It's Windy

As Seen In San Francisco

Welcome Randy!

The girls welcomed "Randy the Reindeer" to our house today. He was promptly put through the Thomas girls initiation activities.

Black Thursday...And Friday

Photo 1: Becca, me and Mom waiting for Toys R Us to open (8:50PM, Picture taken by James

Photo 2 and 3: If you recall last year we managed to get into the Disney store before everyone else and we did it again this year. Our receipt was the longest ever and there were multiple trips required to get everything out to the car. (10:45PM)

Photo 3: Mom poses next to one of the Black Friday recharging centers at Westfield Mall. At a recharge center you could sit in comfortable leather couches and have free snacks/drinks. (12:00 AM)

Photo 4: After some sleep and a return trip to the Disney store (6:00AM) where we had an almost equally long receipt/cost we met back up with Abbey and Becca at Target.

Photo 5: After breakfast/Starbucks we all went home. During the day I visited Target again, Michaels, and Costco. After dinner Sydney, Brooke and I had a Starbucks run and Bed, Bath and Beyond trip. I call this picture
"The End of Black Friday".

Thanksgiving 2011

We hosted Thanksgiving for the first time and it all went well. Thank goodness for mom who helped me cook and along with Grace made all of the deserts (and saved my mashed potatoes) Besides Turkey and Mashed Potatoes we had Linda's (David's cousin) Sausage and Sage Stuffing, Pearl Onions, regular stuffing, Braised Cabbage, Green Bean casserole (By Rachel and the best one I have ever had), Beet salad, Yams, Ham, Potatoes and Carrots, Cornbread, Pumpkin Cheesecake and Pecan Pie. The holiday was great surrounded by family and friends and watching the kids play. I love my girls, love my family (Missed Matt and Becca's family) and love my friends. Thanks to all who came.....we loved spending our day with you! P.S. Thanks to the Historians who took todays pictures.

Brooke's Great Grandmother

Today I sent this picture off to Laura and said "Hard to believe this girl came from me". She looks like nothing like me but the more I looked and love this picture I see my Grandmother, my Dad's mom, one of the best friends I have ever had. Oh how I loved Mia, and I miss her so very much, wish she was on her way to our house for Thanksgiving.

This picture makes me wish I had named Brooke, Mia. (It so almost happened) She is a spitting image of her.

For Wikipedia Lovers

Wikipedia doesn't want to advertise but they need money:

From Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales
Google might have close to a million servers.
Yahoo has something like 13,000 staff.
We have 679 servers and 95 staff.
Wikipedia is the #5 site on the web and serves 450 million different people every month – with billions of page views.

Commerce is fine. Advertising is not evil. But it doesn't belong here. Not in Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is something special. It is like a library or a public park. It is like a temple for the mind. It is a place we can all go to think, to learn, to share our knowledge with others.

When I founded Wikipedia, I could have made it into a for-profit company with advertising banners, but I decided to do something different. We’ve worked hard over the years to keep it lean and tight. We fulfill our mission, and leave waste to others.

If everyone reading this donated $10, we would only have to fundraise for one day a year. But not everyone can or will donate. And that's fine. Each year just enough people decide to give.
This year, please consider making a donation of $5, $20, $50 or whatever you can to protect and sustain Wikipedia.

Thanks,
Jimmy Wales Wikipedia Founder

Uncle Matt Is So Funny

A few weeks ago Elizabeth asked Becca what "Entertainment" meant. Becca described entertainment as something fun and gave the following examples: "Seeing a movie", "Going to the Dodger Game", "Playing games", "Just having fun" and Elizabeth responded "Oh, Entertainment sounds like Uncle Matt"

A few days ago, Uncle Matt and Micah came over to Grandma's to play. The next night Sydney blurt out (while laughing) "Uncle Matt is so funny". The next day when she saw him at Disneyland she told him "Uncle Matt you are so funny", later on the way home she started laughing and said "Uncle Matt is so silly"

Not sure what Uncle Matt does but they love it!

I Really Like Unforgettable

Must be the Melanocortin 1

Every Man Should Know His Hardware

We needed to hang something from the ceiling so I offered to run to Osh and pickup the hook. Before leaving David told me exactly where to go in the store to find it and then drew me a picture of what should be in the package.

The picture was drawn in detail down to the type of ridges I should see in the screws. As you can see it was a perfect drawing and I was super impressed.

Cousin Day At Disneyland

We had a great time today with all the cousins (except Abbey who was home sick-we missed you and your mommy). It's a Small World, Carousel, Dumbo, Tea Cups (For Some), Santa's Reindeers, Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, the Jungle Cruise and a trip to Innoventions made our trip longer than most. We even decided to stay well past our usual 1:00PM Disneyland curfew and waited for the 2:30 Christmas parade-this set us back significantly from a Friday night traffic perspective but it was well worth it.

Outstanding Disneyland day.

Ringing In The Christmas Season

Last night we went to the annual Christmas Tree Lighting at the Americana in Glendale. We ate at the diner, the girls downed a strawberry shake, Sydney had the balloon man make her an Ariel balloon (yeah, it was destroyed within 15 minutes), we saw Fireworks, a show and enjoyed lots of Christmas music. Good times.

Sort of Like Christmas in a Cup

Brooke's First Haircut

Brooke got her haircut last weekend. This was the best picture I got.

Virtual Goodnight Kiss For Daddy

IT Bathroom In Bakersfield

Either the sole female in the IT department has an admirer or the Women's bathroom doubles as storage for the hospital gift shop.

Spa Night For The Girls

The girls and I decided tonight we all needed our feet relaxed. Second time this has been blogged, first time Brooke was 3 months old and Katie was here. :(