Christmas part 3 grandchildren

It is so hard to choose which photos that will share the special time with our family.

Here are some of the grandchildren that hopefully depict the atmosphere.

This is Siena with the 'baby Snoopy" pull toy. She had a blast pulling it, up righting it, dragging it etc. Siena will be 2 in February.

Garrett, 2 1/2 yrs. is all boy. He took off with the 3 wheeled scooter we gave him. He is on our deck, smiling, and on his way.

Aubrey is really into puppies. We gave her this package of puppie puppets with the book that tells the story. She was really into the puppets.

The grandchildren got a bit overwhelmed with the love our families share in gifts--- and they just wanted to go outside. Here, Siena wanted to be with Aubrey who was 'sweeping' the deck with the (you don't have to bend over) dust pan. She thinks it is especially for her because the handles are about her height. Yes, they are especially for her :) and Merry Christmas to all of you who read my blog!

Christmas Dinner on 12 26

Christmas part 3 - a challenge

Every couple of years we challenge our children to help one of them 'find' their gift by solving 'clues'. They are not easy, one clue even required some googling'. Randy was the chosen victim this year. First he had to play a song on the piano that lead them to the next clue. In this photo Michelyn and Nicole are intently listening-Mark, not in photo named the song "O Christmas Tree."

Another clue included the words don't 'fret', 'strung' out, and 'pick' which led them to our guitar stored in the bedroom closet that had the final clue inside it. This is fun for all of them as they love a challenge and we enjoy watching them work together to solve the clues. Everyone of them racked their brains and each had valuable contributions towards finding the answers.

They found it after solving 6 clues that led from the Christmas Tree to the refrigerator, Ipod, back to the piano, etc.

A new Didgeridoo for Randy!
I bought this, one of a kind, didgeridoo at the fall Chowder Festival at the pier in San Clemente. Later, Randy had put it on his Christmas list...Mom's intuition.. maybe.

Here he is playing it-and he can play it with 'circular breathing' - google it.

Christmas part 3

Nicole and family joined us the morning after Christmas and we were all together and ready to finish the family gift exchanging. There was lots of paper and fun gifts for the children and thoughtful gifts for the adults.

Special family members are our children's spouses.
Staci is a great Mom to Siena, wife to Randy and 'daughter' to us. They are expecting a new baby in July. We are looking forward to a new grand baby to celebrate Christmas with next year.

Nicole's husband, Mark. The loving husband and devoted father to Aubrey and Garrett. We are so proud of our extended children.

Christmas part 2

Christmas day we opened a few gifts. Don't you just love the mess Christmas makes.

Randy is practicing juggling with his new balls and scarves. Mike is reading the instructions and Siena is so excited and loved being his 'little fetcher' of the balls when they landed.

I got a new pair of garden shoes. Santa must have known I've worn the tread out on my old ones.

Christmas part 1

On Christmas Eve Day we visited David. My brother is recovering from major hip surgery in a rehab facility. We picked up Mom and all went to visit him. It is a 45 minute drive to Moms and another hour plus to get to the rehab facility. We made a day of it and brought Mom home with us to spend the rest of the Christmas holiday.

We insisted she be 'Queen Mum' and it was hard for her to do but she allowed us to treat her special .
She was involved in all the festivities of the holiday.

Christmas day Randy, Staci and Siena, and Michelyn joined us for an overnighter. We opened our stocking and a few gifts.

We were inspecting the items sent us by Mike's cousin that belonged to his Grandfather. The WW1 uniform, flag, dog tags, bibles etc. Very fascinating and we are excited to share them with the rest of the family.

Christmas time

Christmas celebration last night (Dec 21) at Grandma Gould's (Mike's Mom).
She gave our grandchildren official Mickey Mouse P J's.
Doesn't this photo make you want to just pick them all up in one great big hug!

Aubrey is playing with the reindeer from Great Grandma's manger scene. The Santa hat was shared by Garrett and the "Lady' puppy was a gift Siena treasured. I plunked them all in Great Grandma's chair for a photo op. They know I like to take pictures of them and I only take a couple photos-no pressure for a perfect picture! I love this one and can see the expression of their individual personalities in each of them.

Christmas luncheon

Garden Club held it's annual Christmas luncheon at the Casa. It was beautiful and so festive. About 80 members attended.

Suzi, Me in my Santa hat, Malvina and Emilie.

The center pieces were made with left over Christmas tree trimmings from the local hardware store.

A club member's husband led us in singing carols and everyone spontaneously stood while singing 'God Bless America' in honor of our troops this season.

The day of the luncheon it poured rain! I think about 3 inches. It was my day to work but only worked an hour...picking up palm fronds littering the parking lot-in the pouring rain before the party. Note the Santa hat I wore to make up for wet hair.

Grandchildren in the garden

We did find time to spend in the garden. The children eating warm cookies in the Children's garden and playing around the fountain and having fun on the bridge and with the rocks in the dry river bed. Aubrey always asks to find worms in my compost pile. It is fun to see what they discover on their own in the garden and what interests them.

Christmas activities in San Clemente

Our Saturday afternoon/evening was filled with community activities for the children. We attended the Community Center Holiday Hoopla which included real live Penguins and Reindeer! We were all fascinated watching them. They had a tree lighting with Santa and lots of activities including Mrs. Clause bakery and tons of people from the community were there. As you can see in this photo the children shared a stroller and our arms and my legs for chairs. We were looking at the penguins.

Then we walked back to the Casa Romantica for their beautiful Christmas at the Casa party. The children sat on Santa's lap, drank hot chocolate, and were mesmerized by the 'talking' Christmas tree. In this photo they were 'brushing their teeth' with candy Santa gave them. That was Aubrey's idea. We did not remove the plastic covering on the candy, hoping they would hold it and eat it later...NOT... they somehow sucked right through the plastic to get to the candy and were enjoying every minute of it!

All dressed up in their Christmas finest ready to go out to the Christmas parties.
Standing in front of our tree that they 'decorated' this morning.

Weekend with Grandchildren

We had the wonderful opportunity to have our three grandchildren stay with us from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon. Their parents had Christmas parties to attend and we treated the children to a San Clemente Christmas party weekend.

No trip to San Clemente is complete without a trip to the beach. Aubrey loves climbing on the rocks that support the area leading up to the train tracks.

There is a cute little park 'Linda Lane' at the beach parking lot. We played there then walked down to the beach.

They all loved watering my plants. This is a classic. See where the water is actually landing:)

Figuring out how to read bed time stories to all three and have them all fall fast asleep was a challenge. We managed well as the children were pretty tired from the daily activities and went to sleep without a problem.

My Thoughts...
focus was on the children, not the housekeeping
lots of time in the bathroom, but minimum diaper changes
watching them play together with eye to eye contact and smiles melts your heart
eating was a major project, they all said they wanted what the other had ---not really
letting the cousins create their own play with puzzles, marble works, horses, stuffed animals
watching them 'look after' each other
spending lots of time with them allows us to see their interests and personalities better
these little ones are a treasure chest of jewels
Proud to be their Grandma