The Meaning of Christmas

Dear Cooper,

In the spirit of the Holidays, I thought I’d take this opportunity to teach you one of the true meanings of Christmas. Well, not really because I think you might be a little young to fully understand the TRUE meaning but this is a close second. What I’m talking about here kiddo is ALMOND ROCA aka. Chocolate-Covered-Buttery-Sugary-Nut-Covered-Christmas-Miracle-That-Truly-Signifies-The-Love-Of-The-Birth-Of-Our-Sweet-Baby-Jesus! To simplify things, we’ll refer to it as Almond Roca.

You will learn over time that your Mother isn’t a very good cook but there is one thing I CAN make and it’s this thing called Roca that I speak of. Now this skill didn’t come about overnight. I learned from the best; your Great Grandmother Ruth. Your Grandma Linda and Grandpa Pat made sure her Roca making skills were appreciated and valued. Great Grandma Ruth was a Master Roca Maker (baker, or whatever you call a candy creator). I have so many fond memories of learning her craft over the holidays. She was my Mr. Miyagi, my Sensei if you will. She would stand over our shoulders as we stirred and instruct us on the proper techniques. ‘Stir, stir, stir, faster, faster, faster, figure eights, you must do figure eights, don’t stop…..are you going to let a little blister of hot molten butter stop you!?!’ She might not have been quite as brutal as I describe, but we knew Roca making was serious business. One mistake and the whole batch could go terribly, terribly wrong. There’s nothing worse than a ruined batch. It could darn near ruin Christmas if you allowed it to.

So Coop, I guarantee that you too will have the opportunity to carry on this family holiday tradition. Whether you chose to carry on the making part of the tradition is up to you, but I’m quite certain you’ll want to carry on the eating part of the tradition. In order to carry on the eating part, you’ll probably want to learn the making part (the two kind of go hand in hand). Someday you might ask: ‘Mom, why do we only make Almond Roca during the holidays? We should celebrate and enjoy the love of buttery-sugary-chocolatey goodness all year long.’ My answer to you will simply be: Yes Coop, my wise little buddy, you are absolutely correct but life is all about making sacrifices.

I hope you learn to love Almond Roca as much as the rest of your family and ancestors before you have. May your love of Almond Roca and the many other holiday traditions that come with it continue to blossom and flourish.

Love,
Mom

Grandpa Pat and I creating another Christmas Miracle

December '08

One of the many stages in the process

Voila! Ahhhh, Christmas can go on.

Skype ya Later

We love Skype! Thank goodness for computers. It has allowed us to stay in touch with Dad while he's in Seattle for what will be 2 weeks. We have a set date every morning before Mark heads off to class. Coop recognizes the catchy little ditty that plays when Skype rings on the computer. He runs right over and knows he gets to "see" Daddy. What a great way to fill Dad in on our day and blow him kisses. Here are some pics of our conversation from this morning. Coop is showing his Dad his new hat and mittens (which by the way, he now refuses to take off). I guess I should be glad that I have to fight him to take them off rather than struggle with him to put them on.

Mark using the cool animation feature to show Coop his 'Birbie'

(I think he's almost as excited to see the birdie as he is to see Dad)

Birbie......I mean DADDY!!!!!

Up close and personal

Hey Mom, could you give us a moment alone Paaaleeeeeassse?!?

Dad laughing at Coop attempting to take a swig of his drink with his mittens on.

Skype ya later Dad!

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See how easy this is Grandma and Grandpa? (hint, hint). I think you'd like this better than windows messenger. Shall we set a date?

Have a Nice Trip

Cooper's 2nd Thanksgiving was mellow and relaxing. It was just the 5 of us (doggies included in the count--of course) and one tasty turkey. We enjoyed the weekend eating, spending time together, decorating the house for Christmas and being thankful for our little man Cooper.

Cooper is quite the traveler these days. He LOVES going on "trips". The travel bug started about the time I went on my trip to Puerto Rico. I get the feeling Dad and Coop must have discussed the fact that Mom was on a trip. Most of his travels consist of a trip around the couch, but he's beginning to branch out a bit. There's no need to apply for a passport or visa just yet as I don't think the couch has any special entry requirements to speak of.

Dad left on a trip of his own yesterday. He'll be in Seattle for the next 2 weeks. This video is for you Dad. We hope this helps fill your day with a little bit of the Coopster. We love you!!

Turkeys

What better time than the day before Thanksgiving to introduce you to Coop's Tu-EEEEs? He is cuckoo over these little guys. I must admit, I'm rather fond of them as well. Those of you who know me well are probably quite surprised that I would speak so fondly of anything pecky with feathers, but how can you not be excited about Turkeys running around in your yard? Coop L.O.V.E, loves birds. Period. That in itself warrants a post of its own because of the irony. Obviously, it skips a generation.

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On a side note, I just googled "gaggle of turkeys" to find the term for group of turkeys, and the answer is: Rafter. Huh, who knew? There you have it. Now you're in the know.

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Anywhoo, this "rafter of turkeys" roams throughout our neighborhood. I use the term neighborhood loosely because we don't have all that many neighbors close by. Therefore, the Turkeys really do feel like our neighbors and are a part of the 'hood. Truly, we see the turkeys more than most of our neighbors of the human variety.


Best of all, they entertain Cooper. If Coop is whiny and upset, we often pull the Turkey Card. All we have to do is ask, "Coop where are your Turkeys?"...."should we go find your Turkeys?" and he stops in his tracks, quits crying and runs for the front window to find them. As we drive down our driveway and road, Coop is always looking for his 'Tu--EEEs'. He even knows the sections where they like to hang out and calls for them at that time. Yes, it's true.....our kid is AMAZING :).


It's really cool when they grace us with their presence while we're in the front yard. Coop sees them and starts squealing like a giddy school girl. He loves them so. We've watched the little babies grow and now they're in the gangly teenager phase. Before you know it, they'll be graduating, running off to college and then getting married. I just hope their parents don't expect us to buy them a graduation gift :). Awkward.


I love that 'Tu-EEE' is part of Coop's growing vocabulary. It makes me smile. Not many toddlers say turkey on a daily basis (unless they've mastered the lyrics to Old MacDonald). Yet another memory that we will cherish and smile about forever. Here are some pics that really aren't that great. Funny, turkeys don't seem to like to pose for photo ops. And I never seem to have the camera handy when they're around.

From our front porch

Look closely to see turkey under the branches

Front yard

Now onto the lesson of explaining to Cooper about tomorrow's Thanksgiving meal. Thankfully, I don't think we'll have to broach the subject just yet. And for that, I am very THANKFUL.........

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us and our friendly neighbors!!!!

Ready, Set, Skip!

One of the books that Dolly sent Coop is called Ready, Set, Skip! (by Jane O'Oconnor). It really has helped Coop embrace the joy of SKIPPING. It's a work in progress and he manages to get better and better everyday. Here's a video of Coop demonstrating his skipping in its early stage. We'll continue to give updates on his mad skipping skills as they improve. Skipping is fun!!!!!!!! Skip on Coop, skip on......................

Coop's mission~To spread the joy of skipping across the world. He dares you to skip a little bit after you read this to post to brighten your day. I think he's onto something here. Everyone should have a little skip in their get-along.

Time for Swinging

Someone decided that they needed to swing as soon as they woke up this morning. It very quickly became a swinging emergency. Is there ever a bad time for swinging? According to Cooper, the answer would be NO WAY MAN, IT'S ALWAYS TIME FOR SWINGING. Swee, Swee, Swee, Swee, Swee. Everyone Swee. So, at 7am (and 40 degree temps) I bundled him up and made it happen.........

How Swee-t it is!

Wouldn't the world be a much better place if all we needed was a good Swee to make us happy?

New Do

Since I started this blog, I've made several references to the state of poor little Coop's hair. Well, we couldn't hold out any longer. Coop's mop needed SERIOUS attention. The do-it-yourself-snippity-snip-when-you-could-sneak-a-snip haircuts just weren't cuttin' it (ha, ha) any longer. I even debated purchasing a FlowBee after talking to my sister in law. She uses it on Cooper's cousin Pete and his hair is darling. I just couldn't get myself to pull the trigger on the actual investment and finding a second hand deal on an As Seen on TV gadget is nearly impossible. I finally gave up on the Flowbee search but managed to keep on stalling on the task at hand; Cooper's poor hair. Here are some images I found that will help describe just how bad it was getting.......

Exhibit 1-The Billy Ray

We skirted around this by occasionally trimming the back when Coop would allow it. We couldn't keep the business on the side though. It was just too dangerous to try and trim the sides. So it was turning into a reverse mullet: business in the back and party on the sides.

Exhibit #2-The Donald

This one has been a tough one to avoid. Coop still has baby fine hair and it appears to be straight like his Mom's. As his hair grows on top, the temple region still hasn't quit filled in. Therefore, the girth on the top and center started to infiltrate the rest of his head giving him a serious comb over look. On a windy day, whoooooo watch out. It was bad news.

Exhibit #3-The Dumb and Dumber

This was another one that was getting almost impossible to avoid. Most of the attempts to fix Coop's hair were to avoid Exhibit #1 (#2 was pretty much getting unavoidable) but we were also getting into safety issues. Coop's poor bangs were becoming a hazard and unless we wanted to start investing in cute little hair clips, we had to start trimming the bangs. That left everything else pretty much all one length. The good old bowl cut was starting to form.

Exhibit #4-Really?

It was brought to my attention by my brother that my Dad actually compared sweet little Coop's hairdo to this guy's!!! If you haven't seen the movie No Country for Old Men, then I'll just tell you that this guy is a very, VERY mean man.

Apparently the conversation broke down a little something like this:

Dad - Have you seen Cooper's hair these days?

Ryan - Kind of I guess...just pictures though. Why, what's up?

Dad - They need to give that poor kid a haircut. He's kind of starting to look like a serial killer.

Of course, once Ryan spilled the beans, I immediately called my Dad and asked him if it was true. I love giving my Dad a hard time. I consider it pay back for all the years of putting up with his corniness. When asked, my dad said he didn't exactly say 'serial killer'....'I just said he kind of looks like that guy from NCFOM'. 'He did win the academy award didn't he?' 'That was a really good movie'....'Wasn't it a Coen brothers flick?' Nice try Dad. Way to back peddle.

That' s when I figured it was definitely time. So we took him to a "professional". He did great. We were anticipating tears, screaming and possibly having to quit mid cut. But none of that happened. He strutted right in with us, had a seat on my lap and let the nice lady make him look spiffy. She wasn't exactly Mrs. Personality but she seemed to know what she was doing and she got the job done. Yippee for a successful 1st REAL haircut.

Before Shot. Most resembling Exhibit #2-The Donald

After Shot. Looking spiffy.

This one's for you Grandpa Pat.
After Shot #2. Cat Walk
Work it. Work it.

Coop, you are just so darn cute and perfect no matter how your hair looks! Jeez, what's with all the drama about my hair? Can we just move on already?

Point taken. Moving on................