I'll be home for Christmas

FINALLY!  It had  been 12 years since I spent a Christmas in the Bay Area.  To put that in perspective, George W Bush was POTUS and 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' movie was released in November.

It is also the kids first Christmas with Pau-pau, Gung-gung, Yi-mah and her family!  Sipping peppermint mochas and gingerbread lattes finally felt right (for the record, I also managed to get my hands on a pumpkin spiced latte too!).

Home for Christmas

We arrived into to San Francisco on the 23rd and barrelled into Christmas, and tried to keep to some of our traditions.    I was surprised by the number of houses that had Christmas lights out in the neighbourhood so we didn't even need to go anywhere special!  On Christmas Eve night, the kids made cookies and set them out for Santa.  (Santa had milk this year though.  He usually has beer in Australia.)  It was fun putting them in matching winter pyjamas too.

Making cookies

Cheese! Matching pyjamas!

On Christmas morning, Santa had found them!  He left small presents for them and photo evidence of presents at home too.  In the afternoon, we had a family dinner at Yi-mah's.

Merry Christmas!

From us!

Cousins

Dinner is served!

While Christmas Day was done, we had another big Christmas event a few days after.  We had a mini-reunion; 43 of us from my dad's side!  Yes, I said "mini" because there were still family missing.  It was wonderful to see family from Southern California, Canada and Hong Kong (and us too!) all in one place!

We started the day with a ladies only high tea

Ages: 6 months to 13 years old

The next generation

Next up, Bay Area Adventures...

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

Ugly Christmas Sweater photo booth

Before we left Sydney, we got into the Christmas spirit!  Holly, our Elf of the Shelf, returned and got up to her usual antics around our house.

Loom band-it

We had our photos taken with Santa at the beach!  When Santa comes to Australia, he likes to get his feet sandy sometimes.

Santa on the Beach

Santa on the Beach

This beautiful impromptu photo
(Story behind it, Eden was holding onto Jie-jie so he didn't blow away)

On the way home, we stopped for dinner… and a play in the water garden
(to be a kid again…)

It's Party Time!

I had my work Christmas party… in mid-November.  It didn’t feel like a Christmas party… and I wasn’t quite ready to celebrate yet with a large customer event the next weekend (see previous post).

Two strong this year

Fireworks for us? You shouldn't have!

My work also had the now annual decorating competition.  Yet again we were robbed!  (I am serious too.  We were told by numerous other departments that we really should have won).  Our theme was 'Frozen' and our Director's office became Oaken's Trading Post.

Woo hoo!  Big Sumer Blow Out!

I attended Mr H’s Christmas party again (yay!  date night!) and like last year, the E’s had a party with Mr M and Miss A.  The ratio was 1 adult to 5 kids!  Mr E was the biggest party animal and stayed up until we picked them up… at 1:30am.  That’s right, 1:30am. 

Hot Cuban Nights at King Street Wharf

Eloise and Eden had Breakfast with Santa at a local shopping centre (unfortunately this was a pretty badly managed event - I think Santa was there but I am not sure?  We certainly couldn't see him at all.)

 

Face painting by Santa's helpers

We ditched the 'mess' of a breakfast for these. 

Mr E's Dance Concert

As I mentioned in the previous post, Eloise had a dance concert in November and not to be outdone, Eden did too!  He's been taking weekly dance classes at daycare and they showed us the dance they were working on.  Then he got a little present from Santa.

Fireball!

Santa also knows who's ticklish!

Christmas in the City

Miss E finished school and I took a day off to spend with her, so we had a girly day in the Big Smoke (Sydney CBD) to lunch and check out the decorations.

World Square
(on our way to Project Burger - again my burger quest continues)

Swarovski Tree at QVB 

Lego tree at Pitt Street Mall

Carols By Candlelight

This year we attended the local Carols By Candlelight at Miss E's school.  They had photos with camels, a petting zoo, jumping castles, food stalls and carols.  It was a fun night!

Camel photos

Petting zoo
(unfortunately this chick pooped on her!)

A kid with a kid

Bigger than her head!

Christmas carol time!

Next up, 12 years in the making… Christmas in San Francisco!

Back track: November and December

Here is the first of a few back-track blog posts.  I slacked BIG TIME at the end of the year and soon you will see why: November and December were non-stop until we had a 13 hour flight to “relax” (as much as you do with a 5 year old and 3 year old in a confined space).  

We tried. (November)

Pre-storm

Our last play date was a wash out as was this one.  It was a storm like no other and unfortunately traumatised Eden.  One minute we were laughing and running through the water, and the next we were hurrying under cover.  Within 30 seconds of getting under an umbrella, the skies opened and the winds blew.  There was no time to get dressed so we wrapped the kids in towels and held on tight.  There was a short break in the rain and we ran for it… but only made it half-way to the next undercover section when the winds were blowing too hard to move and lightning struck.  The only thing we could do was take cover next to the cement toilet block and watch the mini-tornado.  It sure was scary!

 

Taking shelter

Hello Sunshine!

We had amazing weather in November … and some of December, minus the crazy tropical thunderstorms.

Water fight!

Thanksgiving

This year, my work organised a Thanksgiving feast for lunch.  Our café roasted us a turkey with all the sides and a few of us brought in pies to complete the meal.  It was wonderful to make some new American friends, especially finding so many from the Bay Area/ Peninsula.

That evening, we had a family dinner at TGI Fridays.  Don’t laugh but it was pretty darn good – and best of all I did not have to do any cooking or cleaning!

 

This is the "after" photo of Eloise's dinner.
The only thing left were her green beans.
She likes mine better.

MissE (November and December)

MissE hit some big milestones for 5 – receiving her green belt in taekwondo, performing at her first dance concert (with a mini solo too), moving to Level 4 at swimming (laps!) and a BIG one, finishing Kindergarten.

At grading

Yay!  A green belt

Before the dance concert, Eloise with a few of the KH boys

Level 4

CONGRATS!  She (we) made it through Kindy!

Me

Not only did we have a play date, we also had a girls night dinner.  This time we went to Kasbah.  It was a beautiful night to sit outside.  The food and the conversation was good as always!

Melbourne

Melbourne at Night

I spent the last week of November in Melbourne.  My trip was a little topsy-turvy.  Remember way back in 2013, I attended a movie night with The Langham Hospitality Group (yes, the hotels).  I won a night stay at The Langham Melbourne with Club Lounge access.  I finally had the opportunity to redeem my prize but it was before all the hard work!  I invited my lovely co-worker, Ms M, to join me and I didn’t have to twist her arm.

The Langham pink car

Room with a view

My Langham stay was as wonderful as The Langham smells!  Having Club access was the best.  I didn’t have mingle with the riff-raff at all!  Ha,ha.

Afternoon Tea at the Club Lounge overlooking the Yarra River

For our night on the town, we visited “The Croft Institute” this quirky asylum-themed bar located down a graffiti covered alley-way.  We were also able to take in Mockingjay Part 1 at the 12:01am showing.

Inside the Hygiene Department
(women's toilet)

Then it was time to go to work… after a pretty awesome lunch at The Grand Trailer Park Taverna.  I stumbled upon this gem the day before and took my co-workers back with me for burgers and alcoholic-milkshakes (Maker's Mark, salted caramel and bacon).  We were part of its grand opening and the owners modelled it off the American burger culture so we talked burgers.  He treated us waffle ice cream sandwiches too.  Good move on his part as we sent a few groups there over the next few days.  To date (Feb 2015), it's still one of the best burgers I've had in Australia (I can blog about my search for a good burger - these hipster places I have been trying in Sydney are just NOT cutting it). 

Trailer or Non-trailer?

It was a successful symposium and I couldn't be happier that it was done and dusted… until 2015 anyway.

Home Sweet Home

We have been working on a few final touches around our house since we finished Eden's Star Wars bedroom and the laundry room.  Our weekend project for November was adding some tiling inside.

Before

During

After (and my kitchen is neat!)

Next up, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!