Christmas, and the lot

 Just like when I was a kid, I woke up all night long. I didn't want there to be any chance Maddix woke up before us and saw the presents without us, so over and over I kept waking. Before Maddix woke up we started making Sticky buns and as Maddix woke up we put on a couple of Mickey Mouse Christmas Cartoons. Then we moved onto the presents while they cooked.

Our Stockings

We opened our stocking and then came the presents... well they were all pretty much for Maddix; he's terribly spoiled without a Nala to split the lot with.

First present brought...

A Missionary build-a-bear; which he LOVES

He saw his roller Cars bag and went "Wahoo!"

The "BIG ONE" from Santa

One happy child. We saved the big box from Santa until very last and lo and behold, inside were Max Schnell and Shu Todoroki; the two cars he's repeatedly asked Santa for.

The wreckage

We left Maddix to all his new toys (he received: A missionary teddy bear along with clothes and Christmas eve pj's from Gma&Gpa Johnson, A trucks puzzle, Cars Storybook, a set of four cars with ppl in them, and a large roller backpack from G.GMa Jo&G.Gpa Cam, a children's Church storybook from G.Gma in Provo, money in a bank account from G.Gma in Springville, Socks/Candy/Angrybirds coloring book from my family, more money from G.Gma&G.Gpa Wells, molding clay from Seena and Akshatha and then between us and Santa he received: a ton of clothes, Mcqueen winter boots, and many Cars cars that I'm going to name so I can look back in case they get lost (Carla, Miguel, Nigel, Shu, Max, Chick, a purple bad guy, Sheriff, Doc, Sally, and Sir Miles; I think that's all). And checked on our breakfast because we could smell it throughout the apt (which is much better than the cabbage and cigarette smoke that has been leaking in through our vents for the past few weeks from downstairs... grr!)

Between the our sticky buns, and the cheese ball #2 Travis made we ate well!

SO much butter, sugar, and cream cheese, my body will not recover

Then, with full stomach's we turned on some Charlie Brown Christmas, and arranged the presents for the annual present photos.

Mine and Travis's collection, + I bought him the new
Batman on i-tunes

This is my painting of the Polish country
side we picked up at a Christmas Market

While I was cleaning up the kitchen I heard the unpleasant whining of Travis picking on Maddix and this is what I heard: "Dance Monkey, Dance." And this is what I saw( below the painting photos)

Poor boy wanted his shirt back on

He looked like Aladdin, but he just
thought he was too naked!

Eventually Maddix and I went down for naps and Travis watched his Christmas Present, Batman, and 2 1/2hrs later I woke up. We tried to wake Maddix up but he was not having it. Travis found him cuddled up with his teddy bear:)

We were lucky enough to spend the rest of the day talking to family, including a group chat with Uncle Bryce in Slovakia. The best part was when Lori asked what Maddix though of the recording in the bear, which we hadn't known was there. So we played it for Maddix in front of them and he was so happy. He pointed at them on the screen and back to the teddy bear. He laughed the whole time then yelled over and over, "This is the best teddy bear EVER! This is the best ever!" And he smiles each time we play it for him:) And then for my most special present from Travis: He made homemade Cafe Rio Salad!!!!! Homemade Pico Degio salsa, cilantro dressing, tortillas, lime rice, and everything. I DIED and went to heaven. Today I re-died when I ate leftovers for lunch.

Heaven

So that was our day. It was simple. Peaceful. And very fun. It's amazing how different Christmas is without the bazillion family parties to attend. It's not bad, it's not better, just entirely different. The day seemed so much longer and laid back though, that's for sure. Merry Christmas from our little family here in Poland!

2012

Christmas Eve 2012

I am extremely exhausted, so won't be spell checking this at the end, and my 'c' button is missing on this computer, so fair warning that this post might not make sense, but I have to get it down while it's all fresh in my head.
The morning: It couldn't have started out more perfect. By some miracle, Maddix slept in until almost 8am. I found myself awake before him! We watched a few little Christmas cartoons and then began cleaning, cleaning, cleaning! Oh, and Travis gave Maddix a much needed haircut, then a bubble bath.
The afternoon: The Elders came over for a day of games and food. We put Maddix down for a nap and Travis whipped out the goodies we had made. It was his first ever cheese ball and it was fabulous. The sugar cookies weren't too bad as well

We played a few rounds of our favorite game Settlers and then we heard Maddix crying quite intensely. He brought Maddix in and on the top of his right eye lid he was bleeding a little. It looked as if he'd been attacked by a large bug, or pinched it in something tight; we concluded he had messed around, fell, pinched it, and cut it open :( Poor boy has one more mark on his face to add to his colletion of scrapes on his nose from eating it yesterday. Then he was monkeying around after we let him skip the nap and he climbed up the side of his high chair, lost balance and fell backwards, pulling the highchair right onto his head; yet another bruise.
The evening: The Elders stayed all day, and eventually helped us make cookies to take to the nunnery tonight where we would be having dinner; random I know. Travis's classmate Seena is Catholic and invited us to a traditional Polish-Catholic dinner with all the nuns, so we accepted and got ready to go. When Seena and Akshatha showed up we tried to call a taxi and kept getting told, "no taxis," then they would hang up. Over and over each company said this. So we caught a bus over to the middle of town and prepared to wait for the next one to take us to the outskirts of town. Akshatha was messing around and pretending to hail a cab (which is illegal here) because she is from NY, when all of a sudden one pulled up; it was insane. We joyously climbed in, not knowing what was to come. This man was crazy. He talked and talked and talked, knowing we didn't understand. He kept pulling over and rechecking the address and muttering things like, "why I ask you, you don't know, you don't know, you don't know what I saying." And then out of nowhere he pushed a button that made our taxi fare jump up. Then he got lost. We kept trying to get out of the cab but he kept telling us to sit and he'd find it. Well we ended up being quite late, but we eventually made it. And we made it broke. He charged us 50pln~ $19.

The Night: When we first walked in we were introduced to a Polish tradition. We were handed a piece of 'bread' that resembled a lasagna noodle/rice paper and were told that we go to someone, wish them any good tidings, and then break off a piece of their bread. They do the same, then you kiss each other's cheeks three times. So we did this, over and over again until we were taken to our seats.

Sister Magda, from Warsaw. I really liked her

Dinner was very interesting. We once again started with the beetroot soup with pirogi and then were served several fish dishes. I said I was allergic because I DON'T EAT FISH and didn't want to be rude, but Travis ate it... he ate raw fish... carp, fried fish, and all sorts of nasty stuff and is now feeling so sick. Maddix and I stuck to the potatoes, bread, and fruit. There was also this traditional drink where they candy and dry several fruits together and then put it in a warm drink, and for dessert Seena brought rice pudding with glazed pears. During dinner I had an interesting conversation with a sister that inquired of my religion. It was the first time I have ever said I was 'Mormon' and had them look so confused. She had no idea. she asked about it and with each answer she seems more and more confused about whether this was a fad religion, a cult, or some hippy thing because of how few members we had, and it just blew my mind. She asked it was a protistent based religion and when I told her we were a Christian religion just like the Catholic's this just blew here away. She thought i was joking. But she was never rude or insincere about it. Just seems to be internally piecing it together, but was confused because we seemed so normal, and Maddix was so cute. Funny.

After dinner the guitar, tamborine, and a bunch of shaky maracca things were whipped out. We sang songs in Polish, English, and Veitnamese for one of the nuns. This was the funniest part of the night. Maddix was not paying any attention and when the first cord of the guitar strummed and we started singing he looked up and started to cry. Everyone bust out laughing and couldn't even sing. He thought the attention was the best and smiled, and eventually was given and instrument to play. Everyone LOVED him... I mean LOVED him. They kept saying how he looked like baby Jesus, and was so reverent; I kid you not:) Thanks Maddix, you sure fooled them, jk. He was really well behaved.

No more overly long hair

So Maddix stole their hearts, the room was full of music, and eventually he walked over to this sister who had a tamborine and took it, however he found a maraca that was free and took it to her as a trade. Everyone thought it was the cutest thing that he traded. They all took turns chasing him around the room, telling him he looked like baby Jesus, putting him on their laps and kissing him silly.

Trying to get home: As dinner wrapped up and everyone prepared to move into mass we realized that time had grown very late. As we tried to have Sis. Magda call us a taxi, my phone died. We grabbed Seena's and received the news that there were no taxi's from this company. Quickly the nun's helped us look up the bus schedule and he found that we'd missed the bus by two minutes, and the next bus wasn't for two hours. So we looked up more taxi numbers. Four companies said there was nothing, then on the fifth one, she found us someone; we were saved. While we waited Maddix grew slap stick happy and started chasing Akshatha around a pole and laughing hysterically, which made the sisters laugh and continue on with what a beautiful baby he is:) Eventually, the taxi came, charged us half the price that the crazy guy charged us, and we got inside. We put Maddix in new pj's, read him the bible, and the night before Christmas and here we are. I'm falling asleep typing this, and Travis is trying not to hurl; poor guy.
Moral of this story is: NEVER hail an unmarked taxi, and NEVER eat Sushi... even if it's blessed by nun's!!!!!
Merry Christmas!

Time is Flying

Where has time gone the last few days? I feel like the last month or so has just dragged on, and then BAM tomorrow is Christmas eve!
I had so many errands to run, in such a short amount of time! But I will get to that in just a minute. Here is a less than detailed account of the Christmas party since I can't seem to remember now all the good things I was going to write:

I finally got ready for the day! I was trying to get a picture of my holiday nails with the outfit, but we failed. 

We also ran out of time to cook our sugar cookies since they have to freeze and set, so we walked our way to the church so that the dough to continue to freeze, I forgot the cookie cutters, so I had help making shapes before we cooked them.

We barely fit everyone in

We had an authentic Polish Christmas dinner. It started with a beat-root soup that they have several versions of that they eat all the way until Christmas eve, then they have a special version just for that day. We followed it up with steamed cabbage leaves stuffed with fluffy potato with sauce on the outside. Sounds weird, but it tasted nothing like those foods and was pretty good. Next there was a fish/veggie casserole and a jar of fish parts (complete with bones and the eyes! I snuck my portion into a napkin and threw it away:) Then there was some basic chicken, grain bread, and all sorts of pastries and juice. the whole night was full of wonderful company, conversation, and new food. Plus we met our new Elder, Elder Peacock, from Ceder City:)
The next day we got ready, did some chores, and then ran some errands. On our way out the door we FINALLY mailed Maddix's Christmas letter to Santa!

Maddix was a little less than pleasant Friday on our Shopping exertion, so we blessedly took him to Seena's apt at 9:00am and made our walk to the grocery store. See, in Europe people celebrate the holidays; nothing is open, literally. So Saturday morning we made our way to buy all the food we could possible need/eat before it spoils until next Thurs, possibly Friday. Our grocery stores will be closed all next week except for one day before they head into the New Years Celebration. Brother. So we walked a mile to the store, fought the battle, and then carried all our groceries home through the falling snow (we were feeling energetic and happy to not have to carry Maddix, so we decided we could carry all the groceries back to the house!). We packed away all the food, and then made our 2 mile walk down to the mall. 

It was worth the walk through the icy cold

We walked in and there were rows of Christmas markets set up everywhere. There were lights and Christmas trees lining the walls. People everywhere were scurrying back and forth between stands. There were meats, pastries, spices, and then there was the bread stand. I kid you not I almost bought a wheel of bread. Seriously the size of my cars tire! But we didn't buy it because there was no way we could eat that much bread before it went bad, let alone carry it home. We made our way upstairs to hit a few stores and were stopped by more stands full of homemade clothing, ornaments, jewelry, and then there were these paintings. BEAUTIFUL. And the frames they came in were hand crafted from wood. The man saw us perusing and I said I wanted one but had no way to get it home to the states. He said if we wanted to just buy the painting and leave the frame he would cut the price and continued to show us how we could roll up the oil canvas and store it in a tube; we were sold. -I will post a picture after I receive it for Christmas- 

When we went to Pick Maddix up we found him chilling on the couch with Seena and Ahkshatha watching Christmas cartoons and was full on chocolates/caramels, pb&j sandwich, a banana and a half, and two cups of milk! We got him home and he crashed for a nap and we pretty much did ourselves. 

What else? Today I had to give a talk in Church. Travis is loving having no school, and is cooking up a storm! He is the best. He has tracked down ingredients and put together several recipes and is going to make us Cafe Rio for Christmas; the number one thing I have been dying for since we got here. Tonight he also made his first ever cheese ball for tomorrow and it is delicious so far! We taste tested it of course. Well I think that's it, but I know once I post this I will find something super funny, or a mile marker from Maddix and will wish I added it. Oh well, such is life. 

~It's the End of the World as We Know It~

The Mayan's have it pegged that the world is ending. Isn't it a comfort to know that even if this were so... that we'd be in a better place (or at least striving to be deserving to be in a better place; I have a long way to go).  That because Christ was born,  stayed worthy, and died for us, we can continue to live even after this world stops. I'm grateful for that thought, especially at this time of year when it's so easy to lose perspective on why we celebrate Christmas.
-Well, that's really all I had to say about that-

On Monday Travis took his last few tests and we had the Elders over for their P-day/farewell to Elder Wilson. We ordered Pizza and played Polish Monopoly. Elder Wilson ended up cleaning our clocks and felt that he left on a high note :)

Tuesday Travis attended his last class before the Christmas break and then came home a happy HAPPY man. I am extremely thrilled as well because now Maddix and I get to play with and have Travis around until Jan 7th! Also note worthy, Maddix and I had a new conversation that went like this:
Me: Why are you crying? You have no reason to cry.
Maddix: I want a reason
Me: What? You want a reason to cry?
Maddix: Yes
Me: I could spank you?
Maddix: No (starts fake crying), I just really need a reason
~Guess having no reason was enough of a reason to cry~
 
Wednesday we went down to the mall to look at toy stores, pick up a planner for Travis for the new year, and just window shop. When we came home Travis pulled up a clip online that had Santa in it. As soon as Maddix saw him he pleaded with the screen, "Please, Santa Clause, bring me a Shu Todoroki car!" That is one of two Cars 2 figures he wrote Santa for. Guess we better hurry and mail his letter tomorrow so Santa has time to get them! Hope it's not too late!! Then that night Travis was helping Maddix get out some energy by playing tackle football on his bed:

 It was such a blast to watch, and Maddix just kept asking for more. Most the hits he took were pretty rough too!!

I hope the video works, but the whole time we were just laughing.
And today was so much fun, and this evening we went down to the church for our Christmas Party and met our new missionary. However, I am going to save today's happenings for the next update because this one is becoming long, and it deserves an entry of its own.

Hope this Works.

This is now my 3rd attempt at updating the blog, so I hope it works. Previously I have written parts of the blog and gone to add pictures and my computer has crashed. And I mean, it was dead and Travis brought it back to life. He says it was a coincidence at the timing, but it doesn't stop me from fretting this whole time. It took him 3 1/2 hrs to revive it the last time. So... wish us luck (however the only way you will read this is if it didn't crash, so that's good).

I've previously wrote about Christmas coming up, about the progress we've made with Maddix's public fits and going to bed on time, about how cute he has been lately, and the random activities that have happened, but as we know it never posted. Therefore, I will have to do my best to remember what has been going on:

We now have a stripper. I can't keep clothes on this kid!

While we were switching the way we ran his sleeping schedule we kept finding him asleep in weird places

It's because of instances like these that every night we have to do a check and make sure 1. His diaper is on and not ripped off in a corner somewhere 2. His pj's are on to keep him warm and 3. That he's actually in his bed and blankets.

He is so big. He gets into his chair by himself every day. And the house has become his jungle gym

He found this rubber bracelet and now he likes to be Buzz Lightyear and say, "To infinity, and beyond," while he rides his ship/car

This was last week before the REAL snow showed up... I LOVE that we will have a white Christmas.

We attended a surprise b-day party for another one of the students back on the 8th. This picture sums up how Maddix was the whole time!

We have also been enjoying the few moments we have with Travis. His semester is at it's height recently so it's just been Maddix and I. However one day when the snow was really coming down we had a snowball fight in the house. We just opened the windows and gathered the snow into snowballs. I got Maddix pretty good, then Travis pegged me in the butt to reclaim Maddix's honor. We all had a good time. Unfortunately I can't get that photo to load.

I had set up his bed with a fort full of books and gave each stuffed animal one and that bated the trap enough to lure Maddix in and just read books for awhile. He played so well and kept trading books with everyone (animals)

We have also been gearing up for Christmas, listening to holiday music while we clean and play, buying a few little gifts, receiving cards (Thank you everyone who has sent us a card, it's so fun to have a taste of home), and Maddix even decided one night to start unwrapping the presents that were under the tree. Travis walked in and found a bed full of wrapping paper and 5 unwrapped presents; let's just say that's the last time he has touched the tree/presents:)
Maddix has jumped level in speech and understanding again so he's been really fun. We'll call out to him to stay out of the food in the kitchen and he'll call back, " I am out of the kitchen, I'm in my room!" And just all sorts of funny phrases like that. He has become our good little boy again (THANK YOU!)
An exciting thing that just happened: On Saturday we set out through the thickly falling sheets of snow and made our way to a local pool with a few of our ward members, as well as Pres/Sis. Nielson (Mission President and wife) and one of their Elders to witness the baptism of another young man! We now have 3!!! His name is Oscar, he is 14 years old and lives an hour away. He and his brother, his brother has been living in Florida for the past 8yrs and is visiting until Feb, started contacting the Elders awhile back, and we were so excited to go and participate in his baptism. And the Elders were SO excited when they finally found a pool that would let them come; they were >this< close to doing in the lake... in the blizzard. The pool people cleared everyone out for 15mins and then allowed us to use an office to say a few words; they were kind, and it was a wonderful moment.
Afterward Travis,Maddix, Grace (one of our Taiwanese students we love), and I made our way to go have dinner at an American style I-hop type place. We were cold, hungry, and soaked from all the snow. We hopped off the bus and made the walk, only to find it closed! They were closed just because it had been a slow day. They were supposed to be open for another 6hrs! So by the time we made it back to the bus station we had missed our bus and the next one wasn't for 20 minutes so we finished the walk to our apt. Poor Travis carried Maddix for so long. Probably 4miles total before and after. And Maddix was so mad that he was so cold. He cried himself into a pile of blankets and then watched a movie while we made some dinner. Sunday I showed up, ready to play the hymns I'd practiced all week only to find out they don't have them in the Polish hymn book. I looked closer and found out... NONE of the hymns I already know are in the Polish hymn book; they have a terrible selection and they are harder to learn. So looks like I'll be practicing a little more.
So then last night we had our final dinner/dessert with one of our Elders since Transfers are this week. It makes me want to cry that it is already time to say goodbye again! Especially one day before our Christmas party. Boo!

E. Rittmanic, Travis, Maddix, and E. Wilson

Actually, The Elders just called right now and I just found we are losing Elder Wilson! But I'm happy to say he is going to Warsaw where the Armstrong family is (the family that lets us stay with them, and who Maddix thought was U. Colton), so he will be well taken care of. They are wonderful people. We will miss you Elder Wilson; I hope you marry my sister when you get home (you will both be back from your missions at the same time, and both attending BYU, so it could work ;)

It's beginning to look a lot like... Christmas!

I just have to start of by saying... I did it! I finally figured out how to change the picture and a few settings on the blog. Yippee. Now everyone can see that Maddix is no longer 11 months old!

Onto the real post: 

Can I just say how extremely excited I am for this Christmas Holiday? I don't know if it just helps the time go by, if it's the fact that Maddix is at an age of understanding it, or if it's just always been my favorite holiday; regardless the reason I have the cheerful spirit of the season in my soul and I finally got my front room decorated enough that you are momentarily drawn away from the overpowering Orange color, that worked so well for Halloween and Thanksgiving, but not so well for the Green/Red season.
(Thanks mom for the Christmas package full of crafts, decorations, and Christmas stickers. We've been enjoying ourselves)
~Also click on the photos if you want to see them bigger~

As you enter the front room you can see the red&green paper chains we made hanging in the windows

Maddix placed all these snowflakes himself

He was pointing to the paper chain

Our Christmas "stockings." I was going to buy some $3.00 stockings and found these hats for $.20 a piece. I simply put our names on them, and Maddix used his Christmas stickers to decorate his and we had ourselves what we needed and I won't feel bad when we don't pack them home with us.

Our tree. Maddix and I cut ornaments out of paper and then we received a few from my mom. The tree was $10.00 and the lights were $4.00, again I won't feel bad about leaving them behind (Maybe the tree:)

And all the presents are from the grandparents who are always on the ball and prepared with presents!

This was a little wooden tree Maddix colored and we placed next to our countdown calendar.

We had so much fun decorating for the Holidays. I feel like I keep finding things to add so it keeps looking more festive. When we finished, Maddix walked in his room and did a full circle then said, "wow, it's so pretty." 

After that he was hooked on falling asleep with the Christmas lights on. One night he woke up and started crying that they had been turned off. Then in the morning he asked that I plug them back in and he just laid in bed staring at them for a bit after that. 

It's also starting to look like Christmas outside as of three days ago. We received a small snow storm, and now it's cold! However we ventured out to play in it, that didn't go so well since Maddix is in this stage where I basically hate to take him out in public. 

Yesterday we wanted to go out and then realized we couldn't find the keys so instead we went and played on our balcony

We finally made a snowman!

He had raisin eyes, a carrot nose, almond buttons and mouth, a pipe cleaner scarf, and stick arms.

We officially made his first snowman ever. We had to use what snow we had to work with so it wasn't very big, but he loved it and now I can finally say that his first snowman he ever made was in Poland. Next on the list will be a snowman in England when we go visit the Mecham's at the end of January; we might even get lucky enough to meet up with Pawel, the member Travis baptized who is now working/living in England. 

I think that pretty well does it. Besides the never ending fits and Travis and I constantly losing our minds.... we're surviving. However, we're running out of ways to keep Maddix in bed at night. It's taking him anywhere from an hour to two hours to fall asleep and we constantly catch him out of his bed. We have tried everything and are at a loss... 

How does anyone survive the terrible two's? HOW? 

I think it would be easier if we had family around to deflect some of his attention, or even Nala for that matter. 

I don't think it would be fair to say that my two year old is worse than others, which leaves me to believe that it is my parenting skills that are sub-par... 

I'm losing my mind. 

"I'm losing my mind, while he reaps all the benefits!"