Remembering the Holiday Season 2009

The girls with Santa at the YMCA.

Lucy on her first time out on cross-country skis at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Look at that smile!


She tried to ski off into the sunset but I had to go get her when she got to the bottom of the hill. Look at how deep the snow is...

She did have a few falls but was still smiling. The next day she skied a 1/4 mile loop up on the mesa.

Bye Luce, see you back at the house...

Here we are at Santa and Mrs. Claus tiki hut at the Harbor. Note Lucy's cool fluffy pink boots - thrift store score!

The polar bears and their palm fronds helped us welcome in the new year in San Diego style!


We had a great Christmas season this year and I was too busy enjoying it to do any blogging. So here is what I can remember of this year's Christmas. This was the first year that Lucy understood Christmas well enough to be excited about Christmas long before it came. I have fond memories of all the buildup to Christmas from my childhood including advent calendars, cutting our tree, decorating the tree, and playing lots of I spy to find
Christmas ornaments on the tree.

This year Lucy and Josie shared an advent calendar from Trader Joe's. It includes a piece of chocolate for each day which they shared and were delighted with. We didn't go out and purchase or cut down a tree but instead re-used the small artificial tree that Grandma Jo brought out for last year's California Christmas. It fits in our tiny house perfectly and the girls loved decorating it.

Early in December Mitch went to San Diego with his brother Stu for a weekend. The girls and I baked Christmas cookies while he was gone including a Brigham classic, cookie press cookies. The cookie press cookies were their favorite because they involved SPRINKLES!! The first ones I let the girls decorate were solid sprinkles. They weren't a ton of help with the molasses or the rosemary lemon shortbreads because, you guessed it, they didn't involve sprinkles.

While Mitch was gone we also went the YMCA for breakfast with Santa. (pictured above) We brought unwrapped gifts for needy families and were treated to pancakes, bacon and orange juice with Santa. The girls loved it.

A couple weeks after Mitch came back, my brother arrived and we all went to the harbor for the parade of lights. We rode bikes down and Seth and Elise came too. The parade was hit or miss as usual but it was fun to be out at night and they had fake snow which Lucy and Josie loved.

Soon after it was off to Colorado for a blissful ten days of snow, snow, snow. We did lots of sledding, helped decorate the big, beautiful, real tree and ate way too many Christmas cookies. My brother was a perfect guest and did lots of cooking and niece-watching. It was great fun to have him with us for Christmas. The girls had a blast opening their presents and even got a second visit from Santa on Christmas Eve night. Lucy went cross-country skiing for the first time and she did great! I got to go for a half hour ski by myself in the quiet of the snow and had a great time.

After a lovely Christmas then we went to San Diego for New Years and had a great time visiting Caitlin, Tim, Tom, Allie and the bunny. The bunny that Caitlin and Tim were house sitting was a big hit with the girls. It is always great to visit the SD crowd - they are all so hospitable, fun to be around, and in general most excellent people. We went to the zoo twice this visit.

That about brings us up to date. Sorry that I am leaving out all the details like how we got the van stuck in the snow approx. 4 times (depending on how you count), seeing all of our cousins and Aunt Judy and Uncle Jerry, and on and on. Maybe I'll remember to write during Christmas next year, but I doubt it.