December was upon us.  Ed and Zyla returned to school, while I entertained his parents who would be leaving mid-week.  We went to daily Mass, enjoyed lunch at Castaways overlooking the Valley and all the way to the ocean while sipping Sangria Blanca's.  On their last night, we celebrated both Ed's mom and my birthdays at the Cheesecake Factory.  The Glendale Americana was beautifully decked out in holiday spirit with a snowfall floating down around us.  Zyla was called twice for Hart of Dixie, but with the family in town it was too much to try to get her to set, so we passed.  Ed's parents safely got home and I was back to work in Zyla's school library earning my service hours on Thursday.  The kids were out of control, but thankfully only there for a short period of time since they needed to rehearse for the big school Christmas production.  I went to renew Zyla's entertainment work permit and faxed it into Kids Management.  Ed and I went to the Parent/Teacher Conference held annually to find out how Zyla was doing.  The meeting was short, she was a straight A student so there was not a lot to talk about.  I was so proud of my little angel and excited for her future in whatever field she was inspired to explore.  Ed and I finished watching Dexter.  I had heard so much about how disappointing the final episode was.  I enjoyed it very much, the brilliantly beautiful tragic romance perfectly delivered.  Dexter dieing in the ocean turmoil, his body to join his sisters forever.  Then the last 3 minutes of the show, Dexter is actually found alive living as a lumberjack?  The writers really should have left him in the watery grave.

Over the weekend I celebrated my birthday with Ed and Zyla at Magic Mountain.  Thankfully the park was not over crowded with lines only 5 minutes long.  My favorites were Full Throttle, Goliath, Superman and Apocalypse.  I also rode Tatsu, because Zyla loves it and I always forget until after I am on the ride that I actually do not necessarily like it.  Feeling helpless as the ride twists and turns at incredible heights, not sure why I do this to myself.  We all shared a Turtle Funnel Cake which was chocolate funnel cake with caramel, nuts and whip cream, before heading home.  Zyla had to Alter Serve then we were having dinner with our friends Diana, David and Tobey.

Monday I officially turned Forever 39.  It was funny because for a few years I had easily told people on set that I was 40, because I felt 40 and hey I looked great for 40 when I was only 37!  But now that I was turning 39, I held on to my last days of 38 tightly.  For my birthday, I treated myself to a day in, one on ones beautiful self time before taking a catnap.  Ed, Zyla and I all went out to celebrate my birthday at Kabuki where I had their signature Sake Sangria yummy!  We got all our favorites, broiled mussels, spicy tuna on crispy rice, spicy tuna crunch roll, Vegas roll, paradise roll.  For desert we tried the fried bananas and the crunchy chocolate square.  I was full and happy, thankful for my beautiful family and friends who had been texting, calling and emailing birthday blessings.

The remainder of the week flew by.  I watched a great French film on Netflix instant called After Fall, Winter.  Lizzie Brochere was amazing.  I loved her from American Horror Story: Asylum.  Seeing her as a dominatrix/care giver, where her two extreme personality sides meet was really cool.  I started reading Jeanette Winterson Art Objects: Essays on Ecstacy and Effrontery.  I wanted to feel inspiration toward my own writing so I could get going again on the story, but nothing was coming and I could not push it.  Zyla had her big Christmas show at school, the kids all did an amazing job, very creative.  Zyla was reading The Outsiders for her book report test this month and wanted to see the movie of the same name.  She found it almost exactly like the book, finding subtle differences.  The ending brought her to tears.  I had never seen the movie and could not believe such an incredible cast was involved.  I earned more service hours in the library, thankfully the other mom Denise was there with me.  It was not too crazy since they had checked in most of their books the previous week, without time to check out, so mostly I just helped them check out books.  The stamper did not go up to 2014 so I had to hand write it onto every library card and book I stamped that day.  Ed and I got through another disk of Breaking Bad.  It was so weird to see the character Hank, played by Dean Norris die.  It was all coming quickly to an end, only one disk left.  Finally the week ended with Zyla having no school on Friday because of WASC that was reviewing the school for their regular 6-year reoccurring accreditation.  Since she finished all her homework, I promised to take her to Porto's for breakfast, then out shopping.

The next week went by in a blur.  It was Zyla's last week of school before her break.  Ed had some of the days off, so we hung out, then I got very sick.  All of a sudden things fell behind on finishing mailing Christmas cards and preparing for Zyla's big 13^th birthday party.  I finally pulled it together in time to successfully host her sleepover party.  Ed and I spent a lot of the night watching SAG screeners for the upcoming SAG Awards voting.  Zyla's party was on Friday into Saturday which was her actually birthday.  Once all her friends had left she was sad.  We surprised her with a trip to the AT&T store and switched our now expired contract with T Mobile to AT&T and all received brand new smart phones.  Zyla had been wishing for an Iphone 5s and her dream came true.  We all celebrated her birthday evening with dinner at the Olive Garden.  On Sunday we were scheduled to fly out to Ohio to see Ed's family for the holidays.  Unfortunately our first flight was delayed meaning we would not make our connection in Phoenix so we were pushed to a new flight on Monday morning.  We finally arrived in Ohio late afternoon Monday to begin all the fun festivities with his family.  It was a beautiful Christmas vacation full of love and laughter.  Light snowfalls came almost every morning, but would not linger on the ground long, so we were never hindered to drive anywhere.  The week flew by and before we knew it New Years Eve was upon us.  Ed's little sister Christy who usually drives up to spend the holidays at his parents with us was not coming this year.  But with a last minute change of plans, she cancelled her New Years Eve party and drove up to see us for one night before we were scheduled to leave the next day.  She surprised everyone arriving around 6pm as we were just getting our New Years Eve party started.  She brought some moonshine a neighbor of hers had made that was filled with fruit and tasted like peach pie.  I normally do not go for hard alcohol but it tasted so good I could not stop taking shots and eating the peach chunks.  We watched the New York celebrations and counted down as the ball dropped over Time Square.  Another year over, another year just begun.  I thanked God for my many blessings and prayed for more to come.