Christmas on Cataldi

Ok, so my parents are really more like Mr. & Mrs. Claus than the Scrooge's.








My dad spends many many hours creating this show of lights.

Maggie loved the display.



The tree was loaded beyond capacity with decorations specifically geared towards little kids again. No Macy's Tree this year.


The whole gang.

Other fun with the Talmage's

"No Maggie, put it right there." Maybe 1/5 candy pieces made it on the gingerbread house.



Frosting mustache.



Proud architects and their finished product.



Love the boots from Aunt Janna.



A yummy Maggie sandwich.



Slippers to add to our giant collection of this red furry friend.



Showing off daddy's doodling.



Baby Jane and her Christmas toy.



Modeling her super cute Cinderella dress hand-made by Raena. Amazing!



And her glass slippers to match from Aunt Janna.



On our way back home to San Diego.



Quick stop at Aunt Lisa's for a bunny visit.

Christmas in the Park

For whatever reason, my parents would always trash talk Christmas in the Park, saying it was "hokey and stupid, and freezing, why would anyone want to go to that." So, as a family, we didn't. In fact, I don't think they took us once. But Lisa and I were able to partake of this fun, cute little downtown Christmas display because of kind families that took pitty on the children of Mr. and Mrs. Scrooge. : )

Well Aunt Lisa was determined that her nieces were not going to miss this necessary childhood experience in San Jose, so we went, and keeping with tradition, it was sans grandma and grandpa Talmage.


Lisa and I even talked about how we remembered secretly loving Christmas in the Park as a kid, but we hid our excitement because we didn't want to seem like "easily amused little children." So instead, we boasted our own smug little attitudes.



Now, returning as 'real grown ups' we found Santa to be less than charming (Maggie agreed).



But we faked it anyway and pretended he was the nice, jolly fat man he should have been. Looks like Ryan was a believer. : )



As you can see - Jane hated Christmas in the Park.


But she was especially offended by the San Jo trademark million-dollar turd statue behind her.

In the end, we had a cheerful, relaxing and enjoyable evening here. But out loud, the memory will be recounted as "a totally boring, freezing event that was over-crowded, full of hokey displays and a disappointment to all children." Right Lisa?

*Not pictured: Aunt Lisa
*Photography by: Aunt Lisa

Who doesn't love Photo Booth?

Christmas in San Diego

Even though we were still wearing shorts and t-shirts, it was time to pull out a few Christmas decorations. Last year Maggie was scared of these two, but this year Mr. Nutcracker and Mr. Christmas were her good friends.



Unfortunately, these pictures were the best we got with the girls in their adorable matching dresses from grandma Lindsay. Can you see who quickly ended this photo shoot?


To begin our Christmas vacation, we were lucky enough to spend a day with Chris and Scarlett in San Diego. Of course we spent it at the beach - and used their additional four arms to carry our load.

Thanksgiving and Birthdays

This is how we spent Thanksgiving Day in La Jolla. It was perfect.

Maggie is modeling a super cute apron that grandma Carlson (one of her many adopted grandmas) made for her. Of course she wanted to help make Thanksgiving dinner - her ingredient of choice was marshmallows.

We always do the fun stuff when Aunt Lisa is around.

Maggie's birthday party.Her favorite birthday present - her very own kitchen. I believe she was baking cupcakes here.

Happy Birthday Maggie!

We were lucky to have special party guests Uncle Robert and Aunt Jan join us for pizza at Sammy's on the rainiest night we've had in La Jolla.

You can tell Jane was thrilled to be in on the party action.

Mmmm, Baskin Robbins mint chocolate chip ice cream cake - guess who picked that one out? :)

Here's how Maggie looked at the end of her birthday party.

I dip it!

Maggie's days of eating spinach with applesauce, any type of squash, and entire bananas are long past.

We now just want her to take a bite. Of anything. Just a bite Maggie. One. Little. Bite.

So we resorted to using what every other parent of a finicky eater uses. Ketchup.

But Maggie just sucks the ketchup off, so we encourage her with a thousand "Bite it Maggie"s. But realistically one probably can't survive on ketchup alone (citation needed or is that common knowledge?). Oh and by the way I was astounded to see how many licks a In-N-Out fry can take before it wilts.

So Maggie is full into this dipping thing always saying "I dip it!" Breakfast is my domain so who knows what else is dipped throughout the day, but for Maggie breakfast is well-balanced and she likes dipping sausage and eggs into maple syrup, eggs into ketchup, bananas into yogurt, and waffles into orange juice.

Oh the dips you can dip up if only you try.

Becoming Jane

Because Kids Love Firetrucks

Yup, we were privileged to meet this guy this afternoon - lights and sirens and all.


Except we were not at a fair or in a parade. We were just in the parking lot at the beach.

I attended my weekly mommy beach/surfing group (yes, we are cool moms) and as we were packing up to go home, I got Maggie in her car seat and started the car so the A/C would run (because the weather is that nice that I still use the A/C). In order to get Jane in her car seat, I had to close the front passenger door slightly to slip past it, and OOPS. It partially latched. My car has this ridiculous feature of locking the doors immediately after it is started. So there I was with Maggie screaming in her car seat, car running, A/C on, cell phone in car, and hungry Jane in my arms. After 10 seconds of panic, I remembered I had a remote in a hidden place outside the car. "Wow, am I lucky," I thought as I reached for it. Well, I pressed the magic button and nothing happened. Tried again - still nothing. CRAP.

Luckily, one of the other super cool moms was parked right next to me and was there to help. She had a hanger that we jimmied into the door, but it had no leverage to push the button. After only 1 minute, Maggie had stopped screaming and was dead asleep - a huge relief to the already embarrassed mother, still holding her other hungry child in her arms.

Some scuba guys were packing up and I saw they had a gigantic tool box, so I went over to explain my predicament and added 4 more guys to my burglary team. No luck with them either, so they decided to get help from the lifeguards. Two of them came over. They said not to worry, this happens all the time, no big deal.

I was actually totally calm and patient through this whole ordeal, mainly because this isn't the first time Maggie was locked in the car, and also because, there wasn't really anything I could do to fix it.

I hadn't realized the life guards had called the fire department, until I heard a fire truck close by and one of them said "oh, here they come." What? That was for us? Lights and sirens and everything - they didn't want to short change us in the whole experience. Too bad Maggie was asleep and didn't get to see the big firetruck after all. They had the doors unlocked in about 20 seconds. Thank you SD Fire. We hope you don't have to visit us again.

Late Happy Halloween From Jane

Halloween