Play time

The kids have been in their rooms playing a made-up game for the past hour or so (they get the last Friday of every month off of school).
I heard Elijah say, "Since I am the richest one of all and the nicest one of all..." And he trailed off.
Wait, is he David's son? I can't tell.

Good Views

View from my bedroom

 View from my kitchen

 

The view in Vera Cruz.

 To temper the previous good views, I add the following...the Monte Cristo from Bennigans. It 's a deep-fried meaty mess that is sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with dipping-jelly. David used to love these sandwiches, pre-marriage and pre-taste buds. He is out of town (and has been a few days each week this month, including my birthday), in Vera Cruz. I told him he really shouldn't order this, but I'll just make one comment: when I was a kid I used to watch my dog eat his vomit.

On that note...Good night my love. I wish you sweet, sweaty dreams!

Pilgrimage 2015

A month ago, on our way back from the temple in Vera Cruz, we saw groups of pilgrims on bikes or sitting in the beds of trucks, on their way to visit the Virgin of Guadalupe. Her Holy Day was Dec 12 and I heard that over 5 million people went to visit the Basilica to pay homage and pray to her on that day. Many people walk for miles, some come crawling. They decorate buses and bikes, wear large signs professing their dedication. Below are pictures of the pilgrims on Dec 11. Who knows how long they had been walking, but by this point they are almost at the goal. As you can see, they are walking and biking in the middle of a major highway.

I’ve been thinking about these people as I make my goals for 2015. How will my pilgrimage be this year? What is the destination and what will I be willing to suffer to get there? On Sunday we went to the temple visitor center. The calm I felt there was subtle and sweet. Earlier that day I taught a lesson to the YW and a calm also permeated, but it was more of a feeling of, "This makes so much sense. I know it's true and everyone should know it's true." My pilgrimage needs to involve these spiritual feelings on a more regular basis.

One more thing...
Below is a picture of my boy. His school requires all white PE shoes, which to me seems absolutely absurd. These beauties are about 4 months old and will be laid to rest tonight. Elijah's shoes have the hardest life of anything I've ever encountered. Keep in mind these puppies were worn only twice a week and he has 3 other pairs of tennis shoes bought at about the same time that are suffering the same fate.

 

Christmas Break

Christmas break was amazing, as usual and the kids didn’t want to come back. David would want me to mention that he flew with 2 of the kids to NOLA, and I only took 1. I would add that his 2 didn't sit next to him on either flight. Claire was very happy with that arrangement. She had been asking for quite some time to sit next to a stranger with the intention of chatting an ear or 2 off.
I reveled in watching my kids struggle with English. Once, Elijah sat down next to Marguerite, put his hands on his knees, and said, "Mira...," thought a minute, and continued in English, asking me for a few translations.

Our first morning, we ran the Ole Man River Race. For the 5K, Claire was Megan's running partner and Elijah was mine. The kids took the word "partner" very loosely bc they left their adults in the dust. Claire was the youngest girl running and won 1st place in the under-16 category. She won a mug. Elijah got 3rd in his category. David set a personal best in the half marathon (1:39) and I survived. I will record times for posterity's sake: Elijah=28min, Caroline=29min, Claire=33min. I can't believe my 8 year old has already surpassed my fitness level--like everything else, I'll blame it on the pregnancy.

Christmas in the Oaks is a lot different than when I was a kid.  We used to drive through the lighted trees. Now, it's more of a carnival. I would post more pics, but I forgot my camera memory chip so the pics are phone-quality. Megan and Justin took the kids on the train and the crew did bumper cars together. Despite all the fanfare, Elijah and Claire's favorite part of the night was sneaking and creeping  through the centuries-old Oaks in the dark in order to scare poor Iris to tears.

We also cooked a pre-Christmas meal for all those staying at the Ronald McDonald House. The kids assembled the goods we had bought for the stockings and helped deliver them.
Also, David and I went on a date to Antoine's Restaurant and got a historical tour of it afterwards. It can seat 1200 people, is 174 years old, and has been family owned since opening. The word "appetizer" was coined by the original owner's grandson. All presidents since Taft have eaten there except Obama. It had the first fans in the Quarter. All the fans connected to a bike in the kitchen where a with a guy had to ride it to keep them moving. And, they still use the original circuit-breaker.

The boys went on a few dates; one downtown.

Beignets at Café du Monde 

And they were the only 2 who were valiant enough to keep the Midnight Mass tradition alive.

We went to see the Cajun Christmas Eve tradition: bonfires along the Mississippi River levee to light the way for Papa Noel.

After the Christmas present-fest, we drove to Beaumont, TX to be with Brian and Erica and kids.
Our world-famous cook:

The boys being boys:

 

 The next morning we went to NASA

 That night we had dinner with the Gruwell's and then there was a slumber party in the hotel room of GG and Pops.

 The next morning we visited the USS Texas, built in 1912. I was pretty sick when we toured it, so that's about all I remember besides walking down 4-5 stories into the bowels of the ship. The most notable room was the one where all men returning from a visit ashore had to be checked for STDs. Some such room should be erected wherever we go bc the virus I had (don't worry, it wasn't venereal)was spread to many people. My brother affectionately calls us "carrier rats."

We met up with our good friends who had just moved to the Houston area from Mexico and then passed by the San Jacinto memorial. Carved on the obelisk: “Measured by its results, San Jacinto was one of the decisive battles of the world. The freedom of Texas from Mexico won here led to annexation and to the Mexican War, resulting in the acquisition by the United States of almost one-third of the present area of the American Nation, nearly one-million square miles of territory.”

 

On the road again

Iris loved playing with the Christmas decorations.

Pants are always optional.

LOS ABUELOS! They always keep a ready supply of popsicles and an abundance of Cuban stories. I wish I could concentrate better on the amazing stories, but frankly, I have 3 factors fighting against me:
1) I confess that even after knowing Abuela Maria for many years, Cuban Spanish is still hard for me to understand.
2) The cartoons are usually blaring for the kids.
3)  I'm constantly trying to prevent their dog, Polito, from inseminating Iris' leg, something on which he is quite intent.

Maria reminded us a few times to make sure we went to the US embassy right after our child is born to make sure she gets AMERICAN citizenship. David asked her if she would love the child less if she were pure Mexican, not American. She hesitated a little too long, and we all laughed. Abuelo Hector said she could be the one to teach us all how to make tortillas.

For Christmas each kid got 1 present from us, a stocking from Santa, and "experience coupons." The girls both got coupons for horse rides at Audubon and visited with a hungry pig while they waited.

Jackie came along for a ride too.

Claire got a lesson and claimed she liked it more than soccer, which is saying a lot.

We continued the New Year's tradition at the Ortiz house. I didn't take too many pictures partly because going outside was hazardous to the health bc of the cold, but especially bc of the people manning the fireworks (namely Elijah). I'm not sure who put that boy in charge of igniting, but there were at least 3-4 mishaps and 1 casualty. It added to the excitement of the night.
 
Skate country.

David and Brian participated in the over-12 race. Both men performed awesomely-spectacular wipeouts that had the crowd roaring. I had Elijah record the race, but he was laughing so hard, he cut out the finale.

 Our last night in town we went to Panchos, or a resurrection of Panchos--the original was destroyed by Katrina--possibly the 1 good outcome of Katrina. Every time we go, we promise not to return...and then we return. Our flight left early the next morning and was not equipped with sufficient barf bags.

Until next time, Panchos.

 Atticus had one too many tequilas before this picture.

 And a final storytime with GG.

We got home a few days before school started. On Kings Day (Jan 6th) Iris sang me a 10-minute song about how “Los Reyes Magos” were going to bring her presents that day. The Wise Men bring Mexican children more presents on Kings Day than Santa does on Christmas. Poor Iris, she's not Mexican enough for the Wise Men to bring her presents, but we did see them and other semi-fictional characters in choreographed dance at our 10-hour escapade at Kidzania (a ginormous kids-club) the day before.
We got a chocolate King Cake here--it didn't hold a candle to King Cakes from NOLA, but no surprise there.

A Weekend Away

Claire and I went to AZ for Max's baptism and Olivia's baby blessing.

They thought about swimming, but didn't' quite make it.

We saw a play, "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever," I book a remember from my childhood and one we read while traveling in Mexico with my mom.

This little baby is not good birth control.

Other highlights of the trip include lots of shopping--I'm starved of cheep, desirable goods down here and usually arrive to the US as a crazy consumer (this trip was all about the maternity clothes, goldfish, Orville Redenbacher's kernels, and a few Christmas goodies). I also had a night out with one of my best buddies, Ashley.

In Max's prayer the last night we were together, he said, "Please bless that Claire an stay longer and that Elijah will come and we will compete the whole time and I will win every time."
I choked on my "Amen" to that one.

Pure Christmas Love

I found this gem from last year.
Even though Christ was born in a stable, surrounded by animals, I kinda doubt it was this chaotic. We breed a different kind of animal in the Garcia household. Although I can only imagine that the angels did some happy dancing when He was born.

"The first gift of Christmas wasn’t

gold, frankincense, or myrrh,

though they were given to the newborn King.

It was a simple gift of pure love,

given by a Father in Heaven

to all of us,

His children."

-Mormon.org

 

May we all freely give the gift of pure love this Christmas season.

Templo de Veracruz

This past weekend we went to the temple with our ward. We left Friday after the kids' school's Posada (Christmas party with piñata and nativity) and David's work party. Traffic was so horrible on the way out that we almost forfeited. We got in around 2am, slept little, and I hit the beach with the kids while David took his turn in the temple with the youth.

Going to the temple was so refreshing. For me, sitting in more than 2 hours of traffic (plus an additional 4 hours of near-death-by-David's-driving) added to the experience. It's been a long while since I have had to make much of a sacrifice to go to the temple and I feel like it's a different flavor when getting there is painful. The peace and soothing words of revelation were sweet.

We stopped in the city center to eat before we headed out again.

 

In other news, Claire has decided to quit dancing after her end-of-semester presentation.

She was never too excited about the dance class, but every time we went to one of E's soccer games, she said she wanted to play. Today was her first day of soccer and she came home very excited, mainly because 2 boys fell in love with her (she's the only girl on the team), but also bc according to her, she scored a goal on a 9-year-old after doing a flip and other amazing tricks. She claimed everyone said she was the best player in the world. After Elijah said "yeah right," she revised and she was the best on the team.

One more tidbit: When Iris is excited, she yells "Órale!" Love it.