Carmel Mission and the beach

We decided to take a little road trip today to visit the Carmel Mission and the beach.  We got kind of a late start and once the kids and I were ready, we still ended up waiting a few minutes for Tom to make it out to the car.  That happens pretty much every time.  We took a selfie while we waited. 

 We hit a lot of traffic and it took a long time for us to make it to the mission.  The weather was nice and the grounds were gorgeous.

 Here's the part of the cemetery honoring all the indigenous people who were buried at the mission.  The crosses each have abalone shells on them.

 Tom enjoyed exploring the mission and got into a long chat with the docent.

 After the mission, we drove less than a mile to the beach.

 It was beautiful and not very crowded.

We had a long drive home with too many cars on the road.  Leo said we spent more time in the car than we did in Carmel and he was right.  But the time we spent in Carmel was lovely and the kids tolerated the car very well.  It's good prep for our Tahoe season just around the corner.

Christmas Present ear piercing (and other special presents)

 Serafina has been asking to have her ears pierced.  She seems a little young to me but she pointed out that almost all her friends already have their ears pierced.  She's right.  Many of her friends already have pierced ears.  Her friend Sunny didn't have her ears pierced either but also wanted to do it.  Tom and I decided to gift Serafina with ear piercing as her main Christmas gift from us.  Sunny's parents did the same, so today we took a group trip to the piercing salon.

Serafina was extremely nervous and asked hundreds of times if it would hurt.  It helped that Sunny (and her big sister Sidney) were with us.

 This is her "before" picture.  She was still able to smile through her nerves.  She was worried but also very excited.

 Going to the piercing salon instead of the mall meant that the piercing was done with a sterile needle, one ear at a time.  It is a lot safer and cleaner than the piercing gun at the mall, but it required my girl to be very brave and she was.

 So happy with her new earrings.

Checking out their new pierced ears. 

 It was a good idea to do it with a buddy.

Leo has been busy doing lots of building - Legos and robots and such.  He's really in his happy place working on these projects.  

He assembled this 630 piece Kylo Ren Tie Fighter in about four hours during which he took bathroom breaks and a dinner break.  He was proud of himself. 

I got a pretty special present this Christmas too.  Tom surprised me with this beautiful sapphire necklace.  I love it. 

I got Tom this special gift this Christmas.  When we were out shopping a few weeks ago, he was disappointed he couldn't find any unique ornaments so I solved that with a little Beck. 

Merry Christmas

My kids were awake way too early on Christmas morning.  I made them stay in the room until a more reasonable hour.  We were still up early, but there was too much excitement.  Serafina's big ask from Santa was gymnastics mats and he came through.  She was so excited and she used them all day long.  

 There were lots of fun presents and a big breakfast.  Then we took a break to FaceTime with Uncle Mike.  I brought Leo's keyboard out from his room so he could play Jingle Bells for him.

 Later in the day, I had Leo play it again so I could get it on video.  He played well and with pizazz.

Aren't they cute?

 When Nana came over she was greeted by this large skinny Santa brought by the man himself.  She collects skinny Santas and he will be a nice addition to the collection.

Our friends, the Smiths, came over again this year.  Here's Lane, Serafina and Emma. 

 The kids did lots of gymnastics on the mats and there was a crazy amount of food.

 Last year, Halle was in her mom's belly still.  This year she was part of the fun and using Serafina's Christmas apron as a bib.

It was a fun and exhausting day.

Christmas Eve

The night before the night before Christmas, Tom created a lasagna bar of ingredients to create not one, but two lasagnas for Christmas dinner.  Once assembled, the lasagnas went into the fridge to wait to be baked up on Christmas day. 

 Yesterday on Christmas Eve, we decorated our traditional butter cookies.

 My mom came over for dinner and Tom made an amazing meal like usual.  I made this French chocolate cake for dessert.  My aunt Sheila sent the kids a hot cocoa kit that included a stencil for designs on the top of the cocoa, but I used it to put snowflakes on my cake with powdered sugar.

Star Wars movie outing

On the first day of Christmas break, we went to see the new Star Wars movie.  

 My mom went with us and took a picture of all of us in our Star Wars apparel.

 We all enjoyed the movie except it was a bit long and way too loud for Serafina.

Once we were home, Serafina and I got to work on making some Christmas cookies to give as gifts to friends.  My mom found this cute apron in her things and thinks it must of been mine.  I don't remember it.  Serafina loves it though.

Christmas Jazz Dance

Serafina's dance class learned a little number today and the parents got to watch them perform it at the end of class.

School holiday parties

Today was the last day of school before the kids' holiday break.  They both had fun class parties and activities planned.  First I went to Serafina's class.  The kids were working on Dreidels even though Hanukkah ended yesterday.  

 The moved on to making snowflakes with pipe cleaners and beads.  Then they had hot cocoa and watched a movie.  Once all the kids had their cocoa and were settled in for the movie, I went to Leo's classroom.  They were having a family potluck with lots of yummy international foods.  I brought cookies I made last night. After eating, they settled in to play a game.

 Each kid got a paper bag and there were enough to go around that the moms got to do it too.  The teacher read a story about "Lefty the Elf" who wanted to get things "right" for Santa.  Every time the teacher said "left" we all passed the bags to the left, and "right" to the right.  It was very fun.

When the story was over, we got to open the bag we ended up with.  There were simple little prizes inside.
The back-to-back parties were pretty exhausting but a fun way to end 2017 with the kids.  They don't go back to school until January 9th.

Other Holiday Fun

Though the Nutcracker seemed to consumer almost all our time and energy for the last two weeks, there have been other holiday happenings.  

On Tuesday, I got to see Santa Maynard, who is my friend Kristi's dad.  I love this tradition and I've seen him the past two years.  It looks like I didn't post last year's picture but that's probably because it was really unflattering for both of us.  Santa Maynard never takes a bad picture.  

Leo's class gave me this holiday gift.

It has all their names on the back!  And it's filled with brownie mix.  I love it but I'm not sure I'll actually use it because I would hate for it to get destroyed.

It's spirit week at the dance studio and Tuesday was pajama day.  Serafina did hip hop in her Grinch onesie.