California Christmas

We took one evening last week to conduct our annual walking assessment of our neighborhood's Christmas lights. It's been a tradition since Cora was a kindergartner learning to mark tallies. Violet wanted to be in charge of the clipboard and tallying this year.

You also can see Stacey's newest addition to our collection of wooden lawn ornaments - the Gingerbread Boy.



Preparing it was a little trouble - he kept wanting to dash out of the oven and run off!

We had our California family Christmas celebration Monday evening, with Grandma and Grandpa and Nick and Melanie joining us for dinner, drinks and presents.

The girls loved their Squishies from Melanie and Nick - Violet has a big panda, and Cora has a penguin. These squeezable, slow-rising rubber toys - similar to stress balls - are the rage this year.

Cora and Violet also were excited about the Lego Elves set from Mel and Nick. In the background, we watched the classic Holiday Inn while we unwrapped presents.

New cuddly robes from Grandma and Grandpa - can you say COZY?

And from Mom and Dad, Cora and Violet opened their "big" gift: trick scooters! Since they've been enjoying the skate park so much, we upgraded their Razor scooters. We'll also let them pick out new helmets when we return from England in a few weeks.

Return to Vasquez Rocks

      After we had Cooper over to play, I wanted to have him over again so we could go to Vasquez Rocks, an amazing place for outdoor rock climbing.  Cooper and I climbed every rock we could see (which was a lot of rocks!).

Dad tried to play it cool with his flat cap and hot shades. But Violet here, was having none of it. LOL!

Cooper and I climbed up a big, unusually shaped boulder and rested a little.

As you can see, we went up pretty high, as my mom was on the ground taking this photo. It was no easy rock climb though, we had to dig our shoes into the hollow rock to cling to the face of the stone to avoid being blown off the rock.

Mom, Dad, and Violet went  the easy way after we agreed to meet in a valley close-ish. Cooper and I scaled boulders while Mom, Violet, and Dad walked on the plain old boring ground!

But, while we went out adventuring, Violet and Mom discovered a shallow cave that was the biggest that we had seen all day, as there were a few small ones along the way, which we had explored to see if they went any deeper.

When Cooper and I met up with my parents and Violet, I went to go see the cave, and I reckoned that Native Americans could have lived in it.We went pretty darn high up too!

After we finished Vasquez Rocks we went to Dunkin Donuts and enjoyed a donut ( and in Mom's case, gross coffee.) Then, we quickly stopped at In and Out to get burgers. We then headed home to watch a movie and play outside. I sure had a great day!

Christmas Party

On Saturday evening, our first full day of winter break, we went to Liz and Max's home for a Christmas party.

They put on a fabulous evening, with food, drinks, and a talented young DJ mixing the music.

Here we are - all the school mamas out for a bit of fun.

And here is our back gate walking crew - Tiffany, Melissa, Christina, Liz and myself. Nice to be out together in pretty clothes and makeup, instead of workout gear!

The (many) kiddos watched movies outside on a blowup screen, played capture the flag, and played video games. Here, Cora and Thomas played a game The Escapists while Cami and Violet watched.

Here's my lovely family - we all had a great time, and it was nice to be dressed up together. The girls took care to look nice, which was a nice change.

Liz hired Melanie to be the bartender - it was great to have her along, meeting so many of our school friends.

Christmas Fun for Cora and Violet

It's been a full but fun week of activities, with school winding down for the girls' three-week Christmas break.

I've met up a few times with other school volunteer friends to count pledges for the school's fundraiser run. And both girls had their holiday parties, which I was happy to help with.

At Cora's party on Thursday, the children decorate cookies - you can see that Cora had a careful plan that she stuck to. She didn't eat her cookie, instead giving it to me as a present.

The fifth-graders also made cards and an adorable reindeer craft.

Violet's class on Friday decorated ornaments with stickers during the holiday party.

Violet's class also decorated cookies - I think Violet's plan was to dump as many green sprinkles on as possible. She then ate it all. Yum.

I snuck out of Vi's party during a lull, to spy on Cora during her recess break. She and the boy in red were playing tether ball for a good 10 minutes, with neither "winning" or "losing," while a long line of boys patiently waited their turn.

Cora said later the boy didn't understand the rules and should have been out many times. Finally, Beau and Cooper took charge and Cora and the boy sat out. I found it amusing that in this one moment in time that I happened to observe recess, Cora was right in the middle of the action.
Also this week, Cora's Pioneer Club class had a bake sale after club to benefit a charity that helps children caught in slavery.

Christmas Lights

We met up with Grandma, Grandpa, Melanie and Nick on Monday to look at Christmas lights together.

We started off at Starbucks for hot chocolate, and Cora and Violet turned our Santa hats into Whoville hats.

They're a couple of cuties!

We went up to Wakefield Court, the granddaddy of SClarita light displays. One family hung mistletoe, providing a nice photo op.

This was one of the new improvements we hadn't seen before - holographic Santa, moving around the house. It was so realistic!

It was a fun and festive evening together.

Christmas Creations

Grandma came over in the week to make Christmas Cookie Ornaments with the girls, using a variation of a salt-dough recipe we used when I was a girl. Ornaments from that batch still proudly hang on our trees 30 years later, so they were very sturdy.

On Saturday morning, we joined a dozen friends of Colleen at her house, where Rigo's tia (auntie) taught us the time-honored tradition of making a gigantic batch of tamales for Christmas.

With Tia Tami providing the red sauce and pork, and green sauce and chicken, we made the masa and wrapped it all together in the corn husks. We went home with about two dozen delicious tamales. 

After making tamales, Cora went out with the other children and found a broken sprinkler line for Rigo. She's helpful like that.

(Yes, that is knee-deep mud she's sloshing in. We had to hose her down before she could get back into the car!)

We then spent the afternoon at our friend Rachael's house, where she had set up a gingerbread house-making party. Violet and Cora had a great time decorating their houses and then playing with friends.

Violet wanted a balcony off her roof, so Oliver helped her make it.

Don't they look great?

In the evening, I went to the Mom2Mom Christmas Cookie Exchange party, where I brought along three dozen Christmas crinkles. It's been a full week of Christmas creating!

Disney Day

 The girls and I had an afternoon out at Disneyland after school Friday, where we stayed in the main park, since we had very little time there on our trip a few weeks ago.

It was a lovely day together, with nice weather and the pretty Christmas decorations.

We went to Tom Sawyer's Island for the first time in a couple of years, and the girls pointed out the kind of tree house they'd like Stace to build in our yard. 

We also took the Autopia cars for a ride. Cora rode alone, though she noted that it was a stretch to reach the pedals and steer. I agree!

 We then met up with Jen, Trent and Jack, and spent a few lovely hours with them. We took the Monorail from Disneyland to Downtown Disney to get some dinner, and waited a little longer to ride in the very end car.

It was well worth it - it reminded me of being in Las Vegas. The lights outside were so vivid and bright, and the huge glass windows made it feel like we should have been drinking cocktails.

After dinner, we returned to the park and said hello to Chewie.

This was the first time in a long while that we've spent time with Jack, without him having another older boy to pal around with. The four kids had a great time together, and it was fun watching 13-year-old Jack play around with both Cora and little Violet.

 We then went to ride Big Thunder Mountain together. I rode with Violet, while Cora and Trent rode together.

 Cora was happy - it can be hard to capture the moment properly on a moving ride while turning around!

Jen and the boys had to leave after the ride, and the girls and I had one more Fast Pass to use. We headed up to Space Mountain.

Cora and Violet got to sit in the first car! After our last ride, we made our way to the front of the park. It was a great afternoon and evening with my girls.

Weekend Happenings

 How can you get up for school when you have this cute of a kitty to cuddle?

Violet still struggles to get up and going in the mornings. Cora, on the other hand, is a champion.

 Big Violet came over on Friday at lunchtime, and then Cora went to Violet's to play for a few hours. We had decided to go out to eat, and it worked well for us to take Violet with us. The girls had a great time together.

Yes, we arm-wrestle when we're done eating!

 On Saturday, Stace and Cora went to our friend Liz's house, where Stace helped put in a new light fixture. I took Violet to a holiday boutique, where snow had been brought in for the kids.

 Violet and Cora were awarded these basketball hoops and balls for their APEX fundraising. Violet loves hers, and has been practicing a lot.

Cora earned herself some Christmas spending money Sunday by mowing the front and back lawns. She then negotiated her wages, earning $4.50. Cora has such a generous heart, and loves buying gifts for people.