happy halloween

merry christmas

wishing you and yours a very merry christmas where ever you may be. xoxo. luc

dear delta

dear delta,

while i do not belong to your platinum elite flying club
i do consider myself a frequent flier and
i fly delta whenever possible.
and in an industry full of choices,
i repeatedly choose to fly delta airlines.

but after my travel experience yesterday
i am beginning to rethink my decision.
i understand that the holidays are a busy time for travel.
but this is not a surprise to anyone.
you know this, so why weren't you better prepared.

my husband, 10 month old son and i
arrived at the airport two hours before our flight.
i had checked in online the night before,
paid for our baggage and printed our tickets.

when we arrived at the airport at 5:30 am
there was a line at the delta counter.
not a big deal, except upon further inspection
it was 3 lines funneling into one line.
there was one agent working the ticket counter
who had no idea what was going on.
it was clear that there was no order,
no system and no organization.

we stood in line for 30 minutes without moving.
i finally made my way to the counter
and asked  what individuals were supposed to do
if they simply needed bag tags.
she told me to use the kiosk
and then she would call my name.
i followed her instructions and
finally we were able to checks our bags.

when i made our reservations
our flight from Atlanta to Albuquerque was full
and i could not get seats together.
i did not think this was a big deal.
but i called an agent to double check
and to request the bulkhead.
you see we chose to buy our 10 month old a ticket
and the car seat fits better in the bulkhead.

when we arrived in Atlanta
the gate agent told me that there was not
anything she could do to sit us together.
i told her that she could not let a 10 month old sit alone.
i also mentioned that we had requested the bulkhead.
she replied that this was for handicapped and she could not seat us there.
we did eventually get two seats together, and my husband changed seats with
someone so we all sat together.

but when we boarded the plane
i noticed that there were three young members of our
military sitting in the bulkhead.
clearly not handicapped.
when i asked the flight attendant about the bulk head policy
she told me that it was not for handicapped or children.

this is the second time this has happened to us with the bulkhead.
the first was on a flight to Europe.
we are told by reservation agents to request ahead of time.
and that the gate agents will release them before the flight.
then we are told by the gate agent that they are for the handicapped.
and then told something else entirely by the flight attendant.

as someone who travels to Europe once a year with a child
as well as domestically i would like some clarification.
or else i will have to rethink my decision to repeatedly choose
to fly delta airlines.

happy holidays
lucinda

chace meets santa

last weekend, ph's uncle called to see if he and his wife could stop by to see chace before we left. we are missing the extended family gathering, so we did not think much of the request. after some back and forth decided to have them over tuesday night for dinner.  little did we know that santa was going to show up at our door.

as you can see chace was not the least bit afraid of santa, but then again have santa ALL to yourself helps.

handmade holiday

this year we drew names in our family.
it makes sense as our family is growing.
we also set a monetary limit.
this is also makes sense.

what does not make sense
is that i am frantically sewing and knitting
trying to get gifts finished before we leave
on sunday morning.

these are not handmade gifts
for the holidays.
they are other sorts of
handmade gifts.

like
the you bought a new house gift
the thank you for dog sitting gift
the just because you want one gift
and
the getting ready for my new nephew gift.


so how is your holiday shopping/making going?

starting a tree tradition

growing up, we never out our christmas tree up until the 15th of december. i am not really sure why, that was the magical date, but it was magical. my brothers and i looked forward to the day when the frasier fir would arrive freshly cut from north carolina ( there were no tree farms in west texas. hell, there are hardly any trees, so we ordered our tree by mail). 

i never understood the need or desire to put your tree up as soon as the thanksgiving dishes were washed, but in recent years, travel has forced us to do just that. the last two years i have tried to get out of putting up a tree. i just haven't felt holidayish. since cooper died, i can not get into the holiday spirit until the 19th; but, ph has forced me into holiday cheer. 

we head to santa fe on dec. 19th, so it was now or never in the tree department. so this afternoon, the three of us embarked on what i am sure will become tradition, or at least i hope so, and went to cut down our christmas tree. bean wasnt sure what to make of it all. i promised him that in a few years this will be a magical moment. i can not wait to experience christmas through his eyes. i can imagine anything more magical or precious.

when do you decorate your christmas tree?

thankful

even though cooper's birthday is still two days away, he is very much on my heart and mind. since he was born on thanksgiving, i tend to associate the day with his birth more so than the date on the calendar. it is grey and cold here, much like how i feel. i dont know how to explain the emotions associated with thanksgiving. it is happiness and sadness rolled into one big bundle of emotion.

but instead of telling you much my heart aches for cooper, how i can recall every detail of the day he was born and all that came after, or how the hole in my heart is still there, or how it makes me angry that people act like today is just a "normal" thanksgiving day now that we have chace, i am going to tell you what i am thankful for.....

** precious husband. he is my rock, my sanity and my heart.

** chace. he is the redemption and grace after the heartache. he is why i get out of bed each morning.

** cooper. he taught me how to love, to really love. i miss every minute of every day.

** friends old and new that i have met on this journey. you give me strength.

** this blog. it is a place where i make sense of the ramblings in my head.

**family. it is everything.

**fabric and yarn. it keeps me sane and obsessed at the same time.

** wine. at the end of the day i just need a glass of wine.

what are you thankful for?

if.....

if you missed lucends at the RMSC Holiday Bazaar
or if you live out of town.
you are in luck.

i am loading the remaining
of my inventory onto the
lucends etsy shop.

better still, i am offering
you dear readers
a coupon code.
from now until dec.7th 2010
enter BLACK10
and you will earn 10% off
your entire order.

all the inventory will be in
the shop by black friday.

so i hope you will take a look
and
give the gift of handmade
this holiday season.

handmade holiday (aka holiday bazaar)

happy halloween

storm clouds

they are slowly building.
getting bigger
and heavier.
weighing on my chest.
causing my heart to ache.

the only release i know
is to give in to the pain.
to feel it.
to cry.
to mourn.

it doesn't get easier.
time does not heal.

i suppose
this will happen
every year.
wanting to get from
now till christmas.

because that means
i will have made it
through
his birthday
and the anniversary
of his death.

i used to love
the time between
thanksgiving
and
christmas.
now i dread it.

those around me
make thanksgiving plans.
i want no part of it.
i want to be in my house
with ph, and chace
together as a family.

not putting on a brave face
as if it never happened.
as if the pain as gone.
as if life is normal.

there is happiness.
there is laughter.
there is love.
there is chace.

but my heart
is still broken.
and the storm clouds
are building.

dress rehearsal

chace is going to be a monkey
for halloween.
today we had a
dress rehearsal
at story time

stuck

i feel like i am stuck in that movie, groundhog day, except for it is april fools.

let me tell you why....

it all began at 3 am wednesday morning, when ph had a hard time getting the bean to go back to sleep after his feeding. we all three had just dozed off to dream land, when we hear b walking, no running downstairs because he wanted to go outside. this means one thing and one thing only, he has an upset stomach and a case of major diarrhea is in his future. ph jumps out of bed to let him out. i then hear this thud and stream of expletives. i think to myself, he just fell down the stairs and then i start to giggle. yes, i am one of those people that giggles when people fall down. i am laughing as i type this. ph and bailey return from their trip outside, when sabre decides to get up and go downstairs. now, the whole house is awake. we eventually doze off when bean decides to wake at 5:30, i convince him to go back to sleep for a little bit, like 30 minutes.

i get up to feed him and realize that he is not going back to sleep. i will see the morning news shows in their entirety this morning. we leave the house at 9:45 to go to a friends house for brunch. a friend was in town and she wanted to see all the new babies. now there is a little voice inside my head that tells me that i should stay home, bean is not having a good morning. do i listen to that voice? nope, i carry on. bad move. i will listen to that voice from now on. i promise. bean screamed all the way there, most of the time we were there and all the way home. ph pulled in the driveway as i was getting out of the car, to find me sobbing in the drive way.

we walk into the house, look at each other and say "why does it smell like dog poop?" i enter the computer room and see a big runny pile of poop. i cry harder. of all the places to poop in the house, b has to go in the room with carpet. ph spends the next hour cleaning b's hind end. this is quite a task on a 130 pound white dog. the rest of the evening was relatively uneventful. oh wait, there was that moment when i was getting out of the bathtub that my incision starting oozing stuff. i freaked out. called the dr on call and was told it was probably a stitch that was infected and had managed to free itself. no cause for panic. good to know, here i was thinking my entire gut was going to open up.

this morning, bean and i went for a long walk. its nice outside and i am hoping he will sleep. upon our return i notice that our mailbox looks a little funny. and why are there white cards all over the driveway. it dawns on me that someone has hit our mailbox. those are my thank you notes all over the drive way and the front of the mailbox is halfway up the drive way. what is wrong with people. someone smacked the hell out of our mailbox and kept on driving. nice. so if you get a thank you note that is a little dirty, now you know why.

and bailey, well we should just take him to car wash to clean his rear end this afternoon. seriously it is a lost cause. at least it is close to 80 degrees outside.

how is your april fools day going?

not feeling green

i am not a big fan of st. patty's day. i am sure i have some irish blood in me somewhere, and i know that precious husband has some. but i am not one to dress in green or eat corn beef and cabbage today.

don't get me wrong, i have tried to get into the spirit over the years by drinking green beer, sporting some shade of green and even participating in a st patty's day pub crawl when i lived in breckenridge after college. but to me, its just another day.

when i think of st. patrick's day, i am immediately transported to my childhood. i was in the first or second grade at south elementary in brownwood texas. i loved clothes from a very early age. i can even tell you what my first piece of ralph lauren clothing was, a very definitive moment in a young girl's life. it was a sunday evening and i was standing in my closet, on elizabeth drive, looking at my clothes, trying to decided what to wear to school the next day. not liking any of my options, i complained to my mother that i didn't have any thing to wear, bad move on my part. she decided that she was going to try to break my budding fashionista spirit and teach me a valuable lesson. she told me that i could have two outfits to wear all week, and then i would really know what it was like not to have any clothes. talk about humiliating. she picked out two izod outfits that were similar in style, but different colors, one was pink and one was green. they consisted of pants and a striped short sleeve shirt. she held true to her word and made me wear those two outfits all week to school.

i remember that this lesson happened to fall on st. patrick's day and i was very glad that one of my outfits was green so that i wouldn't get pinched by some boy or made fun for not wearing green.

i am not sure if her lesson worked. i still complain about not having anything to wear, that is after all a fashionista's prerogative. but maybe i didn't complain as loudly or maybe i was a little more appreciative of the clothes that were hanging in my closet.

happy st. patty's day to those of you who celebrate the color green!

final images of 2009

we spent the final evening of 2009 with family, good food and some belated christmas gifts. wishing you a healthy, happy and peaceful 2010!

handmade holiday unwrapped part 1

now that all of the gifts have been unwrapped, i can share some of my handmade holiday gifts.

a quilt for my mom, with little birds in the quilting pattern.

a longhorn pillow for my brother, he says he is taking it to the bar to watch the bcs national championship game for good luck.

a warm hat for my little brother who lives in alaska.

merry christmas

dreaming of a white christmas

wishing you and yours a happy christmas eve.

tuesday tidbits (on wednesday)

**i cant believe that tomorrow is christmas eve. i still have a hard time sleeping christmas eve, anticipation of christmas morning.

** my birth story is featured on designmom today, what a great way to remember cooper.

** the bean has LOTS of presents under the tree.

**it snowed here in santa fe last night, just about an inch, but enough to delay school openings. funny to think about if you live in a place that gets lots of snow each winter.

**we always see a movie on christmas day. this year the movie is sherlock holmes.

**it is good to be home.

** wishing you all a merry christmas eve eve.

home for the holidays

packages are shipped, bags are packed, dogs are at "camp" and we are on our way home to santa fe for the holidays, where we will carry on our family traditions. i am looking forward to the time away and resuming normal snyder family xmas cheer. last year was such a horrible xmas and we just went through the motions. i cant wait for family to open their handmade gifts. i love seeing that look of joy and excitement. i will post pics....

oh, and did i mention my mom is having a party for the bean? what fun that will be.....

we will return on the 29th of december, but i am sure you will here from me along the way.........