these two

Before I get around to posting all the glorious shenanigans of Christmas, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite photos from the last few weeks…of the two greatest gifts we could ever have.  I love these two.

wearing Daddy's new hat

wearing Santa's hat

bath time giggles and lots and lots of splashing

just can't get enough of these two faces

Ant-a!

Kaitlyn's vocabulary has exploded recently.  Or else she is just really good at repeating everything she hears.  But one of my favorite words of late is "Ant-a"!  As in, Santa.  And she yells it.  Along with "Mickey".  That girl is emphatic.  

And to be honest, the trip to see Santa almost didn't happen this year.  We've had a lot going on, as everyone does this time of year, and given Ry's track record of wanting nothing to do with sitting on Santa's lap, we kinda felt like we might skip it.  But then, this morning, Ryan's cough was still going strong enough to keep him home from school, and we had nothing else planned.  So off we went.  To share Ryan's cough with Santa.  Thank goodness there was NO line!  And the kids were in good spirits (and Ryan amazingly didn't cough once while sitting on the big man's lap).  And the sight of the two of them walking up to Santa, holding hands, was enough to melt my heart.  

This year there were no tears, both kiddos had brave faces, and even managed to smile a tad.  Ryan whispered what he wanted Santa to bring him, and then Santa told me he heard Kaitlyn say a few words but wasn't quite sure what they were.  It didn't matter.  This photo was well worth the effort.

Hoping your holiday seasons have been magical, and not too crazy.  Happy Holidays!

cooooooooold!

It's true, I did at one time live in the coldest place in the lower 48 states.  Well, I think it was the coldest place anyway.  People shouldn't inhabit places that are colder.  Boston can be miserable at times.  And since I've been back in sunny CA for 8+ years now, I realize that I may have gotten a bit soft.  A high of 45 degrees is cold for us here!  I know I'm whining, we don't even get snow here!

This morning was the icing on the cake.  Eddy got up for work, turned on the shower, and no water came out.  Anywhere.  It's not that we had been ignoring the news reports of freezing temps at night and protect your pipes, yadda yadda.  It's just that we've been in this house for 9 years and we've never had a problem.  And it's been cold here lately, but I know it's been colder than this.  I mean, it's not Boston cold or anything.  So anyway, no water.  Panic mode sets in.  Frozen pipes can quickly mean burst pipes, which just means inconvenience and probably a lot of money we don't want to spend.  So at 6:30 this morning, we were out front with my hairdryer warming up the pipes that are exposed…and luck would have it, that trick works!  In 5 minutes or less we had running water again!  And now we have a lovely looking foam insulation around those pipes in hopes of preventing another morning like this one.  

I don't have much else exciting to report for our goings on the last few days.  We've been staying warm.  Indoors.  Enjoying our Christmas decorations and holiday tunes.  But here's a pic of our wiggliest young one, for the one brief second that she stood still on Friday while at a birthday party for a friend of Ryan's from preschool…at a park.  Brrrrr!  But kids don't care, do they?  Certainly not this wiggly kid of ours.  

Stay warm out there!  

turkey day

This was a wonderful long weekend at our house.  For the first time in a long time, neither Eddy nor I had to work any of the days involved with this holiday.  Not Thanksgiving day, nor Friday, nor the weekend.  It was fabulous.  So we did the usual stuff…I ran a 10K turkey trot on Thanksgiving day, we baked a few pies, went to Eddy's sister Andrea's place for dinner, hung out with E's family that day.  We had Tracy watch the kids as usual on Friday, and Eddy and I played golf (well, 11 holes for me, which was just about perfect).  Eddy and I had a date night on Saturday to see Cirque du Soleil in San Francisco, and had a lovely dinner before with some good friends.  And Sunday we spent the day decorating the house for Christmas!  A lovely lovely weekend.
Hope your Thanksgiving was just as joyous as ours was.

Cousin BJ teaching his daughter Kensie how to kick the ball to Ryan 

Kaitlyn, the dog lover

Uncle Chris had been in Bahrain with the Navy for the last 6 months, was supposed to be home next week, but surprised Andrea on Thanksgiving morning and just showed up at their house!  What a fabulous surprise.  Welcome home Chris!  And thanks for hosting a fabulous dinner Drea and Chris!

Eddy's mom's side of the family (minus her brother, Uncle Ed and his whole brood)

the whole crew…the family, but family friends Teddy & Anita, and Ellen and her son

Auntie Judy & Uncle Joe, and their great grandkids Kensie and Camden 

and what good party doesn't end with someone like this?