Gingerbread and Cookie decorating

Just like pumpkin carving earlier this year, gingerbread house decorating required almost no adult help.  They can really deal with these types of activities on their own.  It's strange and wonderful.  Serafina decorated a gingerbread camper.  

 Leo was in charge of the traditional house.

 Since we don't eat those disgusting gingerbread creations, I bought a cookie decorating kit that I thought would be more appetizing.  It wasn't but it was still fun to decorate.

Performance Team at Tree Lighting

We have had stormy, crappy weather for days and days.  Saturday night Serafina was scheduled to perform at an outdoor tree lighting ceremony - rain or shine.  There was lots of rain during the day and I feared it was going to be a wet time watching her.  We got lucky and just had to suffer through wind and cold.  Her amazing teacher came out despite the weather to watch her dance.  It was super sweet of her.  She was Leo's teacher too and is always happy to see him.  Here they are waiting for the show to start.  

She performed the same two dances from the prior event as well as this new hip hop routine.

You can see the tent blowing around quite a bit.

Serafina was so happy to see that Mrs. Chang came to watch her dance.

She has one final holiday performance at the Los Gatos Christmas Parade next weekend and then we are done with winter performances.  They will start learning their spring and recital routines, and the audience will be treated to better weather (I hope).

Thanksgiving with friends and TURKEY!

For the past two years, we've had quiet Thanksgiving meals with just us and Nana and a duck for dinner.  This year we were invited to have Thanksgiving with friends so we jumped on the opportunity to have a more traditional meal where the meat eaters could actually have some turkey.  

Being the Silicon Valley nerds we are, there was a spreadsheet created for signing up for bringing dishes.  Here's Leo prepping some sweet potatoes.  Actually, he only peeled half of one before he got bored and wandered off.  

The table settings were absolutely lovely and not something I could pull off at all whatsoever.  Here's the kids table.  Clockwise from the left, we have Serafina, Lane, Halle, Kaia, Emma, Leo and Cameron.  

 Adult table.  The picture was taken by a kid and features a lot of wall and ceiling.  Clockwise from left: Jeremy, Lizzy, Jen, me, Tom and Joel.

 Tom made three delicious dishes.  Green beans with kale and fried shallots.

 Veggie lasagna.

 Spicy sweet potatoes with maple glazed pecans and harissa paste.  They were the totally hit of the meal, at least with the adults that could handle the spice.

 I made an apple cake and chocolate brownie cookies.  I bought a pumpkin pie because I'm not that great with pie crust.  The hostess, Jen, made a delicious cheesecake and a chocolate mousse pie.  Needless to say, there was a ridiculous amount of desserts but it was really tasty.

We stayed way too late watching sports and a cheesy movie while the kids played and played.  It was a really wonderful evening.

Happy Birthday, Tom!

Big happy birthday to our favorite husband and dad.  I didn't have time to bake him a cake so Trader Joe's to the rescue.  We each had a "cheesecake cone" and they were delicious.  

It was a pretty mellow celebration but since we've gone big for his milestone birthdays like 40 and 50, I think it was a-okay to keep this one low-key.

Performance Team Christmas Performance

This dance season Serafina joined the Performance Team at her dance studio.  It's less intense than the competitive team that participates in dance competitions and has an audition process.  Any interested dancer can join the performance team and the focus is on performing at community events.  Today they had their first performance at a retirement neighborhood called The Forum.  It was a small, low key event, which was perfect for their first performance.  They did their holiday routines and it was really cute.  

 She was so excited to get her team jacket with her name on it.  The back has the studio's name in rhinestones.

The costume top is itchy but pants are really soft.  She's also happy that it's two separate pieces because that makes bathroom breaks easier.  

The team is broken up into smaller groups.  Her group did two routines today. 

First routine.  

Second routine.  

The whole group.  The little kids had an issue with their costume tops so they had to wear white t-shirts until they can be replaced.  

Bowling with Cousin Dillon

My cousin Dillon came to town last night to stay over before heading to Oakland this morning to attend a football game.  When we were planning his visit, he asked if we could go bowling.  He didn't have to ask us twice.  We love bowling.  

 Serafina won the first game.  It was really impressive.

 Apparently Dillon was just getting warmed up because he won the second game.

Dia de Los Muertos at the San Jose Museum of Art

We attended the Dia de Los Muertos event at the San Jose Museum of Art.  We went five years ago and the kids remembered the activities really well.  

 We watched a great dance performance.  Serafna loved the costumes.

 Nana checked out a cool art instillation.

 Then it was time to decorate sugar skulls.

 The results.