Roller Coaster into the Break

We had a week of emotional ups and downs, unexpected travel, and multiple visits with a jolly old man in red. We are especially grateful for our families near and far at this time of year. 

On Sunday night, we watched It’s A Wonderful Life and then found out that Mike’s aunt was taken to the hospital.

On Monday, Mike’s department had its holiday party. He showed off his trivia smarts and apparently added some needful enthusiasm to the proceedings. He and his mom discussed going up to Utah to see his aunt and determine what we might be able to do.

While he was at work, Hallie, Diamond, and the kids played with neighbors outside. Diamond and Eliza went to a house in the neighborhood that gets a daily visit from an ambulance. Eliza asked a whole bunch of her three-year-old’s questions, and in exchange received a junior paramedic badge.

On Tuesday, Mike and his mom flew up to Salt Lake to see his aunt in the hospital. Eliza was not happy to see Mike leave.

When Mike and his mom arrived, they were relieved to see that Aunt Karen’s condition, while grave, had improved markedly. Modern medicine and priesthood blessings do wonders! We are grateful to have witnessed both in action, and are grateful to have an opportunity to reconnect with family, in spite of the circumstances. They spent most of their time in the hospital room with Aunt Karen and other family members who have rallied around her. Mom stayed overnight in the room.

Hallie and Diamond looked after the kids, and Hillary came over to visit. They had a laugh fest while doing Landon’s math homework. Apparently modern math requires the combined efforts of three adults to figure it out.

On Wednesday, Eliza had a party for her class. Santa came, and he was full of jokes and good humor.

This look on his face: Is he beginning to suspect something about the fat man in red? 

Later on, they all went to see Santa again (and Mrs. Claus too) at the Camarillo Ranch House.  

Meanwhile out in Utah, Aunt Karen’s condition continued to improve. This time, Mike stayed overnight in the hospital room. The recliner in the room folds flat and is surprisingly comfortable after someone spends several hours without sleep over multiple days.

By Thursday morning, Aunt Karen had improved to a point where Mike and his mom felt they could leave her in the very capable hands of extended family and hospital staff. They took the evening flight back to LA, where Mike was welcomed back home to very eager kisses and hugs from Hallie and the little ones.

During the day in California, Landon’s class had a holiday music concert.

Later, Hallie, Diamond, and the kids made and decorated Christmas-themed cupcakes. 

On Friday, Landon’s class had a holiday party. Mike read The Night Before Christmas and taught the kids how to make snowflakes, and Hallie, Diamond, and the other moms who came helped the kids make gifts for their families.

We watched Home Alone for pizza-and-a-movie night. Unfortunately, the kids had a hard time winding down for bed afterwards. Landon really seemed to identify with the main character, even going so far as to imitate him combing his hair as he got ready for bed.  

On Saturday, we took the kids to Hallie’s parents’ ward for breakfast with Santa. Of course, they got to wear their pajamas.

The kids got to visit with Santa again. 

While there, we found out that Riley’s wife Breanne had been taken to the hospital for torn arteries in her neck and had suffered a mini stroke. Fortunately, it appears that she will not have lingering effects from the injury.

After we got home from the breakfast, Landon went to a birthday party for his friend Isaac down at Pt. Mugu. Landon had a different idea of what a military base should look like and was surprised to find that it looked more like a small town than a field.

While he was out, Mike hung wires for an art wall like we used to have in Michigan to display all the kids’ art from school. Now to get some vinyl wall lettering!

The adults spent time wrapping gifts while the children were otherwise occupied. Hillary, Diamond, and Eliza went next door to put Eliza’s hair in curlers for church on Sunday.

After the kids went to bed, Hallie and Mike watched Christmas Vacation while wrapping more gifts. The scene with the squirrel in the Christmas tree brought back hilarious memories of our own encounter with a flying squirrel with the Doreys in Nova Scotia. Good times! We miss you!

When we came to bed, we saw that a secret admirer had left Hallie a message on her bathroom mirror.

We started Sunday with breakfast and everyone getting gussied up for church. The kids even got along well together!

Hillary came over to remove Eliza’s curlers, and the kids finished getting ready.

Curls! 

Here they are at church.

After church, Diamond attended the stake Christmas concert while the rest of us watched A Charlie Brown Christmas and went out to see the lights. We also happened to see nature's lights to end this shortest day of the year. 

Holiday Homecomings

The whole neighborhood is decorated with lights, and the hills are starting to green up. Diamond is back from Idaho. Let the holidays begin! Well, maybe not quite. . . .

The kids had school all week, and they have one more before getting their break. Mike had meetings all day Monday. The kids drove Hallie crazy. Good thing she can just send them outside.

On Wednesday, we took a look at a charter/homeschool option for Landon. He wants to be home, and we want to give him at least some school structure. The advantage to this school is that while there are classes on site two days a week (optional) and a curricular structure, we have our choice of the actual curriculum we use, and he can do the bulk of his work from home. Mike can take and pick him up on his way to and from work at CLU. 

The kids are making more fun crafts at school.

Mike hung exterior lights on the house.

We received a Harry and David gift box from our friend Claudia.

Royal Riviera pears! Oh, boy! 

We got a big rainstorm by California standards Thursday night into Friday. It caused mudslides and flooding in areas of town up by hillsides whose foliage had burned in the 2013 fires. Hallie knows one of the families from when they used to live in Thousand Oaks. 

Hallie worked Friday during the day, so Mike had Eliza. Mike's helping edit a textbook. He took her with him on the job, and she did surprisingly well (technology helps). While Mike was teaching up at CLU in the evening, Hallie and the kids decorated sugar cookies with Grandma and Grandpa B. and Hillary.

Diamond came home for Christmas on Saturday. After picking her up from the airport, Hallie and the kids went to Cafe Rio and then went back to the university to pick Mike up before taking the scenic back roads home as the sun set in a glowing orange sky over Pleasant Valley in the west. 

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.