Holiday Down Time

The rest of our Christmas vacation was pretty laid back. I had a few days to finish up at work in the church office and the kids love going in with me (because I print coloring pages for them to color all day!)  Cameron found the dry erase board in and did a great job at drawing our church.

The weather was so warm and sunny the whole time, we took advantage and got outside as much as possible.  We hit several parks, the zoo and got to hang with some our our buddies we don't get to see much anymore since school started.

Lots of snuggle time with Daddy!  Young business has been incredibly blessed the first year but that means he is working very, very hard trying to keep up.  He isn't home much these days so any time with Daddy is so special.  (We're praying for wisdom on how to expand his business so he can have more time at home)

Playing with Christmas toys!  Lots of new toys and games to keep them busy.  They both put their lego projects together almost 100% by themselves!  Cameron loved her spirograph (I had one as a kids and remember loving it too).  And for some reason I don't have any pictures of them playing Battleship, but they played that game constantly.  Timo received it but Cameron loved playing to too!  As much as I would try to get them to play by the rules, they would give each other hints as to where their ships were.

The weather gave us some great days to go hiking and see some beautiful sunsets.  We took an extra long hike one day that started in the afternoon but ended after sunset...hiking in the woods in the dark...not so much fun, just FYI.  Thank goodness for cell phones to give us light to see where to walk!  Daddy just seems to like to keep walking and walking, not thinking about the time it will take to walk back......

Frozen!  We got to take in a movie, Frozen, and LOVED it!  Cameron isn't much of a princess girl but she loved this movie.  We had Walking with Dinosaurs on the agenda too but note to self, movies don't last long in theaters anymore...go opening weekend or you'll miss it!  Oops.

Eating out is always a highlight an we got to check out a few places.  The Boudin Factory at the Warf was a hit with the turtle sourdough bread.  And we ate with a view downtown at the newly renovated Season's.

We rang in the new year quietly with some friends, the Haskins.  Timo and Cameron recited the Korean New Years greeting to receive their gifts and then we spent the rest of New Years Day eating the traditional Korean BBQ with our friends, the Rosas.  They had 1year old twin girls and Timo and Cameron loved making funny faces to make them laugh.

And the rest of the time was spent just being a kid, using imaginations and having fun.  The kids had plenty of adventures of their own...ship sailing, superheros, indoor picnics, dino attacks and much, much, more.

San Jose Tech Museum

One thing I wanted to make sure we did over the holiday break was visit the Tech Museum in San Jose to see the Star Wars exhibit.  The exhibit leaves in Feb. so this was our last chance to go check it out...and it did not disappoint!  Wow, so many cool Star Wars artifacts, displays, experiments and videos.  There was no flash photography allowed so all my pictures are either very dark or didn't come out at all.  But Timo loved it and we had to look and each and every little display as to not miss a thing.

Cameron took a whirl on the hover craft rider thing...not being a Star Wars buff, I'm not sure which movie this is from but she had fun on it.

After Star Wars we headed into the museum to get our tech on!  We started downstairs but only had a little while before we had to get to the IMAX to see Flight of the Monarch Butterfly.  Awesome movie...even better with popcorn and lemonade!

We had to go back downstairs to finish everything we didn't get go and I mean EVERYTHING.  The kids had to stop at each station, push each button, read every direction and figure it all out.  We learned about robots, underwater navigation, the Mars Rover, saw how Furby was built, rode in a roller coaster and so, so, so much more!

We made our way upstairs to the science lab and Cameron got a new burst of energy...she LOVES science. The kids actually got to be scientist and work with all the equipment to make a glowing bacteria (I think that's what they did).  They took a glowing strand of DNA from a jellyfish and added it to a cell of bacteria, had to let it grow overnight and we checked our experiment the next day via online code and it was glowing!

"Mommy, maybe one day, can I have one of these for my room?"

The last experiment we did was the Candy Cane Crunch test.  You had to build a house of of paper and tape that would protect a candy cane from being crushed by a stack of presents.  Oh boy...it was so much harder than I thought!  After an hour, yes and hour, of rolling paper sticks, taping paper and taping more paper, our projects were done.  Mama was getting a little weary toward the end and just wanted them done! There was a staff guy walking around that kept talking to Timo about his big house.  Most were building pyramids type structures, small and sturdy to protect the candy...but not Timo.  His life motto is bigger is better!  The staff guy was very doubtful but was so impressed with is it passed two of the three present test!

Cameron's tee-pee passed all three present test and her candy cane didn't break!  There were only about 5 kids that passed the crunch test out of about 25 kids.

To say we took full advantage of the Tech Museum is an understatement...after 7 1/2 hours there, we closed the place down at 7pm!  We were all tired and hungry so Chick Fil A was the icing on the cake of a great day for us.  Anytime I see two passed out kids in the car...I know it was a good day!

Christmas Day

I feel like my Christmas post might be the shortest of all my "catch up" post b/c I have so few pictures!  It was such a fun day but a busy one.  We had 14 people coming over for lunch so there wasn't much time that morning to relax before we needed to start preparing the food. (lunch was starting so early to accommodate some friends that had to be at the airport by 3pm) But we managed to squeeze in some fun! We had to wake the kids up a little early to get the ball rolling...they have to wait for us and we all walk in together...makes the anticipation even greater!  Lot's of giggles and squeals!!

Santa really out did himself this year.  Cameron was most excited about her remote control dinosaur and Furby, while Timo put on his secret spy gear and loaded his Nurf gun getting ready for action!

Dino, meet Furby.  Furby, meet Dino.

We quickly opened a few gifts but put the rest aside to get ready for our friends coming over.  An epic lunch was had by all...Young did an amazing job on the standing rib roast.  All the food was amazing and the Blackwell's were able to make it to the airport on time!  We loved spending the afternoon with our friends and filling our home with love, laughter and Christmas Spirit!

When our guest had all left and we cleaned up a bit, Timo and Cameron were chomping at the bits to finish opening gifts...as well and Young and I, we hadn't opened any yet!  It was time to open gifts from the grandparents and I think Santa was outdone!  The Bayblades and Switch and Go Dino were the biggest hits!

But I do find it funny, if you ask Timo what his favorite gift was he would tell you, hands down, the little set of handcuffs in his stocking...the $1.99 handcuffs I got thinking he would like them b/c they have a key (he has a thing for keys).  And Cameron's favorite would be the little robo T-Rex kit I got last minuet at Costco just to equal out the number of gifts. Note to Santa for next year...the gifts on the list don't really matter..it's the unexpected gifts that are the best!