Christmas Break with Gigi

Gigi has been here since December 21st and is here for the entire break. We have had a lot of fun playing board games, watching movies and listening to stories of Matt's childhood and his ancestory. The first several days were really cold and rainy so it was a good way to pass the time and let Gigi recover from her cold. Although, we did make it out for a day of bowling before Christmas.

Trevi Bowling Alley

Since Christmas the weather has been much better and Gigi feels good. We headed to SD for the day, driving along the coast from Carlsbad to downtown SD. We stopped to watch the kite surfers in Cardiff (so fun!) and ate lunch in La Jolla. We walked around the Gaslamp Quarter, stopped for ice cream at Ghiradelli chocolate shop and toured Petco Park. It was the first sunny day.

Kite surfers in Cardiff

Then today, we took the girls hiking at Santa Rosa Plateau while Matt got stuff done around the house. I even wore a tank top it was so warm! We hiked on the Trans Preserve Trail about 2 miles to the Adobe Houses. There were beautiful views of the snow capped mountains and great open meadows. Gigi panicked when she saw the mountain lion warning signs, but we all agreed she would be our shield since she was the oldest (HA! HA!).

The houses were an interesting look at local history and a nice shady spot to rest our feet. I thought we might struggle getting Allison back to the car on the 2 mile hike back, but we bribed her with a trip to 7-11 for a slurpee if she could make it without whining. It worked!

Beautiful snow capped mountain view at Santa Rosa Plateau

Merry Christmas!

The kids think they heard Santa on the roof and Santa eating cookies, but they were too scared to investigate. At about 6:45, they jumped in our bed to tell us all about it and couldn't wait

to run downstairs. They made a quick stop to Gigi's room to make sure she was awake and then they headed down with lightning speed.

Taylor spotted her stocking along with Wii Outdoor Challenge and pink soccer sock and shin guards. Allison jumped right on her new mountain bike and then siffed through her stocking. They spent some time scratching off all of their lottery tickets(we had a few winners) and sorting through the goodies. After a break for banana bread and coffee, the present opening was underway. I loved all of my new clothes and the soccer bag and accessories Matt got me as I prepare to coach this spring. It was a creative idea. Matt loved his new tennis racket, Snow Summit gift card, Vans and many other thoughtful gifts. Taylor jumped for joy when she opened her very own pink digital camera and Allison spent most of the day watching movies on her very own portable DVD player. They also loved the tennis ornament and golfer ornament from Gigi and the many other gifts under the tree from friends and family.

The rain came down all day, so it was the perfect lazy indoor day. Matt prepped the turkey, Geri and I prepared the sides and we had several hours to relax watching Karate Kid, taking naps, calling out of town family and friends and doing Sudoku.

Dinner was delicious and the clean up was quick, so we opened up a new card game called Blink and played until bedtime. It was a very blessed day!

Christmas Eve

After a quiet morning of baking banana bread, watching tv and playing games, the day got very exciting at about 3:00. Santa called our house! Taylor panicked and was too nervous to talk to him, but Allison came running down the stairs. Santa told her that the reindeer had been eating too much and were getting a little chubby. He also said he was loading up his sleigh and getting ready to head out for the night. He thought he might have a bike in the sleigh just for her. She chuckled every time he said "Ho, Ho, Ho" and had the biggest grin on her face. Santa is on the phone!

After all of that excitement, we rushed to get ready for 4:30 church. It was a festive service full of Christmas carols, a very meaningful message and a candlelight ceremony at the end. It is my favorite service of the year.


Then it was off to Harry's for what has become our traditional Christmas Eve meal. Gigi is in town with us for the holidays so it was extra special.

The kids were excited to get home to open a present, put out cookies and milk for Santa and put reindeer food in the grass out front. Taylor opened up a fuzzy pair of black slippers and Allison opened up some posters she can use when she plays teacher. They headed upstairs to start playing. We will try to get them in bed on time because they have a big day tomorrow!

Team Bonding

Tonight the All-Star team got together for a little bonding off the field with a cookie and ornament exchange. We have girls from several different schools, so it was a nice way to get to know each other away from soccer. Although Coach Charlie managed to fit in a 1/2 hour of soccer strategy and analysis from this weekend's round robin. After he finished the soccer talk, the girls ate popcorn and goodies, drank hot cocoa and watched the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Taylor and Emily snack on popcorn, cookies and candy canes.

They finished off the night with an ornament exchange. There were several soccer ornaments in the bunch, but Taylor got this cute snowflake that looks like it was made out of gingerbread. They all laughed when Coach Charlie opened up his flying pink pig ornament!

I Guess I'll Look for a Condo...

Well, I got another great Allie-ism while sitting with her in the hot tub tonight. She asked me if I had ever been divorced. I told her that I had not, but said "Why do you want me to?" Her reply cracked me up. "No, that would mean Taylor and I would have to take turns living with you and Dad. Dad would have to live here because he knows how to fix things. I guess you would have to move to a condo." Gotta love the logic!

All-Stars Round Robin

Today was an exhausting trial run for Taylor's U10 All-Star Team. They played their 1st games together as a team and had a lot of fun. The league put together a mini tournament between the TVSA All-Stars and the Hawks teams. Our girls have been practicing for weeks and have really come together. We started with a 10:00 game against the Hawks U10 team and then played again at 12:15 and 2:25 against their U9 and U11 teams. Although we lost all of the games, we told the girls they had a lot to be proud of. The other teams have been playing together for an entire year and this was our 1st outing. It was good practice for our tournaments in January against other All-Star teams. The team with Coach Charlie

Taking some warm up shots

Coach Charlie gives last minute encouragement and the line up



Taylor and Emily are so happy to be playing together

U10 All-Stars

Before game #3, the girls learned a cheer that I'm sure will stick for the remainder of the games. While standing in a circle with their arms around each other, they jumped up and down and chanted the following...

"Mirror, Mirror on the wall. Who's the fairest of them all? Pretty girls don't play ball. So let's get UGLY!"

It was so cute to watch and the smiles on their faces were priceless. I told Taylor to embrace all of these fun times with her teammates and not worry about wins or losses. I think she saw that today!

Holiday Open House

Well, we can't help but be in the holiday spirit after today's Holiday Open House. Matt and I joined Allison in her class for an hour of crafts and activities. There were stations throughout the room as we made our way around.


Matt and Allison began with this fun foam Santa and his Sleigh craft. I think Daddy did most of the work, but it sure is cute!

I helped make the reindeer food out of oatmeal and sprinkles. We will save this for Christmas Eve so we can put it in the grass for Santa's reindeer. We were also busy making a picture frame, making Santa out of Nutter Butter cookies, icing and sprinkles and playing the dreidel game with pretzels. Then Matt and I rushed off to get a good seat for the singing performance in the multi-purpose room. Each grade level sang songs at different times throughout the day. 1st grade performed at 10:00.

Allison with her buddy, Lorien

The class dressed in their winter clothes and sang holiday songs from around the world. I wish I had video taped it because Allison is always one of the loudest and most animated!

Then it was Taylor's turn at 11:30. Her class also dressed in winter gear and sang several holiday songs. Unfortunately for us, the upper grades didn't have classroom activities with the parents. I think those days are over, but it was nice to hear them sing. They were headed back to class to wrap our Christmas presents, watch a movie and have a class holiday party. It will be a nice way to welcome in the Christmas break.

Taylor and Mrs. Atkinson

Cool Yule

Until Taylor's chorus performance, I did not know what Yule meant. After a little research, I discovered that it means the time from Dec. 24-Jan.6 and is considered a winter festival. Who new? It sure made for a cute theme to this year's chorus performance, "Cool Yule". After what seemed like hundreds of hours of before school and after school practice, the kids performed yesterday and today for the students and will perform again tonight for the parents. The show was packed with festive songs, cute choreography and even the principal lip syncing and dancing. We even had an appearance from Santa Claus to the WROCK radio station (the setting of the show). Taylor sang her heart out and did a very cute dance to Jingle Bell Rock. She was part of Billy Holiday and the Mistletoes. I know she will be so relieved after tonight's show. I don't think she can stand to sing "Winter in the Country" one more time!

Taylor with her friend, Cassidy

Santa takes calls from the radio audience

Taylor is on the far right, dancing to Jingle Bell Rock

Giving Back

Several weeks ago, Taylor's girl scout troop cut out angels and labeled them for the Christmas angel program at our church. Church members picked up the angels, purchased gifts and returned the packages to the church. All of the gifts were then stored at the old Bassett furniture location in town. Today, some of our troop met there to sort the gifts and get them ready for distribution. It was a great community service project and powerful for the girls to see how lucky they are. Some families just wanted jeans or shoes, grocery store gift cards or diapers for their babies. We often takes all of this for granted. We hope the families will find some relief this holiday season.

Hannah, Brynn, Savannah, Rachel, Taylor & Allison

Festive Weekend

Last night was the 1st of 4 performances for Taylor's school choir. They performed at the Creche Festival and did a wonderful job. Unfortunately, Taylor was standing right behind the podium, so we weren't able to see much of her. Hopefully, she will have a better spot at the school performances next week. The kids did a great job and made the parents and school very proud.

This morning, the girls wrote their letters to Santa and we headed to Old Town for our annual tradition. Allison really wants a new "big girl" bike like Taylor and gloves and a hairbrush for her stocking. Taylor is starting to feel a little too old for this as she said to me, "I don't want to sit on his lap. Can't I just hand him my list?" This could be the last "Santa" photo I get with her, but she is asking for Wii Outdoor Challenge, red ballet flats and pink soccer socks. We'll see if Santa can pull it off!

We can thank our neighbors, Chip and Teresa, for another event which has become an annual tradition. For the past few years, they have taken the girls to look at Christmas lights in their convertible Mustang. They bundle up in all of their winter gear, listen to holiday music, look at the amazing lights and stop for a yummy dessert. Unfortunately, this year they had to take the Excursion because tonight was one of the coldest nights of the year and the rain was coming down. That won't take away from their fun!

Where Is My Christmas Spirit?

After a week in Hawaii, it was tough getting in the Christmas spirit. The shopping, decorating, baking, Christmas cards, etc can be so overwhelming. I spent the week making lists of things that needed to be done and actually accomplished quite a bit this week. Shopping is done, gifts are wrapped, cards are filled and addressed and baking supplies are purchased. Today, Matt pulled the tree out of the attic and we checked decorating off the list. Over the years, we have gotten quite a bit of grief for having a fake tree, but it was the best decision. No tree lots, no fitting the tree in the stand, no needles or sap and no worries of the tree dying before Christmas. This is Taylor's favorite part. She sorted all the ornaments, making sure each had a hook.
Allison helped decorate the lower half of the tree.

The finished product is always a sight to see and it has finally put me in the Christmas spirit. The baking is all that is left and is actually the job I enjoy the most. The next few weeks will be very festive with Chorus performances, holiday open houses, Christmas light viewing and church services. Let the countdown begin!

Christmas Party at Painted Earth

Last night was Taylor's Girl Scout Christmas party at Painted Earth. I thought the girls would all paint a Christmas ornament, but many chose mugs or little animal figurines. Taylor chose a cute penguin and added a festive candy cane on its belly. Whatever works! The girls enjoyed some cookies and juice and shared stories about each other's schools. It was a fun way to celebrate the season.

Does the tooth fairy come to Hawaii?

Allison had the wiggliest tooth during our entire vacation. We kept trying to get that thing out and even told her the tooth fairy probably leaves something special in Hawaii. Although that sounded pretty good, I don't think she wanted to lose it until she got back home and could use the tooth fairy pillow that Taylor uses and that I used to use. I think she got the best of both worlds because she lost the tooth in the Honolulu airport yesterday. It was hanging by a thread and Daddy couldn't take it anymore. One tug with a tissue and it was gone. It sure makes for a good story!

Thanksgiving in Maui

Aloha! What an amazing vacation. Sure is tough to be back to reality. We took the kids to Maui for their Thanksgiving break. They had been years ago, but this would be the 1st trip that they would remember. We booked our flights back in January and they have been practicing their snorkeling skills in our pool since then. We spent the week at our timeshare in Kahana and had such a memorable time!
I think the highlight was our kayaking trip that took us out into the open ocean. We anchored our kayaks and snorkeled with the sea turtles. We must have seen at least 20! Instead of a traditional Thanksgiving feast, we headed to the Old Lahaina Luau for Kalua pig and turkey and all of the traditional hawaiian side dishes. The girls loved their virgin Lava Flows and the macadamia nut brownies for dessert.
We loved our hiking excursions to the IA'O Valley and the Nakalele Blowhole and enjoyed our dinners at Bubba Gump's, Leilani's, Kimo's, Cheeseburger in Paradise and Maui Tacos. We were sure to leave room for ice cream at Scoops. I love the Coconut Macadamia Chocolate Fudge!
We knew the girls loved the trip because each day Taylor would wake up and say "We only have 6 days left!" She did the countdown all the way to 0 days left. At dinner on Friday night, I asked Allison if she was ready to see her teacher and friends. She burst out in tears saying " I don't want to go home". We all had mini breaksdowns at the table.
We have grown to love so much about Maui in our many trips there and look forward to making more memories as a family.

Kapalua Beach

Snorkeling on our kayak trip

Hiking the blow hole

IA'O Valley

Cheers to a great vacation!