Mom's Weed

Last year, my mom was diagnosed with glaucoma, which increases the pressure in the eye, and can lead to blindness if it isn't treated. Fortunately, all my mom has to do to keep the glaucoma under control is put special drops in her eyes at night. One of the positive side effects of these drops is that they make Mom's eyelashes really long. They look amazing, especially when she wears mascara! (These drops are the same thing as Latisse, which a product that was sold a couple of years ago to increase the length/thickness of eyelashes.)

Supposedly, smoking pot is supposed to help with glaucoma, too, since it lowers the pressure in your eyes. Except, the effects of the marijuana on the eyes only lasts for about three hours, so you would be pretty stoned if that were your only option for treatment. ;) This past Christmas my sister Chandra gave our mom a plastic bag full of a mysterious dried, greenish-colored leaf with a note attached to the bag that said, "A little something to help with your glaucoma!" A gift card was buried inside the "weed," too! Not to worry, it was only dried parsley. This was my mom's favorite Christmas gift, though, and we all got a good laugh out of it. 

Toddlers or Seniors?

Look at these adorable photos of toddlers dressed up as senior citizens! I came across these photos online yesterday and thought they were just so hilariously precious. The props, sets, hair, makeup and tiny toddler wardrobe of someone in their 80's or 90's all come together in such a way where you just have to stop and stare for a few minutes. The first one reminds me of what Benjamin Button would've looked like when he was born. They are really clever and are basically a visual oxymoron. Check them out!

*These photos were taken by Zachary Scott for a New York Times feature on reverse aging.

Elizabeth's 14th Birthday

My niece Elizabeth turned 14 on December 27. Wow… 14! It's hard to believe. A benefit of Elizabeth having a birthday so close to Christmas is that we always get to celebrate her birthday together since her family almost always visits for Christmas. I really treasure the time that I get to spend with my nieces and nephews since I don't see them as often as I'd like. It's always special when we're actually together WITH family on birthdays or holidays.

In the morning Sharon's family went to the Butterfly House. My mom and I didn't tag along on this adventure, so I sent my camera with my sister so that I could at least be a part of the fun via pictures.

They also played on the playground equipment and also went to the big indoor carousel that is right by the Butterfly House. Rides are only $2, which isn't too bad.

We had dinner later that afternoon. Elizabeth wanted pulled pork enchiladas. I've never had enchiladas made with pulled pork before, and I really liked them. Elizabeth wanted blackberry cobbler with snickerdoodle ice cream for dessert. That was an interesting choice for a birthday dessert, if you ask me! When my mom went to the store she couldn't find snickerdoodle ice cream, and saw that two boxes of blackberries cost nearly $20, so she called Elizabeth and they decided to do a mixed berry cobbler with French vanilla ice cream instead. Cobbler isn't my idea of a good dessert, especially for something as special as a birthday. My philosophy is that if a dessert has fruit in it, it's not a dessert! Hold the berries and give me some chocolate!! ;)

Elizabeth opened her presents after dinner. Between Christmas and her birthday, Elizabeth got everything she wanted. Getting everything you want is doable when you have requests as modest as Elizabeth's were! After the little kids were in bed, we watched Catching Fire to prepare ourselves for seeing Mockingjay part 1, a few days later.

The beautiful birthday girl:

Christmas 2014

I'm finally getting around to making a post about Christmas. My sister Sharon and her family came from Mississippi to spend Christmas with my mom, youngest sister Chandra and me. We've been lucky enough to spend Christmas with Sharon's family every year since 2007, and it's always a blast. It's great to have kids around for the holidays, too, since they make everything more exciting. I wish more of my family lived close enough to join in on the holiday fun, but I will take whatever visitors we can get!

We agreed to start opening presents at 8, which always feels late to the kids, but to the adults that have to get up a couple hours earlier to get everything ready, 8 AM feels like good compromise. We started by opening stockings to see what Santa brought for the kids. Then we had our breakfast of sweet rolls (made by Sharon). This year we did caramel pecan rolls and cinnamon rolls with maple frosting. After breakfast we started opening presents, which always takes a couple of hours, since we're the kind of family that opens them one at a time.

In the afternoon we had some friends over. Our long time family friend, Paul, and Laura, a new gal from church. Laura's new to the area and doesn't know very many people. Her husband had to work, too, so she and her two little kids came over to hang out with us. It was great getting to know her better, and her daughter played well with my sister's kids. Her baby boy is a doll, and everybody loved holding him!

Christmas was a relatively low-key day, but it was just relaxing and nice to spend time with family and friends. Chandra had been working tons, too, especially with the busy holiday hours. Fortunately, she got four days off during the time that Sharon's family was here, so she was actually able to hang out with us.

Here are some pictures from Christmas day. 

Rachel and Emily each got Bitty Babies for Christmas. Emily (who is two) walked around saying "baby bottle" over and over after she opened her doll. Fortunately, my mom got her some doll supplies, including two baby bottles. :)