Happy Christmas And A Tiny Bit Of Snow

We have had a full house since late November. Joel's parents came down to stay with us for Caelen's 2nd Birthday for a few weeks. We took the chance to do a mini trip to Monterey and used points we acquired by hosting a Home Exchange last summer to stay in a great little cottage not far from Cannery Row for four days.

Our dear friends from our Singapore days, Gemma and Fre and their daughters helped us celebrate Caelen's special day, even hosting us there for cake after a big day walking around the aquarium. Caelen was so thrilled to have the happy birthday song sung to him. He's been to lots of birthdays for bigger kids with Austen but didn 't have a recollection of ever having his own before this. One of his presents was a little wooden birthday cake which he has continued to carry around to ensure we celebrate his birthday every day since. In fact, as the Christmas decorations went up he declared that these were also for his Birthday. Usually one feels badly for the kids with the December Birthdays getting lost in the shuffle of the holiday events. It seems Caelen might just find a way to co-opt the holiday altogether.

My brother, Adrian, arrived on Christmas Eve and we celebrated a very cozy and delicious Christmas day. My parent's flight arrived in the afternoon on boxing day and we reprised our roles in the kitchen for the second evening of feasting. The following morning we left on a trip to Tahoe to seek some snow and a little holiday. 

We didn't find much snow at all but, here and there we found a little patch and made the most of it tobogganing. Austen did one day on the bunny hill learning to ski with daddy. The rest of our week was spent cozy by the fire, cooking elaborate dinners -- even baking bread and making pasta from scratch. 

2018 began with a night of board games and a little ringing of bells from the doorway of our cabin. This will be a busy year for us to be sure. Joel is searching for a new job which will likely have the biggest impact on our plans. We can't even circle dates for a Summer holiday because we have no idea where we'll be or what we'll be doing. I'm building up some contracts for this spring after the slow speed of midwinter. We're trying to choose a school for Austen to start kindergarten in the fall and find an appropriate preschool for Caelen to begin in June.