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!