Sneak Peak at a Rose Parade Float

Chris snapped a couple photos of a float being built up at the Rose Bowl. Looks like Flowers.com is using Sesame Street characters.
Here Big Bird looks dead. We see the floats coming up the street behind our house on New Year's Eve as they start to line up and all the tall elements of the floats have to lie flat so they can get under all the stop lights. They remove the stop lights along Orange Grove and Colorado Blvd for the parade so they can get by.

Orange Grove is ready for the Rose Parade

I took some pictures on my jog up Orange Grove Blvd today. Everything is ready for the Rose Parade.

The Wrigley Mansion is the Tournament of Roses headquarters and the parade starts about a block north of it.

The bleachers have gone up on both sides of Orange Grove.

The weather is beautiful. Its so exciting.

Tomorrow I'll take some pictures of the places where the floats are being decorated.

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas! Our Christmas day was spent mainly in pajamas. It rained all day so we got up (the boys at about 6:30 and then watched Brady Bunch reruns in our bed until we let them get up) a bit after 7am and made hot cocoa and started a fire before we opened gifts. Our camera died last Sunday so these pictures are from Chris' phone. Luckily, Chris gave me a phone for Christmas. The battery had to charge, so only the last photo on this post is from the new camera.

Christmas is a great time to stock up on new housewares for me. Like new sheets...
new stoneware.....

and new blankets for the beds. Thanks moms!

And, as Chris is tapping his inner backpacker, he got an ultralight insulated sleeping pad so he doesn't feel all those back country rocks digging into his hip on his trips with Davis and the scouts.

Here Nathaniel is about to open a gift from Uncle Mark and Aunt Annie. Oh yes, strawberry shake flavored pop tarts! Of course they go with the toaster (see below).

Deluxe four place with bonus bagel setting toaster. Thanks guys.

Davis is trying out his new internal frame backpack and (no, its not a rocket launcher) thermos. That thermos will come in handy on New Year's Day before the parade starts. Mmmmm... hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls.

But the most popular gift had to be the Wii Fit,

which took up most of the rest of the day. The boys are Wi Fit-ting and I'm just lounging by the fire.

Now that Christmas Day is done, it is time to move onto the Rose Parade (seriously). I'll be putting away the Christmas decorations today or tomorrow. We are excited to have a visit from Chris' brother Brett and his family next week, so I'll be getting the house ready (new sheets, blankets, towells and toaster. Sweet!). I'll make a trip to the farmer's market tomorrow morning for local winter produce (grapefruit, dates, kiwi, apples, lettuce) and I've arranged to get passes to Huntington Gardens and have planned the menu for the week. We love having guests for the New Year.

The rain has moved out and its clear and sunny. 70 degree weather is forcasted through the New Year. It is so much better going to a parade in Pasadena, CA when its sunny and warm with happy,friendly western parade goers, than going to the Macy's Thanksgiving parade in NYC in a sleet storm in Novemeber with New York's finest (police force) directing crowds up one street and down another, but you never seem to get closer to the parade.

Here's an artist's rendition of our town's float entry for the parade. New Year's Eve we'll walk over and help decorate it.

Keep checking back for more posts counting down to the parade!

Christmas Eve

Today we went to a matinee of "A Christmas Carol" at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. It was great! It starred Christopher Lloyd (from Back to the Future) as Ebenezer Scrooge and John Goodman (from Roseanne) as the Ghost of Christmas Present. The boys loved it. Davis just read it in english class and Nathaniel was on the edge of his seat when the Ghost of Christmas Future appeared. A very fun afternoon.

Here we are waiting for the show to start. We bought tickets for the cheap seats (3rd balcony) but there was low attendance so they upgraded us to the orchestra seats.

Here we are in front of an electric Christmas tree. The voltage is so high it's making the ends of my hair levitate (something weird is going on).

And, after three of four tries, Nathaniel actually held still for a picture and Davis conceded a smile. Hey, check out the websites for the theaters to the right, and then come see a show!

Nathaniel's Birthday party and Davis' Christmas parade

Nathaniel had his 9th birthday last week and we celebrated with our family on his birthday with a lemon merengue pie.

Then we had a party with his friends tonight at the park. We roasted hot dogs, played team tag, and made smores. The kids had a great time. We worried a bit through the day that we would get rained out, but the weather turned out great. It was cool but stayed dry. Very nice to hang out by the fire. We sang some campfire songs and then Nathaniel and his friends pitched in with their own songs and riddles.

Davis marched with the middle school band in a Christmas parade this morning.
Here he is right on the end playing the clarinet. He had a lot of fun and they sounded great.

Nathaniel found a ladybug while we waited for Davis and the band to get to us during the parade.

December 6, Hadley Studios Piano Recital

Davis playing "Song of Kilimanjaro'.

Nathaniel playing "I've Got Music" and "Rockin' Robin".

End of the Soccer Season (finally).

The soccer season is finally over. It went extra long this year. The playoffs were postponed because of the smoke in the air from the wildfires in Novemeber, and so everything was pushed back a week. Soccer season is fun, but I'm usually ready for a break by Thanksgiving.

This Nathaniel with his team "American Eagles" in the boys-under 10 division. They had a season that was good for developing sportsmanship skills.

Here is Davis in the semi-finals of the championship playoffs for the boys-under 14 division. Their team did a great job with an 8 win, 2 loss, no tie record. Davis played forward this year and was a strong contributor to the team. We haven't heard how the team did in the overall championship tournament (they lost the semi-final game and were playing in the consolation game today). Davis didn't play in the final game today because it is Sunday. I guess he'll find out from his teammates at school tomorrow.