Merry Christmas!





#1 Helper for Christmas Cookies



 Merry Christmas and joyful thoughts too,

from the Serrano family to all of you!

May your days be merry, your nights be bright

and you catch a glimpse of Santa in flight.

And that we remember the singular reason

we have in our world this wonderful season

that the Lord Jesus came to set us all free



so that we may have new blessed life heavenly!

  





Our Christmas Cookie batch




See you next year!







New articles about baby Izaiah and his family

The San Diego Union Tribune has just published two new articles about the Wallis family this week, and I wanted to share them with you here.  Please click on the following links to learn more:

New Reality for the Wallis Family:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/dec/11/parents-toddler-hurt-oceanside-crash-deal-new-real/

Parents kick off campaign for "Izaiah's Law":
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/dec/14/parents-kick-campaign-izaiahs-law/

Please help in any way you can, and include this sweet child in your prayers.

Little angel - Izaiah Wallis

Anyone who sees me tweeting or posting on Facebook has probably come across messages I have been posting recently about a sweet little boy named Izaiah who lives here in San Diego. He is just 3 months younger than Jason, and his maternal grandparents live in my neighborhood.

I have been posting about him for the last few weeks to help raise awareness of his desperate situation. This is not a joke, nor is it some kind of internet hoax. Please read on....

Christmas Spirit

Hello all!
It has been a long year. A fabulous year. A challenging year. All in all I am ready for 2011!

Today is Jason's birthday - he is now officially a "terrible two-year old"! We have already started saying around the house that "T" is for "troublemaker" or "travieso" (depending on who is saying it ;) )
But one thing is still certain, he is the most awesome kid imaginable. He loves his Montessori school. He loves to learn and sing and dance....and work! Seriously, if you try to take his broom from him it does not go well!

My birthday was last week and went relatively well too. I enjoyed taking the day off and having a "me" day of just whatever I wanted to do.

And now the Christmas season is in full swing and we have our lights hung and our christmas tree up. Christmas feels different to me now than before - partially because I am a mom and partially because I have traveled a great personal journey with my faith this year. I am so thankful for the wonderful life that I have and just wanted to tell all of you that I am thankful to you for being a part of it.

Merry Christmas to everyone and may the spirit of the season remain in your heart all year long!

XOXO,
Natasha

Aloha!

We just got back from a trip to Oahu with my parents and had a great time! It was pretty windy and overcast while we were there but we had a couple of great beach days and spent the rest of our time touring the island.

We also hit a few bumps in the road - Waikiki/Honolulu highways are *ridiculously* confusing; the wind was so bad while we were at Pearl Harbor that we couldn't go see the Arizona Memorial; and Jason had a very unfortunate tumble in the ocean water our very first day there, causing him to be terrified of the beach the rest of the trip!

We overcame these things though, and made the most of things. Here are some of the things we did:
- Watched the sea turtles (honu) in Hale'Iwa
- Had some delicious shrimp dishes at Romy's Shrimp Shack outside of Kuhuku
- Bought a ton of cool stuff at the swap meet in the parking lot of Aloha Stadium
- Found a Honolulu Senor Frog's!!
- Had a shave ice treat from Island Snow in Kailua, where President Obama goes when he is vacationing. We had the "Snowbama", named for his favorite variety - with lemon-lime, cherry and passion-guava flavors.
(Read an article on President Obama's visit here)
- Kayaked to Flat Island, off the shores of Kailua Beach
- Visited the Japanese Byodo-In Temple. BEAUTIFUL!

My favorite part of the trip: Mom and Dad gave Alberto and me a "date night", where they took Jason in the afternoon and freed us up to do whatever we wanted until the next morning. It was a blast and I needed the break!

Jason enjoyed things the whole time except when we were on the plane (6 torturous hours each way) and when we were on the beach. He was a real trooper with all the driving we did, and also slept like an angel each night. He enjoyed trying the fresh papaya and mango, and also strolling around Kailua town (where he made sweet eyes at the majority of the female portion of the local population) and waking up each morning to the singing of the birds all around the vacation home we were staying in. Every day he cooed and chattered back at the birds while he snuggled in bed with us before breakfast. Paradise definitely suits him!

Professional Blogging

One of the things that I am embracing at my new job with FMT Consultants is blogging about CRM. I have posted a few different articles now, which go up on FMT's website as well as another website called the CRM Software Blog. Sometimes the articles get reposted on Microsoft's Dynamics Blog, which is pretty cool.

Here's my latest one, if you are a tweeter, please tweet this!

Want to Manage a Line of Business? There's an "x" for That!

Whodat?!?

What an awesome Super Bowl game! Don't you think? And not just because my pick won, but because it was really a very good game with a lot of suspense and plenty of surprises.

How about the way the Saints opened up the second half? I don't know much about football, but I know enough to know that their on-side kick was a bold and gutsy move that completely threw the Colts off balance. And just as we were remarking at home that we hadn't seen those trademark interceptions that the Saints have become known for, Porter came through with his beautiful pick and touchdown run.

How sweet it is!

What a beautiful way to end the season for the New Orleans Community. If you have been reading our blog for a while, you know that I have been very passionate about the state of the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the region. I pulled together a team of colleagues to help rebuild in Mississippi in 2006. I also tried to raise awareness about how New Orleans, even one year, two years, etc down the road was still struggling to recover. Lastly, I wrote to then-Senator Obama imploring him to make the recovery of the Gulf Coast a focal point for the campaign and a key effort of his potential presidency. So, even though we are such a long way away in San Diego, I really felt the victory along with the rest of my family and all of New Orleans.

I was also especially touched by the image of Drew Brees with his son after the game. Brees, with tears welling in his eyes, held his son, Baylen, close as the pair took in the celebration unfolding around them. As a new mom, I know what an incredible feeling that must have been for him to not only experience this moment for himself, but to also share it with his child. I can only imagine the pride he felt knowing that as a father he has set an incredible example for his son, and that when Baylen is grown he'll always be able to look back at the images of his Super-Bowl hero Dad and how much he clearly adored his son.

The Super Bowl shindig at Chez Serrano-Mingo (how about Chez Serraneaux-Mingeaux?) went very well - the gumbo was fabulous, the potato salad divine, and even the bread pudding was pretty tasty! Everyone enjoyed the hurricane cocktails throughout the game and when the Saints won the championship we raised glasses of bubbly with a resounding "WHODAT!" chant.

Thank you Saints for being such an inspiration this season!

Super Bowl on the brain

What's a girl from the Gulf Coast to do? All I have been able to think about is the Saints in the Super Bowl. This is a huge event for my family. My niece has colored her hair with gold and black stripes. My otherwise eloquent mother now greets me on the phone with 'Whodat?'. And my father has peppered my inbox with daily feelgood humor about this oh-so-magical Saints team.

We are going to watch the Super Bowl at Chez Serrano-Mingo, where the house will be festooned with Mardi Gras paraphernalia and everyone will be adorned with a handful of Mardi Gras beads as they walk in the door.

The drink of the day will be Hurricanes and the cuisine will be gumbo and bread pudding.
What else??

One note of surprise, I went to our local grocery store this morning on the hunt for pre-made hurricane mix, and I got a circle of mystified faces as they actually asked me what a Hurricane was. What is a hurricane?!? This may be the West Coast, but for crying out loud I thought that the notoriety of late-night exploits in the French Quarter would have traveled further.

As I explained how it was Super Bowl weekend, and that this was after all the New Orleans Saints' first ever appearance I had hoped for them to start cluing in so I didn't have to completely spell it out. You know, New Orleans, Gulf Coast, hurricanes.........? No luck. So I wrapped up my inquiry with a remark that they had missed out on a hell of a marketing opportunity and left. I'm pretty sure they still don't get what I was talking about. Boo!

Severe Weather Alert for South Florida!
http://ping.fm/CK8Kw

New Severe Weather Advisory in South Florida

Thanks Dad!

NOAA – 27 Jan 2010 1035EST


Outlook for the Atlantic, Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico…



Hurricane Whodat is predicted to make landfall on the South Florida coast in the vicinity of Miami on 7 Feb 2010 at approximately 2200Z (5:00 PM EST).

This extremely powerful hurricane is expected to produce damaging Shockey waves and Category 5 Brees. Reports from shipping indicate that this unstoppable storm has blown a huge flock of Cardinals all the way to Arizona, and that it has sunk a replica Viking longboat, the BrettFavren.

Livestock, in particular young horses, will be in severe danger of being decimated. Predictive damage estimates are unavailable at this time, but they are expected to be significant.

All interests in and near the Miami area are advised to prepare for a storm surge of catastrophic proportions as Hurricane Whodat begins to arrive in approximately 3 days.


Next advisory 07 Feb 2010 at 0300Z (10:00 PM EST).