Christmas Encore

Christmas Encore,
originally uploaded by Car2nGrl.

First morning back home means we can open all the Christmas gifts we didn't want to haul up north.

In keeping with the holiday spirit, we seem to have brought snow back from Tahoe. It's started to snow and it's slated to keep snowing for a good while. Good thing I don't have work tomorrow. Of course, Chris does and Parker also has school. :o/.

We'll see what tomorrow brings. Good thing the snow gear's still out.

2008, A look back

Well, it looks like I hit my resolution of out blogging 2007. With 163 entries, I even out blogged 2006! Currently, I also seem to be on track to out blog 2008. ROCK ON!

I did end 2008 heavier than I started it...but then I am pregnant. At a current weight of 188 , I guess the important thing is to end 2009 considerably lighter than how I started it.

I would say a few highlights from last year would include:

• Burns Night: Nothing better then having your baby rocking out in a bar!
• Pouring the Slab: The stalled shed project takes off again!
• The Road Ahead: New year, new job!
• What's Wrong With This Picture?: This maybe more of a lowlight but one can't forget the car accident Parker and I had last year that total the Saturn.
• Happy Birthday, Paarrrrker!: Parker turns 3!
• New Car: With the totaled car comes the new car.
• Death Valley Birthdaze: Parker's first camping trip and he loved it!
• Project Garden: Parker's garden was a total success -- providing pounds of delicious tomatoes, herbs (some of which are still hanging in there even after our recent bout of snow!), and even a couple of pumpkins!
• Welcome Dean: Dean joins the Trillo household. I can't believe how small he used to be!
• Go Baby, Go!: Official confirmation that Parker would soon have a little sibling!
• Baby's First Scan: Our first look at Piper!
• It's Time!: Parker ditches the diapers
• Morro Bay: Great family get-away to Morro Bay. Hopefully, it will become an annual tradition.
• Palin and Clinton on SNL: This isn't Trillo related but you've gotta love Tina Fey as Sarah Palin.
• Halloween 2008: How could Halloween NOT be a highlight, especially with Parker dressed as Woody.
• Yes We Can!: I was obsessed with the entire campaign but the most important thing is that the right man -- Barack Obama -- was elected as President.
• Snow Days: Everyone (at least hear in Acton) will be talking about the show of 2008 for years. It was totally awesome! Glad to have been stuck at home rather than stuck unable to get home (like Chris...but that worked to his advantage as he was able to NOT miss any work)
• Sledding: And of course, Tahoe is always a highlight.

Christmas

We arrived in San Francisco super early in the morning, which could explain why Parker was the last to wake up. But early birds and late risers alike have to agree that there's nothing better than Cbristmas morning. Even better when Santa can find you no matter where you are...right Parker?


By the way, lessons learned this Christmas:

• Micro playsets may be too micro, which means you'll never get past day one without missing a part or two.
• When breaking out that cupcake maker, read the instructions first and avoid the mess of trying the bake the frosting mix.

Christmas Eve

Today was my last day of work. Then, we headed up to Tehachapi to meet up with the rest of the Trillos. Think a family of 6 kids and their families intersecting and, as you can probably expect, chaos ensues. However, the craziness is fun, as always. And, to add to the frenzy, we have to leave early so we can start our trip up north to San Francisco. Tally ho!

Company Holiday Party

We attended this year's holiday party. Actually, I thought it would be just me and Parker as Chris would be working. But the man of the house surprised me and took the day off so he could attend with us.

Getting there wasn't as bad as I expected -- we avoided down down and took the 610 south...nice ride! Then when we got to the exit, the express lane into the park opened just as we arrived...AWESOME!

Once there, we kept our agenda simple -- pic with Mickey, dinner, and catch our friend Aimee who's singing in the Cast Member choir. We did hit up the Peter Pan ride since the line was shorter than usual. The evening went by super fast because before we knew it, it was already after 10:30p and Chris had a super early AM call the next morning. (Don't tell Parker) but that meant we had to miss meeting Buzz. But we did catch the end of the Main Street Parade, which included Santa, so all was well.

Family Holiday Night

Parker seems old enough to participate in a family holiday night so that day we went out to get a tree -- a live one because we want to eventually plant it outside.

So as Parker and Chris kicked off the evening baking cookies, I got out the ornaments and hung lights. Then Parker helped me hanging everything on the tree.

It's small but looks pretty festive. Now if we can just figure out how to get it to stand straight.

Craft Night

This year I decided to attend the annual Craft Night that Parker's daycare hosts. The little guy loved it but more because it gave him an opportunity to play with all the different toys in each classroom.

Now I know the pics here show him crafting away, but, for the most part, I got stuck doing the projects unless I got fed enough to make him focus on the purpose of the night.

We did, though, make time to see Santa. And what did Parker ask for from Santa? ''Presents.'' All right, I guess someone won't be disappointed this year.

BTW, the little spot over Parker's lip isn't an early onset mustache. He fell of a wall earlier that week and scrapped his lip. Of course, right before we were scheduled to take some family pics. Looks like that's going to be postponed.

Christmas 2007

Let the Christmas festivities begin!


On the Saturday before, we headed over to Thommy & Geoffrey's place for a delicious holiday brunch, brought to us by the other Chef-Boy-Ardee in my life...Geof. Parker also got to check out Thommy's Christmas Express that circled their tree. And we opened gifts, of course. Chris got the ''The Dangerous Book for Boys'' and Geof and Thommy got the equally ''dangerous'' ''Space Academy, The Complete Series'' and ''Beverly Hills 90210, Season 2'', respectively.


The next day, the party moved to Tehachapi. Unfortunately, not all of the Trillos has arrived yet but, since we were heading up north the next day, the kids got to open some of their presents...TWO DAYS EARLY! WEEE! Parker opened a Hot Wheels race track set and didn't open the box as he discovered that running your car over the picture of the track was just as fun. (No worries, he would find out the truth when we finally assembled the track a couple of days later in Tahoe.)


On Christmas Eve, we made our way to the Bay Area, first stopping as my sister Susie's place so even more cousins could collide. The newest one, Susie's little baby, Brian, brought the number to a round six. Of course, getting all six in one picture proved to be tricky. In the end, the best I could get was one which featured half of Parker's face, right up front on the left. You can't even see Jason's face...but, they're all in the picture so that's got to count for something.

By the way, regarding the huge Hot Wheels bandage on Parker's head, have no fear, he didn't injure himself. He was just feeling a bit grumpy on the way up (it's a lot of traveling even for big kids like me and Chris) so I slapped an obnoxious bandage on his forehead. He loved it. But that meant I couldn't remove it for the rest of the night.



Christmas morning...FINALLY! Luxi was up first to check out all that Santa has left for them. Begrudgingly, Niko and Parker woke up (with encouragement from Joanie). But once all the kids woke up, it became a madhouse. Thank goodness we were at Joanie's. There was chocolate to be had, tea parties, doll play, gun play, and of course a bunch of absolutely loud drumming. Holy crap! Parker loved it. And again, thank goodness we were at Joanie's. What a way to rock out the old year.

That said, WE HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!

PLEASE NOTE: Chris will kill anyone who buys Parker drums for his birthday.

Office Par-tay!

There ain't no party like my Nana's tea par-tay! --Flight of the Conchords So we had our annual office party today. Ah...good times. With the whole company gathered together in Tomorrowland (our largest conference room), the IT group once again demonstrated that oil does not mix with water when they, as usual, clustered together at one table. On the bright side, we proved that, yes, these tables can accommodate up to 12 people. The big winners of the mystery gift give away -- Ravi with the iPod Shuffle and Aimee with the emergency light (which was exactly what she wanted).