Short-sleeved in December

After more than a decade of frigid Decembers, we entered this month with mostly pleasant and sunny weather fit for short-sleeved shirts and shorts. Ah, such a life! We're gearing up for Christmas by decorating the house, listening to hour upon hour of music, and participating in various Yuletide-themed activities. Here we're dreaming of a green Christmas, assuming the hills put on a verdant coat of new growth as a result of the recent rain. 

On Monday, Landon had a doctor’s appointment, and we all went down. While Mike and Eliza waited for Mom and Landon, we wandered around the hospital. As we rounded a corner of one of the corridors, who should we run into other than a white-haired, white-bearded man in red with a big brass belt buckle labeled SANTA?! We’re not saying for sure whether he was the real deal, but he did leave Eliza with this:

(It's a zipper pull with Santa's head)

After getting home from the doctor’s, Hallie began to feel ill. We’re not sure what she had, but none of the rest of us got it (maybe she ate something that disagreed with her?). She was well enough to get Eliza to and from school, but Mike needed to take the kids up to Grandma and Grandpa’s while he worked in the early evening.

Before going up to work, Mike set up the Christmas tree, and the kids helped him decorate. Decorating progressed slowly but surely throughout the rest of the week.

On Tuesday, Mike had a meeting up at school, but Hallie was still ill, so he came back soon afterwards to get Landon from school and otherwise help out. By the end of the day, Hallie was feeling well enough to eat some food.

Eliza brought home some of her Thanksgiving and other school work.

All the rain we have received has flooded out the ants’ homes. Apparently, they made their way to Landon’s school and his backpack.

"I found ants all over my lunch today."

While we have not had and do not expect snow, all the decorating has put Mike into a snowflake cutting mood, both with real and virtual paper.

Alexey Kljatov's micro photos are this year's inspiration drawn from nature.

Hallie worked at Nautica on Friday, so Mike had Eliza for company all day. After dropping off some items at the recycling center, they went to the donut shop to get Hallie and Landon a sweet surprise.

After Landon got home from school, they worked on an art project he has due on Monday, and he showed off some of his Thanksgiving art.

On Saturday, we had a full slate of activities. We started with our ward Christmas breakfast. A member of the ward does professional venue lighting, so we had a bistro layout to grace a menu that included cinnamon French toast, fancy egg dishes, and bagels with lox and all the trimmings, among other offering. Ward members showed off some of their musical talents, and Santa Claus came by to visit.

After the breakfast, we went out to Ventura to help our neighbors from across the street celebrate their little girl’s first birthday in style.

In the late afternoon, we headed to Simi to celebrate Mariah/Alie’s (we’re going to start calling her Marali – pronounced “merrily” as in “life is but a dream” – and be done with it) second birthday. She especially enjoyed getting into her cake. Yumm-o!

After church on Sunday, Mike and the kids decorated a gingerbread house and watched the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional while Hallie attended the Conejo Valley Interfaith Christmas concert in TO with her mom where her dad sang.