Christmas is Coming, and Gordon's 32!

Well... that was the original title of this blog post. Since drafting this, a lot has happened. Johnny turned 3, I am now also 32, and now it's well past Valentine's Day and a handful of other, lesser holidays.

But before I get into blogging on topics more recent, here is my original post, first draft dated 12/16:

The holiday season has been flying by at full speed it seems since Halloween. Here are some highlights, working backwards.

Happy Birthday, Gordon!
It's been an exciting birthday weekend of festivities to celebrate Gordon's 3 & 2/10ths decadeversary. We kicked it off Friday with some goodies from around town.

Donut Man is a must for a celebratory weekend in Glendora!

 We also did some other things in December too:

John, starstruck with Emma and Charlotte after
their Christmas Dance Recital.

We made Johnny's crib a big boy bed. He loved the process of helping make it a Big Boy Bed and using the tools! There are some pretty hilarious videos of him "boinging" into and out of bed, one with a pretty spectacular wipe-out where he slides under instead of jumping up. It was a very silly day full of laughter.

After the celebratory romping was over, he had a bit of a rough adjustment. He cried about us "breaking his crib" for the next couple of days at bedtime, but shortly discovered the joys of getting in and out of bed on his own. Often now, I'll discover toys or books out in his room that weren't out the night before. One morning all of his lego trains were in bed with him. I suppose this is how those years of reading after dark begin. (Gordon and I both did it, so I guess it was inevitable.)

In retrospect, we probably should have just gone with a twin, but what can you do? We'll just have to sell him on a cool, new bed when the time comes. :)


We also went to Emma and Charlotte's Dance recital in early December with Rob and Michelle plus grandparents Rupp in La Crecenta. It was a long, kind of weird show if you think about it too much, but the dancing and costumes were very cute! Well done, Emma and Charlie! Johnny was especially impressed with their costumes and stage makeup.

 We went to see the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade lights. It was cold, but very fun!

Johnny sang with his class in his school's Christmas concert. You can't tell from the picture here, but he kind of stole the show. He centered himself in front of the mic and sang all the words louder than the rest of the kids. He also did all the dance moves that go with the song. Then he screamed "It's Jingle Bells!" for the next song. It was hilarious.

We also spent a night in Anaheim and went to the Land of Disney just for kicks .

Johnny helped put up the Christmas tree. He was super excited aobut it. here you can see him "fluffing" the branches. Even though it's a fake tree, the needles are still pretty scratchy, but he didn't complain!

We started getting into the holiday spirit in Houston over Thanksgiving at Grandma Debby's. We all came in on a Friday night and ran off to a play downtown, Jersey Boys, and got to hang out backstage after the show with Aaron De Los Santos, Rob and Michelle's college friend who played the lead! *Insert excited squeal here!* Oh, what a night, indeed! Seriously, such a great show and performance.

 It was really fun to be at my mom's with Rob & Michelle's family plus our dear Julianna and her kids for Thanksgiving eve and day. Ian and Hilary's crew were very much missed.  Still, it was a pretty magical pre-Christmas holiday party.

The house was all decked out. It made for some pretty great photo moments. And the kids are cute!

Complete with movie outings and nightly Christmas present openings and advent calendars, a good time was had by all. Gordon and I even got to meet up with some friends from our old neighborhood. (See the Bells boys pictured above with John.)

John's first Christmas wish this year was a "Lightnim-a'Queen" helmet and a red scooter similar to the princess ones of Charlotte's. He was thrilled to have both! Well done, Grandma Debby!

A bit of silliness at the Alamo Drafthouse.

And what holiday at Grandma Debby'sis complete without some quality pool time? The kids were pretty thrilled when they found this little frog hanging out during their pooling. John still asks about when we're going back to swim at Grandma Debby's house. It's been five months.

And some other cute randoms from our time in The Woodlands. :)

Our own little town of Glendora gets in the Christmas spirit early too. We caught the town tree lighting ceremony and Christmas celebration before leaving town for Thanksgiving. It's all pretty stinking cute and charming. I get what people mean now when they talk about "small town charm."

Also in November, Gordon and I celebrated our 4th Anniversary! (Where does the time go?)
I was going to surprise him with tickets to a Philip Glass Opera, Akhnaten. (It's beautiful and strange and intesne.) It didn't end up being a surprise because we had to schedule the timing, so I just told him when I bought the tickets. What WAS a fun surprise, though, is Philip Glass himself was there to talk about the opera in the lobby before we went in. The whole experience was really cool.  It's like the third time we've seen him live, but it was the first time to hear him talking about his work and inspirations. He's a very witty and charming man.

The venue was also beautiful. We had some fun kicking it around the gardens before the show started.

Also, Gordon got me pretty flowers for our anniversary and some other fun things, not pictured here.

Oh, and here are the 32nd birthday cake pictures! We found a bakery near us that's pretty stinking good. Johnny had a lot of fun helping with the presents and candle placement process.

Fist-bump for a happy month documented - Mid November to Mid December 2017.

There's so much more to add, and as usual, nerry enough time. Suffice it to say, life is crazy, and fun, and very much good.

Till next time, love to you all from Glendora.