Since I've been so bad about posting this past year, here a recap of the last month.We managed to wait until Dec 22 to get our tree, and despite the smaller selection, we found a perfect little tree. The kids enjoyed decorating it and I only had to do a little rearranging of the ornaments after they were done.
We fit in a visit to Santa at the mall. All three are still enthusiastic about Santa. Gina asked for a skateboard but settled for a scooter. Dylan insisted on asking Santa for a DS game (wasn't going to happen) but Santa did deliver on the Beyblade top toy. Andrew only wanted the Beyblade toy. In fact he had been obsessing about it for the past month as some friends at school had them. Since he couldn't get one right away, he ended up making them out of Legos and we even found directions on making the launcher out of Legos.
December also means a week of choir performances. Both Andrew and Gina did it this fall, though Andrew was less enthusiastic. Juliette, the choir teacher made sure that they sang Zippity Doo Dah since it was Andrew's favorite. I think his favorite parts though were getting hot chocolate after the performance at Peets Coffee and decorating cookies after the last performance. He may not show a lot of enthusiasm for the class but every so often, out of the blue, he starts singing the songs that he learned.We have gone to San Jose each year to see the Nutcracker, but this year I took Gina to see the Nutcracker in San Francisco. We dropped the boys off at Auntie Alice's apartment and arrived in plenty of time. I had bought tickets for the balcony so we were really high up but since we were at the front of the balcony we could see everything pretty well. They have changed the story from when I used to see it as a kid but I loved having the live orchestra and I liked how they set it in 1915 San Francisco.
The month we also welcomed a new member of our family. Cason Beckett Johnston was born on December 15. They came over for Christmas dinner and the kids were only mildly interested in their new cousin as he mostly slept, but Nana was thrilled to get more time holding the baby.
Of course the kids got all kinds of stuff for Christmas. In addition to the scooter, Gina got a chemistry set, a weaving kit, a sewing kit, and a sea otter toy. it is really hard to figure what to get Dylan as we have so much stuff from the other kids. Dylan received a tennis racket, a zhu zhu pet hamster that rolls around and makes sounds, and a polar bear Webkinz.When Andrew first looked under the tree he was very grumpy. Gina said, "Yeah, presents" and Andrew replied: "No yeah, No yeah!" He didn't see a package that looked like the Beyblade package in the store, but he saw them for Gina and Andrew. He got much more chipper when we started opening stuff and he was very excited to get a box with two Beyblade toys and the stadium to play with them. Here are all three kids launching their tops.
Here is Andrew trying out his new RC toy: a very large Jeep from Boppa. It is too large to really use in the house so he had fun chasing it around the school yard.
The day after Christmas, I took the kids ice skating with my aunt and cousins. Gina had a great time, Andrew would skate fast and then fall, and Dylan and I held onto the wall most of the time. It was Dylan's first time on the ice. I was doing okay until I tried getting off the ice and ended up on my back. I was a little sore, but later I discovered a huge bruise on my leg which is still healing.After the festivities of Dec 25, we still had one more Christmas celebration. We drove up to Rocklin to visit Grandma. She had gone completely overboard once again with presents for the kids. Andrew was thrilled with a Star Wars lego set and spent the entire time putting it together. He also got a RC airplane and car. Dylan also got an RC airplane and a Playmobil zoo set as well as two large Tonka trucks. Gina received a very nice art supply set, plenty of critter dolls and another scooter, but this one makes sparks.
