Holiday Happenings

December is always a buys month for our family, but his year has seemed to have kept us unusually busy.

Here are a few things that we have been up to:

Decorating the Christmas tree--we put it up late this year, but it finally happened.   Still haven't gotten the outdoor lights up.....

Celebrating Eileen's 71st birthday--we had a nice dinner downtown:

Attending Alaina's last preschool holiday sing-a-long.  Here she is with her best friend Emma:

Celebrating Chanukkah-we had traditional latkes and of course hanukkah cookies for a family gathering tonight.  Of course Ethan had a basketball tournament and missed a good chunk of it (yes, basketball season is in full swing now!)

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That plus a couple of neighborhood parties and a couple of work parties and filled up our time quite well.

Next up: Christmas!

Ethan Plays Piano

Ethan is getting pretty good at piano, now that he has been playing it for a year and a few months.    He didn't have a recital this winter, so I recorded a video of him at home playing a piece that he has been working on instead.   Check it out here:


He doesn't really like piano too much, but I do think he is proud of his accomplishment and has made good progress.   I hope that I can convince him to stick to it....I know that someday he will be glad that he did.

The Big Four-Oh

Well, Jason has reached a milestone: 40!

A few months ago I asked him, "what do you want to do for your fortieth birthday".   He told me, "I don't know, maybe we should go away, or something".   A few days later, he decided that what he really wanted was a party.   Well, the party grew in scope and size day by day.   By the time we sent out invites, over 90 people were invited, we had hired a Mexican caterer and a DJ.

We had the party on Saturday, and it was turned out great.  We were able to hold a lot of the party outside on the patio with heat lamps.   Our friend Gretchen helped with a lot of the decorating-she is quite talented and really should be a party planner!

Gretchen even had some cookies made that were shaped like Jason!

Jason and I had a lot of fun--and Jason was even able to motivate a bunch of the party goers to dance--which he was thrilled about.  It was neat to have friends from all eras of his life join--elementary school friends, high school friends, college friends (2 of who travelled quite a ways to come), med school friends, neighbors, and work friends.

I wrote a cheesy poem to toast him with:

"Happy Birthday Jason

Your 40^th is here

Time for celebration

Reflection and good cheer

Way back on Dec 5, 1977

Your mom went into labor

Hoping for a girl after having two boys

But instead—another son to savor

Your childhood was a good one

Growing up in Hillsboro with your family

Swimming, spending time in Tahoe

Pinewood for high school was just dandy

For college, you left California

Adventuring to the Midwest

You picked up fencing and studied abroad in Scotland

Northwestern was the best. 

After a 1 year stint as a consultant

You went on to medical school

Pritzker was 4 years of hard work and fun

You met your wife there-how cool!

Match day brought you back to San Francisco

Anesthesiology you did study

Got engaged and married

Soon Ethan was born and became your little buddy

We didn’t linger in SF too long

Fellowship called us back east

A year in Boston was enough of the cold

So back to the bay—our happiness increased.

In 2011, we bought this fixer upper

Off the market from a friend of a friend

2 years later, Alaina was born—and the remodeling began

we thought it would never end

But end it did and now we are done

What a life we have built for ever

I am so lucky to have met you

And raise our family together

So we celebrate you today

We wish you all the best

Let’s raise a toast to Jason

And wish him happiness"

Tonight, on his actual birthday, we had his traditional dinner: Crab with pasta and ice cream cake of course.  

Happy birthday to my wonderful husband!

Thanksgiving

We have had a nice Thanksgiving weekend.  When I was in Chicago a few weeks ago, i convinced my dad to come out and join us.   It was un to have our two families join for the holiday--most of my last ten Thanksgivings or so have been with the Greenberg, so my dad got a taste of the last 10 years! It was nice to have the families together.

Jason's parents did the cooking, and they made quite a spread.  My dad was amused by the boisterous nature of a Greenberg family gathering.  Pri also got to join for her first American Thanksgiving.  

My dad stayed for the remainder of the weekend, and although Jason and I were both on call on Saturday and Sunday, work was pretty quiet so we were able to spend a lot of time together.   I am happy he was able to make the trek!

Soccer State Cup Weekend

Well, this weekend marked the end of Ethan's soccer season.
Ethan has has a better season this year, compared to last.   He certainly is not the star, but he has earned a place in the starting line up, which is certainly an improvement.
Yesterday, they played the semifinals, and Ethan even scored one of the two goals.
Today was the finals.   It actually was a pretty exciting game, as the teams were very evenly matched, and at the end of regulation they were tied 2-2.   It went into a 10 minute overtime, and was still tied!  

Then the shoot out began.
I wa surprised that they did this at the U-9 level.  Anyhow, at the end of 5 shots for each team the score was still tied!

Sudden death then began, and by the skin of their teeth, Ethan's team won.
So they were first place in their division (of which there are too many to count) but he is certainly excited, and I am proud of how he is progressing as a player.

Chicago Visit

Last weekend I had a work conference in Chicago.  This conference is annual, and they recently have decided to hold it in Chicago each year.   Score for me!   So, I took advantage of the trip by going a day early and leaving a day late so I could visit family.   Chicago was in the 40s and raining, but pretty typical for November, I guess.

The day bedroom the conference, my dad and I went to Milwaukee and saw my grandma, and had lunch with her, my Aunt Judith, and my dad's cousins.  It was a nice visit.  

We also had dinner with my brother and nephew Zachary--who is super cute!

The conference was somewhat uneventful.   On Saturday afternoon I went our for a walk and walked right into a huge Trump rally (both pro- and anti-) and I thankfully avoided any confrontation....The police were certainly out in force.

Meanwhile, Jason held down the fort at home.   Unfortunately for him, my weekend away correlated with Ethan's soccer state cup--so it was a soccer filled weekend.  

Happy Halloween

 Our family had a great Halloween celebration last week.   We were lucky to have great weather, especially compared to last year.    I took the day off of work, and went to my last preschool Halloween parade (sniff sniff), where I am proud to say that Alaina did not cry (first time ever).   The preschool’s theme for the homemade costumes was “songs”, and Alaina’s class, the Llamas, chose the song “Miss Mary Mack”.   A bit of an odd choice, but that is how democracy works sometimes, I guess.

Anyhow, they divided the class up into the different characters—some kids were Miss Mary Mack, of course, but also Mary's mother, 50 cents, elephants, the fence, and the fourth of July.   Alaina lucked out and was chosen to be an elephant, which was not only the cutest, but also the most recognizable costume.   I enjoyed walking through Laurel Heights with her, reminiscing about my first parade with Ethan 7 years ago, when he was a “leaf”.   Time flies.

Although I missed Ethan’s Halloween parade and party, I did spend an hour in the afternoon volunteering in his art class, where they were finishing up a project involving electrical circuits.

After school, I made dinner, and our friends, the Marcus family joined us to eat before trick or treating.    This year, Alaina dressed up as a cat, and Ethan was a ninja.   Alaina was thrilled with her cat costume, but Ethan was a bit reticent.  He really wanted to be a Warriors player, mostly because that would mean that we would have to buy him and official licensed Warriors jersey, but I nixed that idea pretty quickly, and I don’t think that he ever recovered.

Trick or treating was warm and dry, and the kids took in a pretty good candy haul.   Pri also got to experience this very American holiday, and she was, I think, fascinated by the sheer commercialized extravagance of it all.