#1: Go to the Hollywood Christmas Parade

This year all four of us went to the Hollywood Christmas Parade together (last year it was just Beatrice and me).  We also came better prepared, with warm clothes, blankets, camp chairs, hot chocolate, and snacks, plus a pizza we picked up across the street and ate outside while waiting for the parade to start.

I can't believe the children are so willing to sit on the sidewalk for more than two hours before the parade even started, then another two hours for the event itself, but they were both remarkably patient.

People setting up along Hollywood Boulevard

Waiting for the parade to begin

Buzz Aldrin's car

 

 

It's just not the Hollywood Christmas Parade without the Scientology float.

 

 

Beatrice loved the giant balloons, just like last year.  Arthur's favorite part was the marching bands - he loves music, dancing, and pageantry of all kinds - and seeing parade Grand Marshall Buzz Aldrin.  In fact, he spent several days leading up to the parade talking about seeing Buzz Aldrin, and though I was careful to set his expectations appropriately, I was a little worried he would be disappointed when he saw that Buzz Aldrin was just an old man in normal street clothes who didn't look that much like an astronaut.  But in fact, Arthur was delighted by him all the same, and spent the rest of the parade asking when he'd be back (he posited that after his car drove past, Buzz went to go hang out backstage with Santa).

 

Exhausted on the subway back home

 

Advent Calendar 2013

For the third year now, I put together an activity-based advent calendar for the kids.  But instead of the muslin bags I used in the past, I made a new calendar out of 24 clear glass Christmas balls.

 

Now part of the challenge every day for the kids is to find the day's numbered ball hidden somewhere on the tree.

 

 

The list is much the same as in previous years - depending on when Baby #3 comes, though, some of these activities might wind up being done by Dev, Suzan, or Naresh instead of me. 

 

1. Go to the Hollywood Christmas Parade

2. Write a letter to Santa Claus

3. Decorate our Christmas tree

4. Draw a Christmas picture

5. Buy a new Christmas book

6. Meet Santa

7. Drink hot chocolate

8. Visit reindeer at the zoo

9. Buy a new Christmas ornament

10. Donate a toy

11. Watch a Christmas movie

12. Make a gingerbread house

13. Christmas breakfast

14. Go on a holiday nature walk

15. Make ornaments

16. Do a good deed

17. Make holiday cards

18. Leave a Christmas treat out for the squirrels and birds

19. Buy a present for siblings

20. Preschool Christmas party

21. Go to a Christmas concert

22. Bake Christmas cookies

23. Take a drive to see Christmas lights

24. Leave cookies and milk out for Santa

Christmas Decorations

With Baby #3 due any day now, I've been rushing to get a million things done.  Usually I like to have things clean and organized before the holidays, before we have houseguests, and before a new baby comes, and this month we're expecting all three at the same time.

One of my top priorities was making sure the house was decorated for Christmas, and so the day after we got back from Thanksgiving in San Jose Dev and I set to work. 

(And thank you to Dev for staying out all night hanging lights and running electrical cords during an unusual cold spell - we've had lows in the 30s here at night, which is pretty cold by L.A. standards.)

Some decorations outside:

And at night:

 

And inside:

 

The trees I made last year.

 

I love the table centerpiece this year, too.

 

 

 

 

Beatrice calls the back room "The North Pole" all year long because it's the room we where we always put the Christmas tree.

 

We splurged on some new stockings this year.  I sewed our original set back around 2001 and they have sentimental value, of course, but they are also small, and lopsided (I've improved my sewing a lot since 2001), and Dev always complained that they didn't have our names on them.  So we ordered new personalized stockings from Pottery Barn, including one for the new baby and one for all the pets to share.

 

 

This year I did all of our wrapping in black, red, and white.  I really like the tweed, chalkboard, and velvet textures.



This year I also shamelessly copied Amy Robb's idea for making a modern Christmas village.  I found these four light-up Christmas village houses at a thrift store (they are from the 1980s, from Mervyn's) and spray-painted them with several coats of primer and then white semi-gloss paint.  Then I just added some little trees and a few light posts from Michael's.

 

BEFORE

 

 

AFTER



 

Now with everything decorated, we can just sit back and wait for Christmas (and the new baby).