Sleepover...

We had a cousin sleepover the night before we left CA.

The boys brought Legos and Beyblades.

We went out to have pizza and then drove to San Juan in hopes that

our favorite Christmas lights were still up

Lauren snapped a few pictures with my phone

after a breakfast of eggnog french toast, it was back to the games

until the moms got there.

Love these guys!

Les Miserables...

Hubby and I saw this last night (finally).  There are no words to 

describe it.  I had heard a very short version of the book years ago,

the original is 1440 pages long, so I knew the story.  This

film left me speechless and very tearful from the first chord.

I was actually surprised how much hubby also liked it.

This might be a good time to tackle the book on Kindle (free since it's a classic).

Holiday Open House...

for the last few years we've had an Open House at the MH

once we get to San Clemente.  This is the perfect time for us to

get to see and visit with people that we might not normally see

while we're here.

To make it simple, I just go to Trader Joe's and get a bunch of 

pupu's and egg nog.  Easy that's for sure. Hubby says it's a 

good time to use all of my Spode pieces too!

Some of the stars I ordered from Piggy and Dirt look beautiful on the 

new lamp.

Since I always seem to forget to take photos until everyone is gone, once I

thought about it I got a few pics as people were leaving.

Glad we got to see people and hope to see those we missed next year!

Christmas Dinner, 2012

After a little rest (nap) we returned to Traci's for dinner.

The kids had been working on their toys all afternoon...

Jack built most of his Legos,

Lauren's Mia was perfecting her gymnastics,

the table had been set

When the other grands arrived,

Emme was entranced by Lauren's Lego houses.

the cooking continued,

 with these three the experts

 Dinner was ready and Miss Emme had her

first taste of sparkling cider

the orange rolls were perfection

as was "the" green bean casserole

these two were excited to eat

 after dinner there were more presents to be opened

a quick family photo for these new homeowners

the girlies got dolls

the boys got some wheel things (not sure what they're called)

and a very, very quick shot of us with our grands that light up our life.

It was a wonderful Christmas spent with the ones we love.

Christmas Morning 2012...

Our Christmas Day starts early in the morning.  Since Traci lives closer to the 

MH, we start our day there.  We like being at Traci's when 

the kids come down in the morning.  

Lots of Legos for Jack,

Kindle readers,

Poppa was happy with his favorite show videos

 after a yummy breakfast, there were Legos to be made and

we headed to Aliso to look over everything that Santa brought.

There were castles, kitchens and 

books to be read

A LaLa backpack and a house for them

and learning to to use a ruler.

to be continued (after a short rest)...

I Love...

putting out my Christmas dishes,

random decorations,

Spode Christmas Trees,

my Santas

even the "retro" tree outside on the lanai.

I love Christmas!

Decorating the tree, 2012...

the Grands decorate our tree at the MH.  

The just go at it.  There are very few breakable ornaments on this tree, so they just

have fun.

Lauren helped poppa put the tree together earlier in the day.

Emme really was into it

the boys talked about almost every ornament

Emme got to put the star on the top this year...this reminds of the tree in the "Grinch"

a shakka 

a concert to end the evening

the finished product...a little heavy on the lower end