Wii had a great Christmas!

This was one of the best Christmas's yet! When we got home Thursday night, Jason and I both commented on what a nice day it was. We actually had time to drink a glass (or 2) of wine and chat with the adults at Mom & Dad's on Christmas Day instead of having to entertain/chaperon the children all day. I guess that is a benefit of the kids being older and there being more children to play together. Emma Jo and Grace loved playing with Mays and Dallas. Cooper did too when he wasn't trying to steal their toys.

On Christmas Eve we headed to the winery for a nice family gathering complete with a make-your-own pizza bar. Everyone was well-behaved and the kids were exhausted a ready for bed as soon as we got home. I think the gymnastics camp earlier in the day, and anticipation of Santa coming that night helped to make bedtime smoother for the girls.

Christmas morning the kids were excited to see that Santa had visited during the night. They had been worried that Cooper would wake up and scare Santa away. Everyone was happy that Cooper chose to re-start sleeping through the night on Christmas Eve. There were presents galore on Christmas morning. Some of the favorites were Emma Jo's Ugg boots and beanie hats (3 in all), Grace's matching outfits for her and Alice, Mommy's worm composter and the Nintendo Wii for the whole family.

Everyone enjoyed spending time together as a family over the 4 day weekend. Some of the highlights were playing Dance, Dance Revolution with John and Tracy, going to see the Tales of Desperadoes, playing with the twins, and of course, playing with the Wii.

I'll post photos later this week. And maybe even finally finish our Christmas card.

Letter to Santa

Christmas here we come!

The shopping is all done. The tree is decorated. The lights are strung and the presents are WRAPPED. We are ready for Christmas!

Mom and Dad generously offered to watch the kids overnight on Saturday so that Jason and I could finish our shopping and wrapping. We had a quick trip to Target (I couldn't believe all the cars in the parking lot and the empty shelves in the store). Then we had a great dinner at Willi's Wine Bar in Wikiup and finally we wrapped presents.

Every year I say that I'm going to start the shopping after Halloween and be done the weekend after Thanksgiving, but it seems like every year I don't start until the weekend after Thanksgiving and finish the weekend before Christmas. Usually the wrapping isn't done until Christmas Eve, so I'm pretty happy right about now.

I'm so happy that we finally had a chance to eat at Willi's. I've wanted to go there for years, but we've never found the opportunity. They feature small plates and great wines. Jason and I enjoyed crab tacos, flatbreads, Filet Mignon sliders and short ribs. Each was very good although the short ribs were a little peppery. I ordered a flight of Chardonnay and it was fun to have 3 different 2 ounce pours to sample. Each had a unique favor and I really enjoyed trying something different.

The only thing we haven't finished for Christmas this year is cards. I never captured a picture I was happy enough with to publish as a Christmas Card. I've decided to stop obsessing. Maybe we'll send out New Year's cards instead...

Preschool Christmas Show

Grace Louise had a Christmas show last night. She was absolutely adorable. She has been practicing for weeks and knows all the words to all the songs. I'll try posting videos of a couple of the songs. Here is the first one:

1 year update

Cooper John is a walker! He can easily walk wherever he wants to go. He will occassionally crawl, but is doing so less and less. Cooper has 9 teeth and is getting 3 more molars! He is also starting to vocalize quite a bit. He can say Mommy, Emma, Dada, bye, hi and no-no. He will occasionally wave good-bye and even blow kisses. He loves to clap! He was 23 pounds on his first birthday which puts him right around the 50th percentile. He was at the 50th for height and almost the 90th for head circumference. He is wearing 18 month clothes.

Christmas Tree

Tonight we finally got our Christmas Tree. It was fun to use my new camera and even more fun to see Cooper's amazement at the lights on the Town Green. The girls can't wait to put the lights and ornaments on the tree. Hopefully we can do that on Wednesday night since tomorrow we have Grace's Christmas Program at Preschool.

We survived!

It has been one tough weekend. I don't think we have had everyone in our family healthy since Halloween. This past weekend it was Jason and I who were sick. Thursday was Jason's birthday and he decided to come home early from work. I thought it was coming home to celebrate, but it turned out he was feeling rotten and took a nap. I was feeling about the same but had tons of work to do with the holiday shipping deadline rapidly approaching, so it was a full day of work for me. Friday I was off since Connie was headed to Lake Tahoe for the weekend. Cooper and I did a little Christmas shopping, went to his 1 year checkup (a little late) and then came home for naps. By Friday afternoon I was feeling okay, but Jason was still not feeling well.

Saturday was a quiet day. The kids and I played and got ready for the Christmas tree while Daddy took it easy in bed. In the afternoon, Emma Jo went to the Girl Scouts Elves Workshop while Grace and I got our nails painted. It is always so fun to have one-on-one time with the kids. It doesn't happen nearly often enough and whenever it does I wonder why we don't take the time to do it more often. Grace and I had a lot of fun together. Saturday night the kids and I had pizza and tried to stay quiet so that hopefully Daddy would be better by morning.

Everyone was feeling a little better by Sunday morning. Daddy was up and cooking breakfast and then it was off to the mall. We did all of our shopping for gifts that need to be mailed and came home a started wrapping. Daddy did retreat to the bedroom while we were wrapping, to take a nap and watch some football. We had planned on getting our Christmas tree on Sunday but unfortunately it rained and rained and Cooper took an extra long nap in the afternoon. Those two things made us delay and hopefully get it this evening.

Grammie and Grampa came over for dinner Sunday night, and brought Papa Murphys (thanks!). It was nice to see them and relaxing to sit around and talk about the family and holidays. The girls each sang some songs and showed them their favorite Christmas ornaments. Cooper showed them his moves with his newest "head dance" and clapping. Grammie and Grampa also brought over an early Christmas present for Mommy, a new camera! My old one was been showing its age lately and I'm so excited to try out the new one. Hopefully there will be no more yellow blurs on our pictures! Grandpa picked out the Nikon Coolpix S60. It looks like a great little camera with more features than I could ever use, such an improvement over my Sony SureShot I got when Gracie was born.

First Official Weekend of the Holiday Season

This weekend kicked off the Christmas season for our family. Friday was the big Silver Oak family party. Then Saturday we went on the Polar Express.

In celebration of the completion of the Oakville rebuild, Silver Oak hosted the family Holiday Party in the new winery. The place was beautiful with white lights, red linens, a huge white tent and plenty of fabulous wine. There were activities for the children and a great buffet and dancing for the adults.

Our kids weren't sure what they were most excited about, staying in a hotel, getting their first gifts of the season at the party, or riding on the bus to the winery. The girls were beautiful in their Christmas dresses. Cooper was very handsome in his plaid shirt and sweater vest. He did well at the party but finally pooped out and fell asleep in Jason's arms.



Mommy had too much going on watching the kids and enjoying the party that I forgot to take a family picture.


On Saturday we joined other families from WCA's Girl Scout troups and went on the Polar Express. We departed from Old Town Sacramento on historic train cars. We travelled all the way to the North Pole and saw Santa and his workshop. Santa even came on-board and handed out bells to all who Believe.

Sorry, no good pictures of Grace. She has decided that she doesn't like to have her picture taken.

On the Polar Express Cooper John discovered that he can have a huge audience when he claps. He had a blast clapping for each and everyone who would watch. It is fun to see how people of all ages get a smile from a cute little kid.

Holiday Season

I can't believe Thanksgiving is over and it is already Christmas! The past few years I've been a little bit of a Grinch about Christmas, but this year I am getting excited. The season started with Cooper's First birthday and a great Thanksgiving.

On Saturday, Joe and Bette flew down from Portland morning to come to Cooper's party. It was great spending a couple of days with them and I think they were amazed at how big Cooper is. I was happy that stranger anxiety didn't set in and Cooper let them hold him by the second day. On Sunday we went to Santa Rosa shopping and to lunch. The mall was surprisingly empty but the deals were aplenty. I was able to get the girls shoes and sweaters for the big Silver Oak Holiday party on Friday. I also got a few terrific little "big boy" outfits for Cooper John. Emma found the cutest black velvet ballet flats which she really wants to wear everyday. Can you believe she wears a ladies size 7! She is definitely turning into a little lady!

We all had lunch at Tex Wasabi's, Guy Fieri from the Food Network's BBQ Sushi restaurant. Joe and Bette were excited to find Fried Baloney on the menu. Everything we ordered was delicious (I'll trust Joe about the Baloney).

After lunch it was back to the mall to look for a dress for me. We went to Macy's and I found a great dress for 60% off! I couldn't pass that up. I also got a couple pairs of shoes, one for work and one for the party.

On our way out of the mall we noticed there was no line for Santa. Grace asked if she could go talk to him. She walked right up to him, climbed up on his lap and told him what she wanted for Christmas... matching outfits for her and Alice, and a toy with Ariel.

I'm looking forward to the start of the Christmas season with the Silver Oak Holiday party on Friday and the Polar Express on Saturday. Now I just have to find the time for Christmas pictures and Holiday cards.