imissya

listening to: abacus by fionn regan

in utah, laying in bed, with six layers of clothes.

sooooo happy

i didn't think i would post something so soon, but i am a'missing someone.

six days deep.

i haven't had much time to sit in front of my computer until this morning when i 

woke up to find a series of these pictures of jackson.

i was packing us up for arizona and doing our laundry while

he photoboothed himself in his messy room.

little does my buddy know that these make me so surprised and happy.

i wish he was cuddling next to me in bed.

when i see him on sunday, he is going to get so so so so so so much love. 

last day of christmas!

on the twelfth day of christmas, 

my mommy gave to me...

twelve christmasy christmas things

{image found here}

eleven people partying

ten frogs A-leaping,

nine chocolate filled-coins,

eight hours A-good-deeding,

seven colors A-swimming rug,

six hours of-'A-not-laying,

five, pop rings...

four skateboards,

three french cars,

two shirts whilst listening to the DOVES,

AND

 a suitcase ornament for my-size tree.

1. we started driving to arizona early in the morning, listening to all 40's- 60's christmas music.

2 through 10. my friend mckenna and i had eight of our friends call jackson, pretending to be his favorite hero/disney characters, wishing him a merry christmas. these heroes included: spiderman, lightening mcqueen, jesse, woody, little mermaid, silver surfer, the muffin man + santa. 

{he was questioning lightening mcqueen's voice}

we look back...

he was blowing on the flaming hot cheetos because they were too "hot!" 

11. we went to mesa, had some large portions of sushi, hit up the anthropologie sale and brought a pointsettia to someone we love.

jackson loved kenna and kept doing this for her.

i wanted to take him home with the chair... such a great corner piece.

we are wooses when it comes to shopping and last five minutes tops. 

so we ended up playing while we waited.

12. we checked into the ritz carlton phoenix! i told jackson all day that after a long drive we were going to see a pretty christmas tree at a nice hotel but when i told him we were staying, he got so excited.

- they surprised us with the club level, so when we arrived to the top floor, the concierge knew our names and jack said, "hey, how did you know me?"

- the floor's lobby was offering cheeses, herbal teas and fun candies, incredible cookies lined up in jars. 
jack asked one of the servers if she could give him hot water so he could watch his grow-a-lizzard grow. she brought it in a wine glass on a silver tray. oh, we fancy huh.

switching the DND sign with his handmade ornament. so thoughtful and festive.

all his cars lined up...

- i gave little man a bath. somehow he turned into santa.

- i wanted to see what posh-version of jack would be like. this look lasted five seconds.

- we watched the old cartoon version of grinch.
- made a mess with stickers, because we could.

- we read the prancer book and scriptures together.
- i scratched his little back to sleep and that was our last day of christmas!


i am so grateful for this time of the year where everyone is so loving and giving and remembering why we celebrate Christmas.  it's been such a great past twelve days showering jackson with gifts but also teaching him daily little lessons of how Christmas came to be.  although i am exhausted, it was well worth it.  i hope he will remember some of these memories we shared together by turning our non-christmas time into our own little christmas.

i hope everyone has a wonderful, warm and merry christmas.

much love from melissa and jackson

{after this post, i will be taking a pretty good break on posting. i have some traveling, some of my 18 credits that start early - as in monday, some more miles to run and some catching up with sleep if that's possible.}

eleventh day of christmas

on the eleventh day of christmas, 

my mommy gave to me...

eleven people partying

ten frogs A-leaping,

nine chocolate filled-coins,

eight hours A-good-deeding,

seven colors A-swimming rug,

six hours of-'A-not-laying,

five, pop rings...

four skateboards,

three french cars,

two shirts whilst listening to the DOVES,

AND

 a suitcase ornament for my-size tree.

we had eleven people (all family) come over to celebrate christmas here in california.  we made milkshakes, jackson opened his gifts from everyone and then we looked at old family pictures.  jackson felt very special to have everyone there to celebrate christmas with him since he won't be here.  

since i didn't take any pictures of jack, here is a few from his preschool christmas show the kids did for us parents...

the kids sang a bunch of christmas songs, tried to skip around the tree and had a christmas themed lunch.  it was really sweet.

tenth day of christmas

on the tenth day of christmas, 

my mommy gave to me...

ten frogs A-leaping

nine chocolate filled-coins

eight hours A-good-deeding

seven colors A-swimming rug

six hours of-'A-not-laying,

five, pop rings...

four skateboards,

three french cars,

two shirts whilst listening to the DOVES,

AND

 a suitcase ornament for my-size tree.

i have have been sick all week, but felt even worse today so when i came home, about to surprise him with this, i wanted to curl up in bed. he was full of energy and excited to receive his gift.   

he wanted to see real snow on monday, but since big bear is too far in the rain right now, i blew up white balloons and hid frogs in ten of the fifteen.  he had to pop them with my weaving comb to find what was inside

ninth day of christmas

on the ninth day of christmas, 

my mommy gave to me...

nine chocolate filled-coins

(these were huge. like the size of his face... 

in the second picture you can see his hand going in to grab one)

eight hours A-good-deeding

seven colors A-swimming rug

six hours of-'A-not-laying,

five, pop rings...

four skateboards,

three french cars,

two shirts whilst listening to the DOVES,

AND

 a suitcase ornament for my-size tree.

so here is the thing...

i was convinced that there were coins involved.  

i was in the isles asking random shoppers walking by if they knew the "twelve days of christmas song" and if there were gold coins.  none of them knew.  i bought the three packs of milk chocolate coins anyway.

the coins are not a part of the song, but jack doesn't know.

i didn't get too many pictures except the "before" pictures since the coins went quickly having many friends and eager small hands wanting them.

 thank goodness.  

they look better on other's than on my body or jack's future dentist's bill.

eighth day of christmas

on the eighth day of christmas, 

my mommy gave to me...

eight hours A-good-deeding

photo by jack

seven colors A-swimming rug

six hours of-'A-not-laying,

five, pop rings...

four skateboards,

three french cars,

two shirts whilst listening to the DOVES,

AND

 a suitcase ornament for my-size tree.

he made snowflake stickered for his friends

he thought of his daddy and called him

went to the local homeless shelter and fed them

jackson and i went shopping most of this rainy day, picking out enough gifts for three families that weren't expecting a christmas this year. we had a little talk about the true meaning of christmas and talked about Christ's life on earth throughout the day.

the rest of my family donated money, gift cards and toys that they wanted but sacrificed for the families. i am grateful my nephew micah, my niece jade and son jackson were able to somewhat get this concept of giving and sacrificing for those that are in need.  we wrapped the gifts together as a family. i like the idea that we don't know who they are, they won't know who we are but they can just enjoy their christmas. it was a great family night and really brought the spirit of christmas and taught the true meaning of giving.

this by far, this could have been my favorite day out of the twelve days of christmas.