This Christmas season was especially fun. Maybe it was because we just came back from vacation, maybe it was all the wine, or maybe it was because the girls are old enough to understand and participate in Christmas traditions. Whatever it was, this Christmas was so great this year!
Tuesday before Christmas, December 19, Olivia sang "The lights on the tree" and "Feliz Navidad" with her class in the Holiday Show.
You can find O in the second row behind the little girl wearing a black shirt with pink pom poms dancing enthusiastically. School shows are truly an exercise in patience, not with children, but with other adults! Ok, deep breath, it's over now...until next year... ... ...😟
Friday before Christmas, December 22, Jayla performed with her Glee Club.
In case you're wondering why the video is so short it's because I couldn't record and sob hysterically with pride without shaking the camera. I also needed both hands to wipe away the tears while I cry-smiled encouragement to Jayla. Now that I think about it I hope I didn't scare her...
On Christmas Eve the girls helped make cookies for Santa and wrote him letters.
Laila hand-wrote Santa an "email"...she doesn't get the concept yet
On Christmas Day we woke up and found that Santa ate the cookies the girls left him and he left them presents!
Then we went to church and afterwards the girls walked through the beautiful Nativity scene.
That afternoon the family came over and hilarity ensued!
Christine couldn't tell our dad and Tito Ric apart.
Our White Elephant this year was full of cool gifts, unforeseen steals and heartbreaking steal-backs! I have no pictures of the carnage, but it was hilariously brutal.
I'm so glad we got to spend Christmas all together, and I hope everyone had as much fun as I did. I'll confess Christmas started losing it's excitement and wonder as I grew older. But now that the girls get so excited for Santa and the birth of Jesus and the Nativity Scene and being with family, I'm feeling it again. I can't wait for next year!
Laila Bear is three now, and it's hard to believe for two opposite reasons. The first reason is because three years just flew by, like she's already three? I still vividly remember the day Laila decided she wanted to be born three weeks early, before we had even decided on a name! The other reason is because Laila has been speaking her mind and acting like Olivia's age for seemingly so long that I've thought to myself, she's just three?
Laila has such a big personality, you feel her coming before she even gets into the room. She's boisterous and joyful and is so sweet (when she feels like it). She's fearless, persistent, knows what she wants (and can figure out a way to get it), and will not do something she doesn't want to do. She's sassy and blunt and can turn on the crocodile tears in the blink of an eye. She's independent and nurturing and so empathetic, she starts crying when she sees me cry. A friend of mine told me recently she thought of Laila while working and just started laughing at the memory. That's what she does to you: she charms her way into your heart, locks herself in, and you gladly throw away the key.
After we left San Diego we flew up to San Francisco to visit Issa, Kuya Chip and Lara and we stayed at their place in Daly City. After we arrived we walked across the street to the nearby shopping center and had pizza for dinner and macarons for dessert.
Check out these fancy girls eating their fancy macarons!
That night the girls all slept in the same bed, and it was the cutest thing. They did a pretty good job too! Laila fell asleep first, Issa and Olivia had cute conversations for a bit then they dozed off too. Laila did wake up around 3 and then she slept with me and Vince in the living room.
The next day we went on the Issa cultural tour of San Francisco. We went to the California Academy of Sciences and saw so many cool things: a white alligator, penguins, fish feeding, jellyfish, and the girls held sea stars!
Then we walked to lunch passing through the Shakespeare Garden.
We had lunch at Perilla, a Vietnamese restaurant which had amazing garlic noodles. The food was so good all three kids ate all their food! Then we went to San Francisco's Hometown Creamery for dessert. After we fed our bellies we went to Green Apple Books to browse. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels guilty for hanging out in bookstores but not buying anything besides coffee.
Then we hopped in the car and prayed the girls would fall asleep on the drive. We drove around, picked up a cake at Schubert's Bakery, stopped near the USS San Francisco Memorial to see a gorgeous view of the Golden Gate Bridge, then parked at Ocean Beach to see one last California sunset.
That night we had dinner at home and cut a cake for Laila's birthday. Schubert's bakery makes a Swedish Princess cake. How could I not get a Princess cake for Laila's 3rd birthday?
The next morning we went to church and then had brunch at Original Joe's.
After brunch we said our goodbyes and left for the airport. Like always, we had the best time visiting San Francisco, but what made it so great was seeing the girls getting along. They were so cute, to me they looked like the reverse Golden Girls, you know like sassy friends but really young instead of really old.
So Olivia and Laila's first trip to California was a huge success! Where to next?
Vince and I love San Diego: the perfect weather, the laid-back people, the breweries, the beaches...the list keeps growing. Here's pre-kids us enjoying San Diego back in 2012:
So when we were scrambling to figure out what to to with my last vacation week, Vince's first thought was San Diego. Frankly though I think San Diego is always on his mind, like the ever-present thoughts swirling around his head go like this: the girls, Crossfit, Go Ruck, San Diego. Luckily Sandra was able to join us for a few days so the girls got to hang out with their grandmother as well!
Once we landed we had time to kill before check in so we went to Ocean Beach, had Pizza Port, and then took the girls for their first dip in the Pacific Ocean. The water was cold and they didn't have their swimsuits on, but the girls didn't care and they ran in!
Look, a Jet Ski just like in Vince's picture 5 years ago!
We saw the seals playing in the surf, went to the outlets by the US-Mexico border, saw maybe 1/3 of the San Diego Zoo (its huge) and Vince and I even got to go out on a date night!
Hi Seal!
Even though the water was cold we still had a great time on the beach!
And our Air BnB had the absolute best views. It was directly across the street from the beach, had huge windows all along the front of the house and a nice little balcony where we sat for hours. We watched the waves, people walking along the beach, and surfers from sunrise to sunset. I remember waking up one morning and walking into the kitchen to see my girls having breakfast with this backdrop:
It was almost too much beauty to handle first thing in the morning. And the sunsets were nothing short of breathtaking.
When we were talking about bringing the girls to San Diego we sort of worried that it wouldn't be the same. We loved coming here to eat and drink and just chill on the beach, but with the girls we probably wouldn't be able to do the same things. And we were right, it wasn't the same. With the girls it was even better.
