Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas. Here are some highlights.

After going to Mass on Christmas Eve we have dinner at my God-Father's house. We had a wonderful dinner, Daddy took a nap and the girls did some crafts and tracked Santa with my cousin.

Christmas morning we had a nice quiet family morning at home. The girls opened gifts from Santa, I tried to clean up all the glitter Santa left behind (still working on that), and I made two pumpkin pies. We had dinner at my mom's house. All the little kids put on a Christmas show. They sang Jingle Bells with piano accompaniment from CK. Very fun.

Our tradition for the past three years is to go up and visit our dear friend JK in Santa Rosa on the day after Christmas. We have a great time visiting with her and her parents. This year we had a great brunch and walked around Historic Railroad Square. The girls enjoyed finding Peanuts characters around the square.

This year on the way home from Santa Rosa we stopped in The City to have dinner with Auntie D and Uncle J. We are so happy they were available on such short notice. We had a great visit over a nice dinner. A new tradition! Next year we will plan ahead and arrange our visit more thank an hour in advance.

Baking Cookies

Every Christmas the girls and I bake cookies. I make lots of Biscotti, but the girls love decorating Gingerbread People.

Each cookie was designed with care. A story behind each cookie. One tray was going to a party. One cookie was Aunt J another Auntie D. This cookie will go to Nonna, that cookie will go to Papa. It was the cutest thing.

These are some of the Christmas memories and traditions I love the most.

All I Want For Christmas is...

my front tooth.

Birthday Tea

CK finally was able to have her birthday party. Poor thing. Only 2 months late. Better late than never, right? Darn leak!

I had a birthday tea one day after school for her and three of her friends. It was very fun.

The girls all had their tea dresses on. I made Biscotti, Blueberry Scones and had some grapes. There was a choice of orange tea or pink lemonade. After making origami swans they had chocolate cake with raspberry filling (from Nob Hill).

Happy Birthday CK! Sorry your party was late.

Traditions

One of our family traditions every Christmas season is going to see Santa at Daddy's work. It's so nice that Santa makes a special visit there. We talk to Santa, the girls tell him what they want for Christmas, we get a free print (and I get to take as many pictures as I want), and we have a cookie.

After Santa we have a Sushi dinner in Japantown and then go to Christmas in the Park. It is always a wonderful family evening out.

I'm not crazy about the carnival rides at Christmas in the Park, but they do make fun images.

It's snowing! Not really, not in our city, but the snow machines around the park were a lot of fun. They were soap bubbles.

Gosh they're big! How did they get so big? It seems like just last year we were taking CK for her first picture with Santa right here in Christmas in the Park.

Our Miracle Baby is Growing Up

Wednesday night CK had her first Confession (Reconciliation/Penance). She will be receiving her First Holy Communion in the Spring. It seems so surreal. Is she really that old?

We went to a Reconciliation service at our parish. We had one daughter nervous about doing her confession and one upset because she was not able to do her confession. We had a range of emotions.

In the end everyone was feeling happy and cleansed.

Prayers Needed...

A friend of a friend's daughter has just been diagnosed with Leukemia. I have never met this adorable little girl or her family. If you would like to learn more about Ellie and her family you can go to her website. Please keep Ellie and her family in your prayers.

UPDATE

Thank your for all your prayers for my sister. She had her iodine radiation for her Thyroid Cancer and is doing wonderfully! She is now on her Thyroid medication. I  have my old sister back! You can read about her journey on her blog.

God Bless