Catching Up

Thanksgiving to Christmas and beyond has been an absolute whirlwind!  I don't know why it's been so very busy, since we haven't really DONE anything terribly big, but I'm exhausted...

The first few weeks of December were busy with shopping, swim meets, and lots of end-of-the-quarter events at the schools.  The twins had a cookie dough distribution, Josie had a Holiday party, Luke had Mission Day at school (his class reenacted several aspects of life in the California missions in the late 1800s)...  So there were many special volunteer opportunities for me besides my usual Wednesday morning...

Improv solos in the jazz band

One big event was the twins' winter concert.  Steven plays in three groups- the intermediate band for alto sax, and the clarinet in the advanced band and jazz band.  Isabel plays the trombone in advanced and jazz band.  They had improv solos in jazz band, and Steven had a few measures of a solo in the advanced band.  They were nervous, but did a good job.

Since I was there very early to help pass out programs, I was able to score them each a much-coveted cake pop made by one of the band directors.  This was by far the most exciting part of the concert for them!  The cake-pops...

Water vapor rising from the heated pool (80 degrees).

Two weekends in December were occupied by swim meets.  Steven had the Junior Olympics swim meet on the first weekend. He did well and "dropped time", which is to say he got a little bit faster.  The water was heated, but still chilly when the temperature outside at the start of the meet was around 35 degrees. Brrrrrrr.  Luckily things warmed up to the 50s eventually...

Swimming the 200 breast without a cap.  He *almost* missed this race.  No time to put his cap on. 

Time to Fly.

Flying right along...

The second weekend of December also was taken over by a swim meet.  This time Izzy and Steven both swam.  It was an indoor meet which usually favors them, given their background in indoor swimming.  Steven did improve in several events, but Isabel seems to have transitioned to the chilly world of outdoor swimming.  She did improve some times, but it is so hard to "drop time" in the 50-yard events.  She keeps on trying to get that JO time in the 50 free!!  She'll get it one of these meets!  She is really close...

All business...

Not to be left our from the sports blitz, Josie took her taekwondo test for her yellow senior belt.  Testing has been a nerve-wracking event for her...  She has to do all the kicks, the punches, and the form...  But the hard part is breaking a board with a kick, and answering a question in front of the entire class, parents, and the board of instructors...  The test has been just too much pressure for her, and she had to retake it for the white belt and the first yellow belt.  This time, she was all business.  Third time's a charm maybe?  She broke the board on the first try, and she answered a pretty tough questions without hesitation...  The instructors were so impressed with her.  They awarded her the "Most Improved" from the group.  She was thrilled!  I was relieved!

Most improved!

The next weekend of the month was the weekend before Christmas.  Mac had to work nearly every day of the break.  He was taking call, so the kids and I were left to our own devices for much of the time.  I decided we needed to tackle the prospect of getting the Secret Santa gifts (the kids exchange gifts with each other so that they don't need to buy a present for each sibling). After much sharking for parking spaces along with all the other procrastinators, I managed to take each child shopping...  And to add to the fun, we decided that since Izzy had a full week off from swimming, it was time to get her ears pierced.   Choosing to tackle all sorts of errands at the mall the weekend before Christmas wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done...  But we survived.

Can you see the earring?

By this point, we were already in the midst of the kids' Winter Break.  They got a full 2 weeks off from school, which sounds great on the surface, but... That's a lot of extra entertaining of kids!

Mac found time to set up our new video game system, which is the WiiU, and the kids spent a shocking amount of time playing video games.  They all agree that the WiiU is a big improvement over the Wii, and they are enjoying it excessively...

Time flew by as we all tried to prepare for Christmas.  On Christmas Eve, we made time to make cookies.  Almost everyone participated...  Katie didn't sit down to decorate her cookies.  She said she "didn't like" to decorate.  Bah Humbug.  Luke did make cookies, but I apparently missed my chance to photograph him!  Ah well...

There's Luke in the background-- focused on the video game at hand.

After cookies, we went to church.  The exciting part of the Christmas Eve service was when they distributed candles to everyone (including the children).  At the end of the service, the candles were lit.  Five kids, candles, open flame...  What could go wrong?  Well, we managed to not burn anything (or anyone), but I couldn't really enjoy the soft, glowing effect...

Christmas Day was a pretty relaxing day.  We opened stocking gifts, exchanged Secret Santa gifts, and ate breakfast.  Then after much prodding by the children, we opened up our big gifts...

The main gift Katie got was one of those annoying combination Christmas/Birthday gifts, annoying because there's one main gift to cover two events, but I think she was happy with it anyway.  It's a brand new...  Mac Book!  Had I known she was just going to delete Safari and several of the other native Apple programs, I might have just given her a Dell.  Humph.

Steven mainly got some WiiU and 3DS games, which he's found time to play.  Steven's working through Pikmin right now.  I guess it's tricky...

Luke also got WiiU games, and 3DS games.  Video games...  So many video games.  Luke is working hard on the Legend of Zelda for now.  The Skylanders game and Disney Infinity are thrown in there for variety as well.

Izzy received a lot of books, some clothes, and some fancy boots.  She also got the Rainbow Loom, which is more complicated than it looks!

Josie got lots of little gifts, clothes, and toys.  She's proving to be fairly adept at Legos...  I think that the Lego Friends' line might be something she will really enjoy.

Mac got a new laptop bag, and I got a new purse.  Pekoe even made a pretty good haul:  chew toys, a gigantic bone, and lots of undivided attention.

One of many rawhides...  Spoiled dog.

Secret Santa gift.  Josie bought Steven some baseball cards.

The tree before the kids...

Waiting on the stairs to come down to see the tree...

"They're mine!  All mine!!"

Kate made Dad a grilling apron.

Kate recorded each child's thoughts...

Kate made me a personalized table setting...  She wrote with Sharpie and then baked the dishes to set the Sharpie ink.  Very beautiful!

After Christmas, it was back to work for Steven and Mac.  Steven had the lovely 7 am swim practices that are so refreshing.  Mac was taking call, which meant staying at work until after 8 pm every night.  The kids mostly spent their time playing with their stuff.  Lots of video games...  So many video games!  That was OK with them since they don't really get to play much when not on school break.

Mac finally had a day off on Saturday where he didn't have to take call, so we headed to the beach in Santa Cruz.  The weather was very nice, and we wanted a chance to take Pekoe to the beach just to see how he'd do.  He loved it.  He's a crazy dog, so he nearly killed himself by sneaking off to the rockier side of the beach as the tide was coming in.  He waded through the water in front of a cliff face where 10 foot waves were breaking almost the whole time we were there.  He was lucky because the ocean was calm just when he chose to go exploring...

Pekoe says, "See you guys later..."

These are the rocks on the calm side of the beach...  Pekoe tried hard to get stuck.

In the middle are of the beach, the rocks were deceptively flat...  The ocean seemed calm.   But just beyond here  there were cliffs and huge crashing waves... 

Big crashing waves!

Sunday was an interesting day.  I had a groupon for a magic show, and no one wanted to go.  I ended up taking Steven, and we had a fun time (I think).  The magic show was interesting...  The magic was a little underwhelming, heavy on the card tricks, and in a sort of amateurish setting.  But, it was an experience.  I was glad to hang out with Steven for a bit!  Mac was, of course, taking call...  Work is so very inconvenient.

The next week the kids were still off from break, but Izzy got back to her swimming also so we were very busy with all sorts of shuttling here and there.  On New Year's Day, we went to San Francisco to go to the Exploratorium.  It was a beautiful day, and parking was free.  Mac drove the wrong way on a one way and was honked at, but we survived.

That was pretty much the extent of our December.  Once January started up full force, so did our regular activities:  swim practice, music lessons, swim lessons, and TaeKwonDo...