Christmas 2014

Christmas in California!

Our kids had many new experiences this year, such as making gingerbread cookies, in our large (relative to New York) kitchen...

sledding on imported snow...

and chopping down our own Christmas tree, rather than buying one off the Broadway sidewalk.

More pictures from Christmas are here.

Here is the scene Christmas morning...

... and here are the kids Christmas afternoon, before going to the grandparents' house for dinner.

One!

Our sweet Tess has turned one!

We celebrated with grandparents and, wonderfully, a visit by Charlene.

We like to joke that Tess is the perfect #3.  She is our most easy-going child, a good thing when there are two older siblings constantly fighting to be at the front of the line.

Tess is patient, laughs easily, eats well, and falls asleep quickly.  She doesn't cry much, except to express her desire to be held -- she does prefer to perch in her parents' arms.

Her brother and sister adore her, and she adores them.

Silas likes to come up behind Tess, reach around her chest, lift her off the ground, and lug her around the house.  Tess loves it.

Rosemary likes to put her head right next to Tess's and shout "Hey you baby!"  Tess just laughs.

Tess is a happy kid who has immeasurably increased her family's happiness.

Charlene flew out for Tess's birthday, and of course to see her other two babies.

Silas and Rosemary have been more excited about Charlene's visit than about Christmas.

We weren't entirely sure this would be the case, but Tess definitely remembers Charlene.

Tess was shy for about five minutes, and then was happy to have Charlene hold her the rest of the day. 

Here's Tess giving Charlene the "why don't you pick me up" look (Charlene took this picture).

Laurelwood Park

Silas never misses much.

He noticed this stairway in our neighborhood, disappearing between two driveways.

Silas thought it might go somewhere interesting.

On inspection, I realized that it was indeed a public stair.  So we set off to see where it led.

Turns out Silas had found a back entrance to Laurelwood Park.  After about half a mile, we came to this spot.

More pictures from our hike are here.

Pancakes Good, Crabs Bad

 Rosemary's reactions to two recent meals.