A very jolly snowman

With a what?!

Glide holiday gala

Nina sings in the Glide choir, so last night we went to their holiday gala to see her. We had to buy Charli a fancy dress - she liked the size 14, so we had to make some adjustments, but we got it for $10, so that was OK. We had a really fun time, and they served all kinds of food and drink, and Rita Moreno and Joan Baez were guest stars. Paula West did a couple of songs; I'd never heard of her, but I loved her first song. I have to go find it somewhere and download it. Also, Chinaka Hodge (another person I'd never heard of) did a fantastic spoken word piece. 

Overall, it was a highly successful evening, and we didn't get home until midnight! Who'd have thought my latest night out in the last 7 years would have been with my 7 year old daughter and her nanny? Go figure!

A season of joy

Lots and lots of joy!

Giving thanks!

This year we had a very short Thanksgiving in St. Louis, due to ticket prices being extremely high if we wanted to fly back on Sunday. To save a LOT of money, we flew back on Saturday instead, early in the morning. However, we still had a great time, filled with lots of fun things to do, and delicious food to eat, and most importantly, wonderful family to be with.

We flew out of a gate that was down a hall at SFO that we had never noticed before - it was like going to Hogwarts. There was some art.

We had a connection in Denver, and after that we were on a small plane with 2 seats on either side of the aisle. We let Charli and Buster sit together - which means Brian and I also got to sit together, and I got a window seat! Wow! Another thing to be thankful for!

We got to St. Louis just in time for dinner, and there was snow! We couldn't play in it that night, but we went to the playground on Thanksgiving morning.

Charli and Buster had a great time playing in the 1/2 inch of snow, although the gloves were hard to work with. And it was cold. Our kids don't know how to handle that really.

Here's Charli showing me the eensy weensy snowball she made. Right after I took this picture, she threw it at me!

Then it was turkey time! We did some serious eating, but you can't really tell from this picture, because the tremendous amounts of food are all in the kitchen, with only very reasonable amounts actually sitting on the table. Peter roasted a non-GMO organic free range never-been-frozen giant turkey; it was incredible. Buster ate 3 servings of pink stuff. Also, if you don't want your cast iron pans to be washed with soap, then don't give them to Bernie to wash.

It was also Katy's birthday! Happy birthday, Katy! Also, if you don't want your super precious family heirloom dessert plates broken, then make sure you serve dessert to Dave on cast iron plates instead. Fortunately, these dessert plates were neither super precious nor family heirlooms!

On Friday it was time to hunt the wily Christmas tree!

John couldn't make it to either Thanksgiving or the Christmas tree hunt, because he was busy quelling riots in Ferguson. Peter had to step up for the hewing of the tree, aided by Buster. Timberrrrr!

Katy also couldn't make it to the Christmas tree hunt, due to work, thus we have a smaller family picture than usual. Jim was there, though, having come back to visit shortly after moving to Wisconsin.

Our family picture is the same size, though.

After another successful tree hunt, it was back to Kelly's for delicious Christmas tree soup! Man, I love that stuff. Charli does, too! Charli is my partner in soup loving - I'm so happy!

We had to leave super early on Saturday morning, but that actually ended up giving us a full weekend at home to accomplish things - like another Christmas tree hunt (not nearly so wily). We will address that elsewhere, though, dear readers.

Pumpkin patch day

Our neighbors recommended a pumpkin patch to us and it was terrific! The kids were disappointed by the lack of jumpy house, but we were warned and rather choose to go there because of that. They had more kinds of pumpkins than I've ever seen at a pumpkin patch before!

Vocation

Charli just drew this great picture!

First day of first grade

Kaneohe house

My uncle Alan has a lovely house with a beautiful Japanese garden. The koi pond is very popular with the kids - Al gives them each a cup of fish food and the fish jump all around.

There might have been some other feeding going on as well...

Aloha girl

We rented a house with a pool right next to Kailua beach, and we're making excellent use of it! Note to self: summer 2014 - Charli learns to swim.

Arthur's Rock

The responsible thing for me to do today now that World Cup Soccer is no longer a distraction would have been to get back to work on my two jobs. But, feeling distracted and restless, and needing to vacate the house so that it could get cleaned, I decided instead to go to Lory State Park (20 minutes drive from Ray and Shirley's) and take a hike. I didn't really intend to climb to the top of Arthur's Rock, but here I sit!

Random Bernal moment...

Maybe it was the perfect day we had today, maybe it was the euphoria of dropping off my taxes to a certified professional and not having to worry about it, but whatever the reason I saw this scene on my walk to the tax guy today and had to snap a photo. I love that this shot is in the middle of a major American city...

Lunch Box!

Chocolate croissant!

Part of the Sunday morning ritual is the savage devouring of chocolate croissants from the Farmers Market. This week, we are mixing that in with a first attempt at pottie training. The croissant went well... The pottie training, not so much...

Piñata, and other winter wonders...

We drove up to Lake Tahoe this weekend to celebrate a 6th birthday. Pictured here are a very well behaved group of youngsters about to go medieval on a sturdy but ultimately doomed piñata. We got precipitation almost constantly while we were there, but it was mostly rain and not snow. Of course, there was snow at the higher elevations as we found out when driving the pass on US50 to get back to San Francisco. Before we even got 1000 miles in our new car, we have now driven it through a winter snow storm complete with mandatory chains!

Maiden Voyage.

We bought a new car! It's a MICROVAN (which is Mazda5 Matketing speak for "well, it's a minivan but it's so small that you can pretend it's just a hatchback). Honestly, it's actually a really cool car and it understands me - I can say "call prickly grandpa" and it dials my dad! Small miracles. Charli had named the car "Lava" because it's red, but that name has not yet cleared the Korin-chaired naming committee.

Anyway, we drove up to the top of Twin Peaks in our new rig on Sunday and I got this great picture...

100 Days!

Today is officially Charli's 100th day of school! Miraculously, she hasn't yet been late...