Yes, there is ice skating in Claifornia and we found it. We needed something to make it feel like the Holidays. It was the beginning of December and we headed to one of our most favorite beaches, Santa Monica. Alexia enjoyed a short time of ice skating, after a few falls she decided she had enough so we went to Starbucks (we're bummed there's no Dunkin' Donuts here) and got hot chocolate. We walked around the Promenade and had dinner outside, yes, outside in December, of course we were sitting under the heat lamps but it was still wonderful. The Promenade is like a Faniel Hall area but goes on for blocks of stores, restaurants and street performers. It's so nice and clean and fun there, it was decorated pretty for Christmas and Alexia took our picture in front of one of the Christmas trees! There was a day here when a few surrounding towns got snow. They were at higher elevations. Palmdale was one that hadn't seen snow in over 10 yrs, which was a dusting. Well they ended up getting 12 inches and roads were closed, people couldn't get back & forth to their homes and had to stay at friends or hotels for a couple of days. They just don't have the equipment to clear the roads here so people were stranded in their cars. We didn't get anything here but the mountain tops were beautifully sprinkled with the white stuff and it was absolutely gorgeous.
Here they are on December 21st, Ashley & Amanda arrived safely over the weekend. Believe it or not this is our winter weather. It was actually in the 30's & 40's in the morning and only getting into the 60's and 70's during the day. The morning I picked Amanda up form the airport it was 5:00 a.m. and 35 degrees and she comes strolling off the plane in flip flops...what a rude awakening. She was so cold, her blood has thinned from the warm tropical weather in Hawaii I guess. I have to say the whole time she was here she was "cold". As you can see in the picture above, she always had a blanket on when she was on the couch. Of course Ashley thought it was "warm", comparitively speaking to NH weather. It was so nice to have them here, all our girls together again. We enjoyed a game of frisbee and catching the football at the park next to Alexia's school. It felt so good to have the warm sunshine on our face. As you an tell Alexia is sooooooo happy to have her sisters around again. She really looks up to them and they just continue to adore their little sister.
Alexia and Ashley are decorating10 dozen cookies on Christmas Eve. We love the Spritzer cookies and then ice and decorate them. Honestly we ended up eating them ALL within only a week or so. I have to say this pregnancy is so different. I barely eat and when I do I crave sugar, anything with sugar and carbs is my friend:) Here I am 6 months along and only 3 to go!!! Yippee, I've gained back the 15 lbs I orignally lost so we're good! Blake is obviously growing by the big lump you see under my shirt. It was great for Ashley & Amanda to experience his rolling and kicking while they were here. I don't know how much of it they remember from when I was pregnant with Alexia.
Here is the crew on New Years Eve!!! It was very different this year. We missed all of you and we didn't even cook "wings" this year and there was no margarita or beer shots from the roulette wheel, no sparklers or fireworks either. I actually made it until after midnight unlike last year, ha,ha. Being without you all just wasn't the same. But as we were texting back and forth you knew we were thinking of you!
As you can tell we didn't take any Christmas pictures. Ya, let me tell you about that one. Don't buy batteries at the Dollar Store. I thought I was being thrifty but guess what those AA batteries lasted about as long as it took to turn the camera on so I had no batteries for the camera that morning. Talk about bummer. Erick took a lot of video, he's so great at that.
I don't have pictures for some reason of all the girls and Erick taking turns playing Guitar Hero (Rock Band) for the Wii we got for Christmas. They were all so good, within about a week they were all working on Medium level and more songs were added to their selection. They really enjoyed that alot. I even tried it before the girls left to go back to college, it was hard holding the guitar with my belly in the way but I surprised myself and did better than I thought I would:)
It's New Year's Day!! We took the girls to Santa Monica and played on the beach and walked on the Santa Monica Pier. All 3 of them rode the roller coaster, Alexia loves it. It's not too scary for her and not too babyish. As you can see the equipment behind us, there are all kinds of excercises you can do. Climbing ropes, balance beams, pull-up bars. We tossed the football around for awhile and happened to see a sea lion in the water, it was so cool, he was riding the wave in like a surfer and we could see him through the water. I couldn't get my camera ready quick enough to take a picture.
Until next month, enjoy life!
