December 30th, 2011 by Rachel
A few days before Christmas, we were able to get photos taken by a photographer Bobby knows. He was great to work with and made the whole process very easy. It was nice to capture some photos of the three of us, plus the baby bump. Enjoy!
December 26th, 2011 by Rachel
Christmas this year was spent mostly at home and partly at my parents’ house in Colfax. Since I get so sick in the car and am easily worn out right now, we opted to stay put for this holiday season. We were very sad to miss out on seeing Bobby’s whole family and my extended family. We did have a good time though, and it was just enough for how I was feeling. We went up there a few times to visit over the long weekend, as my brother and his fiance were able to take extra time off work to make a longer visit. What a treat! They also went to see her sister’s family in SF on Friday. On Christmas Eve, they all came to visit us at our house. We lit luminarias, which was always a Madera tradition and may now become our own Rocklin tradition. We all laughed this year about how we always do it even though we are all cold and miserable while we are out there. We agreed that being miserable is part of the tradition! “I don’t know what to say, except it’s Christmas and we’re all in misery!” (Christmas Vacation). After lighting the candles to light the way for Jesus to come into our homes and hearts, Lizzy and Mimi frosted the sugar cookies and Papa read the Christmas story to us…er, I mean to Lizzy. It was a short but very sweet evening together.
On Christmas Day, we stayed home and opened our own family presents together. Once Lizzy got the Rapunzel tower and bike we gave her, she was done opening presents and wanted to play! So, we decided to wait on the rest of the presents from the Dodge side and all took showers and got ready to go to my folks’. While I got ready and made all of my (weird but necessary) food for the day, Bobby took Lizzy on a walk so she could ride her bike outside. She loved it!
Later at my parents’, we all opened gifts and had a lazy afternoon. I didn’t get outside for photos unfortunately, but the other adults played horseshoes and had a lively time of it. We had our Christmas dinner that evening, then watched the Greenbay Packers game as a family. Most of us had on our fan gear. My mom is a fan but usually either naps or reads while the games are on. She says she doesn’t want a t-shirt but instead would like a Packers pillow or throw blanket as that better reflects the way she supports the team…on the couch!
After Lizzy went to bed, Bobby did his usual nightly duty and made me a fried egg. My stomach started to calm down and we all had a really silly evening watching an old Michael Jackson concert. It was so fun to watch it and sing all the songs and try out his dance moves (unsuccessfully). It was a very strange way to end Christmas but super fun nonetheless!
Other highlights of the weekend included watching While You Were Sleeping, some going to the early Christmas Eve service and others to the early Christmas morning service, singing, piano playing, dancing, lots of cooking (on my mom’s part), playing solitaire (yes, that’s right – as a group, there were many times when at least 3 of us were playing it on separate gadgets), and a lot of dressing up (on Lizzy’s part).
The day after Christmas, everyone else headed toward Madera for the Beckman/Janzen big fantastic party. We opted to stay put again, as driving even 3 hours each way sounded so tiring to me. We were sorry to miss it, but it was a good decision in the end. We spent the day resting and opening the rest of our presents.
Bobby had record sale days for his portfolio case business and was slammed in the afternoon with trying to find a way to fulfill them all (he literally quadrupled his sales on Christmas day and the day after, each, beyond his highest record-selling day before Christmas). We had figured sales would slow way down after Christmas but instead they soared. All of the inventory that he was planning to use for the next month will be gone in a matter of days. He spent the afternoon planning, finding packing materials on short notice while most of his usual suppliers were closed, and working on mailing labels for the inventory he held back from Amazon just in case he got a surprise like this. His products finally ran out and went to back-order on Amazon, but people did not seem to care. Orders kept flooding in, so he was on the phone with China in the evening to find out if his factory could get more made and flown to him sooner than expected. It is a “good” problem to have but a bit stressful at times. He mainly has to really make sure all of his numbers match up. If he over sells or does anything incorrectly, Amazon will flag him and that can cause a big problem. Since he has to go back to work tomorrow, it will mean a lot of late nights and early days for him. And I know what I will be doing over the next few days…and Lizzy, too. (She loves to stuff envelopes for Daddy! She gets paid twice what she does for feeding the dog, which is an added bonus.) Bobby’s one employee only works a few days a week but he will probably work extra as well this week. All in all, it is exciting to see his products doing so well.
December 26th, 2011 by Rachel
Mid-December was actually a bit quieter for us – thank goodness! We were still busy, but once I was done with school and Lizzy was on preschool break, we stayed home and enjoyed the Christmas season.
One morning, Olivia and Roman came for a visit while Taylre bought our groceries. They did some crafts and played together, but the big excitement of the day was “cleaning” up the front deck. They pretended that the leaves were fish that they were catching and keeping in a barrel because they were bears. It was so cute to watch them all play together.
Lizzy got to pick out her own little tree at the tree lot at the end of our street. She made most of the decorations for that tree and put the tree in her room to stay…”forever.” She just loves it.
A few times my mom and dad came down to eat dinner with us and help around the house. They are wonderful. My mom always does the laundry, runs errands, and cleans my kitchen. My dad cleaned my kitchen floors one time and vacuumed another. Having their help always means I tend to rest more on the following days because I feel caught up. The more I rest, the less bad I feel. Mimi and Lizzy made Pfeffernusse (or Päpanät in Low German used by my maternal grandfather’s Mennonite side of the family) together this year. It is a tiny cookie that tastes like peppermint made by rolling the dough into long “snakes,” snipping it with scissors, and baking the tiny cookies. Lizzy thinks they are the BEST. My mom’s side of the family always eats them at Christmas and afterward in the cold winter months. They are good around the holidays, but there is nothing like finding a handful of the hard little “pepper nuts” in your pocket on a cold day. When my grandfather was farming, he always had handfuls of them in his pockets in the winter. My brother and I knew we could put our hands into his coat pockets when we went out to see him and find some Papanat in there. Mmmm! Lizzy now knows the same joy. I have them in little bags in different pockets and purses so she can find them for the coming weeks.
The other funny thing Lizzy has been doing is playing Cinderella. She dresses up and then cleans house. I am the stepmother and she is the overworked step-daughter. I have to tell her to keep working, even if she says she is tired. There have been several times when she has worked for a whole hour at a time! I always try to tell her she can have a break but she just says, “That’s not what the stepmother says” and keeps going. I do have really clean floors, cabinets, and counters right now, but it’s hard to play the mean stepmother all the time!
One night, Lizzy made sugar cookies with Bobby. She taught him all kinds of things about baking. I had no idea she was paying such close attention when we bake together! Bobby was impressed. She put everything into the mixer, including the eggs, and turned it on. Then when he started to roll the dough and it stuck, she reminded him to sprinkle flour on the cutting board, sprinkle more on the ball of dough, and rub some on the rolling pin. It was too cute to watch them working together.
December 26th, 2011 by Rachel
Early December was a busy time for us. There was a lot of post-birthday fun with Lizzy’s new toys, including a great Angelina Ballerina dancing game. Lizzy showed us all of her great new moves and was able to learn most of the names for each. (Bobby did some dancing, too, but I’m not allowed to share those photos!)
We celebrated my mom’s 65th birthday one Saturday morning and had a party at In ‘n Out. Bobby went to an alumni party at Drexel dressed up in a great Christmas outfit he found in the women’s department at Kmart. He won 2nd prize in the ugly sweater contest. We were all so proud!
Later that week, I finished teaching (so glad!) and we started decorating. Lizzy loves to decorate. She decorated the tree in the living room and helped me with the other decorations as well. Like with our Thanksgiving decorations, Lizzy spent a lot of time “decorating” the house and floor with all kinds of precious things. She also decorated her play house with ornaments and a cloth nativity scene.
I also had the pleasure of attending the 2nd Annual Jane Austen Birthday Tea at the library in downtown Sacramento. After a very long week…and a very long weekend of holiday events and outreaches…I was so glad to make it. I dressed up in a dress that was my paternal grandmother’s and did my hair and everything! I almost fell asleep during the program, so I probably should have just stayed home for my afternoon rest, but it was good to see a few friends and win a few treasures in the silent auction.
December 17th, 2011 by Rachel
We went up to my parents’ new house in Colfax the day after Thanksgiving to celebrate Beckman Thanksgiving. It was parents’ first holiday in their new house and Matthew’s first time seeing it. We spent a lot of time moving furniture here and there, re-arranging things, moving the huge piano to different corners of the room, etc. (I watched and gave my input.) Their moving truck came the day before Thanksgiving, so we lived among all the boxes and had an adventure searching for all the things needed for a Thanksgiving dinner. Listening to my dad sing and play the piano was my highlight. I also loved watching my brother play out a “Cinderella” drama with Lizzy and seeing Bobby and Lizzy dance together. I had been so sick that whole week and was a bit better that day. I did get to enjoy a few little spoonfuls of Thanksgiving food that evening. Even some pumpkin pie and it all agreed with me pretty well!
At the dinner table, everyone started working on different kinds of whistles. My brother is the pro of the bunch and has a lot of different calls and whistles he can do (he should be – I grew up with a little boy who spent hours outside in the trees of our house practicing his calls and whistles). My dad was quite envious of a new whistle Matthew was showing off. My dad said he had tried to learn how to do it for years and had never been able to get it right. Matthew gave Bobby a few quick tips and within 5 minutes Bobby was successfully whistling away like a pro. Boy, was it funny. My dad was so put out that the Bobbydodge could learn it in just a few minutes!
Back at home, Lizzy continued to play and decorate the house. I think the girl will either grow up to be an interior decorator or a party planner. She is continually decorating and making parties. Recently, she made me a “married” (wedding) so I could marry Bobby. It was beautiful. Another time, she made a birthday party that was so complete it even had music on her little boom box and dancing. After her own birthday, she made a few parties in which she used string for the birthday boy or girl (or dog) to follow to find all of the presents, just like we did for her on her birthday morning.
Of note recently: Lizzy has Bobby’s knack for hearing a song once, being able to sing huge chunks of it, and even remember the name of the band or singer. If she hears a different song by the same person later on, she will say, “that sounds like the … song!” It is so crazy. Some of her favorites to belt are “We will, we will ROCK YOU!” and “Uh, Uh, Uh, Another one bites the dust.” There are few people in this world who could beat Bobby at Rock ‘N Roll Trivia, and I have a feeling Lizzy is following in his footsteps already.
