Our annual tree-choosing mission

Does it seem wrong to anyone else that it was 85 degrees on the afternoon that we went to pick out our Christmas tree?
We always to go the same retailer - "Sonshine Christmas Trees" - because they are Christian, and they donate some of their profits to local organizations. This year, Abigail is beginning to understand what is going on, and wanted to help choose the tree. "Pleeeease let me help pick one!"

We traipsed all over the lot, looking at the huge trees (and wondering who could spend hundreds of dollars on a Christmas tree) before going to the less expensive section. I showed Frances that the Nobles are much more expensive than the Douglas firs, and explained that we could get "more tree" for less money if we went with a Douglas. Frances carefully considered many trees before we made our final selection.

We finally found a tree that we could all agree upon, that was not too expensive. Everyone was satisfied. It's taller than Frances, so it's a "big" tree. We had it tied to the top of the car, and headed home. Because we'd had several days of hot weather, our tree was dropping needles even as we set it up. But we had a great time decorating it, and it looked really nice with the little twinkly lights on it when we were done. Finally, we were ready for Christmas!

Ho, Ho, Ho!

As has become our annual tradition, we went to Bergstrom's to see Santa. This year, Abigail did not need any coaxing! We got there a little early, but there was already a line. When Santa entered the store, Abigail joyfully shouted, "Santa Claus!" He stopped to talk to her for a moment before taking his place in the big chair. When it was our turn, Frances was pleased that Santa remembered her from previous years, although he never seems to remember that she does not like candy canes! Abigail was happy to help Fran by eating both candy canes!

Backyard fun

We had a blessed weekend afternoon with nothing to do, so we played in our backyard.
We started with the swings. Frances pushed Abigail on the standard swing, and then I spun Fran as fast as I could on her disc swing. We also decorated our back fence with chalk, as you can see. The rain may wash away my art, but I had fun doing it.

I also dragged out the balance beam, and later, the hoppity-hops. We have two hoppity-hops from when Frances was younger, and I asked her to demonstrate for Abigail how you use one. Before she knew it, Fran was having a great time on these "little kid" toys! She and Abby had races across the yard, crashed into each other, and landed in a giggling heap.

The girls also had fun using scooters and trikes. Frances was kind enough to let Abigail win a few times, and they both had a ball. We need more of those afternoons, with "nothing to do." It was relaxing, just what we needed in our busy lives.

Let's Go Fly a Kite...

On a windy Sunday afternoon, I remembered that we have a kite in the garage. It had never been used, and is a big, beautiful parrot shape. I bought it at Costco before Abigail came home, and I guess we've just never had the time and/or opportunity to use it. So one afternoon after church and nap, I packed the girls into the car and we headed out for a park. We had some difficulty finding a park that was not full of soccer games, but were finally successful. We had a great time, even though the wind was gusty and the kite kept plunging to the ground! Both girls got turns flying it, as well as helping to launch it. We need to do this again soon!

Gymnastic season is over...

We were grateful that the state level meet was close to home, since we had to be there at 7:30 this morning! Frances is the only 9-year-old on her team, so she had her coach, Lindsay, all to herself. Frances did well, achieving her highest all-around score yet. She did not earn a medal, but she knew going in that she wouldn't. Our perspective this season is that we want her to get a higher score with each meet. She didn't start training for Level 4 until July (girls usually begin in January) so we pretty much knew she wouldn't be on the podium. Frances was satisfied with her scores today, and she loved the "goodie bag" that the team moms put together. All of us contributed a few fun items, and one mom organized it all into goodie bags for the girls and the coach.
Thus ends the 2010 gymnastic season... although they may do a few meets in the spring!

Veteran's Day, 2010

On Thursday, we went to Disneyland! Our darling neighbor, Janice, signed us in, and even stayed a few hours to take Abigail on the carousel, horse-drawn trolley, Alice in Wonderland, etc., so that I could take Frances on Space Mountain, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and Indiana Jones. We had a great day!



We were in the park from 8 a.m. to 3:30, and then left to get to gymnastics by 4:30. Abigail slept through her class. Oops! Then we grabbed a quick dinner, and headed back to the park. We were back inside just before 8 p.m., and stayed until about 9:30. Abigail is tall enough for most of the rides, but I knew that there were some which would be too scary for her. Frances was a good sport, and rode the merry-go-round, and then we took Abigail on the Matterhorn bobsleds! I knew ahead of time that she would not like it, but.... we did it anyway! No crying, but Abby told me that it had been scary. I was one tired Mama the next day at work!

Halloween!

Okay, there are tons of pictures in this blog entry! But they were all so cute that I couldn't decide which ones to leave out, and believe me, there are plenty more on the flash drive that I did not choose to post!
This year, Abigail scored with costume selection. She has several Princess dresses, from birthday presents and hand-me-downs, and Frances realized that Abigail has a doll to match nearly every costume!

Abigail has the Tiana dress which matches the Cinderella rag doll, the Jasmine costume to match the rag doll, and she even has a red silk outfit (maybe from China, but more likely from a thrift store) that happened to match her Mulan barbie doll!

Aunt Linda invited us to go to the Family Musical Morning, Halloween edition, at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The Pacific Symphony Orchestra played selections from scary movies, as each of the "movie monsters" checked in to the fictional "Hollywood Monster Mansion Hotel." We had a hard time finding a costume for Frances this year. There was nothing interesting at the thrift stores, so we re-used a knight costume from last year to go to the Performing Arts Center. For this event, Abigail wore her Sleeping Beauty dress, and brought along the matching doll!

We bought pumpkins several weeks before Halloween, but waited until the last minute to carve them, because of the heat. Yes, moldy pumpkins are definitely scary, but that wasn't really the look we were going for! Frances sketched some faces that she thought would be appropriate, and it was my job to do the corresponding carving! This year, Frances was a big help in separating all of the seeds, and then I cooked them in olive oil and garlic salt for Franny's favorite autumn snack.

About a week before Halloween, our neighbor brought over a Winnie the Pooh costume. Abigail loved it, but it was really too warm for Halloween in California. She did try it on, and carried it around the house with her for a few days.

We also picked up a few hats and things at the 99-cent store, including a hairband with attached braids, so we can see what Abigail might look like someday with more hair!

For the Halloween costume piano recital and trick-or-treating, Frances finally decided to be a cowgirl. She has some really nice boots that Aunt Judy & Uncle Mike gave her last Christmas, as well as a hat from some Western-themed birthday party. An orange and black plaid shirt completed the outfit. Abigail decided to dress up as Snow White (with, of course, the matching rag doll!). We had a good time trick-or-treating, but Abigail was frightened at a few houses. She wanted to go up to people's porches by herself (like a big girl) but finally consented to tightly gripping Fran's hand for moral support! One house in particular was just too scary, and I had to carry her back to "home base" (Lori & Phoebe's house in Old Towne Orange). Frances noticed that people were only giving single pieces of candy this year, instead of two or three at a time as in previous years. The economy is even affecting trick-or-treating. But it was still a fun night!