Slideshows of Christmas

Instead of posting a bunch of pictures, Jules put together a nifty slide show for all to see...

to check out our Christmas Day, click here!

to check out Christmas Eve, click here!

If you loved this, you might want to check out last year's photos and see how the girls have grown!!

xmas 2005
xmas eve 2005

Christmas Days with p & m

We've been having all kinds of fun this week, from art projects to wrapping presents to working hard on christmas cards.
Here Penelope and her friend Ainsley diligently play piano at their lesson. She's getting really good and learned how to play "jingle bells." i love it.


2 year old Millie is fascinated with all things Christmas, and especially our Christmas tree. Unfortunately a few ornaments have been sacrificed in the name of 2 year old enthusiasm...



Millie elf out shopping with uncle Jeffrey...


I gave the girls some art supplies early so they could make some projects for the grandparents... penelope worked hard on pictures and cards for her grandparents while Millie thought painting HERSELF might be a little more creative. Did I run to wash her off? No! I ran for a camera!!!




No school means fun fun fun! We love when there is no school, because that means fun trips with Babcia to places like the Nut Tree! This was a special destination for me as a child, but unfortunately the only thing that is the same is the name. ah well.
Of course no family outing is complete without a trip to Starbucks!



Penelope LOVED the hobby horses (I rode them as a child!) and of course the Elephant on the carousel.









Jeffrey and I had a blast on the little roller coaster...

Snow, in Pleasant Hill?

Penelope keeps asking me to tell her stories that have a "miracle" in them, and once I told her the story of the little kitten who wanted snow in Pleasant Hill, so she went to santa to ask him for snow. This morning it really looked like snow... the frost was covering all the grass on the golf course and the entire ground was white. For those of you blog fans on the East Coast I know you are chuckling because we get so excited about anything remotely resembling snow, but for you Californians you know how exciting it is. Even Brett commented about it this morning and we both said, remember when it DID snow here? in NINETEEN SEVENTY-FIVE! Yea, we both vividly remember, we were totally little kids but it was the ONLY time it ever snowed at our house. So there you go. I remember I had to wrap socks on my hands because I didn't even own a pair of gloves.



I found Penelope's old Santa suit when SHE was 2 years old, and Millie immediately wanted to put it on and be Santa.... She donned the hat and rode on Rudolph and sang the song. It was adorable. 2 is so fun.



Penelope just adores her aunt Jules, fantastic photographer gal that she is, and wants to be a photographer just like her (in fact, Penelope and Millie are featured on her blog today! www.julesbianchi.com/blog). So she got ahold of my digital camera and went to work. Here are some samples:

Penelope's Holiday KIndergarten Concert

Penelope's class practiced for weeks on the old classics like "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and "Feliz Navidad." I was planning to go with Brett, but when Penelope asked all the grandparents to come it became quite an event!! Everyone came over for soup, bread, and cookies and then we headed over to Valhalla for singing! It was so fun! How cute to watch 90 5 year olds singing their hearts out.

christmas elves!

Check out the following links... so funny! I am not sure how to make the links clickable here... so just cut and paste them in your browser...

Penelope Elf
http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=714dab5919bd4122f78ea3eG06121520

Jackie Elf
http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=f2add72cf9cec9355a85466G06121608


Kaley Elf
http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=856faf967d8c03f3f99c6e7G06121708

San Francisco with the Graysons

David Hirata is a fantastic magician, and he was having his first Holiday Show in a long time! My good friend Tiffany and I gathered up the troops to take them down to the Mission District in San Francisco to watch the show. It was a great show, and a fun trip! The kids loved the BART train, and we had so much fun catching up and sharing delicious crepes after the show. mmm. The trip itself was magic too... everything seemed to work out just perfectly. We got to the theatre perfectly on time, it started raining only AFTER we were already inside the resteraunt, and stopped as we walked back to BART, and the train pulled up just as we walked up to the station! How perfect is that?

Penelope adores Anna... Anna is in 1st grade, so she can give Penelope the scoop on next year. The whole ride on the train, Anna told stories... Penelope was in heaven!


Tiff and Alex

visiting santa

Ok, ok, i know i owe you a post. What is Christmas without the obligatory traumatization of the 2 year old? Ah yes, the yearly trip to visit the scary white beard guy. This year Penelope was actually into it and had a good conversation with Jolly Ole Saint Nick. My dad's Real Estate Office has a fantastic program where they host Santa right from the North Pole, give out treats, presents for the kids, and a free 5x7 photo with Santa! It is really fun, and my dad loves to show off his grandkids. Who can resist that?



Even Millie braved a "high 5" to hopefully guarantee herself some goods on Christmas night.


A little trip down memory lane... a visit to Los Angeles in January of 2006, almost a year ago now. My good friends from college and also from Azusa Pacific, where I spent 8 years working pre-kids!!