174 posts from 2008

We had a lot of new additions to this year's Christmas eve: we hosted, we celebrated Hanukkah, the nieces and nephews memorized Twas the Night Before Christmas, and we assembled toys.

Ceremonial reading of the Twas the Night:

That was started with an impressive version from the grandchildren:
Before dinner, Grandparents Simmons get a moment to relax Earlier in the day, waiting patiently at the butcher:
So Al could do her internet-era cooking:
Which fueled a late night assist to "the man from up north" and a new appreciation for some assembly required, especially Italian tricycles:

We live in the city. No cutting down the tree. No hunting for the tree. It's picking a tree. Pretty close to concierge -assisted shopping for a tree. But we made it as old-timey as possible with tea and dinner back home after selecting and hauling the tree up three flights of stairs. Teddy's favorite part was the chain saw, I think.

 

 
And then the decorating.

[Teddy was not hurt. Not even slightly. I promise.]

New favorite toy:

No longer favorite toy:
 

Please don't mock me. I'm only doing what I must do.

Photos from November...

A nice, mellow Thanksgiving with Lisa, Adrian and Eli. Alethea and Lisa made great food. I made the drinks. The night rolled on with Jay, Greta, Finn, Martha, and more joining for post-dinner conversation, dessert and drinks.

Teddy learning to walk on his own in Hawaii on September 6...

...and then full speed ahead two months later...
And everything in between...
(this one reminds me of Planet of the Apes for some reason)

(I've stopped worrying about chronological order and being timely with my posts.)

Teddy was a triceratops for Halloween. We dragged him around as many places as possible so we could show off costume. I wasn't sure he was into it until he cried when we took it off. Highlights of the day were running around the office and running in the street on Fair Oak with the rest of bizarro San Francisco.

My photos of the day were worse than normal, but you get the point. Laughing kid + velvety dinosaur costume = funny.

We took advantage of the rainy Sunday to go to the Exploratorium. It was totally rad. And I would recommend it for kids.

Yes, I'm skipping ahead even though I have a ton of photos of Halloween and Thanksgiving. This post is to show folks what happens when Alethea takes T to Santa without me. I think he's crying because I'm not there.

It's freezing cold and a scary, whitebearded man from up north is holding him. Of course he should cry.