Dec 18th

lovely day today..mom's birthday...happened to see her and my dad at panera bread this morning, so we hung out with them for a bit before heading over to mary's house....a new tradition..

And later that night, all my mom wanted was for us all to go eat at the buffet at Valley view Casino....spent most of the time waiting in line, but as long as mom was happy, we were happy to be all together....(pic from my sister's iPhone since I left the memory card for my camera in the computer...duh!)

Happy Birthday Mom, we love you!

Dec 14, 15, 16, 17

Okay...i don't know how the heck to get my landscape pics to show up landscape on blogger...

Dec 14th: a quick page about all of the fun holiday projects the kids do at school....

Dec 15th: Ode to Trader Joes :)

Dec 16th: Pages about shopping adventures.

Dec 17th: Had a great day volunteering at Ava's class...especially love her teacher Mrs. Lester, includes an excerpt from an email that she sent to the parents later that day...

Dec 13th

dec 12th

Dec 12: Sunday Funday. Church. Got to North County Fair right when it was opening. One of the first in line to see Santa. Shop, shop, shop...Oh, and the best part of the day....Chargers killed the Chiefs..."there is a Santa..."

dec 11th

Dec 11th: even though I was hurting a little bit from last night, leaped out of bed to get the day going. Breakfast at Pancake House, Carlsbad Outlets, and later that night, Jenny and I took our daughters to watch the Nutcracker. We had great seats (2nd row center) and it was just perfect. Sofia was getting a little "wiggly" but for the most part enjoyed it pretty well. We hope to make this a special tradition for us girls...Ava can join us in a few years to make even that much more speical. Afterwards, met up with the rest of the fam bam at China Fun. Then back to the pad for relaxation.

Good day.

dec 10th

dec 10th: after work, had a lovely evening with mary ellen, sonya and their daughters at KNB Wine Cellars. And while I was out enjoying "The Prisoner", Jay and the kids made cookies.

dec 8th

my simple pages for today...

Dec 7th

Mailed out Christmas Cards with the help of my elf....

Dec 6th

Big package arrived in the mail today...Ava kept knocking on the box saying "Santa, are you in there?" It was some of the presents we ordered from the Disney Store...including some new ornaments for our tree...They all become part of our family.

Dec 5

Early morning coffee with Ahn at Sbux...wore my Chargers jersey and got lots of woo hoo's all morning. Met up with the family at Mass, afterwards was a cute little craft fair, got the most darling ornaments made of wine corks and this...

Saw that the street was blocked off in front of Carmel Mountain Plaza so we decided to take a walk to see what was going on...

Brought the kids to Grandma Fe's house to hang out while Jay and I wrapped presents and took care of stuff at home.

After a sad Chargers loss and an unproductive shopping day for me, we picked up the girls and found a street near our house where nearly all the homes were heavily lit with Xmas lights...perfect end to the weekend....

Wait, no, this was the perfect end to the weekend...reading Christmas books before bedtime.

Dec 4th

First Saturday of December. Much needed weekend....breakfast at Champagne Bakery. Then a quick jot across the street to the Carmel Mountain Plaza where they had free hot cocoa from CBTL, Santa Claus, and ornament making at Michaels.

Shopped a bit today, crossed a few people off the list.

Then dinner with the Alfonsos. Our favorite Pho Place then a quick stop at Trader Joes to grab some items for dessert. Back to the house to play Dance Central and make some gingerbread men and women :)

Good day.

Dec 3rd

Happy Friday....

In anticipation that it was going to be 'one of those days,' I leaped out of bed to start getting ready. The girls followed my lead, because they were up early and first thing they did was head over to their Advent calendars to see what the elves had brought them...this is what they found:

And underneath the tree were two pairs of black gloves! Perfect for a day like today...how did those elves know?

It was a Panera kind of morning, so we stopped in quickly, then headed over to school because they were doing a Holiday Bazaar for the kids to shop for their loved ones. Sofia had a great time buying presents for her Grandparents, her sister and her parents. But before we stopped in, we saw this...

It was a volunteer day at Ava's pre-school, and I have to say, this was one of the easiest days on record (probably because one fourth of the class was out sick today). Sofia hung out for the first hour and did a project at my table:

My other "project" was to take each child's picture in a cute Santa outfit for a gift that each of them will give to their parents. When Mrs. Lester asked if I liked taking pictures, I gave her a look as if to say..."do you know who I am?" ha ha ha....I used her SLR, but I snuck in a picture with my own camera:

At recess, this caught my eye:

As I was in the Jack in the Box drive through (UGH!), I got the great call that my escrow closed today, so that made me smile.

The rest of the day was a breeze, ending in a drive through Christmas Card Lane and then family dinner at CPK :)

Let the weekend begin....