Filoli 2012 Holiday Traditions

It is an annual tradition to attend Filoli's Holiday Traditions and this year was no exception. While this event is a shopping extravaganza, taking photographs provides me inspiration for years to come.  Hopefully sharing them with you will provide you some inspiration (even if the holiday are quite a distance from now).

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Filoli 2012 Holiday Traditions

It is an annual tradition to attend Filoli's Holiday Traditions and this year was no exception. While this event is a shopping extravaganza, taking photographs provides me inspiration for years to come.  Hopefully sharing them with you will provide you some inspiration (even if the holiday are quite a distance from now).

Read more...

Happy Halloween (2012)!

The week of Halloween started off a little rocky with a diagnosis of pneumonia for Sophia (mild case) and bronchitis for Isabella.  We missed all the Halloween parties and events, opting instead for rest in the hopes that they might be well enough for trick or treating.  Today both kids slept in (Sophia until 9:30) and rested the whole day.  So, by 5:30 the ballerina and strawberry were ready to eat dinner and then trick or treat.  What a night it was- perfect weather, meeting new neighbors that included us in their group and getting lots of candy (including full size candy bars).

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Happy Halloween (2012)!

The week of Halloween started off a little rocky with a diagnosis of pneumonia for Sophia (mild case) and bronchitis for Isabella.  We missed all the Halloween parties and events, opting instead for rest in the hopes that they might be well enough for trick or treating.  Today both kids slept in (Sophia until 9:30) and rested the whole day.  So, by 5:30 the ballerina and strawberry were ready to eat dinner and then trick or treat.  What a night it was- perfect weather, meeting new neighbors that included us in their group and getting lots of candy (including full size candy bars).

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Welcoming 2012 (a little late)

We spent New Year’s Eve in Tahoe.  Renting a house with friends is the best way to celebrate milestones like a new year.   Of course this year was not the year for snow- there was only a few little patches around.  Turns out that was enough for the kids and for us.  We had a blast playing princesses, dancing, eating, drinking, and sledding (on the tiny bit of snow we found).  It was a great adventure with great friends. 

Cheers two months late to 2012. It has been a bit rocky starting, but I have faith this year will be a great one! 

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Welcoming 2012 (a little late)

We spent New Year’s Eve in Tahoe.  Renting a house with friends is the best way to celebrate milestones like a new year.   Of course this year was not the year for snow- there was only a few little patches around.  Turns out that was enough for the kids and for us.  We had a blast playing princesses, dancing, eating, drinking, and sledding (on the tiny bit of snow we found).  It was a great adventure with great friends. 

Cheers two months late to 2012. It has been a bit rocky starting, but I have faith this year will be a great one! 

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Christmas 2011

I was so excited about Christmas this year. Sophia is at the age to really enjoy it and Isabella was starting to enter the human phase of reacting to the twinkle lights, eating wrapping paper and the like.  Then the flu hit- I got it the week before Christmas and Sophia got it on Christmas Eve dinner.  She turned white & asked to go home.  On Christmas morning, after opening some presents and talking to the on-call doctor, we took her to urgent care near my parent’s house.  Luckily they were fast and efficient; she was diagnosed with bronchitis.  Not how we had planned Christmas, but fun still.  Sophia was a trooper and my parents got to spend more quality time with Isabella while we were at urgent care.  


Sophia was thrilled with her new princesses and computer (Leap Pad), which came in quite handy in urgent care.  

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Christmas 2011

I was so excited about Christmas this year. Sophia is at the age to really enjoy it and Isabella was starting to enter the human phase of reacting to the twinkle lights, eating wrapping paper and the like.  Then the flu hit- I got it the week before Christmas and Sophia got it on Christmas Eve dinner.  She turned white & asked to go home.  On Christmas morning, after opening some presents and talking to the on-call doctor, we took her to urgent care near my parent’s house.  Luckily they were fast and efficient; she was diagnosed with bronchitis.  Not how we had planned Christmas, but fun still.  Sophia was a trooper and my parents got to spend more quality time with Isabella while we were at urgent care.  


Sophia was thrilled with her new princesses and computer (Leap Pad), which came in quite handy in urgent care.  

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Thanksgiving 2011

I have lived in northern California for 14 years- this is the first time I was here for Thanksgiving.  With two little kids we decided that planes and trains for this short 4 day visit were not something we wanted to embark on, so we cooked. 

And boy did we cook.  It started about a week before thanksgiving making some of the sides, preparing pie crusts, etc.  My best friend and her family were nice enough to accept our invitation and we were off to feed 7 adults, 1 toddler and 2 babies.  So we came up with the following menu: Turkey with gravy, stuffing with sausage, mushrooms, onions and celery, mashed potatoes, butternut squash with a gruyere cheese crust, salad with candied walnuts and pears and of course fresh cranberry sauce.  For dessert we had pumpkin pie, pecan pie and pumpkin cheesecake all accompanied by homemade French vanilla ice cream. 

It was epic! Everything went together perfectly and the turkey was cooked perfectly.

     

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Thanksgiving 2011

I have lived in northern California for 14 years- this is the first time I was here for Thanksgiving.  With two little kids we decided that planes and trains for this short 4 day visit were not something we wanted to embark on, so we cooked. 

And boy did we cook.  It started about a week before thanksgiving making some of the sides, preparing pie crusts, etc.  My best friend and her family were nice enough to accept our invitation and we were off to feed 7 adults, 1 toddler and 2 babies.  So we came up with the following menu: Turkey with gravy, stuffing with sausage, mushrooms, onions and celery, mashed potatoes, butternut squash with a gruyere cheese crust, salad with candied walnuts and pears and of course fresh cranberry sauce.  For dessert we had pumpkin pie, pecan pie and pumpkin cheesecake all accompanied by homemade French vanilla ice cream. 

It was epic! Everything went together perfectly and the turkey was cooked perfectly.

     

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Halloween 2011

It was a great Halloween.  On Friday we attempted our annual birth group picture, but after Sophia adamantly put her foot down over and over we gave up.  It seems it was the year where many of the kids decided not to cooperate. 

After that fiasco I was openly worried that the remainder of the weekend’s activities would be difficult.  Of course I was pleasantly surprised when they went off without an issue. 

On Saturday night we all dressed up and went over to Jeff and Nancy’s costume party.  We dressed as a witch family with our little chicken in our cauldron.  It turned out quite cute. 

We all enjoyed the food, friends and games of musical chairs before happily returning home to sleep.  We all slept in on Sunday morning (a first in a long time) and awoke at 9 am!  It was pure bliss after a few restless nights last week due to colds, travel, etc. 

The remainder of the weekend we did our usual things and added in making pumpkin bread, roasting pumpkin seeds and carving our pumpkins-this was the 1^st year we did this with Sophia.  She had a great time. 

On Halloween evening we went trick or treating & managed to walk about a mile before Sophia said her bag was full enough and she was tired.  She came home, ate a candy, brushed her teeth and fell right asleep.  It really was the perfect end to a great holiday. 

Onward we head into the holiday season. 

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