December was full of packing, visits, singing, good-byes, hellos, tears, laughter, worry, joy, and overall just way too much emotion and too many tasks to write about. I am exhausted just thinking about it. I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I would have liked, but on the other hand I'm grateful that I thought to grab my camera at all.
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| Stone wears Batman something almost every day. That day he was eating with his Batman mask on, and I tried to get a picture but he took it off as soon as he saw me trying to steal a pic. Wouldn't put it back on. :( |
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| Our family's new obsession: we finally let the older girls watch the movies, and Lindsay devoured the books. Now it is all they talk about. |
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| Last Disneyland day with Grandpa and the cousins |
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| A special good-bye party for Sophie with her friends - pedicures, dinner and ice cream sundaes |
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| Yes, we did get out the Christmas decorations and buy a Christmas tree even as we packed up around it. For me it is always sad to pack up, so Christmas was very helpful to fill in some of the spaces with cheer. |
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| Cousin day at home |
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| We love having babies in the family |
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| Lindsay's friends threw her a surprise goodbye party |
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| The sunsets were incredible all month long - we always seemed to get great ones on our Sunday afternoon walks in our neighborhood |
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| Last-minute Christmas recital at the piano teacher's home |
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| Unbelievable San Clemente sky |
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| Last piano lesson. What a sweet, sweet lady |
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| Up to NorCal for the weekend before Christmas - this is San Jose Christmas in the Park, our tradition with Scott, Rachel and the boys |
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| Reunited at last! |
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| Oh how we missed these cousins! |
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| We played this hilarious game with our friends - Erik was supposed to sketch the Hunger Games with corn on the cob. Lindsay couldn't stop laughing |
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| The giant gingerbread house at the Fremont Hotel in San Francisco - the last stop on the Christmas caroling trolley ride. Three trolleys filled with friends singing at the top of our lungs. And not cold this year! Usually our feet are numb by the end! |
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| We drove home Christmas Eve to be met with 80 degree weather! AND... we had accidentally left the pool heater on so the entire pool was like a bath tub. We all threw on our suits and jumped in! |
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| Opa's traditional Christmas Eve party |
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| This is one of our favorite parts of Christmas - Past, Present and Future |
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| Opa's beloved kitchen |
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| Lining up for the traditional Christmas Conga line - "Christmas Christmas Christmas!!" |
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| After our own family's presents, a Christmas dinner/breakfast with the extended family |
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| And in the midst of all of this, every moment that the kids were at school... Erik and I were packing. How did we get so much stuff?? Really, six people need this much stuff?? (And that's not even furniture, or a whole U-Haul that already went to storage). Ugh. This makes us both want to sell it all again and take backpacks to Mongolia. |
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| Saying good-bye to Vaughn again |
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| Seeing the Lion King in LA!! |
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| A Stanford families reunion at our house |
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| The Clarkes are visiting from Amsterdam!!! |
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| Our New Years Fondue feast |
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| Avery and Lindsay had each become obsessed with the Lord of the Rings - they convinced us to let them stay up until midnight on New Years Eve doing Elf Shrinky Dinks (who can say no to that??) |
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| The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in Hollywood |
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| The star of Lady Galadriel |
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| The elevator in the hotel in LA (the Clarkes getting ready to leave; us on our way up North). I wonder if Lucy is doing that chipmunk face on purpose |
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| Last moments together by the pool in LA (80 degree weather persists into January) We spent every last minute with these dear friends, then continued on our way up I-5 and pulled into Mountain View at 1:00 am on January 4. |
To illustrate how we feel to be back home, we made up a Christmas song together, which we sang to our friends upon arrival:
On the 12th day of Christmas, Los Altos gave to me...
- Cardinals, Giants and 49ers
- Peery Piano lessons
- El Camino traffic
- Friends from other countries
- Old power lines
- Thursday Farmers Markets
- An old, expensive house
- GIANT REDWOOD TREES!!
- Rancho San Antonio
- Top-rated schools
- The ward Christmas party
- And the best friends there ever could be.
I looooooove this! So crazy busy, so much going on, but such delightful things in all the chaos! I love you. I can't wait to come back to The Bay Area to see you. :)
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