During the Break...

One of the quandries of time during the holiday break is what the heck to do with the kids. Libraries were closed this year and most extracurricular activities were just not happening during this time. We did the best we could with time at the zoo, videos, and museums. The boys' favorite spot at the zoo is the bug house. Above, Oliver poses with his beloved "chinchilla" (tarantula). He's called it a chinchilla from as soon as he could talk and, although he knows it is a "tarantula" now, he still calls is 'his' chinchilla. But, notice he does not get too close...

More zoo shots

This day held an historic occasion as it was the day that the otters finally appeared. We've been going to this zoo for the past 5 years and have never caught a glimpse of the otters. Finally, we got to see three of them!

Jumping the lily pads is a highlight of the children's zoo. I am grateful that we've only had one mishap in which a child fell in the water. I had to strip Ronan down to his diaper and carry him around the zoo. But he was barely 2 at the time and it was alright. Luckily, the kids are pretty cautious when it comes to jumping from lily pad to lily pad.

Ronan and his 'tute' meerkats. Everytime we go to the zoo, he runs up to the meerkat exhibit and exclaims, "Oh, they soooo tute!" Needless to say, I believe they are his favorite. The zoo staff had decorated the exhibits and you can see some stockings hanging in the background.

There is a little amusement park right next to the zoo that charges for rides, but it is only $1 as ride (well, except for the train and roller coaster, but we usually avoid those except on special occasions). The kids love the rides. As you can see from the photos below, Oliver is a bit of a wacky driver, Dahin is happy to let the wacky driver drive, and Ronan is extra cautious. He kept both hands on the wheel at all times, only to let go occasionally to pull the string that rang the bell on the hood of his car.


The boys watch nuna fly.

Christmas Day

The kids woke up around 5:30 and I kept thinking they'd try and wake me up. Instead, they turned on the tv and waited for us to get up. I finally came out of our room around 6:45 and then had the kids go wake up their apa. When Jack came out, I made him make coffee ; ) and let the kids tear into their presents. Dahin, as you can see below, was super happy with her presents.

The kids got magic kits and books in their stockings. Santa always leaves candy canes in their stockings in addition to hanging a few on the tree. I think the candy canes are Oliver's favorite part. Below, you can tell he fully appreciates the peppermint scent of the candy cane.

This is what Dahin's been wanting for a while. The Littlest Pet Shop virtual pet includes a code that you can use to go online and track your pet and take care of it. Unfortunately, we keep getting told that her code has already been used, so I've had to email the company and ask them to help us resolve the problem. I'm hoping they give us a new code so she can actually use the toy to its full extent.

Oliver got a Thomas the Tank Engine tent and Ronan got a Spiderman one. I think they appreciate having their own space. Ronan took all his presents and put them inside his tent.

Chinese food on Christmas Day started as a tradition with my family in Tennessee after we saw Christmas Story. Now, my parents head to the local Chinese buffet on Christmas to enjoy a stress (and dishes) free Christmas dinner. We do that, as well. For me, it's too much of a pain to make all this food for kids who will barely touch ham and mashed potatoes. We know they'll eat Chinese food really well, so it suits us. I tend to do a roast or something on Christmas Eve (and, admittedly, because I didn't have time this year on Christmas Eve, I made one later in the day on Christmas), but just relax Christmas Day. Because we have the best place in world to eat Chinese food just 20 minutes away, we head to Chinatown in San Francisco. The restaurant we went to has become our newest favorite spot. It's right on the corner of Columbus and Market, right where Chinatown and Little Italy meet. The food is yummy, the people are nice, and the price is so right. Bubbie and Grandfather sent us some money for Christmas, so we used it to go see the Tale of Despereaux and then go out to feast on Chinese food here. Thanks Grandfather and Bubbie!

The kids play with Dahin's tamagachi that she got from Santa as we wait for our food.

Chinatown is fun, but out of all the places in San Francisco it smells the worst and is so dirty. When you enter Chinatown, you're assaulted with the smell of cigarette smoke and it just seems so much more grimey than the rest of San Francisco. It's also one of the more crowded spots, with it's relatively narrow sidewalks and tons of people, most of whom are speaking Cantonese. The best part of it is the food. It's not like anything else in the States. The food in Chinese restaurants in the South and Midwest is so salty and tasteless--you really don't realize that until eating Chinese food here. When I went back to Bloomington one summer I had some Chinese food in what used to be my favorite place to eat, China Buffet, the food was so bad I could hardly eat it. I know I've been totally spoiled.

Jack sports the scarf that I made him for Christmas. He needed it this day because it was SO cold. The wind was pretty strong and, with the icy Pacific breeze and overcast skies, we all needed to bundle up. Jack was also nursing a cold that, I think, was actually the flu since it dragged on for days. We had fun, though, and the kids loved hanging out with their Apa and Mommy together. We tag-team parent, so it's not often that we get days like this to hang out together.

Between buildings covered with clothes lines full of laundry hanging out to dry I found this mural. There are so many cool murals in San Francisco, and this is just one of many in Chinatown.

My favorite building in San Francisco is below. When you pass it, you know you are leaving little Italy and heading to the financial district. The big triangle building in the background is a pretty well-known SF landmark.

We went to Union Square to see the giant Christmas tree they light every year on Thanksgiving. We also found that they now have an ice skating rink there for the holiday season. The kids loved watching people skate around on the square. Our first year here, we were a little depressed because it just didn't feel like Christmas. There was no snow and the temps were in the 60s. So, we went to San Francisco and found a much more festive environment. It's become our habit then, since moving here in 2002, to head to San Francisco, eat some Chinese food, get some coffee and hot cocoa and look at the decorations.

The kids and I in front of the Macy's Christmas tree.

We made a bee-line to the only Starbucks we could find open near the Square and Ronan, as you can see below, totally approved of the hot cocoa break.

Apa and the kids by the ice skating rink on the Square.

Because I missed the chance to make my roast on Christmas Eve this year, I was determined to make it when we got back. Everyone was tired and grumpy, including me, so it would have probably been better if we had skipped it. But, I forged ahead. The taste of my mom's yeast rolls made us all feel a little better. I think I must have gained about 5 pounds from eating all the chocolate and fatty foods and drinking wine over the past week.

Before going to bed, Ronan had fun playing with his new Spiderman toy. He thought it was hilarious to shoot his darts at Apa's head. He really didn't make the mark, but Apa helped him pretend by sticking the darts on his forehead.

Hope everyone had a wonderful and restful Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve turned into a pretty busy day for us. Jack worked and the kids and I had baking, present-making, and church-going to do. Ronan, above, 'helped' me make pumpkin pie. Actually, the boys have a pretty good system going. When they know I'm baking, they perch themselves on the counter so that they can lick spoons or, as in the case above, clean out cans of things like sweetened condensed milk. The rest of the day, I worked on a couple of knitting projects. One was a scarf for Dahin's friend (it was Dahin's project really, but oh well) and Jack's scarf. We got ready for the family mass at 5 pm. The church was SO crowded that there was no place to sit. We were able to see the pageant, but went home after communion because, with no place to actually call our space, the kids were acting up. We picked up some chicken, cole slaw, and potatoes on the way home before making cookies for Santa.

The kids opened the gifts they got for each other after dinner. Dahin got the boys a puppet show and two puppets from IKEA, and Ronan picked out a cool long sleeve t-shirt for Dahin. Oliver got her a little jade necklace on a red string when we were in Chinatown a couple of weeks ago.

One of the cool things we did this Christmas was track Santa's progress on Google earth. If you go to http://www.northpole.com/ there are activities for the kids (including sending an email to Santa and he actually writes back!) and from there you can track Santa. We downloaded the Google Earth application for a 3D real-time version of the tracking. The kids were able to see Santa's sleigh and reindeer flying over places like Indonesia and Paraguay. The added bonus was a bit of a geography lesson.

Merry Christmas!!

Gingerbread House

We bought a gingerbread house kit at Trader Joe's. It worked out really well, except one of the candy figures was beheaded in the process. We decided to pin her head above the window anyway. It's a little 'Hansel and Gretel-esque' but what the heck. Ronan was obsessed with eating it and kept asking over and over if he could eat it until I caved. It didn't taste very good, actually, but I still think he enjoyed it.

Holiday tea

Dahin's teacher holds two tea parties a year; one before winter break and one before summer break. I gave her some of the china that I had stored up in my cabinet. We used it when I was a child at special dinners, but it hasn't seen much use in the past few years. Ms. Berman loves little teacups and stuff and already has quite a collection of cups and saucers, so I thought she'd use the set more than I ever have. Dahin and her classmates love the tea parties. At the holiday tea, cookies and fruit are served. They have a cookie exchange in the classroom. All kids are asked to write down a recipe for a holiday treat and bring the treat to class as part of homework that week. Everyone shares their cookies with everyone else, and you get a container full of all the shared treats to take home. It's a nice tradition. We made chocolate fudge this year. Ms Berman puts together a holiday cookie recipe book that she hands out at the new year. One of the parents brought his guitar and led the kids and parents in song. The class song theme tends to focus on the Beatles (I'm guessing Ms. Berman's favorite), so we sang "Hey Jude," "Strawberry Fields," "Blackbird," and the like.