Christmas 2012

The Christmas festivities started out with a visit to Mami and Papi's house for dinner last night with the Gonzalez family cousins.  As usual, John was a little shy at first, but he eventually warmed up and started taking of articles of clothing.  Nicholas felt comfortable from the get go and just jumped into the party with the older cousins immediately.  When we made it home, we allowed the boys to open up their present from Mami & Papi.  Upon opening his, John exclaimed, "At last, I have my lady bug DREAM LITE!"  He had been asking for one since he first saw it on tv last year.  Nicholas was ever so happy to open up his Penguin. Needless to say, they were so jazzed that they didn't fall asleep until after 10 PM.

Next, Santa made his stop to our apartment and left the boys their presents.  The boys were kind enough to sleep in, but at 7 AM, we unleashed them on the presents.  Nicholas and John were shocked to see that their cookies were eaten and that Santa had left them a thank you letter.  Eventually, they started opening their presents from Santa and the rest of the family.  Since they were good, they received many fun things in their stockings.  Thankfully, they weren't visited by that crazy Moor, Black Pete.

Guess Who Gets Kicked Out of Bed?

The parade usually starts between 5:45 and 6 AM.  Nicholas comes in and lies down on the floor next to Maureen and evenutally comes into the bed after a little while.  At 6 AM, I go into the room and wake John up because he likes to wake up at 6 AM.  If they are still tired, they'll rest for a while.  If not, John asks to watch Jonny Quest and Nicholas asks for Team Umizoomi.  If I'm in charge, I go for the Jonny Quest.  If Maureen has the remotes, she's a bit more fair about it.

Christmas Fun

You can find such interesting things in the Dollar Spot at Target.  Whether it's snacks or crayons, there is always something that catches the boys' interest.  The best part is that it only costs a dollar!!  Maureen vigilantly spots fun crafts for the boys to make.  Here we have a picture of the boys coloring in a Christmas tree and a Santa Claus.  This kept them entertained for about 20-minutes before Nicholas started coloring on the table and throwing the Santa Claus.  John kept his cool and tried to stay within the lines.

Lunch at Pink's

As we are driving home on La Brea after stopping in at Target, we came upon Pink's and saw that there was no line.  John asked, "Can we go?"  I always tell him that we can't go because there is a line, but there was absolutely no line, so I said, "Why not?"  Nicholas was excited because he likes the french fries.  Maureen was willing to give it a go.

So, we ordered and went to our table.  John was impressed with all of the pictures on the wall.  I think he only recognized Elmo and Pink (she was on Sponge Bob once).  Nicholas asked, "Why is it called Pink's?  Why not Orange's?"  I told him that the Pink family owned the restaurant and that's why.  That didn't phaze John one bit because he asked, "Why isn't it called Blue's?"

John had some hot dog and french fries.  Nicholas ate his french fries.  He even said, "I am going to share my french fries.  It's good to share."  I was shocked with that one.  At some point, John decided that he had to go to the restroom and I took him there.  He was surprised that it was a tiny room with a commode and a sink.  He asked about the ladies room and I told him that it was probably the same size.  As we get back to the table, Nicholas says that he has to go.  I humored him and took him to wash his hands.  He then started to do a little jig outside.  Mind you, it's a little wet outside due to the rain, so he did a little slipping and sliding.

I asked John if he wanted to come back another time and he said, "Yes."  I like that answer.

Trimming the Tree

After visiting 4 locations (Osh, Lowe's, Gypsy Corner Lot, and Home Depot) on Friday afternoon, I was pretty ticked off at the tree.  Maureen and the boys finally found the time to decorate the trees this afternoon.  As Maureen started to unpack the decorations and ornaments, the boys were giddy with glee.  They were excited and started grabbing all sorts of ornaments.

John was really good at grabbing the fragile oraments.  The first three he grabbed were breakable, so Maureen instituted a rule that they couldn't grab any oranments out of the box.  She would hand them to her and if there was a story behind the ornament, she'd tell it.  It seems as if every ornament did have a story behind it.  Nicholas was just happy to place the Christmas balls onto the tree.

For some reason, we have two small Nativity scene ornaments.  Being  deeply religious, John placed both on the tree.  As he placed them, he gave voices to Joseph, Mary, and the Baby Jesus.  He basically just said, "I am (insert name)", but they each had a different voice.  It was quite impressive.  As this was going on Nicholas created a new game with rules that apparently John broke.  That set off a little bit of a slap fight, but that was broken up rather quickly.

Those two are so entertaining.

Our Dandy Asked To Convert

As we were driving down La Brea this afternoon, I pointed out a large lit menorah in front of a shopping center.  John has been obsessed with menorahs.  He learned about them in school and wants to buy one for home.  We told him that we weren't Jewish.  To that, he said, "I want to be Jewish."  Maureen's immediate reaction was, "Great Uncle Fred Dockweiler would be spinning in his grave over that statement."

I suppose we could get a menorah and light it during Chanukah for him, but that would be something a hippie   family that is culturally sensitive.  Since we are neither hippies nor culturally sensitive (at least me).  We are just going to stick to a Christmas tree and a Nativity.  Once we started explaining all the rules that go along with Judaism, he kind of back tracked a bit.  I think it may have been the no Slurpees or bacon that may have changed his mind.

Helping with the Tree

During the boys' dinner, Maureen was going to start to put the lights on the Christmas tree.  John and Nicholas both wanted to help, but Maureen and I said no since they were eating.  Maureen did allow John to place the star at the top of the tree since she had to start up there and it is John's job to put the star on top of the tree.  We are going to finish it up tomorrow, but the lights are a good start.

Christmas Hijinx

Today was the boys' school Christmas party.  It's nice that they call it a Christmas party even though they also sing a Chanukah song.  Anywho, it was a nice day where they just got to go to school, eat snacks (cookies, popcorn, and marshmellows), sing songs, and go home.

When we got there, Nicholas took off running for the courtyard and basically abandoned us.  That was not a very good thing for him to do since we were parked at the end of the parking lot.  Thankfully, there were no cars coming, but that boy is trouble, I tell you what.

John and Nicholas both had their moments where they were crying and clinging to Maureen, but I'd say they had more fun than anything else.  They enjoyed some really yummy sugar cookies with sprinkles.  John let me try one of his.

After the festivities, we decided to go to try to buy a Christmas tree.  That was a terrible idea.  We went to OSH and Lowe's.  Both locations had no trees.  We stopped at a corner lot where the lady who could barely speak English was trying to charge us $65 for a tree that should cost no more than $50 at an independent lot.  Needless to say, we didn't buy that.

Since John was whining about being hungry, we went to Daphne's for lunch and followed it up with a trip to Target for some badly needed supplies.  Nicholas told us that he didn't want to go anywhere and would just eat his boogies.  He then stuck his finger up his nose and did just that.  Thankfully, he did eat his lunch at Daphne's and left the magic nose goblins alone.

Being so close to the Hollywood Home Depot, we headed over there to see if we could find a tree.  Sure enough, they had plenty of trees.  After waiting for about 15 excruciating minutes, someone finally helped us pick out a great Noble Fir.  Sadly, he left too much of the trunk on and it toppled over when we put it up.  Don't worry.  I fixed it by going to Kmart and getting a hacksaw to chop off about 8 inches from the trunk.


 All in all, it's been a very long day and there were times where I wanted to strangle the boys, but in typing this, I'm thankful to have those little trouble makers in my life.  What else would I have to blog about??

Dandy Dinner

John asked Maureen if he could have a fancy dinner with candles.  It looks like he's going to be quite the dandy when he grows up.

Gingerbread House

Guess who is putting out the Christmas decorations around the department.  Yes, the boys were quite happy to decorate their gingerbread house earlier this afternoon.  They have been eying it for a few weeks now and Maureen had to take it away from Nicholas the other day.  He was trying to break into it.   In any event, they were quite excited to show me their creation when I got home this evening.  They showed me their gingerbread  cookie men and where they put the grass next to the coconut snow.

In case you are wondering what's on Nicholas' face, that's green frosting.  He lives by the old Carl's Jr motto, "If it doesn't get all over the place, it doesn't belong in your face."  That boy is going to be trouble.  I tell you that now.  I do not look forward to the Christmas tree.  I know he's going to pull it down just to spite me.

Christmas/Advent Countdown

Grammy was kind enough to provide the boys with an Advent/Christmas countdown calendar.  It's a lovely music box that features Santa Claus and his elves dancing around.  Each day is numbered and contains a special treat like an Advent Calendar, but it really doesn't have anything to do with Little Baby Jesus.  That's ok.  It features St. Nicholas, so it still has some religiosity to it in a very strained way.

So far, Nicholas loves this thing because all the treats have been chocolate of some sort.  John has been very frustrated because he isn't a fan of just chocolate.  He likes sweets.  It's tough to be a four year old.

Fun at Turtle Park

Today's adventure involved heading over to the park on 8th street to play with the antique playground equipment and visit the turtles.  John asked if we could have a picnic at the park,so we picked up some tacos at Baja Fresh and some french fries at The Counter.  Those french fries are like CRACK.  They are so good.

Instead of eating on the benches like I recommended, John said we should go to the playground and sit on the wall.  Things went well until Nicholas knocked my tacos onto the sand.  It was ok.  The boys really liked riding on the slide and teeter totter.  They also made a new friend, Dillard.  He's a four year old and rides a cool red bike.  Nicholas kept on calling him a gwirl because his hair was a little long.  Everyone who has long hair is a gwirl according to Nicholas.

Finally, we headed over to the koi pond to visit with the turtles.  Since there is a turtle named Tiddles on "Peppa Pig", all turtles, in the boys' world, are known as tiddles.  John took delight in scaring the turtles and making them jump into the water.  I would have thought that Nicholas would have been the one to do that.  Nicholas just kept on screaming and I had to remind him to keep his voice down.  That boy doesn't quite understand the concept of voice modulation.


As a treat, we headed to McDonald's for a treat.  John asked for a strawberry milkshake and Nicholas asked for a vanilla cone.  He basically had some and the rest just dripped all over his ever loving self.  His car seat was coated in soft serve.  I let Maureen clean him up.  I tricked John and told him I only got one cookie and ate it.  After his freak out, I pulled out another cookie and handed it back to him.

Fun at the Drive Thru Carwash

These boys are easily entertained, so I decided to ask if they wanted to go through the drive thru carwash at the Shell station in Mission Hills.  Maureen and John both said that her car did need a little wash.  The last time we did this about 1.5 years ago, Nicholas freaked out.  This time, John assured him that it was not scary at all.  As we go in, they keep on asking, "Where are the brushes?  When are they going to pass over the car?"  It took about three minutes for the brushes to roll over us.  They were in heaven.  Nicholas was enthralled with the whole process while John was more worried about the water getting into the car through the moon roof.  Thankfully, the GM seals held on Maureen's Malibu and we were dry.  For the record, the dryer started going while our car was still being rinsed.  I'd say a good 20 seconds came off the dryer timer of 2 minutes.  I call shenanigans on that!

The Gifts Keep on Coming

Friday after school, Grammy took the boys and Maureen to lunch to celebrate Nicholas' birthday.  The birthday boy was really good and DEVOURED his cheese pizza with bacon on top.  I was certainly jealous when i found out where they went for lunch.  I never get to go to fancy pizza with the boys at The Beverly Center.  Oh well, it's my lot in life.  Anyway, they headed over to Grammy's house after lunch to open up Nicholas' birthday present from Grammy.  Needless to say, Nicholas was quite happy to open up his gift to find a Sesame Street playset with all his little friends from Sesame Street.

On Saturday, we headed over to Mami & Papi's house so that Nicholas could open up his present from them.  He was excited to a play pizza with a delivery box.  John and he have taken recently to playing "Two Brothers Pizza Shop" and this is the perfect additionl to that game.  You can customize the pizza every which way you can possibly imagine.  Sure enough, he made his first delivery to Mami.  John took the time to make a pizza for Papi and delivered it to him in a different container.  Everyone knows you need to deliver pizza in a container of some sort.  

Fun Fun Gifts

In case you didn't know, Nicholas really likes Play-Doh.  I am not a fan because of the mess that it leaves, but I put that aside for his birthday.  Anyway, John decided to be the birthday gift helper and Nicholas was more than happy to share in the birthday bounty.  He even gives his brother a hug.  That boy knows when to suck up.

On a side note, Johnny was pleased with the gift he "bought" for Nicholas.  He later said, "I give good presents, don't I?"

Sprout Sends It's Greetings

Kelly would have been cooler, but Specs (not sure of her name) does an ok job of wishing Nicholas a happy birthday. 

Happy Birthday Tsar Nicholas

Our Nicholas turned 3-years old today.  To celebrate, Maureen said that he could have anything he wanted for breakfast.  Do you know what he wanted?  Ice cream, chocolate with sprinkles to be precise.  It is his special day, so don't get upset Grammy.  We know you worry about his eating habits.  He also had some Riccachones aka Cheechas in a Green Bag.  If you ever need to soothe the little Tsar Nicholas, just give him some of those.  Their salty and limey flavor just settle him down.

At school, Maureen took some cupcakes for a mini celebration.  Over the last week, Nicholas kept changing his mind as to what he wanted.  One day it was cupcakes.  The next it was donuts.  After that, it was brownies.  Maureen just decided to keep it simple and bring some nice cupcakes with orange frosting and sprinkles, as per the request of the birthday boy!  I think his classmates really enjoyed them from the photos I have seen of small children with orange frosting all over their faces.

Who Knew?

One block south of Wilshire near us, there is a very nice park that has all sorts of delights.  The best part is that there is a little pond that has koi and turtles.  The boys really liked visiting it.  They even liked riding on the slides and teeter totters from the 1970s.  It kind of reminds me of Busch Gardens in the sense that it is this nice oasis surrounded by buildings.

Supper with Santa

Maureen took the boys to an event at the Ebell of Los Angeles called Supper with Santa.  It's an annual dinner event where there are games, activities, and a chance to meet Santa.  The boys dressed up all spiffy to meet Santa.  John even wore a tie under his sweater.  I must say that they looked sharp.  They may just have to wear their outfits on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  With Nicholas, that's easier said than done since he always gets something. on his clothes.  In any event, they had fun since they saw some of their classmates at the event.  They saw with John D and had loads of fun running around, playing with and in the fountain, and rolling down a little enbankment (don't ask me about that since I wasn't there).

Did they get a photo with Santa?  No, John gave me some story about not wanting to see Santa, but they did get several candy canes.  All in all, it was an enjoyable event.

Loteria

Spending summers in Mexico, we used to be exposed to some fun games like Loteria (bingo) and Turista Mundial (Monopoly).  The best part of Loteria were the images on the cards.  They had characters like El Boracho aka The Drunk, El Negrito, La Sierna (a topless mermaid), and La Muerte (Death).  You don't see things like that anymore.

A couple of years ago, I decided to see if I could pick up a copy of Loteria to play when the boys were older.  Thankfully, I found an authentic copy with the illustrations from the 1800s that do not go over well in these culturally sensitive times.  I'm told the game has been updated to eliminate some of the less than sensitive images.  That's just wrong.  The artwork is a reflection of the times.  It would be like trying to remove slavery from Gone with the Wind.  You just can't do it.

Anywho, I was looking for something to do with the boys and decided to pull out the game.  Sure enough, they took to the game like fish to water.  John always has to play a card with La Luna and Nicholas really likes El Alacran.  Nicholas actually won the first and second games.  It was just the luck of the draw.  Thankfully, John took it in stride and was happy just to keep playing until he won.

Now, if Mrs. Lowther would ever bring the boys a copy of Turista Mundial, their games would be complete

Soup Day

Every year on the day before Thanksgiving, Plymouth School conducts Soup Day.  It's the day for the children to prepare soup and bread to share with their parents and grandparents.  The kids are each asked to bring in a particular vegetable.  In our case, each was asked to bring in carrots.  The weekend prior to Soup Day, John kept on reminding me to buy carrots because he had to bring them to Soup Day.  There were even two notes on our front door to remind us of the carrots.  Maureen was aked to come in and help with some of the preparations for the celebration that was to begin at 11 AM.

So, the boys chopped up their vegetables and, apparently, the soup was really good. The rest of the time was spent running around like crazy and playing in the playground.  As some of you readers may know, I loathe the sand, but that doesn't stop these little monkeys from rolling around in the sand.  Aside from that, I'd have no complaints.  The school does a very good job of getting the kids involved in the preparation and execution of a fine meal.

After that, we headed over to Larchmont Blvd for a nice celebratory lunch.  We tried out the new Hamburger Hamlet Express.  I'd recommend it.  The food is reasonably priced and quite tasty.  The boys love the milk shakes, so they were in heaven.  For the record, John enjoyed a nice strawberry shake while Nicholas went for his usual Chocolate.

Pinatas Escape Them At The Moment

Over Thanksgiving, the boys were fortunate enough to attend two birthday parties for their cousins.  The first party was for their cousin Anamargarita aka Ana.  She turned six on Thanksgiving day and the day was full of giving thanks and celebration.  Prior to cutting the cake, they had a pinata to celebrate.  All the grandkids, even Alexis and Dillon, took a turn at the pinata.  John and Nicholas took their licks, but they don't quite get the concept.  Nicholas swings with one hand and just stares.  John gets some good whacks in, but he's still too little to cause any damage.  Once the pinata was broken, it was a rather civilized affair to gather the candy.  Their aunts, uncles, and cousins picked up candies and shared.  Nicholas, in a rare selfless act, shared his blue ring pop with John when John realized that he didn't have a blue ring pop!

The following Sunday, we went to cousin Adriana's 8th birthday party.  They had a fun neon themed party and Uncle Rick had the music going in the garage bar.  You'd have thought it was a nightclub with the disco lights (the boys want some for their room) and fog machine going.  This party had two pinatas and once again, the boys took a few swipes at the pinata without much success.  Gathering the candy was a different matter.  All the kids just pounced on it (as would happen in any party).  John was very disappointed that he didn't get a blue lollipop until one of the moms was kind enough to find him a blue lollipop and gave it to him. It was a GREAT party and the boys had fun, fun, fun.


Happy belated birthday to the cousins!