Christmas Break is here!

Today was my last day at school until the new year! School starts again in 3 weeks, on the 12th, so I'm looking forward to having some time to rest and clean the house....and update the blog.... and clean out some boxes....send some Christmas cards...buy some Christmas presents... and play with Katie.... and visit with Nana and Papa when they get here...


Wow, I'm getting tired just thinking about it all. I might need a vacation from the vacation.

(But I'm not complaining)

Advent Calendar

Mommy: "Katie, what happens when we open all of the boxes?"
Katie: "Santa Claus comes!"

Mommy: "Then what?"
Katie: "Then Nana and Papa and cousins come!"

Katie: "Then Baby Brother comes......and then it's my BIRTHDAY!"


Nice to know that she's got the next 6 months all planned out.

Festival of Lights

Katie and her parents drove down to the Los Angeles Zoo area, where they put up a stretch of Christmas lights along Griffith Park Drive near the zoo. Our friends invited us to go and see the lights. It's usually one of those events that people wait hours in their cars to drive past the lights, and the display is less than one mile long. We went on a weekend where they closed the road to traffic and only opened it to foot traffic. The weather was pleasant and it was a nice visit with friends.

You can see more information and pictures of the displays here: http://www.dwplightfestival.com/2008/html/guide.htm

Snow Day!

Our development organized a Snow Day this week. They trucked in (stop laughing) snow and dumped it on a small portion of our park. It was Katie's first time touching snow and she liked it a lot. She didn't like it when her hands got wet and cold, and she didn't like wearing her gloves, but she liked making snowballs and throwing them at us!

Some kids even brought their sleds, though there wasn't much room to use them. Santa and Mrs. Claus made an appearance in the club house, and Katie wanted to go and see them. They will even pose for pictures with your little ones. Katie waited patiently in line to get to the Jolly Ol' Guy, but when it was her turn, she refused to go near him, not less get on his lap for a photo. Maybe next year.

We walked up to the playground next and played for a while on the slides and ran up and down the hills. It was a little strange to go from playing on snow to playing in the sunshine on the slides!