Santa Visits the Hotel

Did you know you don't have to have a chimney or a house to have Santa visit?  All you need is some reindeer food and cookies for Santa!

Drew woke up Christmas morning to see that Santa came.

He was mighty excited to see that Santa listed and brought his wii.  Of course 3 days later he was complaining that Santa forgot his VReader (no he isn't getting one nor does he need one).

And here he is opening some wii games from Grandma and Grandpa.

Drew was so excited to give Daddy the Christmas present he made - a ceramic travel mug.

We passed the camera to Drew to have him take pictures of the gift he made at school...

What you can't see is that it was an ornament with his school picture inside.

Daddy was super excited to finally get the Dodger's windbreaker he always wanted.

Drew opened a ton of Rocky figures - including the Thunderlips/Hulk Hogan in his hand.

And then it was time for the annual bury Drew in all the wrapping paper...

Feliz Navidad from LA

This past Christmas we drove to LA... leaving the Bay Area at about 4am on Christmas Eve and checking into the hotel by 10am.  Not bad!  We managed to beat all of the traffic and were hoping we could all get a nap in.  Well 2/3 of us did... a certain 4 year old did not.

That night we joined Abuela's family for their traditional Christmas Eve dinner and visit from Santa.  Drew of course crashed by 8pm and missed out on the awesome dinner (he did have a PB&J before falling asleep).

And it's tradition for a family member to dress up as Santa Claus and pass out presents to the kids.  This year it was Uncle Lupe.

We were all a little chilly at that hour.

Drew did end up waking up, but wasn't in a good mood.  He was a bit nervous of Santa and then when everyone laughed at him grabbing his gifts, Drew was rather embarrassed and it was the end of him for the night.  We went back to the hotel by midnight.

The next morning we went back to Tata and Abuela's for the gathering of Tata's family.  Including Great-Grandma Tomasa.

And we managed to get a family shot...

The family was awfully generous for Drew and brought him some presents - lots of noise makers.

After awhile, Drew was begging to go back to the hotel. I  think he needed to unwind - we were hoping for a nap - but we went back to Tata and Abuela's that night for the exchange of our gifts.

Drew couldn't believe all the Rocky stuff he got, including the Title fight Ring from Rocky III.

It was wonderful holiday filled with family.  We are very lucky.

0-2 for Bowl Games Together

We don't exactly have a winning record when my friend and college roommate Lisa watch ASU college bowl games together. 

On Thursday our Alma Mater Arizona State played 7th ranked Boise State at the Maaco Bowl in Las Vegas.  It wasn't pretty to see our Sun Devils get spanked lose 56-24.

But we weren't bad lookin'

Our first bowl game watching together was back in college when our Sun Devils went to the '97 Rose Bowl and lost to Ohio State.

The highlight of the evening... when I was again carded for a beer and the server handed it back saying "Oh my gosh.  You so don't look like you were born in '76.  I thought you were a student home for the holidays!" 

Festival of Lights

We were celebrating the holidays this week by getting out and looking at the lights throughout the neighborhoods.

Drew was dressed for the occasion...

And then we went to one of our favorite houses.  They didn't do it last year, but this year they were back at it with the light show paired with music.  It runs for 20 minutes and then resets.  Here is a video clip of the show - and I have to say the video doesn't do it justice.

That is Dave and Drew going up to the collection box.  Every year the home owners raise money for a different charity - this year is St. Jude's.  100% of the money collected goes to the charity - the homeowners pay for the electrical bill themselves.

Then we ventured out to another favorite neighborhood where some 200 homes are decorated for the season.

This garage has a different theme every year.... this time Santa's Lodge :)  Can you "spy" where Drew is at Santa's lodge?

Then Drew had to carol with Bugs and Taz

Dad wanted in on the action too....

It was a great night and we managed to tucker Drew out nicely.  He was asleep before we made the 1.5 mile drive home.

Spreading the Message of the Season

On Sunday Drew took part in his second Sunday School Children's Service - the Christmas pageant for our church.  He was in much happier spirits this year compared to last I think because he was a cow vs last year's pig.

Now that he was four, he seemed a lot more into it. Of course it helped how they set up the preschoolers this year (this is put on by all the children in our church Pre-K - Seniors in High School).  The preschoolers were sitting in the pew not facing the intimidating congregation so they were a lot less fidgety.  

That's Drew singing "Away in a Manger" - I think.  Despite the fact he doesn't appear to be singing in the picture - he really belted it out.  

I think this last picture is Away in a Manger as well.  I was in the second row making sure Drew behaved as well as cuing him and his friends the words and actions.  I think this show was much better than last years overall - it was phenomenal!  There was an amazing duet from some of the older kids who played Mary and Joseph - I'll share some of that song.

I promise to get my act together sometime and show the video from this performance and and the Preschool show at school.

Happy Birthday Jesus

Last Friday was Drew's last day of Preschool for the year - and to celebrate they had a birthday party for Jesus.  Yes, with party hats, birthday cakes and all!  Of course they got to keep the gifts.

That's about 1/2 of Drew's classmates...

They did a book gift exchange and Drew was happy he was the lucky one to get a two-for-one deal.  Two books came out of his package.

Notifying Santa

This past weekend Drew wrote his first letter to Santa. We had to remind him not to deliver presents here!





For those having trouble reading it...
Dear Santa
I want Rocky figures. Please bring them to LA. Love Drew

We gave the letter to Doodle our elf to carry back to Santa that night. If I didn't introduce Doodle last year -here he is from today's perch.




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Preschool Christmas Angels

Last Friday night it was Drew's annual preschool pageant, and this year he was a Christmas Angel and he sang about 1/2 a dozen songs - which he spent the past several weeks singing around the house.  I love listening to him sing! In fact the other night at Target he was singing songs from Rocky nice and loud... but that's for another post..

Back to my little angel...

Don't be fooled by this innocent looking angel before his performance.  He was actually put in time out earlier in the day at school because he refused to practice.

But he did great when it came time for the real thing!

Here is most of his preschool - his class are dressed as the white angels on both sides of the stage.  In the center is another class (Frogs) which are in animal costumes.  Not pictured is the Bunny class - which is especially young this year (mostly 2 1/2) and only made a brief cameo.

Afterward our Angel was happy to pose for the camera.

And then afterward Drew smiled for the camera with his friend Troy and Mason.  Troy is in his class and Mason has since moved to Kindergarten - their Mom watched Drew for his first 2 1/2 years almost 3 years.

Supporting Cousin Kady

Last week we drove out to Brentwood to support Cousin Kady who was performing in her annual preschool concert.  We couldn't make it last  year due to some scheduling conflict, so Drew and I made sure to do it this year. 

While Kady didn't sing much...

... she sure did jingle a mean bell.  I think she got intimidated looking out at all those people looking at her.   Kady is wearing the cream colored sweater. 

After the performance there was a visit from the Jolly man himself!  And he brought presents for all the kids!

Drew and Adrina shared Santa's lap and were rewarded with a coloring book.

C is for Cookie and That's Good Enough For Me.... Nom Nom Nom

C is for Cookie and that's good enough for me.... and boy were there cookies!

As we do every year, the ladies in my family get together the first Saturday of the month to bake until we drop.  I started at noon (because of the Bah Humbug race) and got home around 10:30pm.

So after baking dozens and dozens of cookies, here we are showing off the goods and enjoying some adult beverages... wine!

L-R: Rana, Mom, Me, Grandma (not pictured - Lisa who was only there for about 2 hours)

Most of the cookies... there were still some in the oven!

We Beat Daddy, Bah Humbug!

Drew was so excited to run in his 2nd "Grinch" 5K (3.1 miles).  Well to be honest I pushed him in the jogger this year (Daddy did it last year) and he braved the cold and very windy morning without much complaint.

Daddy was with us at the Start line...

But when the "gun" went off he ran ahead, while I was stuck at the back of the line because of the stroller.  Once we were out of the herd of people I managed to pass Daddy... much to Drew's delight.

The entire race he sat perched up in the stroller commanding me "Go faster Mommy, there are people way up there.  You have to beat them."  Occasionally he'd peer around his strollers asking "Where's Daddy". 

I smoked him buddy ;)

We hit the finish line and then circled back to cheer Daddy on - who is looking to get in shape before softball season...

And here's a bad shot of Daddy getting crossing the Finish line (he's in the Santa hat) and was caught in a group of people.

And we have to get the family finishing photo....

So here's our official race results:

• Brenda - 32:49, 30th place out of 64 women in my age range, 186 overall
• Dave - 36:02, 15th place  out of 27 men in his age range, 211 overall

My personal best is about 30-seconds faster, which I think I could've beat if it wasn't so wind AND I wasn't pushing a 35lb 4 year old in a stroller.  I'm impressed with my finish regardless - and Dave's too!

Kicking Off the Holidays

On December 1st, we kicked off the holiday season with the annual tree lighting in town.  We've gone the past couple of years for an easy way for Drew to get a picture with Santa.  This year there was even snow!

Drew gets silly standing in line for Santa....

One of the elves had to make sure Drew was on the Nice list before visiting with Santa... he passed.  Whew!

Must take a picture with the pretty Elf....

The big guy himself...

After telling Santa he wanted a VReader and a Wii we went over toward the colored water fountains....

Mommy & Drew

The weird Christmas bear who was all alone by the fountain. 

And then the reason we came... the tree!

Despite how it appears from this cell phone shot, the tree is HUGE!  This is looking at it from the fountains.