The Narrative of Kurt & Becky

At Mom’s house we all brought our gifts for each other. We filled up the room.

Here are some of my favorite ornaments on my Mom’s tree:

This angel is painted on the inside.

Ignore the price tags (no they aren’t new) – These are so my mom.

This beautiful pristine white angel is older than me. Not broken or chipped. Perfectly clean. With such a beautiful face. I love her.

This little delft boy and girl by their house… Mom’s heritage. This reminds me of My grandparents and that makes me happy.

Same here.

This is the table setting for my 6.5 year old niece and my 2.5 year old son. So pretty and fun!

Now, onto the presents portion.

First, not to be lumped in with Christmas, we celebrated Christie’s birthday (which is the 24th). Happy birthday Christie (beat Jesus, in a good way!)

Sally is showing her iPad2 to Peter and Grandma. So rad.

My fella and I Christmasing together.

Peter is opening his train tent. WOOOOO!

Sally is the present!

Kurt got John Hodgman’s newest book.

Christie recieved the Lauren Conrad collection of books. Happy Christie!

Blair got his iPod nano watch! Happy Blair!

I got Croc mary jane’s.

Whistle blows! Half-time, NAPTIME!

My beautiful post-nap niece, Sally! she couldn’t be sweeter.

We ate food and food and food… It was excellent.

Here’s my magnificent Mom… Thanks for an awesome celebration!

For more see part 3…

This leg of Christmas began with a 5 hour drive to Las Vegas.

It went a little something like this:

Open Road…

Sun glasses

Peter’s iPhone 3GS (that is his iPod Touch)

We arrived, gave hugs and loves and started right up with presents. Peter couldn’t wait! (He already knew the procedure.) Peter got so many cool toys he loved instantly. A frog blanket, blocks, train puzzle, pirate ship…

All the while, Grandpa was cooking the Cooke’s Traditional Christmas meal of Braciole, garlic bread, pasta, sauce, meatballs and salad. A feast that is amazing. Here is Ken eating his sandwich and stirring the sauce!

Peter was getting acquainted with the doggies, Katy and Roxy.

Here is Peter in the office “working” and you know, making some follow-up calls to clients.

He borrowed Grandma’s swim cap and goggles… he was ready to go… (they did go swimming but not today!)

We ate the aforementioned feast (not pictured).

Serving dessert in the desert.

The family.

Kurt made some libations. Just, you know, some festive cheer… Grenadine, apple pucker and goldschlager.

Kurt and his Grandma.

And then, Christmas 3.5 — MORE presents!

It was a wonderful Cooke celebration!

But there was more…

Christmas Eve we baked cookies for Santa, and set out some milk and an apple for the raindeer (oops, no carrots left in the fridge!).

We posed in front of our tree in our least Christmassy outfits (e.g. Batman and blue stripes).

Santa swung by while Dad and I were watching Scrooged. He couldn’t finish the cookie (he said it was too rich) and not only did he finish the milk he cleaned the glass. What a guy! Also, Kurt offered him a Guinness and he accepted.

We did take pictures of opening presents but they are standard… here is an action shot of Peter’s new LOOP. Which was a HIT.

Then we got in the car and headed over to Grandma’s house for more merriment. Here’s a shot of “Santa” saying, “Ho, ho, ho, merry Christmas!”

Catch more action in Part 2…

We got up quite early and headed over to drop off Peter at Grammie’s house.
See, the sun was just coming up for the day and little Peter was bundled up in the back!

Then Kurt and I went over to Mariners to meet our life group.

We carpooled to CAMP PENDLETON!

Then we were given our assignment and started to decorate. We decorated the Santa Claus/presents room. This is where the kids would line up later to see SANTA and receive a present.

There are SO MANY Marines at Camp Pendleton. Soooo soososososososos many. This is certainly not the only Christmas party for the Marines and their families. I know how many people there were at our party JUST to decorate and there were just as many during and after the party. I hope that the Marines and their families could feel our support through a few hours of party prep. With anything I am involved in, I always aim to leave “things” better than I found it. I know we accomplished that with this room. It went from “dance/workout” room to Santa’s little Camp Pendleton office. We didn’t even take any pictures of the other areas of the actual party… But it was a huge place they expected 250+ families.

We spotted some examples of God’s beautiful work in the sky.

Sunset over the Spectrum in Irvine.

The rainbow over Hoag on a rainy December day in Newport Beach.

We went out for an awesome afternoon date! We ate lunch at Johnny Rockets and then we went to the movies!!!!

The day after Thanksgiving we decided to skip the crazy shopping and go see a movie. Yes, you’d think we were crazy considering Peter was 2 years 4 months and 18 days old. Nope, we knew he would be fantastic. He sat in my lap and then to Dad’s and then back to mine. That was all the squirming. He whispered like a champ. He watched the whole thing. All we had to do was get popcorn and m&m’s for a little help (bribe).

We saw the…
MUPPET MOVIE

Movie poster

We have been making things.

Kurt and I made these. Well, I only helped with the very last step. He is the real champ in making these!

My Mom and I made this snowflake wreath. I got the inspiration from a similar one on Pinterest.

Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. James 1:17 New Living Translation (NLT)

My son is a constant source of joy and a reason to praise!

Yeah, he’s two (almost and a half) and he’s supposed to be terrible… but he’s NOT. (Thank you God for this great boy! Praise God.)

He eats well, sleeps well, listens well, and is temperamentally-wise mello but very fun. (Thank you, God, for giving him the personality he has.)

We get to spend 4 days a week together 24/7. The other 3 days are “Work/School” days; where he goes to work and I go to school. Just kidding. I work, he schools. I leave him in the morning and Dad picks him up. This minimizes his time at school. (Thanks you for this opportunity, God!)

With me he learns everyday. At school, he learns in a super awesome environment (with other kids!). (God, thank you for letting me teach him and thank you that he is able go to school to have both experiences.)

Kurt and I often look at each other and say, “How do we know how to do this [be parents]?” (God, thank you for giving us a strong marriage foundation, awesome parents as examples, and for blessing us to be parents!)

This last weekend at church, the message was about JOY. To sum it up, “EMMANUEL: God is with us” is the reason for all joy.

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel” (which means “God with us”).
Matthew 1:23 New International Version (NIV)

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. 1 Peter 1:8

I bought ALL our Christmas presents today. I knew I would NOT stick to budget if I went out and physically shopped so I took my list and got online. I think we did a WONDERFUL job staying on budget and paying CASH$$$. YAYAYAYAYAAAY!

Here are some NEAT-O financial blogs that I have been looking at recently. Maybe you would like them, too?

The Simple Dollar: Stop Trying to IMPRESS Other People

Man VS Debt: 24 Things You Can Do TODAY. — I did a few and they are easy and HELPFUL.

AND… I am thinking about buying this book but I am going to research it more first.

I saw these Spode paper plates at Bed, Bath & Beyond.
All you need to get are these, and you have the fanciest disposables around.

Or you could get a set of these (for cheaper) and KEEP them.
Add these and it is still even cheaper than the other.

Just a bit of fun.