Deacon Dave's with Alex - Jan 1, 2023

Alex had not been with us when we walked through Deacon Dave's light display with Robin's family on Dec 27th per my previous post; but we did not want him to miss this annual tradition. The last night it was open, Sunday January 1st, 2023 we took him after our weekly Sunday bowling. Crowds were indeed greatly diminished and the wait in line to get in was bearable. First we took our standard "yes, we were here" posed photos.

Then we took our time strolling through the courtyard looking at the windows that gave a view into Santa's workshop

Alex's favorite was an interactive village view with a coin toss. I'd had the foresight to bring along a zip lock bag of coins to extend the tossing time. All coins collected nightly go to local charities.

Next was a nativity window and, after that, a peek into the stable for Santa's reindeer. Alex liked that one, too.

The outing was a nice close to the holiday season. After all the hubbub, activity, and logistics with house guests, Frank and I are glad we took the special time to do this two-on-one with Alex.

Christmas Visit 2022 (part3) Dec 26-30

Monday, December 26 – Oakland Airport
Anna's departure the day after Christmas did not go as planned. Her flight with Southwest Airline was scheduled for 10:20 am and Jeremy dutifully took her early enough to get to Oakland airport ~30 miles away 2 hours in advance of her departure. He parked and went in with her, checked her luggage, made sure she had wheel chair assistance, and left to drive back to Livermore as soon as she had gone through security. She was waiting at her gate when she learned her flight had been cancelled and the backlog to talk to customer service to make other arrangement was estimated to be 3 hours. She had gotten caught up in the 2022 holiday fiasco where Southwest cancels 5,400 flights in less than 48 hours in a 'full-blown meltdown'.

Jeremy had already returned to Livermore when she called in a panic, unsure what to do. Jeremy talked her down from requesting a refund, advising her to instead demand they book her on another fight. The soonest flight she could get was Thursday, Dec 29 at 6:00 am. She could not get the Friday Dec 30 at 6:00 am which was when Jeremy, Robin, Autumn, and Isaiah were leaving.

Jeremy returned to the airport to pick her up and Robin rode along for company. They learned there was an uncertain estimate, on the order of 3-4 hours, before Anna'a luggage could be located and returned to her. Seeing the seas and seas of luggage, she was reluctant to leave until she got hers back. Jeremy brought Robin back to Livermore so she could spend time with us and he returned to the airport to wait with his mom.  She final got her luggage a few hours after Jeremy's return. Anna and Jeremy came back to Livermore in time for a late dinner. Three round trips with one car to Oakland airport in one day set a new record.

Monday, December 26 – Home Activities
On the home front, Isaiah had a good time with Grandpa and his trains.

Autumn learned to play solitaire on my home computer and got hooked on the game. She started to teach Isaiah but he was not so enamored.

Isaiah was much happier with a firing a pop air gun or shooting foam dart guns with his sister.

Tuesday, December 27th – Mom/Daughter Fabric Outing
Robin and I took off to visit some quilt shops. We made minimal purchases but enjoyed our time together. It was ~30 miles one way. Our round trip was roughly equal to one round trip to Oakland airport. We only did it once, though, not three times! My post for 1/3/22 in my other blog DianeLoves2Quilt.blogspot.com describes in more detail about this fun outing to three quilt shops.

 

Tuesday, December 27th – Homefront

While Robin and I were out gallivanting bonding, Isaiah spent time getting close and personal with our cat Tee. He and Grandpa also spent time going through all the curiosities in "Frank's Memory Box", nostalgic items from his childhood.

Tuesday, December 27th – Dinner at Strizzi's Livermore

Tuesday, December 27th – Evening at Deacon Dave's
A deacon at our local Catholic Church puts on a huge Christmas light display every year at his house called House of the Dove (Casa del Pomba). Lines are long for the crowds waiting a turn to walk the loop in his front courtyard. Before Christmas we all drove by one night for a quick peek within but did not park and wait in line. One perk of Anna's delayed departure was the crowds were less and we did take the opportunity to walk through a couple day's after Christmas. The 2022 theme was North Pole Operations Center featuring views into Santa's workshop and the post office where request are received and fulfilled. The 2022 Light Count was 785,800.

Wednesday, December 28th – Lego Discovery Center
 We took two cars – Frank, Alex, and me in one car and Jeremy, Robin, Autumn, and Isaiah in the other –  and traveled ~30 miles to the LEGO Discovery Center in Milpitas. There were displays, Lego and Duplo building, movies, and even a train ride and everybody enjoyed themselves. More details are in my WanderOrPonder.blogspot.com post dated 2/13/23. Anna did not come along but stayed behind and made us a delicious home cooked meal of tostadas. She timed it perfectly to be hot and ready when we walked in the door, happy but worn out.

Isaiah made certain he spent a fair amount of time with Tee that day, too! Tee loved all the attention.

Thursday, December 28 and Friday, December 29 and other miscellaneous days
Anna's flight was on Thursday at 6:00am. Jeremy took her to the airport but they left her luggage behind for Robin and Jeremy to deal with on their return flight. Robin, Jeremy, Autumn, and Isaiah flew back on Friday, also on a 6:00 am flight (ugh!). Frank and I drove them to the airport in two cars. Our cars did get a workout during this visit. In total there were 13 car/round trips, 8 of which were to the Oakland airport. At ~30 miles one way for each trip we put  just under 800 miles on the cars!

• All arrival – 2 cars 1 round trip each
• Anna's false departure – 1 car 3 round trips
• Anna real departure – 1 car 1 round trip
• All departure – 2 cars 1 round trip each
• Winchester Mystery House – 1 car 1 round trip
• Fairyland  – 1 car 1 round trip
• Lego Discovery Center – 2 cars 1 round trip each
• Quilt shops – 1 car 1 round trip

I do not recall which days we did which but we enjoyed some sit-on-our-butt activities also. We watched a few episodes of  LegoMasters, a TV series where talented pairs of people complete in building challenges created by the show producers. We watched the movies Prancer (1989), a Christmas tale where a young girl rescues one of Santa's reindeer, and  While You Were Sleeping (1995), a traditional family favorite with a Christmas setting. Jeremy and Frank watched the movies, Midway (2019) and Top Gun: Maverick (2022). For games we played the old standard Sequence and a new game, The Great American Mail Race.

On the day before the last of our guests were to leave, the women posed for a photo of Robin, Autumn, and me, all in tops Robin sewed for us. It was a great and memorable visit. We had a fantastic time!

  

Christmas Visit 2022 (part 2): Dec 25

Sunday, December 25, 2023
Sunday morning at 8:30am, the two grandmas can be found inflating the Christmas Ring Toss game. Alex was the first to enjoy playing the game but at one point just about everybody had a turn. 

Alex loves opening presents. What is inside is secondary to him. He started out the tradition with a tile puzzle and a blue M&M shirt. After a few gifts, he got bored and left the room for others to carry on. But he would be back!

Isaiah and Autumn dove into the books they got : Monsterverse Titanthology and Diana Princess of the Amazons

Then it was time for the dads and granddads to open a few gifts. Jeremy seemed to be enjoying just watching everyone else. He was delighted with the gift set of ten hot sauces that Autumn picked out for him during our shopping trip. Robin was a bit dismayed at the prospect of getting it home and fitting it in the pantry already bulging at the seams with various hot spices, a particular delight of Jeremy.

Frank began to open his gifts seated among images of his hero, The Grinch, on the quilt and adjacent statue. Note Frank proudly wears a shirt made for him by Robin. He is also wearing another use for the ring toss rings. A zombie fan himself, Isaiah wanted Grandpa to share in his enthusiasm with a gift of Zombie Kittens. 

A special daughter-to-mother gift, Robin bought me this adorable purse from Etsy with a Small World Disney theme. I love all the detailing with the smiling clock face in the lower right and the zipper pulls front and top that also echo that sun clock face motif. I like that the embossed "quilting" in the gold leather-like portion has the whimsy of the Micky Mouse icon and the elegance of swirls. Initially I thought this purse would be too small to be practical but I use it daily on short trips and errands. It fits my cell phone, small flat wallet, a couple credit cards, a pair of glasses and car keys. What more do I need? It has really saved my aching shoulders fro lugging around a huge handbag. And so stylish, too!

Autumn opened up a gift of a bright blue T-shirt with Pokémon characters atop a heart of colorful paint drips. I tried to figure out if these were a collection of many species of Pokéman characters or many rainbow colored images of Eevee, a favorite Pikachu of Autumn's. The former is true. There are over 150 species of Pokémon characters. From several Wikipedia, Fandom, and McGill University sources I learned about the Pokéman Franchise. A grandma after all, has to have bit of knowledge in this area; to be truly versed is nigh impossible. All Pikachu are Pokémon, but not all Pokémon are Pikachu.

• The name "Pokémon" is a syllabic abbreviation of the Japanese brand Pocket Monsters. The term "Pokémon", in addition to referring to the Pokémon franchise itself, also collectively refers to the many fictional species that have made appearances in Pokémon media.
• Pikachu are small, and cute mouse-like Pokémon. They are almost completely covered by yellow fur. They have long yellow ears that are tipped with black. A Pikachu's back has two brown stripes, and its large tail is notable for being shaped like a lightning bolt, yet its brown tip is almost always forgotten.
• The name Pikachu is a portmanteau of the words, pika, an onomatopoeia in the Japanese language for a spark or a sparkle of lightning, and chuu, a Japanese onomatopoeia for the squeak made by a mouse.

My gift from Autumn was a necklace of my birthstone, an emerald, on a chain. I was pleased she remembered my birthday is in May and what the birthstone for that month was. Isiah insisted on get me a pair of pink slippers, which I have worn just about every day since Christmas. They are the perfect degree of firmness that proves to be exceedingly comfortable.

Those were the gifts from the Oklahoma crew. Now on to the presents for the Oklahoma crew from Frank and me. We had not placed them under the tree – remember, the tree had not yet been decorated – but rather stacked them on top of the hutch. They were a somewhat of a surprise sitting out in the open since some thought they were decorations only. They excitement built as the kiddos got to take turns on the ladder getting the gifts down and placing them under the tree. It was a bucket brigade.

Isaiah was very happy with his air-powered hover soccer ball. He really got into that sport this year and now he can kick it around inside the house during off season.

There was a pair of packages I wrapped identically and instructed Isaiah and Autumn to open them at the same time. I enclosed a photo in each explaining why I thought these particular, rather plain, back and white sweatshirts were so cool. The Amazon picture suckered me in to this purchase. Autumn modeled hers and it does indeed seem like she has a hole through her body. I have yet to see Isaiah in his, side by side with his sister.

Frank gave me a set of four bone china mugs I'd been admiring with travel vehicles in red, my favorite color, and a muted gray snowy scene of buildings in the background. One of my gifts to him was a vibrating back massager which was a huge hit with the kids.

Robin got gifts to support her growing sewing hobby: a pattern she admired for a paper pieced wall hanging, complete with all the required foundation papers, and a tool for cutting circles of various diameters.

I sewed Anna a pair of Christmas pillowcases out of a funky party ladies Christmas print. More details and closeups can by found in my DianeLoves2Quilt blog post dated 12/27/22. Frank and I also gave her a photo print from when we first met her and her husband John in December 2010 before Jeremy and Robin's May 2011 wedding. It was particularly touching for her since John had passed away only a few years ago.

Alex kept wandering in and out of the living room during gift opening. He took his job of wrapping paper disposal very seriously. Each piece had to be torn into smaller pieces and stuffed assiduously into a collection box.

Alex's final gift was an iPad loaded with his favorite music and Disney TV show Adventures in Wonderland.

To finish off the activities we made sure to photograph and acknowledge all the outfits Robin had sewn for us and herself. There was a train theme for me, Alex, Frank, and Isaiah and a manger scene for Robin.