Neighborhood Tree Lighting Ceremony

Friday night we went out to yet another tree lighting ceremony for more free hot chocolate and cookies.  They had an awesome mariachi band that played all sorts of traditional and Christmas music.

The kids were especially excited to see the band was made up of some quite young members. Matilda estimated that this boy was 10 for me; my age-radar seems to be broken.

Porter enjoyed the mariachis almost as much as these free light-up wands. He also wore these awesome foam antlers for most of the evening, loaners courtesy of some friendly neighbors we ran into at the event.

One of the many things that I love about our neighborhood is the sense of community. The tree lighting was not well publicized and we did not tell anyone we were planning to go, but still we managed to run into about 12 families we know. Two girls from Matilda's class were there as well as 4 kids from Porter's school. Within this huge, big city I am so thankful for this little niche we have found.

Preschool Space Shuttle Field Trip

We finally got around to visiting the space shuttle at it's new Science Center home today and it did not disappoint. We were joined by 40 other folks from our preschool and it was quite the crew. With that many kids it was pretty hard to keep us all going in the same direction, on one agenda (think of that old "herding cats" analogy). Instead we just got to keep joining up with friends and then diverging as we all navigated the museum, snacks needs, bathroom trips and meltdowns. It turned out to be a nice balance of group fun and individual exploration.

Investigating a steamy vent while we waited for our shuttle entry time.

It seems like these boys never stop moving, but I managed to capture one moment of reflection in the exhibit.

Porter was really interested in the parts of the shuttle that fall off, the rocket boosters and the external tank. We spent quite a while studying this panel and then had to flag down a docent to further satisfy our questions.

Counting the engines.

This duo is an unstoppable good time.

A space potty. Tee hee. Bathroom humor goes a long way with the preschool crowd but the parents were equally interested in the mechanics of bathroom use at zero gravity.





With a gaggle of preschool gal pals.

The space shuttle was awesome, but this hurricane simulator was the clear favorite today. For two dollars, you could stand in this plastic phone booth-like tube and feel hurricane force winds blow around you. I would say our group easily spent $40 on this machine as one parent after another took turns swiping their credit card. The kids were hilarious swirling around inside and out, some participating and others cracking up just to witness the other kids inside.

Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony

We joined a whole crowd of friends downtown at the Biltmore for their annual tree lighting fun.

There was hot chocolate, egg nog, champagne, and way too many cookies were consumed.
Another highlight was the ballet troupe that did a little Sugar Plum Fairy performance. The kids were so captivated.

I neglected to get any photos of the gorgeous Biltmore tree but we did find another nice one at the Central Library where we browsed for a bit before the cookie bonanza.

Busy Month Ahead!

Well, aside from one slacker day I managed to make it through the month posting everyday. Trying to post daily in November is a good kick start to get me back to documenting life here more often when I have stopped making time for it. I always have tons of "material" and things I would like to post about, but often let the blogging fall down my priorities list. This next month will fly by with all the holiday festivities and school events and hopefully I can keep my pace here as well.

A glimpse of December events that will hopefully make it onto this space:

Biltmore tree lighting ceremony
Elementary school concert
Preschool field trip to see Endeavour
Gingerbread house decorating
Preschool library filed trip
Company holiday party
Dirty Santa Party
Nutcracker ballet
Some Christmas crafting
Holiday cookie baking

Escape of the Grown-ups!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks so the adults in our house made an escape for it!  (thanks to our last minute babysitter)

After all these years in LA we finally ventured into Tam O'Shanter! A 90 year-old home of rare steaks, high end pub food, and WONDERFUL cocktails!

All that and someone else put our kids to bed, too?! It's like a 2 hour holiday on a week night! 

Time Machine Needed

Porter is the king of buyers remorse. Lately, within 1-20 minutes after ANY decision, Porter changes his mind. Sometimes we can easily readjust our course and accommodate the request, but just as often it is too late. This morning a few minutes after Tim and Matilda left for her school drop off Porter decided that he had wanted to go. He was inconsolable.

Almost the entire 30 minutes Tim was gone Porter raged about how he had wanted to go. Finally I decided to just use this motivation to my advantage. I told Porter we could get dressed to walk up and meet Tim on his way back from drop-off. He got dressed in record time and we were just headed out the front door when Tim turned up. You can imagine the fresh round of tears that resulted! Poor Porter.

New York Photos: Funny Face Edition

Ahhhhh. I can just hear the sigh that accompanies this face.

3 out of 4 is pretty decent.



Gio, merely tolerating his dad.



"Get out!" says Tomasina.

My brother does his tongue thing in a surprising number of photos. Saboteur.



I am clearly not impressed with whatever Dad is saying here.

Home, Tired, No Drama

Beyond the slight hassle of keeping occupied and entertained for three planes, a shuttle bus and a taxi ride, our trip home was totally easy. The kids did well with the only potential incident being when Matilda dumped her full glass of apple juice directly into her lap. This occurred at the beginning of our longest flight so she sat in a moderately soggy seat for that flight and we switched her into some back up dry tights at the next airport. Passed the time with lots of snacking and treats, including Gio's baptism cookie. Thanks Gio!
 
 Porter was so loudly enthusiastic over checking out this old comic pricing guide of Tim's that we had to put it away after not too long.
 
 Matilda took some photos out the window to pass the time, including one of the Grand Canyon area. She really enjoyed our good views of the Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty today.
On our last flight Porter need some new material so I distracted him with body art. Here is my take on G-pop driving the tractor out to the farm with a variety of dogs following.
Home, sweet, home at Union Station. These kids were such troopers hauling luggage today.

Long Day Tomorrow

The kids and I fly home tomorrow with our flight taking off at 6:10am. All our bags are packed and Tim is already en route now with a 14 hour head start. We have three connecting flights so it will be a marathon trip! Think good travel thoughts for us as I try to survive the long day of bathroom emergencies during take off, endless snack demands and toys lost to the under seat area.

Cheech the Parakeet

Meet Cheech. Also known as Chi Chi. As he will tell you, he is "such a good bird."
 Cheech was Aunt Mernie's companion and now has come to live with my dad. He will inspect your jewelry for you if you need.
 He also likes to patrol on the kitchen counter.
 The funniest thing about this bird is his passion for a ballpoint pen. Anywhere the pen goes, Cheech will follow. He loves this pen like nothing else. Or maybe he hates it, we can't quite tell. I am guessing the pen was his main competition for attention from Aunt Mernie because she was always making notes and lists or writing letters. As Matilda was delighted to discover, Cheech will sit on your wrist and chitter at the pen and rub his beak on it the whole time you are writing.

Remembering Mernie

Today the whole family gathered for a little memorial service for my great aunt Mernie who passed away in September. She was just an amazing woman. She always emphasized to me how happy she was to keep up with our adventures via my blog, so much so that each time I have blogged these pasts months I think about how she'll never read my newest post as I publish it.
 We all gathered at my grandma's house and it was so fun and strange to have a whole new generation of "kids" eating in the kitchen while the grown ups sat in the dining room.
 A newspaper clipping from Mernie's house of grandma and grandpa in their sailboat, another source of many amazing childhood memories.
 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gemma sports her fabulous turkey dress and does some texting.
 A most delicious spread.
 G-pop and Gio, post dinner.
 A Turkey Day tractor ride to entertain the kids.