Christmas in LA - Part 2

After Christmas we headed over to my Mom and Jim's house to visit in Big Bear. They had snow left over from before and then we got another inch of snow while we were there. We had a great time.

Micah checking out the snow.


All bundled up and ready to play.


A quick stop to say hello to the bear.


We then headed off to do some sleding across that street from Mom and Jim's place. There was a small slope that was just perfect for Micah and the rest of us to do some sleding. Micah LOVED it. He had the best smile on his face every time he went down and then when he got to the bottom he would keep signing "more, more". We had a lot of fun.

I went first.

Grandma had great form.

A family snow pose.

My mom was encouraging Micah to try the snow. I don't think he understood why he was eating stuff off of the ground.

Micah dropped his snowball and it fell apart. I asked him where it went and he just "said" this. He didn't know.


Aunt Pam and Jeff also had to get in on the action. Pam had to unzip her snow bibs to fit her belly but then she did fine.


As I was pulling Micah up the slope he fell off of the sled. I thought it was pretty funny that my Mom got a picture of it right as he was falling.

Grandpa didn't want to miss out so he took a turn as well.

Micah kept wanting to crawl under Jim and my mom's legs. You can't see him very well here but he crawling through. The tip of his head is just to the right of my Mom's feet.

We had such a great time. Thanks Mom and Jim.

Christmas in LA - part 1

We had fun visiting with my Dad and Susan. Micah loved all of the Christmas decorations that moved and played music. The reindeer here is one of them.

We went for a walk up in the Pasadena hills, I guess you would call it. It was a beautiful walk and Micah had a lot of fun. We used to ride our bikes on this trail when I used to live in LA. I really like it.




On Christmas eve Jeff got together with my dad, Pam's husband Jake and some of Susan's family to play poker. He ended up winning about $40. Not too bad.

On Christmas day we all headed over to David and Melissa's place. It was nice to have everyone together. I wish I would have got more pictures.

The hammer and wooden pegs that Micah is holding was the first thing he opened. He really didn't want to open anything after that. I kept trying to get it out of his sight but he kept finding it.

Kid-sitting

I got to watch Madeline and James for Michelle last Friday. We had a good time. We went outside and played since it was pretty nice out. Actually the weather here has been good. Madeline loves to swing in the hammock.

James and Micah played in the sandbox.

Micah seems to enjoy wearing scarves so I let him wear mine. We have this little brick snowman inside the house that has this tiny scarf on it and Micah likes to take the scarf off of the snowman and wear it.

Madeline said that we should build a fort so we used some of our sheets and a beach umbrella and built a pretty good fort. I wish I would have gotten a better picture of the outside but it was pretty big. I could stand up inside of it and in this picture I am standing up while taking the picture.

We enjoyed snacks while playing in the fort, playing with playdo and other toys and books. Lots of fun for me and the kiddos.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Last week Jeff, Micah and I went out and bought our Christmas tree. Jeff did a good job preparing the tree.


Micah loved helping to hang the lights on the tree.



I took some time the week before to hang the lights outside. We don't want people to think we aren't in the Christmas spirit. : ) I like how you can see our tree from the front window.

In this last picture you can see my nativity set on the coffee table. I love it. We also have our Advent calendar on the fireplace mantle (not shown here). Micah is so excited every day to go and get his piece of candy from the calendar. When we say we are going to get the candy from the Advent calendar he runs over for the candy. Micah definitely got my sweet tooth and love of chocolate. There are three pieces of candy for each day and Micah is pretty good about sharing with Jeff and I.

For a few days after we got the tree Micah wanted to keep going over to sit by it or just go look at it and touch the ornaments. He would drag me over and have me sit with him and look at the tree. Actually if he wants you somewhere he will drag you there for most things. Micah is really good with the ornaments. He doesn't really try to pull them off. We just tell him to touch the ornaments with "one finger, one finger" and he has been fine.

Christmas In the Park

On Thursday we decided to go to Christmas in the Park. It is where groups from all over the city set up a whole bunch of Christmas stuff and then masses of people go to hang out and look. We were afraid it was going to rain on Thursday and then all day it did rain off and on. We decided to go anyway and it just drizzled a little bit. Usually there are literally hundreds/thousands of people at the park but the rain scared everyone off so we were pretty much by ourselves. Weird.

We decided to take the light rail into downtown because it would be fun. Here we are buying out tickets.

Waiting on the platform.



We arrive at Christmas in the Park!



We thought it would be fun to go and see Santa. I don't think we got a picture with Santa last year.
I knew that Micah would not be thrilled with Santa but I didn't think he would hate Santa quite as much as he did. I just went with Micah to stand next to Santa and Micah started crying and screaming. Not a happy child. I have never felt Micah grab onto me so tight.


Jeff decided he would sit on Santa's lap since Micah wouldn't.

Pictures to show how empty the park was.


We had to get a family picture in front of the tree.

The Mauldwins got a family photo also.

Micah looked so cute as a Soldier.

Then we loaded up in Santa's sleigh.

It was a fun night at Christmas in the Park.