It has been veeeeery interesting seeing what he takes pictures of!

His first self portrait.

Many of his pictures turn out like this- an off-kilter shot of the floor. This is Yaya’s living room rug.

Since Silas is wiggly, many pictures turn out a bit blury.

Some are even good for potential blackmail.

(For the record, Laura is holding a bottle of sparkling grape juice.)

Silas also like to take pictures of things he likes. Once I put up our Christmas tree, Silas asked to have one in his own room. Yaya had a tiny tree, so we put it up. He loves it, and we have been using it as his night light.

Silas also take a lot of pictures of Rubí.

Presumably because she is short and right at his lens height.

The camera takes much better pictures when he is holding fairly still, something he does occasionally accomplish. Here he took a picture of me…

…taking a picture of him taking my picture.

(Before I make you very angry at me  by what I continue on with, make no mistake- I have no ill wishes against any person needing any type of healthcare.  I know there are many out there who need medical attention. I know people who have gone very deep in debt paying for tragic medical conditions. And for the record, I truly wish these situations were not so. )

The American healthcare system is broken…

Because not everybody has healthcare, or good enough access to healthcare. Not everyone can afford it. Not everyone can get it when they need it. In short: It’s not fair.

WHEN HAS IT EVER BEEN FAIR??

Something is considered broken when previously it had been working properly.

Please tell me then, at what time in American history has everyone had full access to quality medical care? When has everyone been able to get an appointment in a timely fashion? When was it that all the doctors and nurses led stress-free, smoothly running practices with angelic patients?

Maybe “Obamacare” is making it all worse. Maybe 40% of the doctors will retire. Maybe I will have to wait 55 days instead of 33 to get into a specialist. But we’re not all going to be given shots of whiskey and leaches, or herbs from the back yard, or a witch-doctor and a talisman.

We’ve come a long way, we know so much more, and compared to many countries, we are still doing pretty well, thank you.

No, I suppose our healthcare system isn’t quite fair yet. But don’t make it sound as if it once was fair.  Life wasn’t fair in Kindergarten when the kid in front of you got the last chocolate chip cookie and you were stuck with oatmeal, and life isn’t fair now. But that doesn’t mean life is “broken.”

So, dear author of  “No Doctor For You,”  if you have no ideas to present of how we may perhaps improve upon the situation, if you cannot offer any hope, if you cannot recognize the sparkles of hope we have, and if you cannot be content with your oatmeal cookie, please keep your statistics and brokenness whining to yourself. Perhaps we can find you some leaches out back.

“Is there really anything in here for me?” I asked Enric Christmas Eve.

Well, there was. A charm bracelet which I truly love and have wanted for awhile now.

But the bracelet did not explain all the mysterious activities of my husband in the days preceding Christmas. Once I was told not to go in Mama’s room, because Enric was doing “something” in there that I couldn’t see. Another time Enric told me that I might not get all my gifts right at Christmas, but after that any time I asked him about the top-secret “other” thing, he just told me “Don’t worry about it!”

Well, I worried about it anyway. Not really worried,  you know, just wondered and mused curiously on what he could be up to. I also suspected this was another decoy operation to throw me off track of what was really in the bag.  Maybe there was nothing at all? Enric wouldn’t even tell me THAT! And I couldn’t get him to understand that I didn’t really want to know what he was up to, just whether or not he was actually up to something. I didn’t want to be expecting something, when really there was nothing. We continued on in the annoying battle through Monday and Tuesday after Christmas. The man would not budge on his secret keeping.

Alas, he did not tell everyone else about the secrecy of his plan. Oh, the family was fine, and all played their mute parts well. Enric was betrayed by none other than Weather.com. I just was checking the weather, as usual. But one of the places that Weather remembered was Berryville, VA. “What’s in Berryville?”

Poor Enric. On the one hand, I am glad Enric is not very practiced at lying to me. Instead of just saying “I don’t know. Weird!” he made this conflicted/guilty/perplexed face and told me the whole plan.

He really had a wonderful romantic plan too! Thursday morning, he was to get up for work at the normal 5am time, but then stay at home, on the couch, until I woke up later. When I woke up, I was to find a sweet note from him on his pillow, telling me the plans. Since I found out early though, I didn’t get the surprise wake up, but I did have more time to get ready.

Thursday afternoon, Enric took me back to The Lost Dog Bed and Breakfast in Berryville, VA- one of the places we had stayed on our honeymoon. (The last time we were away by ourselves for a night was before Rubí even existed.) Mama (a.k.a. Best MIL ever) watched the kids overnight, and they didn’t even miss us!

I got a whole day away from my “job,” and we even went out for a very nice dinner too, and the Battletown Inn. If you scroll all the way down on the “Dining” page, you can see the table we sat at on the left. (Enric ate the biggest steak ever!)

We had time to talk, read, play the game I got Enric for Christmas, and just generally “chill” without any tiny children crying, or yelling, or jumping on top of us.

Thank you, sweetie, for the best Christmas present! Happy 6 1/2 years!

Christmas started early- Friday we opened the box from Aunt JoAnn. The kids love their cars!

Christmas Eve, all the presents are under the tree, and Rubí is waaaaaaiting…

Christmas Eve dinner

Dinner as seen from the far side. Dinner with everyone here is always pretty crazy!

Before Christmas Eve service

Mama gave our picture extra twinkles!

After the Christmas Eve service, Silas was allowed to stay up late, since he had obediently taken a nap that afternoon. He stayed up till 10pm playing with his new things while the grown ups opened our presents. This was his first experience with “staying up” and now he asks to stay up for lots of random reasons.

Funniest present of the night: Enric’s tiny Playstation 3.  Miquel and Jenny gave it to him, claiming they didn’t have the money for a big one, and they were pretty sure this would work just as well.

Rubí with Nana on Christmas Day

[Big fat photo credit to Mama, whose pictures I used instead of taking my own.]

[Big photo credit to Aunt Linda, for getting a picture of the lady behind the camera.]

Sunday night Anchor presented their Christmas cantata- The Christmas Light. It was wonderful of course, focusing on Christ being born as the light of the world. But for the Lopez family, our thoughts were in a slightly different place, or more specifically, a different language. A friend from church had invited several Spanish speaking friends that night, and asked Enric to translate. Yikes! Actually, Enric was able to translate the script ahead of time and only had to read it along with the English presentation. Our new friend Angeles said Enric did fine, y gracias. We all went out afterward and had a wonderful conversation with her, in Spanish (mostly.) My brain is still trying to translate as I type…

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

We explained ahead of time to Silas that church would be different that night, including the fact that there would be lots of singing. He listened to the cantata very well, and seemed very interested, especially in the instruments that played, and only got a little wiggly at the very end (when Pastor was speaking. Ahem.) But as we stood in the foyer afterward, Silas asked me “Mommy? When are we going to do all the music?”

“What? We just did! Didn’t you hear the choir? And the trumpets and violins? And the teens sang and the children sang? That was all the music!”

“Oh. Well I thought it was going to be on a radio!”

Deck the Halls

Monday night Rubí hit me. HARD! Apparently the collar bone is a very sensitive place, at least to me! She came running to me (arms open, field of daisy style) but somehow we missed and her Nuk smashed right into my collar bone. I don’t remember anything hurting so much since she was born. Very surprising for such an unsung bone. It’s still sore and swollen.

Let it Snow…

It hasn’t snowed yet here. I think some people claim to have seen flakes nearby, but that is far from a white Christmas. Mama found a weather map that claims we have only a 10% chance of having a white Christmas in this area. That dream aside, I was wishing it would snow at least a little bit, just to inspire the Christmas mood. Except Monday I talked with a lady who lives in a tent. And now I am glad for her that the weather has been too warm to snow.

Ten Lords A-Leaping

A long strong tradition of decorating Christmas cookies lives on in the Bosley-Lopez household this year. And while not technically a tradition yet, since this is only the second year we’ve done it, decorating the ginger bread cookies as Ravens players is well on it’s way to becoming traditional!

Actually there are only nine, but I certainly dare not label them “Nine Ladies Dancing”!

Peyton Got Run Over by a Reindeer

We made some non-Raven players too.

Funny story about those… Last year, when we decorated the cookies, we made a Peyton Manning. But in tragic cookie-tin accident, Cookie-Peyton’s head was broken off. Just a cookie, you say? I ask you then why the real Peyton was out for the season this year. That’s right: neck troubles. Coincidence?

I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas…

… because they’d NEVER be able to hide that from me!

Below you see my cute display of tree-wrapped presents, safely out of reach of curious little hands.

The gift bag however, is from Enric to me. I firmly (and conspiratorially) believe there is nothing in that bag at all.
You see, I have  earned a reputation for shaking wrapped gifts. Not violently, I simply enjoy the conjecturing process. Anticipation is half the fun, and seeing if my guess was correct is another 25%. Strangely though, this joy of mine is not shared by a few of the gift-giving family members. Therefore, when Enric put his bag up there for me, I was determined to not shake it (or at least, to try to wait as long as I could before I did anyway.) Unfortunately, he put it in a bad spot. No really! I had a nice structured display going up there, and he put the bag in front of several gifts so I really HAD to move it.

I did NOT shake it, promise! But I couldn’t help but notice the weight. The bag is very, airily light. Which can only lead me to believe that the gift bag is a decoy. There have been several other occurrences to back up my theory that my present is truly somewhere else entirely.

Silent Night

Good Night!

He wasn’t.

So rather than resign ourselves to this awkward fate, or try to buy a replacement baby, I took matters into my own (debatably) creative hands and made a new one.

He fits in the manger perfectly.

And Rubí loves him.

She played with our little Jesus and his manger all day, and covered him in blankies and made sure his mommy was nearby.

Except I think somethings got a bit mixed up along the way. Can you spot my children’s addition to the nativity?

As Mama took a few shots to test the light, the excitement simply shimmered around us.

Well, maybe that was actually all those extra lights I put on the tree.

No matter, we are going to take some lovely pictures of our sweet family (whether they like it or not.)

Silas didn’t like it. He complained and protested, but after some co-ercing, he at least consented to be in the pictures as Daddy held him. Unfortunately all his wiggling shifted his daddy’s clothes around enough that he ended up choking Enric.

So we thought maybe if we put the kids down, that might work out better. Bring the ottoman over here so they can sit on it, and we’ll be behind them.

I should have clarified that “over here” meant “anywhere over here that is not on my toe.”

Although it may appear at first glance that I am laughing here, I am actually crying through the pain of a now-broken toenail. (And maybe laughing some, due to the ridiculousness of the situation.) Enric is apologizing (even though it looks suspiciously as though he is laughing too…)

The kids didn’t want to sit on the ottoman anyway.

Getting all four of us looking at the camera at once was proving more difficult than we thought…

…and some of us started getting a little frustrated…

…but in the end we managed to find a moment where we were all happy, composed, sane and looking in one direction to capture a sweet family picture.

But it’s all a lie.

Although probably not for the Christmas card, and certainly not worthy of being called a “portrait,” of all the pictures we took, I think our family is best summed up by the photograph below:

Not very impressive to you maybe, but Silas put those little electric tea lights on there, and I think it’s sweet.

He put those lights there because for three or four days after I put up the tree, I couldn’t find my Christmas lights. (The tea lights gave the poor tree some twinkle at least.) I looked everywhere in our house and the storage shed and could not find those blasted lights! Finally I broke down and bought new ones, after all, the old ones are from college years.

Three hours after I bought the new lights, I found the old ones.

Of course.

I could have returned them I suppose, but what fun would that be? You see I had purchased colored lights, whereas all the old lights are white. I love color on the tree, but I also love the bright twinkly-ness of white lights. So I put both sets on.

Insane? Yes. But of all the trees I have done, this year’s is my favorite!

Grandpa Keith had been planning some mower rides for Silas Keith!

Silas absolutely, whole-heartedly LOVED his Grandpa Keith! Grandpa made some blocks out of the scraps of his last construction project, which Silas also loved (and Rubí did too.) Grandpa had the power to ask “permission” to play on the neighbors’ play equipment.  He made a bon-fire, jumped on the trampoline with the kids, and played hide-and-seek. At nearly all times Silas was either with my Dad, or looking for him!

Which wore Silas out.

Here is proof of the first non-car nap Silas has taken in probably six months. Daddy told him to wait for something, so he snuggled up with me to wait and fell asleep. This same day Rubí took a three hour nap.

Actually, we did plenty of other things to wear us out. Tuesday Nana Sandy took us all shopping and got new clothes! The kids’ clothes are SOOOOO cute- pictures of those will surely follow.  The kids played outside in our yard, which is not terribly interesting, but it was so very sweet to see my children climbing up the same big rock I played on when I was little, and running up and down my old hill, and (attempting) to climb the trees. I love my kids and I love that house where I grew up and I loved seeing them together.

Wednesday I met with my old friend Gina (you know we’ve known each other seventeen years and doesn’t that seem old?) and her cutie daughters. I tragically forgot my camera and thus have no  pictures of our adorable girls together! (I left Silas at home with Grandpa.) Later on Wednesday I got the kids’ carseats inspected by a very new friend. Commercial: carseats are harder to install than you think! Please have your installation inspected by a trained carseat technician!

Thursday, of course, was the long-awaited Thanksgiving dinner!

Silas also loved his Uncle Andy. The other aunt and uncles were nice enough, but Andy played fun little-boy things with Silas, like wrestling…

…and I believe an imaginary sword fight, and a story reading, and some Packers indoctrination.

I think this is the first year anyone had to be threatened NOT to check the Packer’s score via iPhone during dinner! They won, of course.

A serious breach of mom’s sacred “Traditions” occurred on Friday. We did not get the Christmas decorations down out of the attic! Dad was not feeling the best that morning. Plenty of activities still called to my children! We played on the neighbors’ “play park,” as Silas called it, and on the other neighbors’ trampoline. Somewhere along the line I realized I could play on the trampoline too and had a bucket of fun!

We got a cute picture of the kids on mom’s wagon-thing. (What kind of wagon is that again?)

Friday night was our departure time, which is obviously the best time to take a family picture. (Right.) So the kids are in their jammies, and wouldn’t sit with Nana and Grandpa without me, and Silas made weird faces.

We got him and his beloved Grandpa “Keef” too:

Grumpy faces ………………………….Happy faces

Rubí could not for the life of her figure out why we were calling my mom “Nana,” when clearly the lady back at Rubí’s own house is Nana. Therefore, all week long she called both Grandpa and Nana Sandy “Boppa.” Although she usually said Nana’s “Boppa” in a whisper, because it made Mom laugh!

We drove through the night so the kids would sleep most of the trip. However they didn’t fall asleep right away, so for awhile I sat in the back seat with them to read stories in the light of other cars’ headlights and sing them to sleep. This arrangement proved too much fun actually, since Silas now wants me to sit in the back with him on any trip. Which I will not do.

(The grumpy face again.)

Rubí in her newly installed car-seat, all set to sleep through the trip:

We made great time back, the kids woke up early enough to see the sunrise, there are weird things on the radio at 3 am, and we made it back safely, thankful for a wonderful Thanksgiving with our Wisconsin family!!

Roughly eight years later,  we again took our own picture in the Daily Grind:

Enric and I are now married with these two amazingly cute little children (who did not understand the concept of the camera’s self-timer.)

The Grind is completely different too! The shop was moved into a different building, and expanded to at least twice it’s old size. (Four times the old old size, if you remember that.) I drank a delicious pumpkin spice frappe, which my kids tried to hi-jack, and we enjoyed the fire place and seeing students come and go and discuss their classes.

Northland as a whole is a little different these days. Living as far away as we do, it’s difficult to keep up sometimes. I know only a very few students there, and many faculty and staff have come and gone as well.  Enric and I loved Northland when we were there- the classes, the focus, the people and the spirit (and sometimes even the snow.) So when we hear things have changed, we wonder- how much? Are the important things still the same?

While there last week, we were able to talk with two faculty/staff people we have known for a long time, and ask bunches of questions. And our questions were readily answered with reasonable, logical, positive answers! I was very re-assured and encouraged to hear what’s been going on up there! Much is the same, yet some is different. I don’t have the space to go into it all here, of course, but I will tell you this that I have learned: The best way to get your questions answered is to ask.

Our family will be back to Northland, probably different again by the time we get there. The pictures here are proof: change can be a very good thing!