FELIZ NAVIDAD

This shift is going to be the longest shift of my life.  The fact that it's Christmas and that I am working is hard, but to be away from my family when that clock strikes midnight will be even harder.  I won't be there to hug my kids and won't be there to hug my hubbie or his family.  Traditionaly we are always together.  This year they will be together and I will be at work. 

I did get a surprise visit from my hubbie and my kids.  They stopped by my work on their way back from my sister-in-law's house.  They came over to give me our traditional hug on Christmas.  It was a very pleasant surprise and I loved it and love them for it.

This year I am truely blessed to have my family with me, to have such great friends and to be healthy.  I wouldn't change anything. 

FELIZ NAVIDAD A TODOS, que Dios los bendiga y les de mucha paz, salud y amor.

Ceci

Christmas

As the Holidays approach us, I am really not too much in the holiday mood.  Its not that I don't love Christmas but I think I'm just not enjoying how much huha people make about gift giving around Christmas.  It seems some people have forgoten what Christmas is all about.

We have always raised our kids to know the true meaning of Christmas.  It sure as hell isn't SANTA.
We have tought our kids that at Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  That we are truely blessed for all that he has given us.  We don't celebrate the gifts that we get or how much we get or how much they are worth.  We teach them that it's important to gather with family and friends and enjoy their company.  I think that is the most important thing. 

I am truely not enjoying too much of the holidays this season and not because I'm being a scrooge, well maybe partly, but because my parents are in Mexico enjoying the festivities there and we are here, and he fact that I am working graveyards doesn't help at all.  My brother's won't be down either because I'll be working and maybe that is a big reason as to why I am not feeling chipper about the holidays. 

My family will be spending Christmas Eve day with me, part of it anyways because I have to sleep, and the other part with my sister-in-law, who I love to death.  I am very sad that I won't be at the festivities but am glad that they will have somewhere to go. Javier amd the kids asked me to please make him 2 food items so that we could enjoy Christmas Eve together and then eat up some more Christmas morning.  He said he would love it if I could make "capirotada" and "ponche." 

I went to the store today and bought the ingredients that we would need to make these.  I will definetly post some pics of these delicious treats. They are a big tradition in Mexico.  Ponche is a hot drink, kinda like a fruit tea.  Kids and adults love this drink.  Adults more so because they can put a little something into it and be EXTRA happy. :0) Usually tequila.  Capirotada is a tradition usually during Lent but because it is so good and we all love it we have made it a tradition in our house to have it during Christmas. 

Javier decided that he wanted some tamales for Christmas and well I guess I will not be getting too much sleep Friday before Christmas Eve so that I can make him his tamales.  I gotta keep my man happy. :)  I love to cook and just because I'm working graves doesn't mean I will neglect my family, not on Christmas.  Not EVER!!

So my friends if I don't seem as chipper this holiday season you will know why, but I still love Christmas and love the fact that we are blessed to live another day and have that day to spend with Family.  May you all have a wonderful holiday in company with family and friends.  God Bless you all and may you all have a prosperous New Year!!

Ceci

Photography

As I take more pictures and try to become better at what I do....I have dedicated a blog for just my pictures.  If you want to look there in a few days I should have more pictures up.  Here is that blog...check in a little later for all my posts. :)

fotosbykositas.blogspot.com

Ceci

A little of nothingness

The Holidays are almost over.  Thanksgiving came and went and I had to work.  I love that my brother Danny got to come home for Thanksgiving.  I really enjoyed having him and the rest of the family here.  It's just too bad that I had to work.  That's never fun.  I did take a few pictures of my brothers.  My son, A and my bother's D and O were wearing blue.  It kinda goes along with the theme that I have for my photography club.  "the blues".  I really enjoy taking pics.  Here are a few.  I hope you like them.

My brother O has some tattoo's of his baby's newborn prints.  

I just love them and they are BLUE!

We also decided to take a few pictures of the "guys".  I hope that you like them as much as I do. :) 

My hubbie J. and my cousin R. 

My Cousin R's son, O. 

I love this especially my brother D's expression....is he rubbing my dad's nipple?  

Yea we love to tease. 

Another

This one is better!!

WTF is that on J's face?  must be A's hand. 

Just remember to enjoy all the big and little moments with your family.  You never know when they will be gone forever.  Cherish the moments.  

Ceci

Photography Club

I joined a photography club.  I went to the 1st meeting yesterday and LOVED it!!  I can't wait for more meetings and more adventures in photography.  Thanks so my good friend Chris for letting me in on the club.  I think I am going to enjoy the club a lot.  There are many great people in it and I am excited for the experience I will get with the club.  Our 1st assignment is titled "the blues."  I can't wait to start on that!! The club is called Mapleton Camera Club.  :)

I took some pictures of the moon today as it was going down and the sun as it was rising over the mountains.  Here are a few of the ones that I really enjoy.  I hope you enjoy them too.

Another Sunday Drive

I took Abraham on a Sunday drive and made him pose for me so that I could practice my photography skills.  He was actually a very good sport about it.  He did what I told him and I liked how the pictures turned out.  Here are a few of him and a few of the lake that I took.

This picture is so Abraham.  I love it. 

I love his smile. 

My favorite.  I just love the water.  The ripple, the rocks.  All of it. 

Had fun on our Sunday drive.  :)

Things I want to do.....

I have a been thinking a lot lately about everything I want to do.  I have thought about photography a lot, thought about vacations, thought about spending more time with my kids and my family. Today as I was pondering a few things.  Lala was on my phone and she saw the picture of my brother D post running his marathon.  We went to see my brother O run his marathon and it was great.  She asks me, "mom, why don't you run marathons like my uncles do?" I said  "I don't know why I don't, there's nothing that says I can't."

With this in mind, I have decided to train harder this coming year so that I can run a marathon.  I'm not thinking it's going to be very easy; it will be hard but this will help me mentally prepare for anything else that I want to do in the future.  I am excited and hope that I can fulfill my own challange. 

I'll keep you all as updated as I possibly can.  I will need a lot of mental support for this but I know that I can do this.

Ceci

Staycation?

I have heard of these Staycations....they are vacations that are taken away from where you live.  Well my husband and I are going to take one this next weekend.  We are going up to Park City.  I got a great deal on a 3 day 2 night stay.  I figured why not take advantage of it.  We need some time alone and I figured while we were up there we could hike and get some great pictures. Some hiking wouldn't do us any harm and then to just come back to the hotel room and just cuddle take a long hot bath or just sit and watch tv in our underwear, would not be a bad idea.  :)  I just want to have some alone time with him so that we can catch up.

It seems like we started to spend more time apart, less time together and more time with our kids.  That's not a bad thing mind you, but we never really did anything together.  I always felt guilty because our kids were not involed.  Our whole world revolved around our kids.  Whatever we did it was all about our kids.  The thing is that we have been concentrated on our kids for so long that I feel like we have grown apart.  Sounds wierd? Ya it is.  I wish it weren't. 

I hope that this little staycation will help us to reconnect and get to know each other again.  It's hard for me to say that.  I love my husband but I feel like we really don't know each other anymore.  I have taken on new hobbies and new interests, new job, new friends and I know that he feels the same way that I do.  He thinks that we are really different than what we were when we first got married.

Ceci

FRIENDS

I've been thinking a lot lately about friends. My daughter is sad right now because she and her friend are not talking. It's really sad actually. They have been friends for such a long time.  I won't go into any details about her life but I just hope that they can reconnect.  I know that she will have other friends in her life.  Maybe even greater friends but in this stage of her life she has her, and she is really sad that she can't talk to her the way she did before. I give her as much advise as I can because I have been in situations where I have lost friends along the way in my life. 

I started to think back to high school.  The people that I knew; the friends that I had and how we no longer talk.  I guess that's life. I don't regret anything that I have done.  Who I was friends with because every second I was with my friends I enjoyed it.  Had great times.  Learned new things.  Experienced life.

I do however wish some days that I had a sister.  Sisters are a girls BEST FRIEND! Too bad I wasn't blessed with one.  I have 3 wonderful brothers but it's just not the same.  A sister you can talk to about anything.  I mean ANYTHING!! I didn't give my daughter a sister nor my son a brother and I hope that they can find a friend that will be there for them.

Friends come from all walks of life; trips that one takes. Places one visits or people you work with.  I have a friend who lives in Vegas.  She is like my sister.  She knows a lot about me and even though we don't talk all the time.  She lives in my heart always.  We used to work together a long time ago.  We bonded and I love that girl so much.  Everytime she visits it's great.  We try and hang out together and catch up.  She's is great! She knows my secrets and I know that I can trust her with anything. I know that she won't say anything and if she does I accept anything she might have to say, any advise she might have.  I don't have to take it but I listen.

I think true friends hard to come by.  So I am blessed to have a few that I can truely call great friends. 

My daughter misses talking to her friend.  I hope that they can get back to being friends.  I know that right now it's the age where some girls don't understand that it's ok to have many friends. 

The most important friends are the ones that you can call and cry with.  The ones that no matter what time it is you can call and tell exciting or sad news to, call them at 7am crying and have them talk you through shit that's going on.  They don't mind they just want to hear from you.  I love friends like that.

I thank God evreyday for all my friends and always ask him to take care of all of them. 

Ceci

Sunday Drive

My husband Javier loves the fact that we can go for a drive on Sundays.  We do it all the time, the only difference now is that I have a camera and I can take pictures.  This Sunday we woke up rather early, not on purpose mind you, we just did.  He looked over at me and asked, do you wanna go take pictures?  We can go to the lake? I was up in a flash, dressed and grabbed my camera bag.  We stopped at McDonalds for coffee and he bought himself a burrito.

It was great.  We didn't take the kids because, well they were still asleep.  It's so pretty to see the scenery. All the beautiful corn fields, alfalfa fields, and plain old fields that have been freshly plowed.  It's great. Reminds me of when I was a kid living out in Elberta.  I'll share a few pics of what I took while at the lake.  Enjoy.

birds 

looks like the carnival was in town. 

sunrise

the moon was out while the sun was still rising.  I just had to take pictures 

old barn

old truck

plowed field 

green field

When I took the photography class, Wade told us to practice taking pictures.  That we would naturally start getting a feel for what the camera's settings should be at.  I think I'm getting the hang of it.  Also going out and taking pictures with other photographers, like my friend Chris, helps.  Give you a different perspective on things and they are great for giving tips too.  Thanks to both of you.