Little Love

Grandparenting.

  

It's a hard job, but someone has to do it. 

 

Happy 6 month birthday, JacJac.

Merry Merry, Day 2

Day 2 of opening presents, this time at Matt and Mary's house. 

Happy girls. 

  

 

Then a big cup of hot chocolate on the way home, to ward off the (CA) freezing temps. 

 

One more celebration to go, then we're on to the new year.

Merry, Merry

Matt and Mary spent Christmas Eve in Arrowhead  
and brought us back a present -

 
a truck bed full of snow. 
 
Let the snowball fights commence!

Matt had hoped Marie and Leanne would be here when he arrived,  
so Leanne could play before the snow melted. 
 
But they weren't . . . 
 
So when they did arrive,
 
he took the element of surprise 
 
and pelted Marie almost before she was out of the car.
 
So much fun. 
 
And Leanne has surprisingly good aim -
 
that snowball would have been right in my face (and camera lens) if I hadn't ducked at the last minute. Little stinker.
 
After that, opening presents was almost anticlimactic.
 
We opened gifts, 
 
ate our weight in sweets, 

took turns holding Santa Baby, 

 
and partied the afternoon away. 
 Jaclyn and her tasty toes.

 Ok, some of us took a nap while others watched football.
 
Everyone parties in their own way, right??
 
Since Leia was with her mom today, we'll go to her dad's house tomorrow for another round of gift opening. 

Party on!

Steps Toward Christmas

We're almost ready for Christmas. All our presents were wrapped and under the tree last Saturday (it's a Christmas miracle!), which left this week for baking and making.

Leia made the first batch cookies - 
 
she's so confidant in the process that she got out all the ingredients and was ready to go before I even made it to the kitchen.
 
Leanne sewed a present for her mom. 
 
(shhhh! It's a secret!)
 
I finished a bunch of projects - 3 t-shirt dresses for Leanne;
 
5 pillowcases - these 3 are gifts;
 
and put the binding on Leia's quilt. Leia insisted on satin blanket binding - what a pain in the tushie. 
 
I sewed it on like regular binding but I'm not overly pleased with the results. I may rip it out and redo it. But then again, finished is better than perfect . . . right?? 
 
Rachel is teaching Addy to weave - I'm so proud (sniff). 
 
And last but not least - I successfully made my mom's peanut butter fudge! I've tried this, off and on, for years with very limited success. I bought a new double boiler last year - just for this recipe - and that may have helped. 
 
Mom's PBF is one of my favorite Christmas memories. So glad I can share that holiday goodness with my kids and grandkids this year. 

Crazee Good Friends

Nice lunch today with a good friend 

 

and our almost-the-same-age granddaughters. 

  

Lots of fun and laughter.

  

And just a touch of silliness. 

  

Perfect.

Tedx LA

Hubby got his main Christmas present early this year - 

 

I surprised him with two tickets to the inaugural TedxLA at the Dolby Theater, 

 

then arranged for Rachel to fly out for the weekend to go with him. Their seats were dead-center, first row of the mezzanine - hard to find a better view - and the speakers were amazing. (Click the link above to see the list.)

 

And as long as she was here, I took advantage and talked Rach into taking a dish towel  class with me, her first ever weaving class.

 

Don't tell anybody, but I think she's hooked. There's talk of us taking another weaving class in March when I go to Loveland for Yarn Fest. Fingers crossed!

Birthday Bash

In what's become an annual tradition, we celebrated my birthday by taking the little girls somewhere fun. This year it was Disney On Ice at Staples Center.  

We left early - 3 pm for the 7:30 show - because rain + LA freeways usually means gridlock. The girls had their blankets, headphones and movies, so they were content. 

 

 

We were fortunate that it only took us until 5:30, leaving plenty of time to walk in the rain to dinner (great hamburgers and mac n cheese at Tom's Urban LA), then stand in line to get expensive light-up things for the girls.

 

The show was great - lots of raining bubbles, 

 

mini fireworks and the girls' favorite characters, including Toy Story (kinda boring), Little Mermaid Ariel (she waved at Leanne, who I thought was going to explode with happiness), Cars and - the hit of the night - Frozen's Ana and Elsa. 

 

Leanne screamed with excitement most of the night (it was so loud in there that no one cared) and they both sang along, waved their wands, danced and took lots of (really bad) photos with grandma's camera. 

 

 

Most. Fun. Ever. 

 

This was our 6th year of birthday-for-the-girls but it's the first time Leanne realized what was going on. She thought it was very cool that I got a year older and she (and Leia) got the presents. "I wish you had a birthday all the time, Grandma!" 

 Pop trying to avoid getting 'taken out' by Leanne's Ariel wand.

We'll definitely be doing this again!