Christmas without Daddy

 Well we survived Christmas without Daddy.  It was in fact a wonderful day but with moments of quiet where I missed my friend and husband very much.  I wanted him to be there to see the joy on his boy's faces as they opened their stockings and gifts.  They are at such a magical stage and I didn't want him to miss this.  It is also just a fact that you want to be with the ones you love all the time but even more so at Christmas.  All those sappy Christmas songs never affected me before this year, but I found myself switching the station on the van radio more than once on our road trips.

Where were we for Christmas you might ask?  After a visit to Redding to see Grandma and Grandpa, and a magical few days with my sister in Oakland, we came over to Mariposa to spend a week or two with my parents.  We also had my two oldest nieces join us here for a Christmas.  My oldest sister moved to Morocco this summer so they were left without the traditional home to return from college. The boys loved having their giant cousins around. 

Literally the hour we arrived here, Mom had a leap in the Polaris and run around delivering Christmas cookies to their neighbors.  We sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" at each door. They live way out in the country so the neighbors were rather surprised to find us at their door.  We made quite the motley crew as my parents are in their 70's, my nieces are two towering blondes at 5.9 and 5.11 and then two little brown boys and myself.    One neighbor had really gotten overwhelmed with some sad events in her life and let her beautiful yard go to the weeds.  We offered to come back the next day and help her out.  We did just that and spend two hours weeding, raking, mowing and hauling to make her yard look beautiful once more.  It is one of my favorite Christmas memories as the neighbor was so touched and you could tell it meant the world to her that we did this. 

Here is Babu helping the boys with an old Erector Set.

 The beautiful wood stove that kept us all warm. 

 Christmas Eve we went to the local Lutheran church to join in their Candlelight Christmas Eve service.  The boys did amazingly well and sat still for almost an hour.  It was all worth it in their minds as they got to hold their own candles for the last song.  I thought Nati was going to burst with excitement. 

When we got home we once again did the squishy present on Christmas Eve. This time we included all the grown ups so we all got new PJs.

The boys in their new footie jammies.  Yared is going to have to give up footies soon as it is hard to find his size, but he loves them so much.

 Mom and the big girls in their new PJ's.

 Nati wouldn't pose with everyone this time but wanted you to see his monkey ears.

 The stockings laid out for Santa.

 I normally feel like a tall girl until I am around these two.

 Christmas morning we let the big girls sleep until 7 and then we released the little boys into their room. 

We came out and found a note from Santa that said, "To the two good Little boys staying here.  I was too tired after my long night and the chimney looked too small so I am taking a little nap in the round house near by.  Please let me sleep until after breakfast and then come wake me up."  Both boys knew it was Babu but Nati still has enough childness in him that he isn't quite sure what to believe and was all excited to wake Santa up.

 Cherith opening her stocking.

 Mariah with hers.

 I got a cool new scarf from Ben in my stocking.

 Mom got fake moustaches in her stocking and had to model them.

 After breakfast we walked down to the Yurt to find Santa.  My dad did a great job with a fake snoring and Nati was in hysterical giggles as we walked down.

 Mom was hiding in this box and then Yared had to do it too.

 We have a similar picture from last year when my parents dressed up for the boys in Norfolk

 The family shot.

 My little brown Santa.

 The boys got each other presents and Nati chose this Superman notebook for Yared.

 Nati got a bubblegum holder from Yared and they both LOVE this.

 I know this is blurry but he was jumping around in sheer joy.  He has wanted this motor home for about a year now.  I am so glad we got it.  He loves it.

 Christmas dinner table with Christmas crackers.

 The cousins.

 Super hero masks were also a big hit. In the background is Miner Bob, a family friend.  We have spent many a fun afternoon down on the Merced river at his mine and home.  He now lives in town and didn't have anywhere to go for Christmas so we were glad he came home with us to have dinner with us.  The boys enjoy his silly jokes.

Toys, toys, toys.

 Mariah was a good sport playing pretend with the boys.  This is just before the big girls left us today to visit friends in San Francisco. They will be missed. 

Another great Christmas full of good memories, but we are already looking forward to next year when we will have Daddy home with us once again. 

Ice Skating and Sunsets

Those of you wondering about the flurry of blog entries this week can give credit to Ben and to school vacation. I find I am much more likely to blog when I am not teaching Yared as well as being full time single Mommy.  Also Ben mentioned that seeing our Christmas adventures makes him feel a part of them so you can expect even more in the next week:)

Last night I caught some shots of the San Francisco bay from my sister's deck.  She has an amazing view and I was super proud of these two pictures.  

 This is a zoomed in shot of Alcatraz island.  How cool to say you can see that from your deck.

 We had promised the boys that we would take them ice skating and Nati was NOT going to let us forget this.  It was quite the feat taking three small children on the ice when none of us adults were stellar skaters ourselves.  I mean we can all ice skate just fine if we weren't being dragged down, knocked down, tripped or pulled over by kids.  I was desperately missing Ben here as he is great on the ice and takes over teaching whatever child is most likely to knock me down.  I had the giggles so bad but I was also hunched over helping Nati while I had the giggles so I literally think I hurt by back from laughing.  Who does that?  Me.  I was so tired at the end that when I put Nati down to sleep for a nap I feel asleep too and woke up with a Ferris Buller line of drool across my face.  I felt every day of my 40 years today:).  But it was fun and the kids had a blast.  I am not sure why as none of them did a super job.  Yared was able to go on his own but it was a  kind of skate shuffle thing that led to a face plant every so often but he loved it.

My sister skating Jo Jo.

 How Yared spent the first 20 minutes.  I got to give him credit he is TOUGH.  He just kept going.

 Me and my merry men.  See my manic grin.  I was having fun:).

 He is definitely the easiest to skate with.

 Action shots of Nati bringing uncle Tom down.  He did the same thing to me too.  As I lay next to him he looked at me, smiled and said, "I took you down Mommy."

 Yared during the last half and hour.

 Family Shot.

 Another fun day with our Bay Area family.

Christmas in the Cily

Today was a day I had been planning for awhile now.  We were driving this year through some city or other and the boys saw a subway system.  They wanted to know all about it, so I decided there and then that we would go on BART next time we got up here to Oakland to visit my sister.  It was as extremely fun and entirely exhausting as I thought it would be.  I LOVED it.  The kids loved it.  

We road the BART into San Francisco.  Here we are waiting for the train. We thought it would be really cold but it turned out to be a stunningly beautiful day in the city.  

 First stop was Union Square to see Macy's giant Christmas tree.  The boys were suitably impressed.

 We watched the ice skaters.  We promised the boys we would take them to a bigger rink in Oakland later in the week.

 We stopped in a fancy hotel to see their giant castle made of sugar.  It was rather impressive.

 Next we waited in line to catch the Cable Car.  A trick I learned when I lived here was to NEVER wait in the long line down at the BART but to walk a few blocks up and then catch it.  It served us well today and we caught the first Cable Car that went by.

 My sweet niece doesn't like hugs much or pictures but faithful posed for this one.

 Cool Shot.

 From the Cable Car.

 He got to stand on the way to Fisherman's Wharf and was enthralled.

 Well you can't go to the pier without going to Ghirardelli.  We got free samples!!

 The were dressed matching without even planning it.

 Playing in the sand was a highlight.

 I caught a smile!!!

 Big jump.

 Young at heart forever!!  I love my big sister.   This was in honor of our bigger sister who takes these sort of family pictures.

My mothership!!

 Waiting to take the Cable Cars back and watching the Golden Gate.  I do love this city.

 Coit tower and Lombard street - you can't see the street but it was there.

 We were one tired bunch by the time we caught BART back.  Entertaining themselves.

 Where is my train.

It was a special day full of amazing weather and good memories.  It also brought back a lot of other memories of my trips to the city when I lived near by.  It really was a lot of fun but it sure requires a lot more energy to take three small kids to a city than to go with just adults:).