My Christmas Present

Dave's present to me this year was a night in San Francisco and a matinee to see The Book of Mormon play.  We dropped the boys off at my dads in Modesto and were off to enjoy the City.  I love San Francisco and always have tons of fun when there.  We decided to ride the BART in to avoid the holiday traffic and ridiculous parking fees.  Our hotel, The Marriott Marque, was in a perfect location right in Union Square.  The BART station took us right to the hotel and we did a little shopping to start the trip.  It's kind of weird shopping alone so I wasn't feeling it on Saturday.  We went back to the hotel to head up to the View Lounge on the 39th floor.  We were a little earlier so we had to wait for the elevator to allow access to the 39th floor.  Good thing we got there early because we were able to get a great view seat.  We could see all the way to the Bay bridge and AT&T Park.  It was such a clear beautiful day.  After a couple drinks and appetizers we headed out for Dave's first ride on a real cable car.  Riding a cable car at night is one of my favorite parts of the City.  We got a great standing spot on the cable car, which makes it much more fun!  We rode all the way to the wharf and walked around down there a bit.  The wait for the cable car return was a little long, but we made it to our next location, a dueling piano bar.  The dueling piano bars are always fun.  We only stayed for a couple drinks because I was exhausted and there were no tables available.  I couldn't stand anymore! 

 

I was in the shopping mood on Sunday so I his a few stores that I've been wanting things from, even started next years Christmas shopping!  After shopping and lunch we walked down to the Orpheum Theater to see the Book of Mormon.  It was hilarious! 

 

We enjoyed our quick 32 hour kid free date in the City!

 

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning is so fun.  Our boys still sleep until their regular wake up time so we don't have to get up too crazy early.  Garrett is always the first up and was super excited that Santa brought him the Xbox One (more on this later) that he asked for and equally excited for the Gatorade water bottle that the pro's use!  Gannon woke to find the Spinner Car Wash he asked for to add to his Thomas Train table. 

 

Lots, and lots of gifts later we headed to IHOP for our tradition of Christmas breakfast!  This is one Garrett started looking forward to a few weeks before when we passed IHOP. 

 

Shane, Nick, Jasmine, and Jack came down for the afternoon opened more presents, ate dinner, and we walked the boys to the park to get some energy out.  It was a beautiful day. 

 

Thankful for Christmas Eve

We've spent Christmas Eve at my Uncle Bob and Aunt Virginia's since we've lived in California, almost 30 years.  This year right before Thanksgiving my Aunt got very sick and was in the hospital for over a week.  She was sent home with medication and an oxygen tank.  My Mom and I were going out to their house a couple of times a week to help Uncle Bob keep the house clean, laundry done, and of course decorate for the holidays (which we do every year).  As Christmas got closer there was a little talk of not having Christmas Eve.  We promised to take on the responsibility of getting everything ready so that we could continue this tradition.  When Taylor got to town we went over and did a deeper clean and wrapped presents.  My Mom and her good friend Carrie and us girls went over early to do any last minute things and Mom helped Aunti Gin get all dolled up for the night.  She looked so great and seemed to feel good too.  Uncle Bob still cooked some of the dinner, but we were just thankful that Christmas Eve we could all be together. 

 

The little kids are getting so big (one in high school now!), but we hope to keep this family tradition alive for all of them. 

 

At the end of the evening Garrett and Gannon spread their reindeer food around and left the cookies and milk out of Santa and were off to sleep.

 

Christmas with Grandpa and Grandma

My grandparents from Oregon are always down at my Dad's for Christmas so we got together on the 23rd to celebrate.  Dad always makes a yummy dinner and the boys love hanging out.  Of course we all get spoiled with gifts.  Garrett loved his over the door basketball hoop and Gannon loves his new scooter.  It seems like life is always crazy busy, but when we do get to Modesto to visit it is always so much fun.  Oh, the Niners were playing too so the guys we really upset that we didn't have enough room for everyone at the table and they had to eat while watching the game!  ha ha

Final Preschool Program

It's hard to believe that this is our final year of having a boy in preschool.  Excited and sad all in one.  Gannon loves his Montessori school (so did Garrett) and loves when we get to visit.  He and his friends learned 5 or 6 songs to perform for all the families.  Gannon was so animated while singing them it was cute.  He is with his teacher Ms. Anne who we will miss next year.

 

Toy Drive Party

Gannon's friend from preschool had a toy drive for the Toys 4 Tots.  His dad works for the fire department and in effort to teach giving they started this annual party last year.  I told Gannon we were going to a party at Braden's house and he was super confused on why we weren't wrapping the present.  I tried to explain that the gift was a kid that may not get presents under their tree.  Still confused!  As we pulled up and walked up to the door Gannon said, "does this kid not have toys?"  Still confused! 

 

It was a fun party for the kids to get together and play and collect lots of toys to give.  The fire truck came by to pick up all the toys and right as the kids got all lined up to put their gifts in the bucket the truck got a call...just kidding they'll be right back!  Round 2 of the fire truck arrival was real.  The kids put all their gifts in the donation bucket and climbed on the truck for a bit. 

 

Teaching the gift of giving! 

 

By Gannon's Request

On one of the shows Gannon watches they made gingerbread houses so he'd been asking to make some.  While at the store I passed by them and knew he'd be a happy kid if I brought this project home.  I was right...he was very excited to put his house together.  Garrett was very upset that part of his gingerbread was broken and pouted for a minute, but when he saw that the frosting hid and fixed the broken piece he was fine.  They had tons of fun putting all the little candy pieces and frosting ALL over the gingerbread houses.  They really wanted to eat them, but we convinced them that we should keep them together for display. 

 

 

Ugly Sweater Party

I love that my husband is fully willing to be crazy for the sake of some entertainment and shock factor.  I often browse Pinterest at night before bed and found this "sweater" and made a mental note that if we got invited to any ugly sweater parties this would be a great one.  Dave was very excited to go to his colleagues party in his sweater!  I bought a red sweater at Goodwill and cut one side off, glued a few Christmas things on it and then the shaving started.  It was seriously almost a fight with the amount of times I had to draw the outline so Dave knew where to shave, I had to draw it at least 15 times.  It was TOTALLY worth it.  He won the ugly sweater contest and strutted around the party proud!

 

First Lost Tooth

Garrett has had a loose tooth since September and it FINALLY feel out!  He didn't seem to play with it much which could be part of the reason it took so long to fall out.  We thought he lose it before we went to DC.  We were upstairs in the morning and he was downstairs and started yelling to us that his tooth fell out.  He was SO excited and it didn't even bleed.  Grandma Nancy had made him a tooth fairy pillow so he was sure to put it by his pillow when he went to sleep.  The tooth fairy came and left behind $2 and lots of fairy dust in her trail.  Garrett was even more excited to see that Sparky left him a note about losing his first tooth!