Christmas in San Diego

Christmas trees, ice skating, hot chocolate

...oh yeah

and a joey in a stocking at sea world.

Nothing screams Christmas time like a kangaroo in a stocking.

This has got to be the cutest little animal ever made.

He got out of his mom's pouch and then she wasn't really wanting him back since she had another baby on the way. His mom lives at Busch Gardens and so they are raising him at Sea World of San Diego until he is a bit older.

He was way calm and like the size of a small cat with huge feet.

Hallie said "Can we get an orphaned Kangaroo for a pet? or a wallaby? Either will do"

Davi said "I have decided I maybe wont be a vet when I grow up, I will just work with kangaroos"

ice rink snowmen

we went ice skating the other night and stayed until it closed. They don't have a zambonie or anything so they sweep all the ice shavings into a pile and then shovel it off.

So as we drove past, I stopped and had a plastic bag in the car and asked them to shovel some into the bag.

we brought it home and the girls made snow men at the table.

It was quite clean looking, hallie got a lot of debris in hers from the twigs for arms.

they started to melt and hallie came to me with big tears welling up in her eyes. "Mommy - she is melting...Please save her!!! don't let her die!"

ugh...I hate these moments.

10:30 at night I am rearranging the freezer for two snow men on plastic plates. Here I thought I could retrieve my Queen & Co mini brads after they melted!

So on shelf # 2 is Hallie's snow man next to a bag of prawns. On shelf #3 is Davi's next to a bag of chicken fries.

Decking the Halls

The girls decorate the tree every year, yeah it looks like two children decorated it, but they have a great time. I dont say a word when there are 15 ornaments on one branch.

We decorate the tree in all angel ornaments.

we have dog angels, cat angels, shamu angels, angel angels, scrapbook angels...

Hallie looked at me and said "why do the dog and cats have wings?" I said- oh, they are kitty and doggie angels. she paused and said "so we have dead dogs and cats on our tree?"

Snow much fun

This snow is about 22 miles east of our home- talk about living in paradise!! We can go to this winter wonderland in about 20 minutes and then come home to warm sunny weather.

the girls had a great time- it was very powdery snow, so we didnt build a snow man, but they had fun sledding, throwing snow balls at each other, making snow angels, and we even got snowed on!! that is a real rare thing for us, even though we go up to see the snow quite often, it doesnt snow much during the day. Here in san diego, even at 7,000 ft elevation, its usually only cold enough to snow at night.



So glad it snowed before Christmas, its a real treat for us

Gingerbread house

Last night the girls made a Gingerbread house.

I gave it the address of "123 Sugar High Rd"

Of course they ate a bit of the candy and icing while making it :)

After they make one they never like to tear down their creation, so it sits, and sits and gets stale.

I never made one as a kid, so its a traditon I love to do with the girls. I love the kit we get (no, I dont bake the gingerbread myself) it has premixed frosting and the tray for it to sit on has like slots for it to stand in while the icing hardens

All I want for Christmas...

is my two front teeth


love,

Hallie

Queen & Co contest

hey all you scrappers- here is a contest for you

http://queenandcompany.typepad.com/

just go to the Queen & Co blog for details :)

Palm Trees and Ice Skates

Ok- coolest thing ever to happen!! at the girls school/ Shadow Mountain Community Church they put up an ICE RINK out side the front of the church among the palm trees, makes me laugh- an ice rink with palm trees along the rink.

As they were building it we would go by after school and in the morning and the girls got to know a lot of the workers. WOW!! a LOT of machines to keep an ice rink frozen when it is like 75 here in the day :)!!

So on opening day of course we had to go, Davi had a dress rehearsal anyhow for choir so Hallie and I skated and drank hot chocolate (by the way the best hot chocolate I have ever had- I am not just saying that) its not expensive and it wasnt crowded and the price included skates!!

We had soooo much fun- Davi and Hallie were really getting the hang of it- the 3 of us looked like the "Ice Skating Challenged" family. But in San Diego, I am guessing we are not the only ones that are not very good at ice skating.

The girls are convinced they go to the coolest school in southern california.

If you are local you should take your family 2-10 on weekends 4-10 weekdays $10 adults $5 under 18 and $20 for a family.So much fun & it gets you in the Christmas spirit.

its quite large and they have great coffee and hot chocolate for $1 !!!!