Christmas Hairstyles

I know people who cry when they get their haircut. I'm not sure why. Maybe they don't like their new hairstyle, maybe they were attached to their hair. I don't know. I'm not very emotional that way. I've done things I loved to my hair (I loved when I dyed it black) and things I've hated (spiral perm...I looked like a poodle). But it grows out...it's just hair. I also don't like spending a lot of money on haircuts. Seems like a waste when I don't really do anything with my hair. I like wearing it down. So I trim it (sometimes) in the winter to keep it healthy and cut it right before summer. Cutting my hair once a year seems reasonable and usually there's enough to donate to Locks of Love. My hair is just not that important to me, but it's definately imporant to someone going through chemo.

So wanting to teach Melodie that hair is just hair so she won't be one of those girls that crys over a bad haircut, and wanting to teach her that there are people who need things more than we do, we've never cut her hair. She is growing it for Locks of Love. She used to have bangs, and we did cut those, but she's decided to grow those out. We've also trimmed her hair, but never a major haircut.

I am not very girlie. So when Mel's hair started getting long, I had no idea what to do with it. I could do a half up, half down thing, pigtails and a french braid. The problem with Melodie's hair is I couldn't just brush it and then let it go. 10 min. later it looks like she was running wild through the jungle. So I turned to the internet. I found some great sites with great ideas for hair. My favorite is: http://www.cutegirlshairstyles.com/. The styles are cute and she gives clear direction. I also like: http://shedoeshair.blogspot.com/, http://cute2tryhairdos.blogspot.com/, http://www.girlydohairstyles.com/. And then, of course, I search pinterest.

Melodie is really good when I do her hair. Sometimes she watches youtube videos while I do her hair because then I can easily switch to the instructions. However, if I'm making something up or doing one I've done several times then we do her hair in the bathroom. We've had some of our best conversations while I do her hair.

I know I posted holiday hairstyles before (4th of July Hairstyles), but I thought some background as to why I do this would be nice. I love holidays. I love doing Melodie's hair. Last year on pinterest I happened upon hairstyles that were themed to holidays and I knew I had to try. For Christmas last year I only tried one:

I took inspiration from here: http://millermanes.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas-tree-and-giveaway.html but really felt the tree needed a trunk. I also wasn't ready to try threading the ribbon criss cross through the tree. Not bad for a first attempt.

This year I went a little crazy. First I did this:

I came up with it on my own. Melodie picked out the ribbon. It's a work in progress. Thank goodness people still got that it was suppose to be a candy cane. It would have been better with a twist instead of a braid, but I'm terrible with twists. I will definately try another one next year.

Next I tried a wreath.

I got my inspiration from here: http://redpunzel.blogspot.com/2009/12/its-beginning-to-look-lot-like.html. I changed it quite a bit. This turned out to be my favorite. I love how the bow looks from the front. Next time I'll work on evening out the wreath. Her hair is so much thicker on top that it made the wreath uneven. Still, I liked it and so did she. Unfortunately it didn't last like because Melodie ran into another kid during recess. The bow and pom poms didn't make it through the visit at the nurses office. You'll also see the lovely black eye in the next picutres.

Then I thought I'd try the tree closer to the inspiration that I used for the one last year.

I still think it needs a single trunk. But I love the beads as ornaments. Melodie loved the pom pom tree topper.

The Rudolph bun came next:

The inspiration came from here: http://princesspiggies.blogspot.com/2011/12/holiday-hairstyles-rudolph.html. This one I actually tried to copy, but I'm not very good at buns. I unsuccessfully tried the sock bun. The I just tried the bun the only way I knew how, but then Rudolph's nose ended up crooked. The kids at Mel's school loved this one. I am going to work on buns this year so it turns out better next time.

I did manage a sock bun for an ugly sweater party we went to:

but it fell out shortly after we got to the party.

And just to show how beautiful her hair is:

Next up will be hair full of hearts. Of course, the baby is due on Valentine's Day, so we'll see. But I hope I'm able to. I have some great ones I want to try.

Christmas Eve Tamales

 I love holiday traditions. It is so much fun to share with Melodie some of the things I was able to do as a child around the holidays. One of my favorites is tamales. It's not the tamale making I like. I really don't like it. I don't like to cook, so tamale making is more like a necessary evil. But I can't imagine Christmas Eve without eating tamales and therefore they have to be made. 
 Have you ever made tamales? It's not extremely difficult, it just takes such a long time. Especially when you make as many as we do. Here's a little history of tamale making for me.
We used to make and eat them on Christmas Eve. But people grew up and moved away and that made it easier to pick a weekend to get together to make them. Then we freeze them and save them for Christmas Eve. I have a terrible memory and don't vividly remember making them with my great-grandma. For some reason what I do remember is that other relatives would bring food to eat with the tamales. My uncle made the best enchiladas. I remember making them after my great-grandma passed away with my grandma, mom and aunt. Kind of. My memory isn't great.
 2006 was monumental. It was Melodie's first Christmas. She couldn't participate yet (she couldn't even eat them), but it was still cute to introduce her to the tradition of making tamales. We met at my mom's house (Bay Area in CA). I came from So Cal, one sister from AZ, and an aunt from WA. Turns out this was monumental for another reason. It was the last time we made tamales with my grandma. Of course, we didn't know it at the time.

We made our tamales, froze them and I brought ours home to So Cal. We invited a family from church over on Christmas Eve and I hosted my first tamale dinner.

 

 My grandma really was the one who knew what she was doing. So the next year, 2007, is when my mom and aunt had to figure it all out. The recipe for the filling wasn't very detailed and they did a good job, especially since my aunt wasn't there so they were figuring it all out over the phone. We met at my mom's house again, but this time we made them on Christmas Eve since we were there for the actual holiday. The filling is something my aunt and mom have been working on since. This year Melodie had her first taste and loved it!

 

From 2008 to 2010 we had tamale weekend at my mom's house. The filling was still being perfected.

 

2008 Tamale Making

 

 2008 Christmas Eve

 

2009 tamale making

 

2009 Christmas Eve

 

2010 tamale making

 

2010 Christmas Eve

 

2011 was the first time we had tamale weekend at my house. I have an appalling lack of kitchen supplies, but we made it work. Also, living in So Cal, there's great places to buy masa.

2011 tamale making

 

2011 Christmas Eve

 

And that brings us to this Christmas. This was the first time I wasn't able to go to tamale weekend. Actually, my sisters couldn't make it either. My first thought was that I would buy tamales for Christmas Eve. There are so many places around us that sell amazing tamales. But my mom suggested I try it. Then I had a friend who said she wanted to give it a try and bought a pot. So, I got a few more friends together and spent an afternoon making tamales. I did have to call my mom a few times, but it was a success. We did burn one batch, but I consider that a success because I didn't really expect any of them to turn out. My filling was a little spicy, but had good flavor. We also made some sweet corn tamales. We enjoyed eating the finished product that night. Melodie didn't like the filling (I think it was too spicy for her), but she loved the corn ones.

I was very excited to serve tamales on Christmas Eve that I was more involved with making.

    2012 tamale making   

 

2012 Christmas Eve

                                         

 Oh yeah, see all those cookies? Another fun tradition...exchanging cookie plates with friends and neighbors.

 

When I called my mom to tell her the tamale making was successful, she responded with how happy she was that the tradition would continue. I agree.

Christmas Tree Pictures

A few years ago I switched from regular Christmas cards (which I love) to the photo ones. You know, the ones where you just plug in a picture to a website and order as many as you need. I had resisted for a while, but my kid was just so cute! In 2008 I took her to Downtown Disney (DTD) to take pictures of her in her Christmas dress by their beautiful tree.

I don't claim to be a photographer. I have a simple point and shoot camera I barely know how to use. I am not creative with poses. But I had a great time. It was slightly challenging to get a 2 year old to hold still, but she's such a ham. We both had fun.

And then I remembered that the various Disneyland hotels would had trees in their lobbies. So we took pictures by the trees at the Disneyland Hotel, Paradise Pier Hotel, and the Grand Californian as well.

This was a little more difficult because I can never get the lighting quite right. It was also fun just seeing the different trees. I ended up using a picture of her in front of the DTD tree.

The next year I knew I wanted to do the same thing. Again, we had fun. This year she started doing poses, which I thought were hilarious.

Besides trees in the hotels, we found Santa's photo spot at DLH. Without him there, we could take as much time as we wanted taking pictures in front of the amazing set up they have.

 We skipped 2010 because we went to Walt DisneyWorld in Oct/Nov. They started putting up Christmas decorations in Nov so we used pictures from the trip.

2011 we went back again. This time there were a lot more poses that Melodie wanted to try.

And that brings us to this year. We were so excited. It was threatening rain, so we quickly went to DTD since that's the only tree that is outside. It wasn't there. Instead there was a Disney Fairies ice skating rink. I was pretty sad. They did have a little photo op spot with two snow covered trees. But I really like traditional Christmas colors. These trees were decorated in pink, blue, lime green and purple. I went with it anyway, because that's why we were there.

The DTD pictures are the two on the left. We also never made it to the Grand Californian because it started raining. It wasn't quite worth the walk over there because it had started raining and the tree is so orange.

 Next year I'll be doing this with two kids!