Grandparents and girls visit

We've had a fun week of visitors in town this week - Nona and Grandpa and cousins Ruth (11) and Naomi (9). They arrived on Boxing Day and will head back to CT tomorrow in the morning; it's been a fun 6 days.

The favorite activity this week has been beach play; we've been to the beach at least five times. Naomi loves to boogie board, and she has Ruth and Monkey close at her heels. Even Roo has gotten in on the action... A big week, ocean-wise, for the Pray Creek kids. I've been impressed with their willingness to brave the cold! Lots of sand play and castles as well.

The girls love the babies and have been doting continually on them, especially the mouse. She has her own full entourage whenever she's awake! Playing pattycake, carrying, and feeding are all much enjoyed. Goose has received ample assistance, hand-holding, and general doting as well. Very cute. We've also done bead-making, In n Out burger runs, street basketball, and the like.

Yesterday we went to the Santa Barbara zoo, about which the girls had heard from their brothers (who were here in November with their mom). It was the most crowded that we have ever seen it during our ten or so visits there, but the 20-minute wait to get in was still well worth it. A big hit was the "sliding hill," pictured, where we remembered to bring our own cardboard boxes for optimal sliding activity. Fun to see the animals too of course.

We celebrated HF's 38th birthday on Thursday night with his chosen meal of burritos and apple fritters from Master's Donuts, his absolute favorite. Happy birthday to a fantastic husband, dad, hunter, pizza-maker, and paddleboarder (to name a few...)!

Scenes from Christmas

We made finger paint and gave it to several family friends as gifts:

Annual Christmas dinner and carol-sing with the Scherreis! So fun (and special blessing that Kim was well enough to participate):

The "big kids" (Monkey and Roo) and I made angels from toilet-paper rolls. Throwback craft from my own youth:

Blowing out the advent candles following our Christmas Eve dinner:

Littlest gets help from siblings in opening a gift on Christmas morning:

The humble birth of our Savior, the timing and circumstances of which may have been surprised His mother, look a bit different to me this side of the mouse's birth. More amazing, even. Come and worship, this year all the more, our newborn King!

Big Bear blizzard

We rented a tiny cabin in Big Bear for the weekend and got to spend some time playing in the snow. We got about a foot during the 48 hours we were there- so fun to watch falling and play in. The big two loved the sledding, especially.

A lot of time goes into outfitting three children 6 and under for snow play, one realizes. Not that we didn't know that, we just don't often have the opportunity to experience it first hand.

The goose was a classic 2-year old - all enthusiasm for snow play, and all falling down, whining, and wanting to be held once out there:

HF built a snow quincy with the monkey; here baby Santa Claus perches in front of it for her sole 5-minute stint in the winter wonderland:

Don't get views like this too often in these parts:

I'm dreaming of a California Christmas...

We're awash in Christmas activities over here and greatly enjoying it. The two oldest being 4 and 6 this year really gives the season some legs, and it's all taking off. This year for our gingerbread house, HF wanted to make it from scratch, so we tackled the 3-part project last week. True to form with him as the project-coordinator, it all went swimmingly and was a big hit. Thursday the kids and I made the dough, Friday the cut and baked the forms (using this recipe and measurements), and Saturday we assembled and decorated - using leftover candy from Halloween, I might add. Fantastic use for it. Big hit, and everyone was happy. Last year we decorated our house the day before our firstborn and I got the stomach flu, and every time he looked at the house poor monkey would say it made his stomach hurt. (I could relate.) He remembered that and was worried, but thankfully we've had no such trouble this year.

Friday I took the monkey and Roo, along with 22 other moms and young kids from our homeschool groups, to a one-hour long "community outreach" performance of Act 2 of the Nutcracker. It was somehow my first time ever seeing any of the performance, and I adored it (as did Roo for the first 25 minutes, after which she became a bit bored, as any 4-year-old might at a ballet.) Monkey, on the other hand, told me afterwards that it was "terrible," and "for girls," adding, "Mom, can I never go to the Nutcracker again?" Classic.

This year is our first having a full-size tree instead of one sitting atop our living room table. We got it Saturday, decorated it Sunday, and knocked it over today (for the first time, at least). Learning opportunity? Here's hoping.

Christmas crafting

I'm coming along in my crafty mom endeavors... Thank you Pinterest!

The kids had a ball doing these "stained glass" Christmas trees yesterday, even Goose, and it was super easy.

Beaches, not blizzards...

It's been a windy few days here in so Cal... We attempted a beach day with the Jamisons on Thursday but it was too windy, so we hit a park nearby instead. A fellow playground-player asked me if we were a daycare center (fair question, given the 9 children that Christie and I have between us). Funny to be even considering a beach outing on December 1 as Advent's gearing up, but such is life in these parts.

In other (beach-related) news, HF is taking up stand-up paddleboarding. He went for the first time on the day after Thanksgiving with our New England friend Grant, and (like Grant) he was immediately hooked. He bought Grant's old board and has been building himself the perfect paddle in the garage all week, happily "with project" again for the week. [Note that the nearby image is not HF, in case there was any confusion, but rather a random photo I pulled off the web to give an idea of what stand-up paddleboarding looks like...]