A little bit of Christmas.

We weren't very good about taking photos on Christmas, we were all much too involved in actually experiencing Christmas to record the experience. But we totally plan to stage some photos with all the fun gifts and will share those as soon as we do.

For now, here are some from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. We started a couple new traditions, which are documented here: the kids get to open their gifts for/from each other on Christmas Eve and we bake sugar cookies for Santa. Also we tried making overnight cinnamon rolls for breakfast Christmas morning, but they turned out a bit too sweet and sugary (if that's possible) so we'll have to experiment a bit more on that front before we commit to an actual tradition there.

B opening her gift from C (a viewmaster -- it was a hit)

C got a Slinky Dog from B

enjoying the sugar cookie dough

stockings

Santa made them a play kitchen!

a little view of the goods in the background

opening presents is fun!

Merry Christmas!

Sending you all lots of love, from our hearts to yours. Miss you all and wishing you a happy holiday.

Holiday Treat Making

We made lots of treats this holiday season, but B's favorite to make was the star cookies. We didn't get to keep many of them for ourselves, so we'll be making another batch (or two) and we'll only be sharing that one with Santa.

P.S. To those of you who we sent tins o' treats to: so sorry that things might not be the very freshest. Turns out making treats the week of finals...not such a good idea. It took many more days to make it all than we originally expected. But just know that it was made with mucho love!

love these busy little hands

yummy chocolate

C loves figs

Meeting Santa...

...did not go as well as B had hoped. She has been so excited to meet him, and has been talking herself blue over what she's going to ask for (a play kitchen, a pink race car and a robot). The first time we tried to see the man in red (at Stanford Shopping Center) we were told that there had been an emergency at the workshop and Santa was not going to be back that day (which the kids totally accepted and we got a $5 gift card to Sprinkles out of it so no real loss there). And just like last year, Santa ended up making an appearance at PDI...yay! So we were able to see him while we were at our weekly lunch with Daddy.

B and C got all dressed up -- because you have to look nice when you ask for stuff -- and she told the lady at the post office about her big meeting. But when actually confronted with the jolly old man, she wanted nothing to do with him. Didn't even say a word. And for all our talk about not making the kids sit on his lap if they didn't want to, T ended up having to put C on Santa's lap for the picture or else we never would have been able to see them both since they really just wanted to hug mama for dear life!

Good thing candy canes seem to make everything better!

C's First Haircut!

We were really hoping to put off C's first haircut as long as possible. We had visions of cute little celebrity children with floppy mops. But we've started to miss seeing his sweet baby face; and also he was sort of growing a mullet. So we made an appointment to cut his hair at a fun place we found online, in San Jose not too far from where B takes gymnastics class. And then we all got sick (again) and had to cancel. We were able to get the same appointment for the following Saturday (today) and we were both very excited to take him to this wonderland of haircutting where the children get to play games while they wait and sit in cars and airplanes while they get their hair trimmed. And B could get in at the same time!

And then we got there. If we didn't have a strict "no emoticon" policy on this blog this would be where we would insert a sad face. The place was such a disappointment! Dirty, dingy, unfriendly. And then they put in "Fox & Hound;" that was the final straw, we were like Doug (outttttaaaah there!). Not the most mature or polite way to handle the situation possibly, but all we had to do was look at each other to know that we both wanted out of there and in a hurry. In the car, T called our usual place in Burlingame (Just Kids Cuts) and was able to make an appointment for both kids in just about the amount of time it would take us to drive there.

So C got his first haircut in style, and mom and dad did not want to scream nor did we feel the need to boil all of our belongings upon leaving. The woman who cut his hair was wonderful, and C was super mellow about it all. He thought the plastic cover was a bit odd, and he was concerned for the little girl next to him (about his age) who was very upset about her haircut. But he did not mind getting his hair mussed and fussed with and was more than content to watch the elephant in the mirror.

After the cuts we marched through the pouring rain to Powell's Candy Shop across the street and each of us got to pick a special treat. That's our favorite part of hair cut day, why did we ever think of going anywhere else? Silly us.


These were taken after their naps, so the hair has been unstyled, but the candy still tastes sweet!

B's pick

C's pick

Winter Sweaters!

We got the kids all decked out in warm wintery sweaters and had ourselves a mini-photo shoot for our Christmas card. None of these are the picture for our card this year, but they're still awfully cute so we had to share.

Proud Ducklings!

We very much enjoyed watching our first Civil War game all together. The kids got dressed up and cheered and clapped. Brynn chanted "Go Ducks! Quack, quack quack!" They had to go to bed before the end, so had to wait until the next morning to find out that their team won. We can't wait to watch the Rose Bowl now! Go Ducks! Quack, quack, quack!

How could we have forgotten?!

We lost track of time during our epic city hike on Thanksgiving and forgot to eat. Unfortunately, we could not find any place open to feed us...until we finally stumbled upon our saving grace:

How we spent our Thanksgiving break.

Since we celebrated Thanksgiving with the traditional meal the weekend before Thanksgiving Day, we decided to spend the actual holiday doing something less conventional. For her final suite this semester, T has decided to do a series of photographs of some of the many stairways in San Francisco. So we spent the day walking around the practically empty city. It was quiet, sunny, beautiful and a wonderful way to spend the day. It was so easy to reflect on what we're thankful for and to enjoy our beautiful little family and the place we are in our lives right now.

we took a little break at a fountain the Levi Strauss main officesthey love to take photos just like mama

worn out after a big day (and look who's facing forward)On Black Friday we got up early to head over to the Paramount Theater in Oakland for the Laurie Berkner Band concert! It was a beautiful venue and a really fun show. A little unfortunate that it happened to fall during nap time, but all in all they did well. At the end B told T that she's going to sing and play music on stage when she gets big. And she told us that we will clap for her. Of course we will!

so excited for the show

a Laurie Berkner Band egg shaker

On Saturday we put up the Christmas tree and decorated for the holidays. The kids loved helping and reacted with surprise and delight as each ornament was unwrapped from its protective tissue paper wrapping.

watching a little Mad 2 while Mama puts the tree together