Back from vacation and I'm exhausted just thinking of all the errands I need to do, in addition to preparing for Christmas! Baby steps, I'll get through it all. We got back Tuesday (horrible LA traffic too) and Will and Tyler were both back to work and school the next day. We're very ambitious huh! It was Tyler's last week of school before the winter break, so it was good that he had time to see all his friends. But BRRR what a surprise when we got back to CA - it was FREEZING cold! I'm talking teeth chattering 30-something degrees. Not that I'm complaining, I love the cold!
Thursday we were lucky enough to score last minute tickets to Disney on Ice's Dare to Dream at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Gotta love free tickets! We went with Katelyn's friend Harmony and her mom (my friend) Yoko. It was perfect for Katelyn since she was still on her Disney high from our vacation. She loves princesses! They even had Cinderella's carriage made out of Duplo Legos.
The show is starting! The show was basically telling the three stories of Tiana (from Princess and the Frog), Cinderella and Rapunzel (from Tangled). None of us had any idea of what was going on during Tiana's portion, and I think at one point Tiana went from being African American to a South East Asian! It was really cold inside, so Yoko and I enjoyed some beer and wine that kept us warm.
I was quite amazed that we made it through the whole thing. The show was at 7:30pm which meant that we didn't get home until past 9pm. Good thing I brought Katelyn's pajamas so that we transferred her directly to bed when we got home. I had to carry her from the stadium to the car though, which took every once of energy that I had. I remember being EXHAUSTED that night and the next day too!
Look how happy she was though. It was worth it. :)
Video of Disney on Ice:
Friday was Tyler's holiday party in his Kindergarten class. I had planned to make these little goodie bags for Tyler's friends but decided to make them for the whole class instead. It seemed like a great idea at the time but now I am really missing all those Honolulu Cookie Company cookies that I put in the bags. WAAAHHH. I want them back. Actually, probably better that we gave them to his friends instead of me eating them. We put a variety of the snacks into the little favor bags I had left over from Katelyn's 1st birthday and I bought these cute little peppermint candy paper to/from tags. They came out really cute!
Piano lesson in the morning. Piano recital coming up in February!
After dropping off Tyler at school, I took Katelyn to Pretend City's Snow Day. Totally a last minute thing since I went home first and saw that our cleaning crew was still there. Pretend City was having a snow day with real snow and Santa! Sweet, why not! Katelyn was excited to go, even though she is doing her 'mad face here. She likes to tell me to say an emotion and she'll do the face for the camera. Future actress maybe? haha!
Snow! We weren't really prepared for it (no gloves, etc) but we still had a good time. Katelyn mostly liked poking the snow with a shovel. Can't wait to take her to real snow!
Oh look, we have our snow hat!
Video of Katelyn playing in the snow:
Back inside, I let Katelyn loose and she played with everything. Everything! I was so tired just running around after her. Here she is picking strawberries.
Look at her organic locally grown fruit and vegetable basket!
She's pretending to be a rabbit here, munching on her carrot.
... and then some bunny hopping...
Video of Katelyn playing in the market:
Why Hello Santa! I wanted to do a repeat of our Santa photo (not a fan of our Hawaii one) and there was no line to meet Santa here! Yay! When Santa asked Katelyn what she wanted for Christmas, she answered 'Legos!' without missing a beat. Hah!
Friday evening was Tyler's make-up for his Taekwondo testing. We had been practicing since we got back from the trip but I was kicking myself for not keeping up with the practicing while we were on vacation. It almost felt like we were starting from scratch and Tyler didn't feel all that confident in his form. Waaaah. Katelyn dressed up for the occasion by wearing her reindeer hat.
I remember in previous testings I always dreaded bringing Katelyn. She was so hard to keep occupied and would fuss and yell and run around, etc. What a difference things are now! Tyler started Taekwondo when Katelyn was about 9 months and she was a handful back then. Now she'll just settle down and hang out!
It was nice doing the testing on the makeup day because there was a LOT less people. Tyler did some sparring...
Katelyn was nice and quiet.
Form time! Tyler was nervous and I could see him actually shaking a bit as he waited his turn. He did great though, and I'm proud of him!
Purple belt! Unfortunately this may be his last belt since we are thinking of not going to taekwondo anymore.
The Christmas tree is done!
Saturday morning. Tyler had a basketball game! We had missed a week+ so it took a little warming up. No baskets this game though, the other team was quite aggressive (well two of their star players were I guess). The boys still had fun though!
After the game we stopped by the Habit, a new burger place that opened on Culver/Walnut and bumped into one of Tyler's team mates Justin. Perfect, since I had been chatting with his mom Lara the whole game!
Saturday night we headed to a Christmas Party at our friends' the Trans. 7 ICDC families. Fun times? With all the drama that has gone on this year, I wasn't really feeling the, eh, warmth with having everyone together unfortunately. There are people you enjoy spending time with, some people you don't really care either way, and some people that you just don't want to even be around. It was a mixture of all three! We brought Kalbi though, so we couldn't not go, haha!
Here's Katelyn and Kylee!
The kids were happy just watching TV.
The adults just hung out and chatted.
Secret Santa gifts for the kids.
Merry Xmas!
The kids were excited about their Secret Santa gifts.
Woooahhh! Tyler was excited about his cool new Legos.
Katelyn got a Cinderella Barbie. She was very excited.
Also, we celebrated one of the dad's birthdays too.
Here's Katelyn with Uncle Stacy - her favorite uncle!
The kids hanging out with Uncle Dave.
Me and my mommy BFF Jen!
Then it was the adults' turn to do our White Elephant gift exchange. I got jacked! But oh well, that's White Elephant for ya.
We left before 9pm (our friends were leaving so I took the opportunity to take off too) and stopped by another party to say Hi to our KMC friends. They're a good group of ladies and fun to chat with. Good thing the party was also right here in the Irvine/Tustin area.
Sunday. Another busy day. We headed up to Friendly Hills in Whittier for my Toastmasters/Youth Leadership Program 20 year reunion. I was really not interested in going to this event except that it was held at Friendly Hills where Will and I got married so many many years ago OK, fine we'll go! We picked up my mom along the way (it's her high school alumni association that had formed this program). I was really excited to take the kids to see where mommy/daddy had gotten married!
Katelyn and my mom!
At the wedding site!
We got married right up there next to the little lake.
How pretty huh!
Amazing what a little contrast can do for a photo.
Whoohoo, still married 8 years later. :) Ha!
We also bumped into a really really old family friend.
After the lunch (really salty Prime rib, what a disappointment) we headed back to my parents' place for a bit. The kids were excited to pick tangerines in the backyard with grandpa.
Whew, what a busy week. Looking forward to Christmas Eve and Christmas next week with Kareen and her family visiting!
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