Christmas 2005 and thanks everyone!

Christmas Eve we got everything ready by baking cookies to set out for Santa with a glass of milk and we left carrots for the reindeer. Then we read some Christmas stories and went to bed. When we woke up in the morning Santa had come!! The lights on the tree were twinkling and there was a flood of presents including a NEW BIKE for Skyler! - A new silver “big-boy” bike with training wheels and a big red bow on it. Unfortunately Christmas brought us tons of presents and tons of rain so he couldn't go outside and ride his new bike so instead we got him on it and pushed him around the house a little then moved on to the opening of the presents- Way to many presents. It really was a blur of toys, books, games & clothes. We ended up stashing some of the stuff and we've been slowly bringing out a game here and a book there.

My mom and Miss Lynda came over in the afternoon and we opened MORE presents and feasted. My cooked the turkey and I made stuffing, potatoes and green beans, etc., and we all stuffed our selves and then sat around fat & happy. Skyler ran around with his favorite presents of the day: his new binoculars and a big magnifying glass shaped like a bug.

What a haul! We are stuffed to the gills with fabulous gifts – Thank you all for all of the cool stuff you sent!

Kevin's visit

Skyler's Uncle Kevin, my brother, came to spend a few days with us before going to LA for Christmas! It was raining most of the time but we still had a great time. We went to the
Exploritorium and Skyler loved running around showing Kevin all of the great science exhibits. We went to a shopping at the mall, which doesn't sound like that much fun but we had to get out of the rain so we went to Stonestown and let Sky run (and Kevin chase him) and ended up having a great time.

We went to Chevy's for lunch and Kevin gave each of us (Mom, Matt, Skyler & myself) hand-made books that he made with stories and pictures of things that happened over the years. He made these books of "how cool we are" and what he loved about each of us complete with hand drawn depictions of each scene (dancing to music in our living room when we were kids, sitting on a beach with dad when he started crying because John Lennon had died) all beautifully hand bound in textured paper. They are amazing to read, some things that I didn't even remember until I read it, but that shaped Kevin's life and ours in different ways.

That night we had dinner at mom's house and we ordered from our favorite old style Italian restaurant Victor's (on Polk Street, by our old house) and sat around and ate & talked. It was wonderful. Of course Skyler was so enthralled by Kevin that all he wanted to do was play with him.

The next night we had dinner at our house and we ordered Indian food. Then Kevin and Skyler were off to run around the house together, playing in Skyler's room with his toys,
reading Skyler stories sitting in the rocking chair (see that cute picture!). It was so much fun having Kevin around! I miss him so much and I wish he lived closer so that he and Skyler could play and I could hang out with my "little" brother more often. But he doesn't so we'll just have to go to Florida and visit him - a good excuse to go to Disney World!

Skyler's first school Christmas program

Skyler's preschool is part of a church. The church is primarily Chinese American worshipers lead by Pastor Hall a very nice, soft-spoken man. The parents were asked to take seats in the church so we sat and listened to the first part of their service while waiting for the kid’s music portion of the show to start. Pastor Hall would read or say one part of the sermon in English and then an older man would repeat it in Chinese. It was all very strange and we had a bit of trouble at first keeping a straight face. "Open your Hymn book to this and that" and we would stand with everyone else and mumble/sing the Hymn about our Blessed Jesus. Fortunately my mom was with us and has more church experience that Matt or I so we just kind of followed her lead. They had a guest speaker who got up and in broken English told the story of how she found god instead of the evil Buddhist / fortune telling/horoscope reading sinner she used to be.

The best part, of course, was the kids getting up and singing. Skyler’s class is all of the 3 year olds that attend the school and they had to be lead and pushed from the back of the church up to the front. Skyler walked down the aisle with the other kids, but for some reason he had his hand covering his eyes and was holding on to another kid to guidance. When they got to the front the teacher arraigned them all in two rows. One of Skyler’s teachers, Mrs. Yang, put blush on their cheeks and they all looked like pink-cheeked sweeties. They sang Jesus Loves the Little Children, This little light of mine, Jingle Bells, and, We wish you a Merry Christmas. Skyler was great and sang along with the kids and rang his bells. One little girl sang and shook her bells and shakers with such gusto she had everyone laughing, she was really shaking her bootie. Half way through the songs Skyler decided he wanted to take off his cute Christmas sweater so with the help of the teacher he striped down to a tee shirt (fortunately a long sleeve black one, he still looked cute but a bit Goth in all black). All of the parents crowded the front trying to get the best shot of their little angel.

Then we went down stairs for a potluck; an odd mix with lots of Chinese dishes, our pasta salad along with a couple other American dishes and sushi. The whole thing was kind of strange, but it was fun and good for all of us to see the other kids and parents.

Christmas prep is underway!

While we were downtown Matt took Skyler to eat at Sears (not the department store, the old SF breakfast spot on Powell) - famous for the pancakes, Skyler had 18 of them. I went to brunch at the Carnelian Room at the top of the B of A building and had fancy-pants champagne brunch with my office. What a view!

We got a big tree for $40 - one of those trees that are all wrapped up with string and you can't open it to see if it is lopsided or has missing branches until you get home. We only had to do a little snipping here and there (and a few inches off the top so it would stand in our living room) and it's lovely! We totally lucked out! But a 7'-8' tree that has been unwrapped and trimmed by the 'pros' at the lot is $120-$150. We went in thinking we were going to get a little tree and set it on a table and ended coming home with a giant one! Yippee!

We got our great big tree home and put up all of the lights and decorations. Skyler loved that part. He's very "Queer Eye" and notices all of the little details and tries to make things extra pretty. He says things like, "It's so Cute!” and, "What a beautiful tree we got." We made Christmas cookies and Skyler got to help decorate them. Matt decorated beautiful cookies including yellow snowmen.

He’s starting to likes school; he didn’t even get that trembling lip/chin thing this morning when I dropped him off. He only asked that I be sure and pick him up.

He’s so cute, this is so much fun!

Christmas carols!

These songs are all new to Skyler and he loves how enthusiastically they are all sung with drama, hand gestures, etc. And the stories of each one, Santa knows when you've been sleeping, he knows when you're awake - who is this Santa that knows what we're all doing all the time... - Rudolph the red nose reindeer and why were the other reindeer being mean to him? Mommy kissing Santa Claus (can I kiss him?). It's all very fun to be a part of, this is the first Christmas that he can really understand!