Christmas in California, Part 8--Hanging out at home

We had lots of good times just hanging out at Matt and Cheryl's house together.  The kids really enjoyed their time playing together.  There was lots of  "playing school" going on, with Miss Josie as the teacher most of the time.  And her two students, Jeremiah and Evan, were not always the most obedient.  Occasionally they even needed to have notes sent home!  There was lots of outdoor time, too, which was really a treat for the two Michigan kids!

These pictures were taken over the course of the week, but I think a lot of them were taken on Thursday, which was Ben's last day there.  He made one last trip to In 'n Out Burger to pick up his lunch, which he even shared with Hope.

Uncle Ben and Hope--Buddies!

Matt and the boys decided to harvest the fruit from the lemon trees on Thursday. Jeremiah was quite impressed with the whole process of picking the lemons, and then juicing them.  And  they even made some lemonade!

That's a lot of lemons!

The juicing crew

Working hard!

Father and son doing some dishes
 

This little girl LOVED playing outside!

Playing frisbee with Uncle Ben

Evan getting some love from his uncle and aunt

One more pic of these two

We had a great dinner Thursday night---we had steak grilled by Adam and some really yummy roasted potatoes.  After dinner we had a fire in the back yard and made s'mores.  This picture is probably too dark, but I'll give it a try.

That's Neil and Abby, barely visible

Story time with Uncle Ben, "Dragons love

Tacos" of course. 

Then it was time to say good-bye to Ben--he had a red-eye flight back to Chicago that night.  It was said to see our time all together coming to a close.

Next post:  Knotts Berry Farm

Christmas in California, Part 7--Escondido!

After our Christmas morning activities on Tuesday, we started to discuss plans for the rest of the day.  One person in the family really wanted to go to Escondido in order to get some favorite Wedeking's cookies.  Others felt that would be a pretty long drive, JUST to get cookies, even though they are very yummy!  So Matt came up with a couple of other things we could do in the Escondido area, so we set off.

Our first stop was Wedeking's Bakery, and we were pleased to see that they still have pretty much all the same delicious treats that we remembered.  So we all enjoyed some baked treats, and reminisced about the good old days when a Wedeking's visit was the usual reward for surviving things like dental appointments, shots, etc. etc. I also bought a couple of their coffee cakes for the next day's breakfast. (Grandma fail---no pictures of this stop.)

Our next stop was Bates Nut Farm, which was a favorite place for outings when the kids were little.  We have had many picnics there, spent time feeding the animals, picked out pumpkins in the fall, and of course always enjoyed the store.  The outdoor area really has not changed very much.  There were still lots of animals to feed.  Things in the store had changed a bit---it had been enlarged a bit and some new things had been added.  (Like a fudge counter!)  They still had a lot of the same nuts, candies, and other treats that we remembered.  But we did miss the containers that they used to have for sampling.

Jeremiah got the "flat hand" technique down pretty well.

Josie got a bird's eye view of the place.

She got into the feeding, too.

Hope did lots of running around.

Wissink family shot

I don't think this was planned, but Ben and 

Neil were sort of dressed like twins that day. 

One of the kiddos was missing from these pictures---Evan was not feeling very well that day, and I think he was sleeping in the car when these pictures were taken. Poor Evan! :(

The next stop was Stone Brewery.  This place was new since we had lived there. At least we were not aware of it, if it was there. In addition to the brewery and restaurant, they have some beautiful outdoor areas.  While some of the group did some sampling, others enjoyed the garden areas.  Oh, and I think Evan and Cheryl spent that whole time in the car, as well, as Evan was sleeping. Poor Evan and poor Cheryl! :(  And this time the lack of pictures was a tech failure.  My phone died, so no pictures.  It was a beautiful spot, though. 

We topped off the day with dinner at a great Mexican restaurant, Cenote Grill. I had seen this place mentioned by some of my Escondido friends on Facebook, so we decided to give it a try.  And it was actually very close to our San Marcos house, right in the little strip mall by the 7-11 that we used to walk to.  Memories!

I think I'm down to about 2 or 3 more Christmas posts to go.  Next one will just be some pictures of our time hanging out at Matt and Cheryl's house.

Christmas in California, Part 6--Wiers Christmas Morning

Tuesday was the day that we celebrated our family Christmas morning traditions.  For many years I have been making butterhorns for breakfast on Christmas morning.

These things generally disappear pretty 

quickly, and there are rarely any leftovers.

Evan was making sure he got his!

Stockings are also a Christmas morning tradition.  This year I only filled stockings for the grandkids.  The adult kids usually get stockings, too, with things like gift cards, gum, pens, dental floss (a favorite!).  But this year I left their stockings at home, and they each got a few gift cards. But the kiddos got the usual stocking stuffers.

Hope even got something that was

too big to fit in her stocking. 

One of the things that I put in all the kids' stockings was something I'd call "magic socks."  I found them at the Learning Shop, and they were these things that you unwrap and submerge in water and.......Surprise!!  They turn into a pair of socks!! They came in different bright colors and they each had a different animal on them. 

Waiting.....

and  watching....

and more people watching!

And would you believe--I never took any pictures of them wearing their awesome magic socks!!  They were a big hit, though!

Speaking of socks,  over the past few years we have had another sock tradition.  In the fall I try to get to the big Wigwam Sock sale in Sheboygan, and I buy a bunch of socks of all types.  And then on Christmas morning we sort of have a "sock scramble" and everyone gets to pick out a few pairs of socks.  BUT....due to the whole foot surgery thing, I wasn't really up to facing the crowds and all the standing in line that are part of the Wigwam Sock Sale experience.  So, no Wigwam socks this year.  But hopefully they'll be back next year!!

So that was our Christmas morning.  The rest of that day will be covered in the next post---stay tuned!

Christmas in California, Part 5--Wiers Christmas Eve

Monday, Dec. 28, was the first day that we were all together, so that evening was our Christmas Eve celebration.  For us that means a meal of various appetizers and then the opening of presents.  Lots of excitement, lots of wrapping paper, lots of boxes, lots of  FUN!!

Characters from "Inside Out" from Uncle Ben

Waiting patiently

Hope and "Melmo"

Some wild music!

The kids always get pajamas from Grandma for Christmas.  This year I was able to get the boys identical ones.  Because of the size differences, I couldn't find exactly the same ones for the girls, but I found some that had the same colors and the very same polar bear on them---close enough. :)

The boys

The girls

All four---they fill our hearts and lives
with so much joy!!

Next post:  Wiers Christmas morning traditions!

Christmas in California, Part 4--The gang's all here!

The rest of the family arrived in California during a period of a little more than 24 hours, from late on the 26th to late on the 27th.   They all flew into LAX, so Matt pretty much was running a taxi service between Redlands and LAX during that time. Ben was the first to arrive around midnight on the 26th.

Josie and Uncle Ben watching some football 

and waiting for the Wissinks to arrive

The Wissinks arrived in Redlands sometime late morning, after having a very early flight out of Chicago.  Jeremiah was pretty wiped out, after a short night and all the excitement of the flight and all.  So he was ready to sack out for a while.  The rest of us headed to Panera for lunch, while Adam stayed home with the sleeping boy. Sunday lunch at Panera, eating outdoors---who can top that?  I wish that I had gotten a picture of Hope, sitting next to Josie and helping herself to Josie's macaroni and cheese. :)  (another Grandma photo fail)  The rest of the day we just hung out at home.

 Cousins having fun with Play-Doh

Sunday night pizza

The Okuleys were the last to arrive, and they had some delays with their flight, so they got there very late on Sunday night, in fact it was probably actually Monday morning. 

On Monday morning Jeremiah and Evan discovered that they had matching shirts, and they even managed to find pants that were almost alike.

Cousin twins!

Monday evening was going to be our family Christmas Eve celebration.  And no matter when we celebrate Christmas Eve, our traditions remain the same.  So some of us were getting ready to head out to Sam's Club to do some shopping for our appetizer feast.  When it became known that there is an In 'n Out Burger right next to Sam's Club, it soon became a group outing. Actually it was kind of surprising that Ben waited this long for his first burger.  Evan and Cheryl missed out on this outing---Evan was napping, I think. 

Again, eating outside!

So that brings us to our Christmas Eve celebration---which will be the next post!

Christmas in California, Part 3---Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

On the 24th, Cheryl had to work, so the rest of us went downtown to finish up some shopping.  And what better way to start out the morning, than with some donuts!

Josie is wearing some of her new birthday clothes!

We all went to church for the Christmas Eve service, and then there were some presents to open.

Sands alive!  A very popular item with the kiddos!

They are very busy!

Josie is wearing more birthday clothes--

that girl loves sparkly things!

Evan explaining something to Grandpa--it

might have something to do with hockey.

We had a pretty relaxing Christmas Day.  We were all pretty laid back and lazy. Well, except for Cheryl, who made a really delicious brunch.  I spent a lot of time working on a jigsaw puzzle that Cheryl picked up on one of her shopping trips. She also bought a couple of craft kits for the kids--a castle for Josie and a train for Evan.  Well, they were supposed to be for the kids, but it turned out that they were a little too challenging for them.  

So here Cheryl is putting the castle together,

with a little help from Josie.

I wish that I had gotten a picture of Matt and Evan (well it was really just Matt) putting together the train.  Evan really lost interest pretty quickly, so it became Matt's project.  Both the castle and the train turned out really cute, though.

This Grandma was definitely falling down on the job when it came to taking pictures!  Things got a little better with that a couple days later when the rest of the Wiers family arrived on the scene.  

So stay tuned for the arrival of the rest of the family!!

Christmas in California, Part 2--Josie is 6!

December 22 is Josie's birthday---she turned 6!! Since Cheryl was working that day I said that I would make a cake for her.  We took the kids to the grocery store and let Josie pick out what kind of cake and frosting she wanted.  Lemon cake was her choice, and white frosting with sprinkles. 

Cute comment of the day:  The day before at Legoland I had been using my cane (as well as the wheel chair) because of my not quite healed foot.  So as we were walking into the grocery store, Josie asked (in a very concerned way), "Grandma, are you o.k. with your foot?  Are you sure you don't need your staff?"  :)  Such a sweetie.

So when we got home, Evan helped me bake the cake, and when it was cool, Josie helped to frost it.

The Schenkels came over for the birthday celebration.

"Happy Birthday to YOU!!"

Blowing out the candles!

And, of course, there were presents!

From the Wissinks

From Aunt Abby and Uncle Neil

From Grandpa and Grandma

Well, this post was short and sweet.  I wasn't doing a great job of taking pictures it seems.  

Next post will be Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  And after that, the rest of the family will make their appearance.