Deacon Dave's on a Rainy Night

We finally made it to see the lights up close. First try, the line was too long.

We're spoiled living so close and can just come another night.

But then, we returned just after the rain stopped this evening,

and got to see the "Christmas through the Eyes of a Child" theme.

Always a fun time! And we only got sprinkled on a little bit, mostly on the walk home.

Local Celebrations

This weekend kicked off the holiday season for Livermore. Friday night was Deacon Dave's opening night--complete with a small parade, speech by the mayor, and Deacon Dave throwing Holy water at the crowd. It all feels a little weird, but also so fun to have this quirky night. We didn't actually go through  the display because of the crowds, but we'll be back.

On Saturday, Peanut spent a chunk of the day working on the 4-H float in preparation for the Lights and Sounds parade downtown.

Then he got to ride on the float that night and wave at the crowds.

It was a really nice night--made for some fun parade watching. We've only been one other time, our first year here, and it was SO cold that night. But Daddy-o and I walked around and got some pizza after we dropped Peanut off and then joined some friends to watch all of the entries. Both high school marching bands and color guard were there, along with local businesses, and clubs and scout troops. 

And now the month of Christmas has begun!

Living It Up

We're finishing out the year strong. The kids and I got out for one last hike of the year. 

It had rained the night before so we opted for the paved path in Sycamore Grove for most of the hike, but it was a beautiful morning with lots of sunshine.

It was great being outside after a lot of days in PJs at home.

After dinner, we FINALLY made it to Deacon Dave's to see this year's light display. The theme was Poinsettias and the Magical Plant Plant was a hit! We were hoping by waiting so long after Christmas, there wouldn't be a line, but we had to wait about half an hour to get in. Serves us right for not going at the beginning of the month when we know it's not crowded.

We took this on the bridge where 72 couples have gotten engaged over the years. I think we only look a little older than we did 17 years ago when we got engaged, haha. (Side note--I just finished the white hat, my first, a couple days ago. I feel like I cheated a little because I used a loom, but now I'm feeling inspired to learn to knit in the round for real.)

Everything Christmas is winding down. Hard to believe it's almost 2020!

These Days

This is what the photos on my phone look like these days. Meet Dandan, my regular dog walking client. I get to walk this overgrown puppy Monday thru Friday (in hopes that when his owners come home, he won't maul them as they come through the door.) He's a little crazy and has a bad habit of jumping, but he's also super smart and happy, which is impossible to not be affected by, so I'm loving our daily walks. And I still get the occasional dog sitting or drop-in visits, so this little side-hustle is bringing in a small, but steady income which is also fun.

These nights are now lit up by Deacon Dave's again. 

We can no longer see the lights from our house, but that hasn't stopped us from enjoying them with friends on multiple nights already, and every time we drive that direction. While the kids are a little sad about the loss of hot chocolate income, I think we've all enjoyed more relaxed weekends with time for movies.

But these days are still busy with kids' activities and church callings, and school. Bug had a practice Destination Imagination tournament a couple weekends ago. He's involved on a team that meets weekly, preparing for the STEM challenges and performance that they will compete at in February. And he is in piano and art, which just feels like part of his school day. Bean has a lighter schedule this trimester, and isn't doing a school sport, so we decided to let her fill up her evenings with art class and 2 days of club water polo. Peanut is the only one who isn't involved in anything extracurricular right now.

This feels like my second home these days. Some days, I feel like my time is broken into chunks of 15-45 minutes, between two different school runs in the a.m., Bug's classes during the day, two school pick ups, after school activities, and my dog clients. It doesn't make for the best productivity, but I'm trying to embrace it. It is making me appreciate my mom who did the same for us for years. And at least I have a new (to us) van to run my taxi service.

And these nights, I'm trying to spend as much time as possible right here, enjoying the lights and, once everyone else goes to bed (or at least their rooms), the quiet. 'Tis the season.

Final Count

I think we can say Deacon Dave's was a success. These kids worked hard and set some good goals for this year and it paid off. They sold over $1400 worth of hot chocolate and cookies in 10 nights! A big chunk of it is being donated to a couple charities, including the Make a Wish foundation, but combined with last years' profits, that still leaves them with more than enough for what they wanted to do for themselves.

Looks like we are going on a trip this May :)

The Longest Night of the Year

I think I've found my new favorite way to celebrate Winter Solstice--fire outside under the Christmas lights, hot dogs and marshmallows, neighbors and friends stopping by (okay, so that had nothing to do with solstice, and everything to do with the fact that we live across the street from a light extravaganza and the kids were selling hot chocolate at the other end of the driveway.)

It was a beautiful evening and we had fun hanging out outside, and loved sharing our fire with the cold Deacon Dave goers/workers. And now I'm just excited that the days will be getting longer from here on.

Deacon Dave's Time

The lights have returned to our street. The team at Deacon Dave's started working on this year's display in August--it gets a little bigger every year.

And that meant that December 1 started the kids' hot chocolate stand.

We were better prepared this year. They made a new sign. We stocked up on cups and cocoa making supplies. And they scheduled which nights they'd be open to maximize their sales.

Of course, we had plenty of time to go visit ourselves, many times, with friends and family.

Uncle C. even came from Utah for his annual visit (for work, but it's also his second year getting to go see the lights, too.)

This year's theme was an international christmas party.

The Most Exciting Day of the Year

Christmas morning. . . the height of anticipation! The kids were under strict orders to not get up before 7:30. Even that was way too early for a couple of us who had only been asleep for a few hours, but Bean, who we have trouble waking up at 9 every other day of the year, was awake at 6:30, just waiting.

Santa came through with a new bike for this girl who had outgrown her old one months ago.

Dinosaurs AND Legos--how can it get better than this?! Bug was ecstatic.

And a new kitchen for Peanut! We got rid of the toy kitchen in Charlotte, thinking (correctly) that we wouldn't have a lot of room here, and that the kids were aging out of it, but Peanut hasn't stopped talking about it ever since. It was all he wanted for Christmas (well, besides a sign from Santa with a colored-in letter T--why? I have no idea? But Santa came through.), and Santa decided to make a little boy's wish come true. He can get back to cooking (as soon as I figure out which box his little pots and pans ended up in).

The kids were really excited to give out the gifts they got/made for each other, and they really did a good job thinking of what everyone would like. It almost makes the tears and last minute frantic finishing of "one last thing" worth it. . . almost. Their love of giving gifts ends up torturing me, but it's the thought that counts, right? (Next year, I am setting a mandatory end to all gift making before Christmas Eve. I say this almost every year, but I'm holding everyone to it in 2017.)

Once the gifts were all opened and the cinnamon rolls eaten, we headed outside for a few minutes so Bean could try out the new bike. It was a beautiful morning and pretty warm in the sunshine (although I don't think it was quite short-sleeve weather). 

Then, we went to church for the special Christmas service.  Our church doesn't have a service on Christmas or Christmas Eve, unless it's on a Sunday, which means on those years that we do, it's a little hard on the kids since they are used to spending Christmas day in their PJs, I was actually looking forward to it, and the choir in this congregation is pretty good, but of course it didn't play out to be the peaceful hour I was hoping for. Peanut was kind of a mess and I had to take him out twice and missed about half the service, while Daddy-o kept falling asleep in the corner of our pew, haha. Oh well. By the next time we have Christmas Day service, the kids will be a lot older and we can probably enjoy it.

Daddy-o's parents, brother, Isaac, and family came over for dinner, and this was the only picture I took, but it's a pretty cute one. Baby N loved the lights over at Deacon Dave's, and we loved being able to see family on Christmas. It's good for us to be building some memories in Livermore and starting to make this feel like home. And overall, Christmas day was a great day. 

And that's a wrap. Merry Christmas!

This Week

Hot cocoa sales have gone well. Kids are frustrated that another kid who is closer to the Deacon Dave line also has a stand going some of the nights, but they've already pulled in over $100 in two and a half nights (we ran out of milk really early one night). They hope they can get out there a couple more times this next week.

We took a field trip to the Legion of Honor museum in SF with some new friends. Because of an accident on the Bay Bridge, we came into the city from the south and the view was totally worth the longer drive. That is such a pretty part of the city.

I don't think I'd ever been to this museum--the building itself is really impressive.

And the art was amazing, too. The kids really liked this ceiling from a Spanish palace.

Imitating the art--they got a little silly after a couple hours.

We've also done some Christmas crafting and baking. Bug had been learning to multiply fractions, which went along perfectly with making 1 1/2 recipes of our favorite sugar cookies.

We also got together with some other new friends to decorate the cookies after school. People are still pretty sad about having left NC and all their friends, so I'm trying to get the kids out and about with other kids as much as I can. And we're trying to keep some of our same traditions, so inviting a family over to decorate cookies with us seemed like a great fit.

This is Christmas through Peanut's eyes. Peanut had a rough end to the cookie party. The ceiling fan in his room hangs over the edge of his bunk bed, which we knew was an accident waiting to happen, but I'd wound the cord up and hoped that would deter anyone, and our kids know they can't turn it on, but I didn't even think about warning anyone else, and the end result was me walking into his bedroom and seeing him up on his bed with red streaks all over half his face. At first, I thought it was marker, but he started screaming that he was fine, which of course means he isn't actually fine and it didn't take me long at all to figure out what happened. Head wounds look a lot worse than they are, and this wasn't our first one (that would be this one ) or even Peanut's first (that's here), so I didn't freak out too much. It was hard to get him to come down off the bed, though. I don't know if he thought he'd be in trouble, or if he was just scared and upset, but he kept yelling at me that he was fine, as blood dripped down his face, and then, when he finally realized it was blood, he started screaming for a bandaid, but didn't want anyone else to see him cry, so he refused to leave his room. Once people cleared out of the house, he finally let me carry him to the couch where we snuggled and he took pictures of the dog and our Christmas decorations. Poor little Peanut.

And that was our week. Can't believe Christmas is only a little over a week away. We are definitely letting a lot slide this year, which still trying to do enough of our normal fun to keep the kids happy. 

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

We may still have boxes to unpack, but we got the Christmas stuff out this last week. Our neighborhood has a lot of people who decorate, and we were happy to jump on board.

Of course, no one can compete with Deacon Dave's. This is the view we have just three doors down.

 Over 500,000 lights, life size displays of elves making gingerbread cookies, interactive sound-making machines--it's really fun, even if it's a little crazy.

 This has been going on for 34 years, all done by the a local catholic deacon and his team.

We went opening night, which included a procession down the blocked off street, speeches from a city council member and the police chief, 

and the deacon sprinkling holy water.on the crowd. Not the average light display. :)

And the whole thing was even more fun because we got to go with my friend who I've known since 4th grade, and now, after all these years, we're living in the same city again. It was so fun to hang out again.

Saturday was jam-packed with Christmasy fun. First up, brunch at the church and visits with Santa.

I didn't realize that my kids were so unprepared to see the big guy--Bug was the only one who could think of anything to say to him.

Peanut's faces are cracking me up these days in photos. At least he keeps his eyes open, I guess.

Then, we went to pick out a tree. When we were getting ready to move, we realized that our artificial tree was going to be too tall for normal height ceilings, so we sold our tree, and got to pick out a real one this year.

Finally, we ended the night with the big parade downtown. Livermore feels like a great community and events like this that bring everyone out are fun.

There were some pretty quirky floats, we met some nice people while we were waiting for it all to start, and had fun walking around for a bit after. It's kind of like our own little Stars Hallow, only on a bigger scale :)