Christmas Lights

Looking at Christmas lights with Grandma and Grandpa and hot chocolate is one of our December traditions.

This year, we skipped the long traffic lines to get into Wakefield Court, and instead looked at some other neighborhoods with beautiful displays.

Though the snow was fake, the cold we felt was real. (OK, OK, any Monanans reading this - real to us!) It's been frosty mornings, cold evenings for us for weeks. All the better for looking at the twinkling lights.

But the prettiest sight to see... is the snowman that will be on your own front lawn. This year, with our new front walkway, we added the lighted candy canes.

Week in Review

I helped in Violet's class while they children put together these little hats, part of their cultural unit on winter holidays. The hats are part of the holiday some African-Americans celebrate called Kwanzaa.

Later, it was our family's turn to help set out tables at Pioneer Club for the dinner that's served before every meeting. We stayed for dinner, which was spaghetti and meatballs.

Then, instead of sneaking out for a date, Stace and I helped with some rather involved projects Cora's group was working on. Stace helped make birdseed ornaments, while I helped with a baking project. Both will go toward various badges the children are earning.

Stacey took off Thursday, because he has a few days left to use up before the new year. He joined me, Elaine, Christina and the kinders on our morning walk. This time, we went up and behind our house, on the "canyon walk," as Vi and I call it. 

It was a beautiful cool morning, made all the more pretty when we chanced upon this random tree someone(s) had decorated with Christmas ornaments! Vi and Lanie were tickled.

The past few days, the school PTSA has sponsored a gift shop, so that the children can bring in money and do their own shopping for Christmas presents. Violet was excited to experience her first school gift shopping experience, and took to school her own money.

What gifts did she choose? Something nice for Mummy, Daddy or Cora?

No. She excitedly brought home a GIANT Mickey Mouse pencil, and a bottle of bubbles with attached whistle.

NICE.

Thinking ahead to Christmas, we cleaned out the toy box and ran across some play things that have been forgotten. Violet has rediscovered the joy of playing with her Aquadoodle drawing mats the last few days.

Special Book Store Visit

A few years ago we acquired a version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears that wowed me with its beautiful illustrations. The author/illustrator was Jan Brett, who filled the borders of each page with intricate drawings around the main picture.

When we went to the library, I'd look for her name. Last week I saw in the newspaper that Jan Brett was going to be signing her new book, The Turnip, at our local Barnes and Noble. We all went Sunday morning, and were thoroughly entertained as she explained the genesis of her new book, and then talked her way through drawing one of its characters.

She went from a blank page to this lovely badger girl right before our eyes. She gave excellent tips to the children on shading, expression and choice of marker/pen.

We bought her new book, an then waited quite a while to have her sign it. She was gracious and charming, and gave the girls plenty of attention when it was our turn.

She also signed our hardcover copy of her book "The Gingerbread Baby."

Here is the beautiful tour bus Ms. Brett used to travel around the country on her book tour.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

We are staying home this Christmas, and Nan and Pop are coming to our house just after the big day for a two-week holiday.

Since we are home, and the girls are old enough to grasp the difference between a real tree and our normal artificial one, we surprised them with their first tree-shopping experience.

We went to a real Christmas tree lot Saturday, the type that springs up on empty parking lots this time of year, with fresher trees than you find at Home Depot and Lowes.

Cora and Stace thought this monster would work well - in our yard, as it would take up the entire living room.

Violet, meanwhile, was drawn to this cute lil' thing, just like herself.

We compromised on this lovely six-footer, which we all deemed perfect.

It was a great shopping experience, and the cold, cloudy weather added to the atmosphere.

A classic Christmas photo we were happy to set up with the girls...

Fun moments

Cora and Violet wasted no time in breaking in the new oven. Cora came home from school one day this week itching to bake, and she handled just about the whole job on her own.

She found a cookie recipe in an English children's cookbook, located the ingredients and made them all by herself.

They were so yummy! And when I had a Mom2Mom cookie exchange that weekend, Cora sweetly and generously gave me the extras to take, to add to the fun.

This week has been cool in the mornings (in the 40s), but nice in the afternoons. Dressing for the day usually involves layering - or, shorts, gloves and knee-highs, as modeled by my favorite third-grader on her way to school.

On Friday after school, we went to the park for a bit with our friends, and then Elaine offered to take Cora and third-grade Violet with her and Vivian to see a movie.

Back at our house later that afternoon, Stace joined them in a game of street football (American football). Here, our quarterback is looking for an open receiver.

Meanwhile, Violet took advantage of our neighbors' falling leaves to rake a big pile. What a helper! Sometimes Toni pays the girls to rake for her.

Holiday in the Park

Grandma is Mrs. Claus again at Six Flags Magic Mountain, and she invited us all along to the employee family Christmas party Friday night. Melanie came up, too, while Nick was at work.

The highlight for Stace and the girls was the snow, perfect for throwing at your unprepared family members and soaking through your gloves.

Here's a successful photo by the family photographer, in between snowball blasts from Stace.

 The falling soap-snow looked very authentic, and it was chilly enough to make believe we were in a wintry area.

Here, you see Violet dumping snow out of her front pocket she had collected.

 Nice shot, Grandpa. Love these three with all my heart!

 Adding to the Christmas atmosphere were jazzy carolers, performing favorites acapella, with beat boxing for instrumentation.

 Now, for one of my new favorite photos of all time.

We all thought it'd be fun to pose in a mock roller coaster car, advertising the refurbished Revolution, coming soon.

Violet didn't see the fun in pretending. It wasn't real!

We might need to see a closeup of Vi's face...

 She did have a lot more fun on the carousel.

 Magic Mountain has done a nice job decorating. Near this wintry display, the girls made Christmas crafts, and we all enjoyed hot cocoa and cookies.

The girls also enjoyed looking through these 3-D type glasses, that made all the Christms lights look like either a snowflake, Santa face or snowman.

We all had such a fun night together! Thanks, Mom!

Seasonal Shopping

Even though there weren't any outstanding deals compelling us out of bed early on Black Friday, Stace thought it'd be fun to head out early with Cora, on a special edition of Daddy Daughter Date morning.

They were up and out by 6:30, while Violet and I slept on into the morning. We've all been fighting colds this week, so the extra sleep with the girls out of school has been welcome.

A trip to Lowes was the first of Stace and Cora's bargain-hunting stops, for a new kitchen stool and DeWalt cordless drill. Unfortunately they were already sold out of the stools, but the Lowes across town, in Canyon County, had some. So... back in the car for a short drive.

Of course, Stace and Cora stopped at Carl's Jr. for breakfast.

They then went Christmas shopping for gifts at the mall, Target and Walmart. The shops were surprisingly quiet. The checkout people said a lot of people shop on Thanksgiving evening now instead of early on the Friday morning.

Cora and Stace had a great time together. She looks so grown up and is a turning into a lovely young lady.

Violet approves of the new stool. For the first time since we installed the kitchen nearly five years ago, we have a proper height seat at the kitchen desk, so now we can comfortably use it as a desk.

Tiny tidbit - Violet is having a bagel spread with Nutella for breakfast. This girl loves Nutella, and when we're out, she asks daily if we have any more.

Another Thanksgiving weekend purchase for the kitchen - a new stove! Our old stove still worked, other than the digital display, but it lacked any special features and I'd been eyeing a new one for a year or so.

This baby has five burners, including the large one down the center; a self-cleaning feature, and a convection fan. I also love the huge window and nice digital display. I can even set the oven to go on at a certain time in the future.

Rigo was kind enough to give us this cute bicycle planter when Stace mentioned his admiration. It's the perfect place to show off a cute Christmas tree.

Santa Barbara Zoo

Lions, leopards and lizards, oh my! We made a family trip to the Santa Barbara Zoo on Saturday, starting up our family membership we won in a raffle earlier in November.

Violet's too old for a stroller (except for at Disneyland!), so we were packing our lunches, sweaters and Beanie Boos into backpacks. This backpack features wild animals, and was a recent hand-me-down gift from Michelle and Brooke. Thanks, guys, it was perfect!

It's always fascinating to see the gigantic California Condors, which once were on the verge of extinction but have been making a comeback in recent years.

Cora's armspan pales in comparison to the condor's 9-foot wingspan. She's a lot cuter, though!

The girls drew all the animals we looked at, including gorillas, lions, meerkats and a pair of gorgeous snow leopards.

I loved Violet's artwork. (Cora's is fun, too, but she filled many pages in her notebook, and that's harder to show here.)

This lovely zoo has some great play areas, including this hill where children slide down on cardboard. Cora was talking about this on our car ride up from home.

Our drive home along the 101 was gorgeous, right as the sun was setting. Yes, this is from my car window! What a view.

On the way home, we stopped by Colleen and Rigo's house, where they had invited us and some of our other Mom2Mom/Pioneer Club friends over for dinner. A great ending to a great day!