Oh Christmas Tree...

We got our Christmas tree yesterday afternoon.  O was so excited about the trip, he was running around the lot, looking at the trees, saying "Oh, look at that one".  It was pretty cute.

Here are my boys picking out the tree

Fuzzy, but too cute not to share:

And, the finished product after our decorating adventure this evening:

:

He was very excited to decorate - and actually, very careful with the glass balls.  I love the Christmas tree.

Crane Operator

On Saturday morning, Tom and O went on a field trip to ASPEN.  O loves the ship, especially the galley, the bridge and now, the crane cab.  They had a great time while I stayed home and put up Christmas decoration.  I also had fun doing that.

Here is O controlling the crane from the cab.  

Sunday we had some friends over for brunch.  As usual with us, our brunch guests left here just in time to go home for dinner at around 6 o'clock.  We had a great time!

Peter Pan Christmas Party

Today was the Christmas Party at O's school.  He has been singing some of the songs for a couple of weeks now, but as you can see, he did not really sing along in the show at school!  He has been a little sick and lethargic this week, but he was much better today, not that you would know it from this video.  This is very short, but I could not get the longer one to load up for some reason.

Here he is at home singing the reindeer song that he learned at school. This is the song I caught the end of because they had started already when I got there.  His participation in this song was the same as all of the songs, standing against the wall looking grim!

They also had a visit from Santa.  He went right up to him to sit on his lap, no problem.  There were some screamers there, though.  I think O associates this look with Grandpa.

Party Animals

The ASPEN Christmas party was on Friday night. It was held at the Argonaut hotel in San Francisco, which is a small, nautical themed hotel near Fisherman's Wharf. There was a kid's party to accommodate the little ones during the adult party and then we stayed overnight so we would not have to drive home late.

Here we are by the tree in the lobby before the festivities.  O had a great time at the kids party.  He was probably the youngest one there, so he got a lot of attention from the babysitters.

In the morning we walked around in the rain for a bit, then visited the ships at the Pacific Maritime Museum.

We toured the old wooden ferry and the full rigged cargo ship.  He really likes boats, and he especially liked the helm.

Last night our neighbors, Pam and Ron, had an ornament decorating party.  She has a grandson who is O's age, so they had a great time playing together.  It was nice to meet some more people in the area and socialize with new people.  

We are having a quiet day at home today.  It has been storming here all week, but the sun seems to be peeking out now.  

Tom is leaving for a short trip out on the ship tomorrow.  They have been stuck at the dock for a long time now, but they are fixed and are going to try and work some buoys if the weather will cooperate with their plans.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great time on our Thanksgiving trip.  We were gone from early Wednesday through Friday evening, so I am preparing our Thanksgiving dinner for today (Sunday).  On our way up to the hot springs we stopped in the town of Healdsberg for lunch and some wine tasting -  we will definitely go back there again, it was a nice little town where most of the wineries have tasking rooms right in the downtown rather than out at the winery.  We also made a few stops to do some "business" by the side of the road:

I know that some day he will be mad at me for posting that, but he did such a great job of asking us to stop the car and using the potty, that I want to share!

The drive up the mountains to the hot springs was twisty and turny, but also beautiful.  The resort itself is small and very nice.  I wish I had taken a picture of the amazing communal kitchen.  There are no restaurants up there, and the town is a 35+ min drive away on the mountain road, so we took food to cook.

A view of the valley:

The hot springs:

The pool and sauna house:

Two private tubs on the roof deck.  These were pretty neat, you could fill them up fresh for each person with the piped in mineral water:

There were also little rooms with private tubs.  These were the only one's O was allowed in because he is under three.  He really liked swimming in the "warm pool":

This morning, I was busy getting dinner ready; Tom, Kristen and O went out to the Jack London Square Farmer's Market.  We ate after O's nap.  It was a big meal!

O was not so interested in the dinner, but that was because he knew what was coming at the end:

This kid LOVES his pumpkin pie.  He ate two full pieces and wanted more!

KRay is Here!

Kristen arrived today.  O is very happy to have another visitor, and Tom and I are very excited to see Kristen.

Tomorrow we are heading north for a two night stay at Orr Hot Springs.  We will have Thanksgiving on either Saturday or Sunday since we were able to get reservations only for Wed and Thursday nights.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Crafts

Nan and O have been busy making crafts for Thanksgiving this week.

They made six of the pilgrim turkey plates plus the pine cone owl and gourd turkey to decorate the Thanksgiving table.

Today is Nan's last day visiting.  We sure have enjoyed having her here!

Nan's Here!

Nan arrived late Friday night, and we have been having a great time with her.  On Sunday we drove up to Sonoma for some fun and some wine tasting.

 He seems a lot bigger and older now rolling these big rope balls around than he was in May.

Little builder - he was very intent on stacking and poking sticks in the sand.

We made a stop at Train Town.  The little rides and the train were a big hit with O!

Me, Nan and O on the train ride.  He was pretty excited about the ride.

He was not as excited about the carousel though...

He rode the airplanes all by himself!

Overall we had a great time mixing in wine tasting for the adults with fun activities for the little guy.  Now, me and Tom are back to work, and O is handing out with Nan, making crafts and playing.