Christmas Recap

Last year was the year without a Christmas tree (though the kids did get to decorate one at their Grandpa's house). This year Gina made sure we got a Christmas tree, with a constant reminder that we didn't have one yet. So Saturday night, 10 minutes before closing time, we picked out a nice little tree (and on sale too). All day Sunday Gina asked about putting the ornaments on the tree. No one does persistence better than a 5 year old. As I was putting on the lights (and swearing at the tangled mess of lights) the kids happily started to decorate the tree.

After the tree was decorated, I tried to get a picture of all three kids but this was the best of the bunch. It is sure hard to get all three smiling and looking at the camera.

I had planned on Sunday to take the kids to see Santa, but Gina nixed that idea, preferring that Santa just bring a surprise. So no Santa pictures this year.

I didn't get much baking done this year though I did make a very nice Buche de Noel, complete with meringue mushrooms. The description of that endeavor is on my food blog.


For Christmas Eve, the kids got brand new pajamas and watched The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and Horton Hears a Who. They were very excited about Christmas coming and it took a while to get them settled in bed.

Christmas morning was a whirlwind of paper and boxes and toys and clothes. Gina got her Critter kitchen which she has been asking about for ages and Andrew was fascinated by his remote control "Mud car". Dylan wasn't sure what all the fuss was about but loved playing with all the ribbon and boxes.



















In the afternoon, Nana, Auntie Alice and Uncle Steve came over for a second round of presents. Dinner was my first attempt at Vic's favorite dish, Fried Chicken. It actually came out fine though unfortunately, Dylan has been sick and seems to have passed it onto Vic so Vic wasn't able to enjoy the dinner.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

This weekend was filled with holiday events. On Saturday, we went to the 04 LM holiday party. Nana was visiting this weekend so she came with us and let Vic have a quiet evening at home. The night before, I had helped a little bit to decorate the room. I let Gina stay at her afterschool care for an evening of pizza and a movie, not thinking that it would only give me a little more than an hour to help with setup. The other moms did a great job with hanging snowflakes from the ceiling, blue and white balloons on all the tables, and lights strung around the room.

The kids had a lot of fun at the party, though I was reluctant to put Dylan on the ground with so many people. Nana and I took turns holding him all evening. One of the dads dressed up as Santa and for the entertainment, we had Andy Z, the kid's favorite musician. One of the moms took a great picture of Gina with Andy, he seemed thrilled to see her (He used to teach music at her preschool). Andrew was more taken by the pile of presents on one of the tables, and stood by the table the whole time Andy was playing. They each got a very nice book at the end of the party.

Today we got to go see the Nutcracker ballet. I've been waiting five years to take Gina to see the Nutcracker. I have very fond memories of going to San Francisco with my Grandma every year to see it at the Opera House. I think she first took me when I was three and I think I fell asleep that first time. So for their first Nutcracker experience, I decided to go with a 1 hr children's matinee performed by the Ballet San Jose, especially since Andrew wanted to go as well. We got there early and had a chance to see some of the performers outside. Both kids were a little unsure about seeing the Nutcracker and Mouse king up close. Inside, they had singers and lots of little Christmas trees. Of course, the kids also wanted a snack so I shelled out $6 for 2 bags of M&Ms.

During the performance, the kids did very well. Andrew was a little squirmy and spent part of the time sitting in my lap and part of the time sitting on the floor. They were both scared by the BOOM from the canon (Gina said she wanted to leave) but they enjoyed the rest of the performance. I miss seeing all the dances in the second part but for the kids this year, sitting through the first half of the ballet was plenty.


Since the ballet was so short, we had time to pickup Dylan after his nap and drive over to Andrew's preschool for some snow play. By the time we got there, a lot of the snow had melted but there was still plenty to make snowballs. Gina and Andrew had a lot of fun throwing snow balls and slipping and sliding on the icy snow. Gina's preschool friend Alexandra was also there and they had fun playing together. Dylan liked hanging out in the snow, I'm sure he was wondering what all this cold stuff was.

After a day full of activity (and no grocery shopping) I took the kids to a local restaurant for dinner with the promise that we would go see some houses with Christmas lights afterwards. I guess it was the right incentive, they were great for dinner and so we headed over to see the display. Several houses are covered in lights and they have music playing, with the lights synchronized to the music. It really is amazing with all the lights. We watched from the sidewalk for awhile. Andrew was mesmerized by a moving text display near the ground. He left only with the promise that we would return for another visit.

After a long day, the kids fell asleep pretty quickly with little fuss.

Growing baby

After being sick the week he turned 1, Dylan finally had his first year checkup. He is now 31 inches long (80th percentile) and 21 lb 4 oz (20th percentile). He is still well behind his siblings in the weight department but is starting to catch up. At nine months, he was at the 5th percentile. He also had a few shots with only a little crying. Andrew got to tag along and wanted to know if he could have a shot too. Well, he was in luck, it's flu shot time. He had no problem with the shot, no crying or fussing and he was happy to get a lollipop at the end. Gina on the other hand, didn't go today, but started complaining at the mere mention of getting a shot in the near future. The boys are definitely tougher.

The pictures are from Thanksgiving weekend when Auntie Alice was visiting.

A Moon Day

In Gina's Kindergarten class, the AM kids are called Suns and the PM kids are called Moons. Occasionally all the kids are Suns such as for a field trip or special day but today they went on a later morning field trip, so all the kids were Moons. Since Gina didn't have to be at school until 10am it seemed like a good day to sleep in and have an easy morning. Dylan had other ideas. He was awake and unhappy at 5:30am. A bottle of milk helped to settle him back down but only until 6:30am. So it was time to get up. But the rest of the morning went more smoothly than most. Andrew didn't fight getting dressed or leaving the house. Gina got dressed and had breakfast with no problems. We had time to get a treat at Starbucks and dropped everyone off at daycare and school on time. If only every morning could be like this.