Lists for Santa

I took Alaina to see Santa this weekend.   Ethan came too--not because he wanted to see Santa, but because he wanted a candy cane.

The kids each made a Christmas list.   Notice the difference in lengths.   I am not sure if Ethan ever had a one-line list, but the kids sure are different:

Ethan also had his 4th grade "Winter Voices" concert this week.  Unlike in the midwest, where not having a holiday sing is akin to larceny, California doesn't seem to work like that.   There is one holiday concert, and it is for fourth graders only.   Honestly, they didn't even sing that many holiday songs.   Very strange, to me.  They did sing a pretty wicked rendition of "The Grinch", though.

We also took the kids to see a junior version of the Nutcracker this weekend.   I had also originally planned to just take Alaina, but Ethan told me that he wanted to go, so I bought tickets for the whole family.   Then, his basketball team announced they were playing in a tournament that same day.   So, Ethan missed a game.   He was not too happy.   First world problems.

Jason's Birthday, a piano recital and Hanukkah

We have had a very busy week!   Jason celebrated his 41st birthday on Wednesday, and we had our usual crab feed.

This weekend was the tail end of Hanukkah.   Ethan had a piano recital this afternoon--he played two songs, "Wild Robot" and a watered down version of "Linus and Lucy".   He has made good progress in piano, and I am proud of him!

After the recital, we had Jason's family over to celebrate Hanukkah.   Jason smoked a brisket that turned out deliciously, and the kids enjoyed opening presents.

Now, time for a break!

December is here

Well, the Holiday season is officially in full swing.   We got our Christmas tree this weekend and decorated it.   The place we used to get the tree from went out of business, so we ended up getting one from Home Depot this year.   I have to say, it is a pretty good looking, full tree.  The kids enjoyed decorating it, and Jason griped his way through putting the lights outside on the house.

Last week, at the grocery store, Ethan asked if we could get an Advent calendar.   Now, several years ago, I did buy him a chocolate Advent calendar, but I had no idea that he remembered it.   I told him no, thinking there was no way I was going to chase to Trader Joe's to get one.   Plus, obviously, he doesn't need the chocolate.   Ethan then disappeared for about five minutes, and came running up, chocolate advent calendar in hand.   Though they weren't out on display, he asked a grocery worker who found them in the back.   Well, of course, now I had to buy one for him and his sister.   I guess I shouldn't be such a scrooge--I remember getting one every year--when I was small, from our neighbors the Fleishman's, and later from my parents.   And I certainly LOVED it as a kid.   The current version is exactly the same as it was 30+ years ago, made by some German company with molded shapes.   So, I guess, another tradition passed down.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Well, this year, we were both off for Thanksgiving, though I worked until 7am Thanksgiving morning.
The day started out sunny and clear, an overnight storm having blown the smoke away.

After I napped, we headed up to Sonoma for Thanksgiving at the Greenbergs.
By dinnertime rain started again.

 

Friday, we spend the day reorganizing our office/guestroom while it rained all day.   We got some new furniture delivered on Wednesday, and spent Friday putting it all together/decorating.   We still need a picture or two, but overall it is looking great, I think!   Finally....this room has been a dumping ground for years, so it is really nice to have it all done!  Note to readers: come visit!   It is a nice place to stay!

Saturday and Sunday, Jason had to work.   The weather was nice and sunny, and the kids and I took advantage of it and went for a nice hike to Dawn Falls.   Such a lovely walk!

Smokey Weekend #2

Well, here we are again....the smoke has still not gone away.   On friday it was so bad here that school was cancelled (not sure why as the air in the class room is the same as the air in the house).  Of course soccer was cancelled on Saturday, and the kids were literally crawling up the walls.   

Best yet, we had our annual Christmas card photo soot scheduled for saturday--and no easy way to reschule.   Ugh.   Stay tuned for some smokey winners.

On Sunday, we took the kids to a local production of Les Miserables.   It was a youth production but actually quite good, especially considering how challenging many of the songs are.   The kids mostly enjoyed it.   But when I asked Ethan afterwards if it was something he would like to do in the future, he responded, "no, I'd rather shoot hoops."   Yes, he is aching to get back outside.

Smokey Weekend

Well, for those who haven't heard, a huge wildfire broke out in California, just north of Sacramento last Friday.   Because the winds are blowing east to west, the result is that the entire bay area has been blanketed in a thick cloud of black smoke.  Are has been rated as unhealthy, and the sunny skies have been shrouded in haze.  Going outside results in stinging eyes and burning throats.   I read online that one day's exposure is the equivalent of smoking 8 cigarettes.  

And, of course, thousands of people's homes have been destroyed and are displaced.   It is really awful.   And, there is no rain in the extended forecast at all.


In any event, the smoke kept us (and most of the rest of the bay area) indoors this weekend-the streets and walking paths were eerily quiet.   We had to find some entertaining indoor activities, which is unusual for us (Yes, I realize much of the rest of the country always has to have an indoor plan this time of the year).

Saturday, Jason took the kids to the movies.   Sunday, Alaina and I baked an apple galette.  

And Ethan, a friend, and Jason had a marathon Monopoly game.

So it goes.  I hope that the firefighters are able to get control of the blaze soon.  

Trick or Treat 2018

                

The kids had a fun time celebrating Halloween last Wednesday.    For the first time ever, they both were in the same Halloween parade, and I got to attend both Halloween classroom parties.  This will happen exactly once, as Ethan will attend middle school next year.   Sigh.  

This year, Ethan dressed up like his favorite NBA player: Kyrie Irving.  (Why an earth he picked him is beyond me, though he does have an obsession with Boston sports team since he “used to live there”).   

Alaina’s costume was a little more dramatic.   Two weeks before Halloween, I took her out to pick a costume.   She chose a character from the cartoon “Paw Patrol”. Unfortunately, the store we were at did not have the costume in her size.   I quickly looked it up on Amazon, found a bigger size and ordered it. Despite the fact that we have Prime, it was not due to arrive until the following Friday.   But, no worries, as the first Halloween party was not until Saturday.  Fast forward to Friday.   I walked into the house after a long day at work, to be greeted by Alaina, who immediately burst into tears because her costume did not arrive.  Aargh.   I logged onto Amazon and found it had been delayed with a new estimated delivery date of 10/30.   To close to count on.   I cancelled the order and promised her a trip to the Halloween store to look for an alternative choice the following day.

So, on Saturday, in the 90 minutes between soccer games 1 and 2 (of 3), the kids and I rushed to the Halloween store to pick something new.   Now, I have never been to the Halloween store on the weekend before Halloween before, and I will do my best to never ever do that again.   It was a mad house.   Alaina settled on a strawberry shortcake costume.  I found one in size 4-6…. but when I pulled it out of the package, the dress barely covered her bottom.   Such is the treat of being tall.   So, we frantically ran around the store to find another size.  Problem was, the only one I could find was an extra small adult size.   But since it was made to be slightly racy, it was short.   In fact, it just covered Alaina’s knees (yes, this was an ADULT) costume.   Though the chest was far too large, I decided that the best option was some home sewing and a ticket out of the Halloween store.   So that was exactly what we did.  But not before getting some tights—since of course the normal green and white striped tights didn’t come with the “adult” costume, and there didn’t sell them separately, so we had to settle on some Black and Green striped tights.  All in all, it made for quite the costume:

In any event, the day of Halloween was a lot of fun.   The kids wore their costumes to school, and had classroom parties,  and a parade, which Jason and I were both able to attend (another small miracle).   

    

In the evening, we trick or treated with some of Ethan’s friends.   

The boys were on a mission for candy, and the kids took home quite a haul this year.   Alaina kept up pretty well too.   Check out their candy count at the end of the night:

Good thing we have a dental appointment coming up!

Pumpkin Carve

We had some pre-halloween celebrations this weekend, including carving our jack-o-lanterns.  Ethan went "alternative" this year and carved a Boston Red Sox themed pumpkin.   Fitting, considering today's World Series victory.   It is funny what a big Boston fan Ethan is--he always attributes this to the fact that he "lived there when he was a baby", but I attribute it to our neighbor, who he idolizes, and whose Dad is from Boston and a die hard fan.

  

Alaina went with a more traditional look, that she based off her halloween candy bin.   Either way, lots of fun!

Alaina is a Soccer Player

For years, Alaina has been watching from the sidelines as her brother played soccer.   Well, now it is finally her turn.   And, as it turns out, she has been watching.   This weekend was her third game of the season, and she has warmed up on the field.   At first, she was trying to pass to her teammates, but kindergarten soccer isn't so much a "passing" sport, as they all just crowd around the ball in a big clump.  

Anyhow, this weekend, she was able to break away from the clump with the ball and score--5 times!   We are proud of her--and she has gotten some good self confidence from playing too.  

Here is a video of one of the shots:

Go Alaina!

Fleet Week

This weekend was San Francisco's Air and Water Show, otherwise known as Fleet Week.   Although we have been living in San Francisco since 2005 (with a brief hiatus in Botson), and have seen the Blue Angles in some way or another every year, we have never gone as a family to watch the entire air show.

This year, we made it work.   It was a beautiful weekend--it seems like the Fleet week is always super beautiful here--the weather was in the 70s, sunny and clear.   We headed out early with a picnic to snag a picnic spot on the each near Crissy Field and made an afternoon of it.    There were about 10 different flying acts--and all were fun to watch.   And of course, the premiere event was watching the Blue Angels.

We had a great time, and Uncle Jeremy even came out to join us.   We were reminded what a beautiful city we live in--we feel lucky!

Fruits of our garden

So, it has been our second year attempting to grow a vegetable garden.   This year's improvement was a trellis that Jason built for our climbing vegetables.  Our tomatoes were much better this year, with less water, as recommended, they were sweeter.  Their yield was not great, so I will have to read a bit more about that-- I do remember reading once that there is a way to trim certain branches to maximize fruit production.

We were quite successful with serrano peppers (except nobody wants to eat them), and well as our herbs.   I also tried carrots this year--which turnout to be another lesson of "live and learn"--the carrots were quite thick, but not long.   I later learned from a friend that the carrots are supposed to be thinned early on, with every other discarded to allow for room for growth.  I have to say, the carrots we grew were still quite tasty though they were stubby!

So, it is fun.   We will confine to learn and grow next year!

Brazil!

Jason and I just came back from a trip to Brazil!    We were gone for two weeks, thanks to my Dad, who agreed to watch the kids for us.  We went to Brazil to go to Rebeka's wedding--and since we were traveling all that way we extended the trip to do a bit of sightseeing.  To be honest, we were pretty nervous about the trip because: A. we heard that Brazil was very dangerous, and B. our kids had just started school, and Alaina was a new kindergartner.   So we approached the trip with a bit more trepidation than usual.

We started the trip off in Rio--a city that our current au pair told us she would never go to because it was so dangerous.   But how could we go to Brazil and NOT see Rio?   So we went.   And we loved it!  We were super careful--only went to the nice areas--never walked at night--never carried a purse etc etc., but the bubble we stayed in seemed quite safe.   The city is geographically stunning with big mountains reaching into the sea, and wide swaths of beach.   Unfortunately, it was still a bit cold for beach weather, being that we were there in the early spring.   But we did get to take the tram to the top of sugarloaf mountain, and saw the Christ the Redeemer statue--one of the seven modern wonders of the world.   The statue is on a huge mountain that overlooks all of Rio--and is really spectacular.   AS Jason said, "It makes the city".
  

From Rio, we headed to Rebeka's hometown of Londrina.   Londrina certainly is not on the tourist circuit--although it is fairly big with a population of 600,000, most people did not speak English and were excited to meet Americans.   In fact, we got into one Uber and the driver heard us speaking English and stated "you must be here for the wedding".   Ha Ha.

Anyhow, Rebeka's wedding was spectacular, and quite the party.  She got married on a farm overlooking rolling hills, and had a reception that lasted almost until dawn.   Around the time a normal American wedding would end, a Samba band paraded in for an hour performance.   When we left, exhausted at almost 3:30 am, the party was still going strong!

The following afternoon, we went to a barbecue at Rebeka's Aunt's home and got to visit to her and Alex's family more.   We then headed back to the coast.

Our first stop was Paraty, a colonial city between Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro.   The city itself is quite picturesque with cobblestone streets and brightly painted homes.  We took a boat ride the fist day to some nearby beaches, but unfortunately the weather was not too cooperative.  

The following day was similarly cold, so we opted for a hike to the top of (yet another) sugarloaf mountain.   The hike was short but quite steep.  The view from the top was spectacular--a 360 degree view of mountains and sea.

Our final destination in Brazil was Ilha Grande.   This is a large island that, up until the mid 1990s, was a penal colony.   Sometime around then the Brazilian government realized it was far to beautiful a place to be a prison and moved the prisoners elsewhere.      The island retains much of its isolation--there are no cars at all--and small towns are linked only by hiking trails or boats.   It was a laid back, quiet kind of a place, and a perfect spot to relax at the end of the trip.   Each day, we took boat tours to different sections of the island--and we did get sun on 2 out of 3 days.   It was even warm enough to swim and we did some great snorkeling.

Meanwhile at home, my dad held down the fort quite well.   He was able to get out and do some great hikes during the day, as best as I can tell the kids didn't terrorize him at night.  We feel very fortunate that we had the opportunity to go!