12.26.2011: Scrabble Night

While I was gone to San Diego visiting old friends, Alisa went to visit her best friend Christina. Mom went to Gramma & Papa's house....and the boys & kids spent the day working on house projects.  Vince installed the new ceiling fan.  Brent installed the tv speakers all over the house...and programmed their new touch screen remote.  They spent the whole day making home depot trips, re-wiring stuff, and cutting holes in walls and ceilings!  Sounds like sooo much fun & so bummed I missed it.

Later that evening, we played kids Scrabble.  This game was absolutely hilarious!  It brought back so many memories from the years & years of playing Scrabble with Uncle Joe every year at Christmas.  Uncle Joe (Papa's brother) would come out to Riverside for Christmas every year and spend at least a week or 2 there with us all.  Most nights he would come over to our house on Bandini and play Scrabble with us kids....and drink his Pepsi.  He was super competitve and would never just "let" us win. Many times we would have to challenge and break out the good ole' Websters Dictionary to settle the disagreements on "real" words!   Between Scrabble & Connect Four, we had quick a few intense little battles going on.  So much fun for us and such great memories we have of it!  It was great playing kids Scrabble with the kiddos and hopefully starting a new tradition with them to pass on.  I hope they have as many wonderful memories with their aunts & uncles as we did with ours during the holidays!

Back to the game at hand though....it was pretty stiff competition. Drake & I were partners, Mom & Nana were partners, and Andrew & Alisa were partners.  Drake loved trying to spell words upside-down...or  make great words that didn't fit anywhere on the board.  Nana deferred to Mom on the big decisions...and Andrew had fun making up his own words.  He started spelling stuff phonetically...such as ZEW...instead of ZOO.  That was just one of the many words that he would come up with.  Not to mention all the 2 letter words he would find & insist on using his turn up on.  It was hilarious!!  Alisa was a little frustrated, but played along very well and eventually let Andrew play his own words.  So fun!!  We laughed & laughed & laughed!!  Again, one of the best memories of the week...mainly because we have so much history with the game and the kids had such a great time playing!

Nana the chef!!!  Vince and I got her this little outfit since she loves cooking

What u looking at???



 Brent still working & programming the tv

 The ceiling fan Vince installed

Kids scrabble

 Alisa telling Andrew that once again his made-up words cannot be used!

 Mom & Nana were partners & won!

 One of Andrew's words...ZEW (aka zoo)...and yes that is an N, not a Z :)

 Tubbers just being her cutie-patootie self!

12.26.2011: Brunch with the SDSU Girls

Monday morning I woke up and drove down to San Diego to have brunch with the SDSU girls.  It is an annual tradition that the group all tries to get together for lunch/dinner over Christmas weekend, as most of us are all in town at that time.  Each year the attendance varies ....I personally haven't made it in the past few years...but was able to this year!!  So, Stacy, Reina, Georgette and I all met in Solana Beach!  it was a gorgeous day and was sooooo nice to see and catch up with the girls.  I hadnt seen them in so long, but was like no time had ever passed.  Soooo good to them!!

12.25.2011: Christmas Dinner

For Christmas dinner Lex & Christina came over for the evening.  They had just flow in late the night before from the Dominican Republic, where they went for Christmas week with Lex's family.  It was nice being able to spend the evening with them!  Tina came over as well so it was great having her there too! Mom made some delish Prime Rib, lobster mac & cheese, salad, etc...  Before dinner we played a little pool, and the boys all had a great time!  It got pretty intense, so was good that dinner was ready!

We opened gifts with Drake, Lex and Christina before dinner.  Drake got some new track shoes that he couldn't wait to try out up & down the hallway!  We wouldn't let him wear them on the cement outside, so he just ran up & down the hall :) 

After dinner, Brent Alisa & the kids came back.  We had a little sipping party on the local beverage that Christina had brought back from the Dominican.  It is one of those "cure-all" drinks...with alcohol.....and tasted like hot garbage (as described by Alisa).  It really did taste pretty bad!!  But was fun trying a new drink! 

What a great ending to a great Christmas day!!!

12.25.2011: Playing w Toys

After a delicious breakfast, we all took turns getting ready for the day.  Brent, Alisa and the kids were headed out to Alisa's gramma Katie's place...and to have Christmas dinner with her uncle Sean, Sarah and her cousins.  Vince headed out to pick up Drake from the airport.  We flew him in to spend the rest of Christmas break with us.  This was his first year flying solo, and he was sooooo excited for the trip!  That, and he couldn't wait to hang out with Andrew & Brianna (and Avery too!) 

In between getting ready, Andrew, Brent and Dad played some catch outside for a while. Andrew got a new Fitzgerald jersey (went well with the Chargers helmet...yes, Andrew must please everyone)....but he is a much better QB than wide reciever...who knows...we could be looking at the next Peyton Manning, Drew Brees...no, I wont say Tom Brady...although Piggy is very into fashion!  Never know!!  Brianna brought out her new karaoke machine and sang us all some tunes while the guys played football.  The pups even got some outside time...which Kaizen was very ready for after being couped up all week because it was raining.  As you can see, another gorgeous Christmas day in Riverside....no white Christmas for us!!

12.25.2011: Santa Came!! It's Christmas Morning...

Jingle bells, jingle bells, Santa came today...
Well, he came last night....but it's Christmas morning!!  Yeah!!  As you can see, the mantle has grown by one stocking this year.  Mom was up ALL night the week before Christmas working on making sure Avery's stocking was done in time....and of course it was!  These stockings, as you read from my posts a couple years ago, are a VERY VERY big deal!  You do not get one until you are married or born into the family.  Mom still makes these by hand for all new members.  I am proud to say that mine is the oldest...and you can tell...but that is what I love about it.  It is original, has character, and is the only red (well, kinda more pink now) one.  While all the others have 1000x's more detail and bling, bling that mine....I still love mine the most.

Anyways, back to Christmas morning and jingling all the way....
As I was saying, this was Avery's first Christmas....and so there are an extra amount of pictures of her.  The kiddos woke up and were so excited to see their stockings full of goodies.  They were as excited for the candy & little things in the stockings as they were for their other gift from Santa.  Andrew got a little airplane thing, Brianna a Barbie airplane, and Avery a jumping turtle thing that you bounce on.  Avery really liked her bouncey thing...she just can't do it on her own yet.  She also really liked opening her own gifts.  When she couldn't get the paper open, she resorted to eating it.  She didn't like the taste so much, but it didn't stop her from trying to get to her gifts.

Everyone got and gave amazing gifts!! This year we actually did lists of ideas for gifts so it gave everyone really good ideas of what to get each other.  I think it worked out really well, and everyone benefited from it! 

After gifts, we all took showers, had an amazing breakfast of quiche & mimosas, and played with our new toys :)

 Yes, he wore his helmet for the rest of the morning as he opened all his other gifts

 Had to give her the plug so she would stop eating her wrapping paper

 Andrew got me some nailpolish for my toes...called "Piggy Polish"...get it....Piggy polish from Piggy!  He was really, really excited about his gift...I loved it!!!  :)