Breakfast with Oma and B

 We had time to quickly stop and have breakfast with Oma and B. I love the time that O shared with B - so sweet!

And of course, Oma with Fi. These two are awfully adorable together.

A Visit to Monterey

 We took a drive down to Monterey to see the aquarium. Unfortunately, about 8,000 other people had the same idea... the Monterey Bay Aquarium was more of a zoo than an aquarium that day...  

We found rock star street parking, for free... 

Even G is ready to rock the fish, bottle and all...

And I know there is more to the aquarium aside from the jellies... but really, why bother with other picture? That jelly exhibit is so darn breathtaking... See how nice these pics look when I used the zoom?

But look at the mob we had to deal with...

We managed to elbow our way up front, got some cool shots... Fi in blue:

O with G in blue....

Papa's Birthday

We had dinner for my dad at my sister K's house - she fed us well and had such a nice spread!

O getting face time with Auntie J...

Birthday boy and R....

Owen, not sure about the biscuit!

Happy birthday papa!

Christmas

For Christmas, we traveled to NCal to visit family. The tree was lit and waiting for us!

Fi making friend with M, again. She loves this guy!

My sister K, her husband S, and baby girl V came over for Christmas eve...

Fi asked if we could leave a piece of toast for Santa, instead of cookies. Seemed like a good move to me!

Christmas day we went to Oma's house. It was a little crazy...

But how sweet is this pic with Oma and Fi...

Fi got a new music box too! She loves it! She loves her Oma too!

Holiday Party

This year we had a holiday party.... and because I simply cannot help myself, I made a bunch of different kinds of treats. I wanted everyone to have the chance to indulge in excess calories with me!

First up, good old fashioned holiday cookies. Recipe here. 

I made these peppermint cookies gluten free:

I made some mac n cheese bites (cooked in a muffin tin so it was already portioned) with no milk:

 Vegan shortbread:

And some other treats, like artichoke dip and white bean/rosemary hummus...

Hot chocolate on a stick - in both chocolate and peppermint... with homemade marshmallows!

It was a good time had by all. So much fun!

Christmas is coming

Christmas is coming! We were given a tree. Seemed like a good sign. We took it.

I made a countdown calendar. Each envelope was filled with a different activity.

One activity was to go see the lanterns at Greenlake - they were lovely!