Christmas 2009

Do you ever notice that once Thanksgiving rolls around, things are non-stop busy until the new year starts? That's the way it was for us this year.
After getting home from spending Thanksgiving in Utah, we've been busy getting ready for Christmas in California. (No snow for us this Christmas, thank you very much) So over the next two weeks, while I was unpacking, sorting and repacking for our next trip, Juliana was helping out by doing things like getting herself prepared for bed.  One night, instead of putting on her pajamas, she put on a short sleeve sweater, a knit hat and some leg warmers

I'm not showing you the pictures with the leg warmers, since she didn't bother to put pants on.  Mind you, she did have underwear on, but I'm going to save the full-length shot for a special moment... like her wedding day or when she wins a Nobel Prize.

In December, Derek was in the middle of transitioning projects at work, so decided to burn a few extra vacation hours and catch up on some self-education... reviewing some general math, reading some programming manuals, performing experiments on body temperature vs. cranial coverage.  What kind of experiments you ask?

This picture was actually taken the 3rd day after shaving his noggin.  He wouldn't let me take a picture the first day, and I didn't press the issue the 2nd day.  Since he was starting to get a significant shadow on the 3rd day, I decided to snap a picture before it really started to grow back in.  His biggest complaint about growing it out?  Around the 3 or 4 day mark, the stubble was barely discernible by touch, but snagged on EVERYTHING.  He tried putting on a knit hat, pulling shirts over his head... and they all hit a hard stop as soon as they touched his head.

This was less than a week of returning home from Utah, and I told him he better not shave it again before going to California, or he'd have a heck of a time with airport security. :P

As it turns out, there was that terrorist attempt in Detroit just a day or two before he was scheduled to return home from California, so security was heightened that day he flew home. Juliana and I stayed another week, so it was maybe 30 minutes after we dropped him off at the airport that I received a text message from him: "Got to 2nd base with security". That's my hubby!

Anyhow, Juliana had a blast in California. She played hard every day, and it showed the following mornings:

"Lemme finish my drink before you start talking to me"

Don't worry, we're not starting her early on coffee.... it's a very, very, VERY weak tea.

Here's some examples of things that kept her busy:

Pau-Pau has some various fruit trees, and Juliana loved to check them for ripe fruit.  Her favorite tree to check was the lime tree, as there were more opportunities to find ripe fruit with her reach on the lower branches.

"I wonder if I can reach that one up there"

"This one's ripe!"

Moody picture:



made a little moodier:



Learning one way of wearing a scarf from Sahm-Yi:



Learning to play the Wii with her cousin Jadan:

"D'oh!"

Watching the others learn to play a fishing game on the Wii:


Kou-Fu giving it a go:





While the other Kou-Fu reads the manual with his nephew Jadan...


An impressive catch by Yi-Kou-Fu (Jadan's dad, the true fisherman of the family)


Since we never had to leave our time zone, she continued to wake Mommy (read: me) up at the crack of dawn where we watched many sunrises like this:


But the camera was tweaking the color a little on its own with the Sunset setting. In reality, they probably looked a little less red and more like this:


We spent a couple of days visiting family friends and meeting Baby Quinn:



And playing with homemade play dough with Lillia and Miles (and probably the only circular saw and drill I'll let her touch at this age)








And having a play date with Jadan at one of the neighborhood parks:




The day we were to take Sahm-Yi to the airport for her flight home, we stopped by Coronado Island for some lunch.

"Is this the only drink menu?" 

"Ooo... this looks interesting!"

Yes, he's scowling... but if he's not scowling, he's making one of two hand gestures to the camera, so I'll deal with the scowling.

At least Pau-Pau seems to be in a better mood than Kou-Fu.

And then before we headed off to the airport, Sahm-Yi decided she wanted to treat Juliana to a double chocolate cupcake with a pudding center... I think she timed it so that the sugar rush would hit after she left...


Given that it was only 2:30 in the afternoon, traffic should have been rather light, but it took us forever just to get from the airport to the freeway. When we finally neared the freeway, we discovered the source of the delay...

Somebody hit the water main at an intersection about 2 blocks from the freeway.

This shot above was my over-the-shoulder hail mary shot. We had to speed up through the intersection, so I took a chance to see if I could actually capture anything.

That's most of the trip in a nutshell... Our next travel adventure is probably a week in Portland some time in the next two months and then a week long cruise in April to the Western Caribbean/Mexico.

We can't wait!

"Are you still here?"