Christmas in San Diego

We had a great Christmas in San Diego with James' sister Michele and her family. Grandma & Grandpa G were also there, of course, and it was fabulous. Thankfully, we were able to make it out of SeaTac airport on Christmas Eve. It was snowing heavily and we were a bit nervous, but we made it there (and only an hour late!).

Bruce & Michele's kids are amazing--so full of energy and so funny, yet so nice and well-behaved. I tried to solicit some parenting advice, but of course they give all the credit to the kids. I'll have to keep watching. : ) Ben loves his cousins so much and they were so nice to him. Ben spent most of the time we were there running around the house squealing with delight. I felt like the laziest mom ever because other people were always entertaining him--mostly the kids or Grandma & Grandpa. He didn't want much to do with James or me until bedtime each night.

We visited the San Diego Zoo and got to see the pandas, koalas, and polar bears. It was great! We also visited some tidepools. We were able to see James' aunt & uncle and some cousins one night. But the best part was being with James' entire family for Christmas. What a blessing and a joy! I wish we lived closer, so we could see them all more often.

Here are some photos of the trip...

Mikayla & Miri got a dollhouse from Santa. Ben thought it was great, along with Mikayla's Barbie car. The only problem was that Ben kept insisting that the bathroom was the garage and he would remove the toilet and bathtub and park the car inside the house, much to Mikayla & Miri's consternation.

I borrowed this picture from Michele's blog (hope you don't mind, Michele) of Ben and the cousins at the zoo. What a fun bunch!!

Kyle, Mikayla, Ben & James at the zoo. Ben wanted to climb with the big kids, but can't quite do it (safely) without Dad's help.

Ben & James at the tidepools.

Bruce & Michele have a gas firepit in their backyard. The entire trip, Ben was saying "Uncle Bruce turn on the rocks." On our last night there, Uncle Bruce came through and we roasted marshmallows. Here is Ben, Bruce, Miri & Mikayla.

The whole family! Back: James, Katrina, Grandma, Grandpa, Michele, Bruce; Front: Danny, Kyle, Ben, Mikayla, and Miri.

This was before we left. While we were snowed in, Ben found some interesting ways to entertain himself. Here he is with his "pile" (or "pi-la" as he said it). He stacked up every toy he could find and got insanely frustrated when one would fall down. The pile includes: his dumptruck, jeep, vacuum, backhoe, shape sorter, and banjo, to name just a few of the contents.