Thanks

If you give our children a gift, you will get a thank-you note. 

But it might not be this funny.

Washington Xmas

We traveled to Washington State for Christmas this year.

The kids were treated to Grandma's cookies and Christmas carols by both grandparents.

They even got a smidgen of snow.

Santa Claus somehow knew where they were.  (And a second Christmas morning awaited them several days later, in San Mateo.)

On Christmas Day we drove north to see Aunt Pam and her clan, including her two granddaughters, Bailey and Lila.

And we had Christmas dinner with Uncle AJ and his clan.

Here is AJ telling the kids stories about the ghosts of Christmas Past.

Rainier Birthday

Tess turned three in Rainier, Washington, at the Coffee's farm.

For her third birthday Tess received her first driving lesson, on one of John's beautiful Farmall tractors.

Carolyn had Tess' favorite birthday treat on hand -- chocolate cupcakes.

Tess at 3:

Tess -- whether by nature, or as a byproduct of having four doting family members -- is a happy, quick-to-laugh, easygoing kid.

She is also extremely independent.  For instance, Tess has not followed the crowd in its shoe-wearing habits. 

As a general rule, Tess chooses to ignore all instructions.

And Tess goes where she wants to go, without notice.  I lost her at the farmer's market in a split second.  We all spread out to find her.  Silas finally tracked her down... at the cookie stand.

If Tess wants to leave a playground, she just up and leaves the playground.  We have found her, at different times, wandering in the nearby woods; chasing birds across a field hundreds of yards away; and, once, hanging seven feet above the ground from a pole on the big-kid play structure ("Hi Dad.  Can you help me get down?").

The transition from two to three was a little hard on Tess, I think.  She has told us more than once that she still wants to be a baby.  She absolutely clings to her pacifier -- we will tackle that issue this coming year, but potty training comes first.  Meanwhile we are praising the heck out of her big-girl steps, like attending preschool and sleeping through the night. Luckily for Tess, as the third child, she will always be our baby.

Christmas Is Coming

Rosemary has the most Christmas spirit this year -- and the length of her wish list is proportional to that spirit.

She targeted our victim at "Santa's Tree Farm" in Half Moon Bay...

... and she made a box lid's worth of crafts at the Meadow Heights Elementary holiday fair.

Silas has told her, repeatedly, that Santa Claus does not exist.

Rosemary refuses to believe it.

When it came to hanging tree ornaments, all three kids did their part.

This is important business. You can see the intense concentration as they try to get those little hooks over  spindly branches.

Planetarium

I chaperoned Silas' third-grade class on a visit (by city bus) to the planetarium at the College of San Mateo.

If you want to hear what Silas' third grade class sounds like, please watch the video with the sound turned all the way up.

Thanksgiving

Here are the five of us at Thanksgiving at Ray and Charlotte's house.

Our hosts were too busy to sit for a photo, unfortunately, but I did capture the following...

Dad and Mom, crashing the Kelly festivities...

... and Aunt Ellen and Uncle Frank, whom we were thrilled to have visiting from Connecticut.

Tess in the Picture (sort of)

The Grandparents Keithley came down for a Thanksgiving visit.

When Tess was younger, it would take a day or two before she warmed up to them.

No longer.  Now she lights up immediately at their arrival.

Looking over the photos, I realized that I never got a shot of Tess' face.

But take my word for it, this is Tess playing around with my folks.

Monterey

Over a long weekend, we took a family trip down to the Monterey Peninsula.

We stayed at Asilomar, rustic lodgings abutting the Asilomar State Beach.

The kids did not want to go to the Monterey Aquarium ("who wants to look at fish"). 

Then they had a blast and did not want to leave...

...although the diver couldn't talk Rosemary into a dip.

We didn't expect good weather, but we lucked into one surprise day of sunshine.

Halloween 2016

Was anyone more excited about Halloween this year than Tess?

Rosemary designed her own jack o'lantern (our only child with any interest in doing so...).

She was careful to include two "zombie arms" to "make it scary."

The scariest part was my fear that Tess' hair would catch on fire.

Our three trick-or-treaters had a great time walking the San Mateo streets and meeting up with their friends.