was pointing off camera and shouting “TREE!”)

 
She actually did enjoy running around the hanger under all the big planes. Although, she also enjoyed the garbage can, the utility truck and the signs too so not sure we can say she will grow up to be a pilot just yet. I purposely stood back and let her get ahead of me to show just how tiny she looks under this massive jet. We had a lot of fun there.

Then we came home, had some dinner and started in on the other traditions, like opening one present!

Samson

Isabella

 

Me

 

CJ

Last  year we started a new tradition of taking our family picture wearing Santa hats! CJ and I have had them for years and wear ’em when we go caroling with his old high school friends. CJ’s has a black band, mine is all sparkly and then we got Isabella a “Baby’s First Christmas” hat.

2009 - Aren't we cute?

I love the look on Munchkin’s face that says “OMG my parents are so weird…someone help me…” That, or she’s pooping.

Here is this year’s picture:

2010

She’s still not so sure about this whole hat thing. She didn’t really want to sit still for the picture so this was as good a picture as we could get!

Now the little one is sound asleep, dreaming of sugar plums, airplanes and Christmas trees.

In honor of Samson’s birthday, I’ve included some links to albums I have made of him over the years. If you feel like strolling down memory lane with me, take a look!

Samson Book Volume 1

Samson Book Volume 2

  

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Samson Stories: The Escape Artist;

That’s the way the cookie crumbles;

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Annexed: Head to Head

Posted in Annexed by

I know it’s only Thursday, but technically it’s my Friday so Annexed is getting moved up. I actually didn’t spend much time here this week. I was out at the west office Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning. I discovered that having two desks isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, when you only have enough supplies for one. For example, I was granted a laptop when I got assigned to this Mall project because I would need to be portable and roam from meeting to meeting.  So, I got it, and all the paraphernalia that goes with it, while at The Mall. Consequently, my west office doesn’t have a docking station. Also, someone stole the hands free headset for my phone out there. So all week I was calling in to conferences and had to cradle my handset against my shoulder so I could type. Ugh! Maybe it was my chiropractor who stole it because I sure  need to see him now! I also hate shuffling files back and forth. Soooooo…for that reason I am preferring to work at The Mall until I can move back out west permanently.

Who knew The Mall would be the office of choice?

Because I wasn’t here much, I don’t have anything to report so I thought I’d do a run down comparison of the two.  

So, here it is, the head to head battle of East vs. West, Old vs. New, Dark vs. Light, Moldy vs. Unmoldy.

Is this corner we have long time fighter and veteran, The Mall! And in this corner, the new young champion, The West Office!

{ding! ding! ding!}

Bathrooms:
The West office has automatic EVERYTHING in their bathrooms – toilets, sinks, soap dispenser, and paper towels. The only thing not automatic are the doors. I  kind of wish they were. It would prevent me from having to use an extra paper towel to open them and then toss it back to the trash just as someone else is walking in, thereby hitting them in the face with a used towel. It’s embarrassing. Anyway, they clean the bathrooms there like 800 times a day. Seriously, it seems like every time I go for a potty break, they’re being cleaned. Don’t get me wrong, I love me a clean bathroom. I just don’t love sharing my “private time” with the Mexican cleaning ladies.

The Mall has tried to make updates and automate everything, it just doesn’t always work. Only one of the soap dispensers works, and it’s on the sink that has cold water (you can’t adjust the water temp here). So I find myself going to the hot water sink and then reaching across to use the soap dispenser on the cold water sink. If there’s another person washing their hands at the same time, it gets awkward. The paper towels don’t always dispense either and have gotten stuck on several occasions. Thank goodness one of the Texans knows how to fix it. Otherwise we’d all be walking around with wet hands. The cleanliness of these bathrooms is questionable. The cleaning ladies are in here probably once a day, which is better than nothing. Thank goodness too or who knows how long I would have laid on the floor. Also, let’s not forget stall #1. Weird things go on in there.

Speaking of weird – look what I found waiting for me in the stall today…

Here’s the closeup:

Yes that says #10 on it

 
So I took a risk and picked it up. It’s fudge, I think. Some kind of chocolate and orange fudge. It was either the 10th one made or a number 10 for taste, not sure which. Generally, not something one would expect to find on the floor of the bathroom! Look how close it is to the toilet! How did it get there? Did it fall out of someone’s pocket? Which begs the question, why would you carry #10 orange/chocolate fudge in  your pocket? I left it in there, though moved it off the floor. When I went back in later, it was still there so I just threw it away.

Winner: The West office.

Kitchen Facilities:

The kitchen here at The Mall wins in the size category. It’s probably 2-3 times the size of the one out west. It literally  has 4 refrigerators in it! I haven’t quite figured out why though. There aren’t that many people in the Annex. Oh well, it means that my food doesn’t have to fight for space with someone else’s so that’s cool. There’s a TV in this kitchen too, but it’s never on. There are also 3 microwaves, which is nice for the lunch rush. I have yet to wait in line for a microwave to become available. There was no hand soap when we first got here but The Strangler took care of that in a hurry and we have some now. There are also no paper plates here, which I find odd. There’s also 3 vending machines in there – one for food and 2 for beverages. Oh, and as an added bonus – this kitchen has a helium tank that you can use to blow up balloons!

The kitchen at the West Office is smaller and more compact. Only one ‘fridge and one microwave. They do have plenty of paper goods though and the color scheme/vibe of it is nicer. Never thought I’d say this but…

Winner: The Mall – any kitchen capable of blowing up balloons wins in my book!

Desks:
You’ve all seen what my desk looks like here at The Mall. It’s  your basic cubicle  – square-shaped, 3 walls, some cubby things, etc. Nothing to write home about. But, it’s a pretty decent size and I have privacy. I don’t have any drawers though. There are supposed to be some but they were missing when I got here. The colors are your basic brown and grey. Nothing fun and exciting.

My desk at the West office is in a pod so there are only 2 walls – it’s like a regular cubicle cut in half from corner to corner. We have nice tall closets for our coats and to keep stuff in. I also have drawers there. There isn’t as much privacy and being in a pod lends itself to more conversation and collaboration. It’s definitely more modern.

Winner: it’s a tie. I like the size of The Mall desk but the collaboration of the West Office set up.

Location:
Believe it or not, I live about halfway between the 2 offices so it’s about the same distance for me to drive to either one. However, getting to the West Office is all interstate and to The Mall is all back roads. The West Office is in a more central hub of the city and you can find just about anything within a 5-10 minute drive and most stuff is even closer than that. Makes it really easy to run errands over lunch or after work. Also provides a whole host of eat out options!

The Mall on the other hand is sort of secluded. It makes it worse that I know squat about this area. No errands get run while I’m here and we always eat here. And let us not forget, that the office is located inside a mall! I mean, while it has its charms and I’ve grown sort of fond of it (in a “feel sorry for the strange old man next door sorta way”), it is what it is and there’s  no denying the crapiness of it all.

Winner: hands down, The West Office.

People:
The West Office is where all my technology peeps are, and more specifically, the other BA’s that I work with. I have a lot of friends there and enjoy our chats, lunches, and work together.

The Mall has operational people here, of whom I know very little. I’ve met many more of them being here but they treat our little team as outsiders. However, our team is awesome. Between The Brit (aka, The Strangler), Bob, the Texans and the Indians, we have a lot of fun. Our group is starting to break up though. Bob moved his stuff back to the West Office yesterday and The Brit will be splitting her time, probably spending most of it out west, when she gets back from vacation. The Indians have started leaving too so I imagine the days won’t be as much fun anymore. Makes me kind of sad really.

We also can’t forget the other cast of characters at The Mall – Scooter, John, the mall walkers, and other random visitors here. That’s definitely something the West office doesn’t have.

Winner: the West Office only because it has all my BA peeps as well as the project team once we move back there. If the project team was stuck here forever, I would have made it a tie. 

Well, I think the West Office is the overall winner, by a small margin. It’s funny to say that now. 2 months ago when I moved down to The Mall, I would have made the West Office the clear winner by A LOT! But, I’ve grown fond of this sad little place and am glad for the experience here.

Annex will probably be on a break next week since I’m only working 2 days, unless something very noteworthy happens that I have to share with ya’ll!

Happy Holidays! 

 

 

 

A holiday greeting from The Strangler

 

You've been Annexed!

 

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Annexed