Candy Cane Lane

There is a cute little neighborhood in Pacific Grove where each house decorates for Christmas and the big park in the middle is all decked out. Our friends Cheryl and Micah with us, and we walked through Candy Cane Lane. (By the way, I thought that was the real street name, and was really confused when trying to look it up on Googlemaps.)

Most of the houses had themes, like "Hawaiin Christmas," or "Disney Princess Christmas." This was "Where the Wild Things Are," and I thought it was an appropriate background for Jaden and Addison!

Jaden, Beckam, and Addison as cute little gingerbread men.
This was in the park in the middle of the neighborhood. The kids played here for a long time.

Cute baby Asher chasing all of the crazy big boys around.
Beckam, Asher, Addison, Jaden, and Cheryl.

Addison found somebody's abandoned glasses on the ground and put them on (I know, gross) for an authentic Santa picture.

He's So Wise...

Addison was a wise man in a Christmas play this year. He has loved doing these little plays so much. I hope he keeps it up. This play was put on by a woman in my ward who works as the youth activities leader in the church (multi-denominational) on the military base. Her son is Addison's age. Addison sang "We Three Kings" in a trio and did such a great job. He's always a little nervous before these things, but does awesome when he gets on stage.

Addison actually played 2 parts. He was a villager at first and then a wise man. This is before the play in his villager costume with his friend Seth (the chicken), and his sisters, the angels (they really are).

Shepherds and villagers.These pictures didn't turn out very well. This is before he changes into his wise man role.

Talking to King Herod.

More with the king.

Our friends Meridth and Edward came to support the star, and get in on the action.

Let it Snow!

This is why I live in the coolest place in the world...

Within one hour I can be either here...


Or here...
Tom called today and said that it was snowing at his house. It rained really hard at my house last night and I guess it turned into to snow in the higher elevations. Jaden was coming home with us today, so when I picked him and Addison up at school, I brought hats, gloves, coats, and boots for a trip to see some snow. When I told them where we were going, they were so excited! I thought we would find a skiff of snow that they could make some snowballs with. I had no idea what to expect of snow in Monterey. We drove up past Tom's about 8 miles (about 45 minutes from my house) and found this! I never liked snow when I was in Utah, but I will admit... I miss it!!!

Christmas Decorating Au Naturale

I haven't really felt all that Christmasy for the last few years. Last year, I finally decided that Christmas music was still fun, but I didn't put up any decorations. I told Addison that since we were only going to be here for a couple weeks before going to Utah, it wouldn't really be worth it. Plus, I still have boxes and boxes of Christmas decorations in Utah, and nothing here.
This year, even though, again, we will only be here for a few weeks before going to Utah, I really wanted to get a Christmas tree and I wanted to decorate it only with things that we made at home. I also wanted to get a real tree as I, ever since having my own tree in my own house, have only had fake trees (much easier with lights that are already attached!). We started at about 4:30 on Friday night and finished at about 10:00, working nonstop. We turned the tv to the Christmas music station and had so much fun.

Here's our ornament list:

• Dried oranges. I have an orange tree in my backyard that grows green oranges which will never ripen. Addison picked a bunch of them and I sliced them and dried them (almost) in the oven. Then we added red yarn to hang them with.
• Cranberries and popcorn. I bought some cranberries and Orville Redenbacher Tender White popcorn and we strung them together for our garland.
• Candy canes. Ok. I didn't make these, but Addison wanted to buy them at Safeway.
• Pine cones.
• Dried pomegranates from our tree.
• Paper snowflakes. These didn't end up on the tree, but we hung them from the window.

We haven't done the pine cones or pomegranates yet (those pomegranates take forever to dry), but I really like the tree, and hope to keep this as a tradition for the future. If lights weren't such a pain, I would add them, but this really was done with no frustration or irritation, and I want to keep it that way.

Santa Cruz Turkey Trot

My friend Laurie started running recently, and my new friend Sheila is a super-runner, and I haven't done a race in a long time, so I asked these 2 girlies to run the Turkey Trot in Santa Cruz with me on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. This was Laurie's first race and she was awesome! The course was so beautiful. We ran right along the coast and the weather was perfect. Laurie was such a trooper and ran the whole way. Her family came up to cheer us (ok, really just her) on and I stole these pictures from her blog.

That is a crazy face I'm making. This was at the beginning of the race, so I can't blame it on fatigue. Weird.

The home stretch.

Crossing the finish line.

Again, another crazy face. Yikes.

Cute girls! Thanks for running!!

Jumping on the Private Bandwagon

Leave your email address as a comment so I can email an invite to my new and exciting blog. Okay, really it's just the same boring old stuff, but now it's private so it's intriguing right? Lurkers and friends welcome...

Bonfire on the Beach

Since we have been here, I have been wanting to build a fire on the beach at night. There aren't a lot of beaches where you can have fires here, but just past the Carmel beach there are a few. Those beaches (which I didn't even know existed until about a month ago), have become some of my favorites. We went with our friends Cheryl and Micah and Sheila and Jayce. It was so warm out there that night (which never happens. It seems like it is always cold and windy at the beach). The kids had so much fun climbing on rocks, playing with kelp, and watching the huge waves. Of course, everything was much more exciting because it was dark. We'll have to do it again.

Climbing on the rocks. Super safe with pointy sticks in their hands, right?

Smoke in your eyes stinks.

Getting the perfect marshmallow.

What is it with boys and digging holes?

Micha and baby Asher.
Sheila and Tom roasting... something.

I think it's cute that he sticks his tongue out when he is thinking. I think it's even cuter that he's thinking so hard about getting that hot dog just right.

Hot dogs are good.

Piano Lessons

Addison started piano lessons about 2 months ago, and it has been so much fun to see how excited he is about it. I'm sure it can't last forever, but he still is really excited to practice and play everything he learns. As anyone who calls and talks to him can attest, he loves to set the phone down on top of the piano and play for the caller. I don't know how many times the grandmas have heard Darth Vader's theme in the last 2 months.

I love his teacher. She is the cutest little lady. She really wants him to enjoy playing, so she teaches him songs that he will be interested in. He has learned about every theme from Star Wars. She really takes her cues from the students as to how to approach their lessons and it makes for such a perfect learning environment. A few weeks ago Addison had been playing around on the piano and had figured out the beginning of a song from Star Wars (of course). He played it for her at his next lesson, and she used that theme for the basis of that week's lesson and taught him the rest of the song.

Look out John Williams.

Halloween

We had a lot of fun this Halloween. Addison wore his costume almost nonstop the week before Halloween. We went to the ward trunk-or-treat, his school's Halloween party, and trick-or-treating in two neighborhoods. I forgot my camera at most of these events, but trust me, we had fun. Addison studying his pumpkin to make sure it's scary enough.
Yep. Looks pretty scary.
This actually was pretty scary. This was just moments after Tom took the knife that I had given to Addison back into responsible hands. It seemed to me that Addison was old enough to do a little pumpkin carving of his own. I let him at it, and started pulling pumpkin seeds out of another pumpkin. Tom, however, was paying attention to the fact that Addison grabbed the handle of the knife at the very bottom, closest to the blade and when he stabbed the pumpkin, which was really thick, his hand slipped really quickly down the remaining handle almost onto the blade. ... I hadn't thought of that. I'm a good mom. Addison was happy to draw the scary face and let Tom carve it. So was I.
Addison has a blue tongue in this picture, and I'm hoping he didn't lick the pumpkin (he's 8 not 2), but he might have.
Safety supervisor, Tom.
We roasted the pumpkin seeds with olive oil and salt. They were so yummy.

Addison's scary pumpkin is on the left. Tom's is a happy pumpkin.
We first went trick-or-treating in Toro Park. That is the neighborhood where Addison's school is. It is perfect for trick-or-treaters - nice sidewalks, houses that are close together, well lit. EVERYONE goes there. If you live in Toro Park, you seriously have to stock up on the candy. They really get into it there, too. Some of the houses were like spook alleys just going up the walkways. There were so many people there. The kids had to wait in lines sometimes to get to doors. There were a lot of houses that had 20 or more people milling around on the lawns. Our new friends the Martinson's (who just moved into the ward and live near us) came with us. We met up with the Lamb's and Georgariou's and had a great time.

I wish I had taken pictures, but I completely forgot. We stopped by to trick-or-treat at Addison's friend's house who lives in Toro Park and I got a couple pictures of the two of them, and the cute, cute, cute little sister, but then put the camera away.

After Toro Park, we came back and everyone was out in our neighborhood, so we got out and trick-or-treated around here too. We were going to go to a neighborhood party, but were a little pooped by then. So, we came home, spread out the candy, and watched "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."

Point Lobos Field Trip

A little over a week ago, Addison's class took a field trip to Point Lobos. We have been there a few times, but have only gone on one or two of the trails. It was fun to be with his class because his teacher knew so much about the area.

This is in front of the Whaler's Cabin.

Inside the cabin. Cool harpoons and tools.

On one of the trails.

What a good student. Listening so attentively. His teacher is in the background with her hands up in the air telling us about how the whales travel south to have their babies in warm water.
This is where we had lunch.

We walked down to that beach below. It's called Gibson Beach. Can you believe this is where Addison gets to go on his school field trips!?

There were houses that surrounded this beach with their own pathways down to it. The whole area was only about 200 yards wide and really secluded. Can you imagine having this as your backyard?