Merry Christmas!

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And our chance meeting with Santa Claus.  This year Ethan was very excited to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what he would like for X-mas.

And opening the first X-mas gift. We each opened one gift the on Christmas Eve, and save the rest for Christmas morning.

Counting down to Christmas

Here is what our month looks like so far!

Celebrating Bob's 35th birthday:

Ethan helped make the cake - black forest cake, Bob's favorite!

Hanukkah party at the JCC:

Drumming away

Menorah crown.

Yeh Yeh came to visit:

So many cuddles.

Playtime at the park.

Visiting the Fantasy of Lights in Los Gatos:

Baking Christmas decorations:

So excited to bake!

Whole wheat sugar cookies.  They were pretty tasty.

Strolling the neighborhood for X-mas decorations:

This house wins handsdown for most decorated.  Look at all the lights!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

 This is what Ethan came home from pre-school with.  Apparently the way to his heart is food and legos!

First (Kinda) Bike

I was thinking of getting a Strider balance bike for Ethan for Christmas but then we went on a Costco run last weekend and I spied a Chicco balance bike for a third of the cost.  Because I have no impulse control we bought it and of course went for a test drive.  I guess we will have to come up with another Christmas gift idea!  This is actually the first year we will be trying to wait for special occasions to give out gifts...usually we have just gotten something for Ethan whenever we felt he needed something.  He doesn't actually have that many playthings so he definitely is not being spoiled, and we played up birthdays/X-mas as more of an occasion to hang out with family and friends (and have special treats like cake!) than about getting a gift.  But this year I thought I would do the whole Elf on a Shelf thing so he would have something fun to look forward to each morning and therefore he will soon be learning about the whole presents under the Christmas tree thing from the book.  So I guess I better get him something!

Golden Gate Bridge

We have lived here for about ten years and while we have driven across the Golden Gate bridge countless times, we have never walked across it before. When we went to SF the other day, Ethan immediately lit up when we passed the bridge and asked to go across it. So we made an impromptu pit stop and took a stroll across the bridge and back. It was a beautiful day.

Testing out the cables.

Parties, Pumpin Carving, and Trick or Treating

Happy Halloween everyone!

We were planning on being Quincy from the Little Einsteins for Halloween but at the last minute changed into Superman (I think someone was a bit afraid of the afro).

Bob was a panda.

All I had to wear was a hat.

Trick or treat!

Super excited about eating a lollipop after all the festivities.

Our first Jack O'Lantern:
E got to choose the pumpkin.  He wanted a small white one.  He also designed the features for the pumpkin (square eyes, square nose, and one square tooth!)

Let the carving begin!

E got the special task of starting the cutting process by punching in a hole where we need to make cuts.

Quality assurance checks!

From the Halloween play date:
Ethan had a blast decorating cookies, jumping in the bounce house, digging for spiders in the sandbox and playing on the swing set. Whew. Can we say we had a giant 4 hour nap afterwards? Maybe I should invest in a trampoline to bounce some energy out everyday!

Oh, just hanging out with Spidey. 

Most of the boys were all dressed up like super heroes and the girls like princesses.

Mini pumpkin patch.  So cute!

E loved decorating the cookies.  He even let me put some away for showing Daddy later...without eating them.  That is a feat!

Half Moon Bay

Over the weekend we went to Half Moon Bay to attend the wedding of one of Bob's closest friends.

To the happy couple!

It was a beautiful weekend in a beautiful setting. We got to meet a lot of our friend's children so that was especially nice.

I wish I had more pictures but I accidentally set the camera at a weird setting and most were either out of focus or completely overexposed.

Randall got stuck in traffic so E got to sub in as ring bearer.  Pretty cute!

Very excited to be drinking from a fancy glass

Making kisses at the camera

My two goofballs.

Where we stayed.

View from our balcony.

The next day we explored the harbour and hit up another pumpkin patch (we were in Half Moon Bay after all) before heading home.

I think it's so funny how happy E gets when he slides down things. The slide could be just one foot high and he will be going super slow and still he is tilted off balanced and has a big grin on his face as if is the most fun ride ever.

The best moment by far was when we went to sleep at the hotel.  As Ethan slowly drifted off to sleep he suddenly said 'Mommy, I need some hand holding' and clutched my hand.  Having his hand tightly curled around mine while he was sleeping was too cute.  Of course the next day when I asked him to hold my hand again he told me that hand holding was reserved solely for when sleeping in a fancy hotel.