We tell our kids to share and that sharing is caring.  I don’t want them to share when they are sick.  My daughter was sick with a bad cough when she was on holiday break.  She started back at school on Jan. 9^th and that is when I started to get sick.  I told her once that she got me sick.  Her answer was sharing is caring and all I could do is laugh.   I have always told her to share because she has a younger brother that she doesn’t like sharing toys with.   Both of them don’t like to share anything.  Why don’t kids like to share at all?  My son who is 3 years old at times wants something his sister has and will say sharing is caring.  His sister will laugh and then she will sometime give up and share with him.  They are funny when it comes to sharing.

I am not sure how big Pokémon is in your house but in my house, it is everything!  Since Pokémon Go came out in the summer my daughter has been in love with the game.   This was my fault, but I got Netflix and they have two movies and some of the season of Pokémon on it.  I think my whole family has been forced to watch the movie and show maybe 10 times each.  I just don’t think I can take it anymore!  I will for my kids because they love it.

My daughter is 6 years old and my son is 3 years old. You would think that my son would not like Pokémon to the point that his sister loves it, but he does.  For Christmas both kids received Pokémon cards that they both loved.  Both kids received a Pokémon stuff animal. My daughter received a Pikachu and Charmander and on top of that they both received hats to match.

My daughter received an I-pod touch so she can play the game Pokémon Go.  Since she received the gift I can’t get her off the I-pod.  The only problem that I have is that she can only play the games in the house or where she can get fee WiFi.  Thanks to my mom’s new car, she can play the game on the road. My daughter asks almost every day to go for a ride.

As I was writing this post my kids are watching Pokémon. When will this end? Or will it end?

Happy Holiday everyone. Do you have any tradition on Christmas Eve in your family?

Our tradition is we make 13 different items.  That is a combination with fish, vegetables, and every dish you have on the table.

Italians have many different foods throughout Italy because they are different regions. The different regions have a little different culture and traditional foods.

For instance, my mom is  Calabrese, my aunts’ in-laws were Abbruzese as kids we ate the spaghetti on Christmas Eve with butter because the grown-ups ate it with anchovies. Not many kids like anchovies they are an acquired taste. My sisters’ family ate the spaghetti adding the water you made the spaghetti with and then some wine.

Now I have two little kids and I don’t make them eat fish but I do make them try the fish we make.  We usually make the kids eggs, peanut butter and jelly sandwich and pasta in butter.  They don’t mind not eating meat for one day.

Christmas Eve was just as important as Christmas day due to we were waiting for the birth of Jesus. Different variation of foods but the main idea is the same. Italians have the 13 items to represent the thirteen apostles.

I am not sure how or when it started, but I know traditions are a way to celebrate our heritage. My grandfather was very strict in passing the tradition of our Christmas. I think it was his way of keeping the family together on holidays. Hopefully our children will keep some of the traditions going. Change comes to all families and we learn embrace changes that come our way.

Once someone leaves their country and goes to new country they need to be able to adapt to new traditions that will come their way.

Sorry I meant to post this earlier but my house has been chaotic since Saturday morning.  I had a church pageant for my daughter on Saturday morning. Let me tell you that was fun to see but OMG my son wanted to sing after every class was finished with their songs.  It was close to the end when he started throwing himself on the floor because I would not let him go sing.  I had to pull him out of church, let me tell you that was so much fun.  I had to drop the kids off because I was going to go grocery shopping for the week and for all the supplies I needed to make cookies. Yes, you heard it right COOKIES.   We made 7 different kinds of cookies in three days and they are all kid approved.  The kids were waiting to eat the cookies as soon as came out of the oven.

Sunday my daughter was sick with a bad cough and all she wanted to do was watch movies. While I was making cookies, I had to stop to put a new movie on.  Making cookies was chaotic, but it smelled so good in the house for the next few days.

I will be posting the recipes of the cookies that I made in future blogs.

In October, my mother purchase a DNA kit from Ancestry.com and had my grandmother take it. The test took a little bit over a month to get the results.  The results were very interesting and I learned new information about where my family came from. I did not know a few things like we are 6% Scandinavian. I have not looked at my family tree since I was in junior high school and had to do a project on it.

When I received the results from the DNA they also sent me possible family members.  We had one to my mother 2 or 3 third cousin contact us.  I started mid-day on Friday and just finished today Saturday Dec. 10^th around 11pm.  I was told to stop and my head just could not take any more names.

I could go all the way back to the 1700 and never thought I would be able to do that. It was hard to find information because back then. everyone named their kids the same names.  Wives died and the husbands remarried and had more kids.  Husbands died and the wives remarried and had more kids.  I have a lot more to research to do on the family and I’m going to have fun doing it.  I will let you know what I find out when I get everything lined up correctly.

I am a single mother and I have two wonderful kids.  Hear it come but sometimes I just want to scream.  Last night was one of those night. First my son who is 3 years old would not go to bed until 11pm and he would only go to sleep in my bed.  As we were in bed he tells me to rub his back, his feet and his head.  So, I ask him why I had to rub him but you never rub my back or feet.  He laughs at me and say because my hands hurt so I cannot rub your back. I laughed and then started to rub his head.  Finally, at 12am he was asleep.  I am starting to fall asleep and then I hear my bedroom   door opening.  Now what is going on I’m think in my head.  It is my daughter she wants to come sleep in the bed too because she had a nightmare about zombies.  I let her in my bed and she begins to tell me what her zombie dream was about.  I tell her to lay down and go back to sleep.  Now I have a queen size bed but there is still no room for me in the bed with them in it.  Now let me tell you something I need to have a step stool to even get in my bed because it is tall. So, my son sleeps far away from the edge because he moves a lot. Then comes my daughter and then me.  Both of kids move a lot in bed and they like to kick. At 3:30am I got sick of getting kicked or almost getting pushed off the bed so I left the room and slept in my daughter’s bed.  I don’t know what to do anymore.