Wednesday, January 28, 2015

SF Symphony

For Scott's birthday gift this year, we got him tickets to the San Francisco Symphony to see the Charlie Brown Christmas. He has always said going to the symphony was something he wanted to do and he loves Charlie Brown movies, so when I saw this I thought it was a win-win.

The symphony puts on a few family productions a year and this was their holiday event. We went into the city after church and enjoyed a fun afternoon. The atrium was decorated for Christmas and had all kinds of Charlie Brown displays for the kids to interact with as they were waiting for the production to begin. After doing a lot of traditional Christmas carols, they dropped a screen down and played the Charlie Brown Christmas movie as they played the music and had dancers do an interpretation of the movie. We had a great afternoon getting to do something none of us had ever experienced before!


 Family shows sell out fast and I got lucky by getting us some of the last tickets for the afternoon show! We were on the top level on the back row. They were still great seats!





#42

Our original plan was to go to San Francisco to spend the day to celebrate Scott's birthday. We then found out it was going to be Santa Con and decided that probably wasn't the best day to be down there trudging around Union Square with the kids. (We did that 2 years ago!) So, we had a change of plans...
 
 A Lowe's Build in Grow started our day off with building Christmas trains
 Then we headed to the small city of Yountville to their local museum where they had a Lego exhibit. It was very cool and it was the perfect size for the boys! There were all kinds of exhibits done by local residents. Some had taken 3-4 years to construct. There was an air craft carrier that had more than 30,000 pieces that was amazing!

The museum was out near a park, so we hung out there for a bit to play!

 Then we came home and took a bike ride to our neighborhood park.

Of course, we finished off our day with his favorite....cookie cake!
It had a penguin on it this year. Cohen picked it out. It did seem quite appropriate though because Scott's common phrase right now is "that penguin slid off the iceberg". Sometimes a brain can only hold so much information apparently :) 

Christmas activities

 Squadron Kids Party with a visit from Santa
Cohen wanted nothing to do with it!
 

 Church Gingerbread House decorating party

 Squadron Holiday Party
Scott sporting his fancy sweater vest to spur on a little friendly competition for the Ugly Sweater Contest. He won last year and it got lots of talk, so this year there were many more competitors! He didn't compete this time around but it was so fun to see everyone get excited about it :)
 Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer
 
 

 
 Bryton sang his little heart out in his Christmas performance.
Cohen on the other hand didn't look up his whole performance. He wasn't a fan of being on stage and wanted nothing to do with all of the people looking at him. 

Decorating for Christmas

 Bryton loves to be the big helper when it comes to house projects.

 We actually put up lights around the house this year! The big white bulbs...it looked so pretty! Of course, I don't have a picture of the finished product, but I loved it. The boys thought it was boring and we needed MORE. They thought the 9 foot nutcracker blow up from Lowes would have been the perfect addition!
 My light testers...
 I am in charge of lights, garland and ribbon. Then I turn it over to the boys for the ornaments.
 
At least they enjoy themselves during the process :)  

The lopsided ginormous tree...It didn't look that big or that lopsided at the tree farm :)
And then this happened...
Scott was watching TV and I was crafting and it crashed! There were tears and I was sad from the broken ornaments. Luckily the damage was minimal thanks to the carpet. The glass beaded garland might be done now, but thanks to eBay we have replace a few of the broken ornaments. The tree didn't look the same after the fall, but nobody really could tell except for us. 

Thanksgiving & Christmas tree shopping

Thanksgiving day was low key and quiet for us. I cooked us a nice little feast and Scott went and served lunch on base. It was a day of true Thanksgiving as we were able to be together.  We always miss being with our families on the holidays, but luckily Face time helps with that :)
 
The day after Thanksgiving is always Christmas Tree shopping day!




 Oh yes, this is definitely what the Pinterest picture looked like...



 Cohen and his fabulous CHEESE!
 Pure JOY
Shopping for our tree is a favorite family activity for us! This year Scott decided the bigger the better...


A few November highlights

 A daily occurrence on the driveway with C....boots, fireman suit and the four wheeler!
 We got to enjoy a night out sponsored by the local community leaders for the a lot of the military leaders. It was such a fun night! We always forget to have a picture taken of us when we get all dressed up, so the babysitter took this after we got home that night :)
 Bryton was recognized as Student of the Month and so Cohen and I went to chapel to see him receive his award.

 We went with a group of friends to the Sacramento Zoo the week of Thanksgiving. There were 7 kids in our crew and we had a blast!
 Every year Scott and I get each other a new Christmas ornament for each other. This year we decided it would be fun for us to all go as a family to the pottery painting store and make an afternoon of it. It was so much fun and we all created our own ornament for the year. I forgot to take pictures of the finished products before we packed up the decorations, but they turned out so fun! I love the look of concentration on everyone's face :)

 
During the month of November over the last few years, we have made Thankful trees. It is so fun to see the boys' perspective on all the things we should be thankful for in our lives. I love looking back to see how the things change as they are growing. I was a few days behind getting it put up this year and Bryton asked for it, so I know it is something they really enjoy together.