Time has slipped away again here at the 54th Street Zoo with the holidays, vacations and parties. Let me first throw out there that Seminole is no more. We tried everything we could think of and then a few more things but it never gelled. We have officially left escrow with the property and YWCA. The decision was met with mixed feelings here - some sad, other angry and even some relief. The property is just too unique for us to get financing as a residential property. I can honestly say we did everything we could to try and make it work so it was not from a lack of effort.
The good news is we are scheduled to close escrow on Saturday January 7th on Degen Drive. Once it became clear we had finally run out of options with Seminole we talked with our incredible real estate agent Recheal Stewart-Brown (we highly recommend her - she is aggressive, very well informed and has been our champion in every quest to find a new home) and asked for a listing of all the houses that met our needs and starting looking again. Degen Drive was the result and we are happy as can be. Some of the family had some grieving to do around Seminole but everyone agrees the house is more than adueqate for our needs. There's rooms a plenty, five in total with us converting the garage into a downstairs master suite for the dads. Three bathrooms with another being added to the master suite and a pool. A beautiful garden space, front and back yard with space to build granny flats for parents to retire to. The sellers are a wonderful couple who built the house from the ground up to raise their own family in. If we can swing the improvements we want before we move in, we'll even have a guest room for people to use when they visit.
The kids are doing well and had a busy time the last few months. The older kids (Nani & Tre) joined the children's choir at Grandma Graham's church where she is the director. They have been really enjoying the time spent with her and the opportunity to perform for the church for their Christmas programs. The religious element has caused a stir and some tension with the parents and some of the grandparents but I think we've worked it out. We are balancing them spending time with their family and keeping the matter of religious education firmly in the hands of the parents. I was surprised to find I had the least anxiety and stress over all of this. I think I have my father to thank for that (yet another thing). I feel very comfortable discussing the matter with the kids and drawing firm boundaries about the issue. Wish us luck.
Siddha is continuing to talk up a storm here and we've been encouraging her to grow her sentence length when talking with us. She is steadily warming up to Auntie Monica which has been awesome to watch. She is still having some difficulty playing cooperatively with her older siblings. We've started a new set of rules/guidelines that will hopefully help with that. If anyone has any suggestions feel free to pass them along. We have an aggressive toddler and two older siblings who don't always share well when playing together. At least part of it is Siddha's limited vocabulary which will keep growing. Please send any and all ideas my way.
They all went to the Botanical Gardens again this year and walked through the lit wonderland. We also got to go to Legoland with Uncle Stephen, his fiancé (congratulations again) and their children. It was a grand old time with lots of chatting, laughing and fun for the kids. Grammy Jo was here at the same time and got to join us as well. Tre and Nani went with Nia and Auntie Katie to see Santa Claus and have dinner with him. They also got to go to Camp Cahito again for a week over Christmas break so as you can see it was a busy time for the kids.
Speaking of Grammie Jo - she was down again for another week stay and once again filled the house with delicious baked treats. She did cookies with the grandkids, hung out with the adults and was as always a pleasure to be around. We once again made our pitch for her to live with us when she felt the time was right. We can a chance to spend some adult time with her as well which is always nice. She is planning on upping her trips to San Diego from three times a year to four which is awesome. The current plan is her to come down near each child's birthday then one more between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The adults were busy as well with Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma Graham's. It was strange not hosting or cooking up a storm for the dinner but we enjoyed it none the less. Grandma Graham set a wonderful table and it was lovely to share the day with more extended family then usual. The kids got to run around and spend time with more of Lisa's family. I have to admit it was nice to have less clean up and work to be done after the meal was over. We just packed up our left overs and went home.
We followed that up with our Tree Decorating Party. The tree was put up, decorated and lit with good cheer. Tre got to put up his little blue and silver tree in his room then all the kids helped decorate sugar cookies. It was an added bonus that Grammy Jo was still in town. We snacked on food throughout the night and had great conversation with the other guests. We're all looking forward to hosting this event in the new house this year with the added space.
We hosted Christmas Eve dinner here with my the whole family. This year we did lamb and ham as the main entrees and came out fantastic. For the last several years Bill's sister Carol sends us a GC for Whole Foods which we use to buy the ingredients for the meal. Almost everyone made a great side dish to bring or pitched in with the prep and clean up. We had an added bonus of Megan flying down last minute to the spend the Christmas weekend with us. We ate and ate then opened gifts with the folks we wouldn't see the following day for Christmas. The kids got us up bright and early the next morning to see what Santa brought. Tre's beyblade collection has grown considerably and Nani has gotten more make believe wear along with Alien Invasion Legos.
An awesome thing to point out from the morning gift opening was Siddha. While this is indeed her second Christmas it was the first one where she could really participate in the process. She opened each gift and then spent 20 to 30 minutes playing with and examining the gift. It was awesome! She was so mindful of the gift and spent time really developing a relationship with the item in question. It was wonderful to see and I hope she keeps that habit for the foreseeable future.
As with every year we went to my father's for Christmas Day dinner with his friends and a few of our own. My dad and Micheal have really made their home welcoming to the adults and the children. They had recorded the old claymation Christmas specials for them to watch while the dinner was being prepared and then we all sat around talking and eating. In the theme of friends and family coming at the last minute - Micheal Mosher joined us for dinner and it was great to see him. He and my father hadn't seen each other in over a decade - they spent time catching up and chatting. It was comfortable and familiar - everything I associate with being at my father's home.
After all the meals and out of town guests we went straight into preparing for our kid friendly New Year's Eve party at the house. We lay out a spread buffet style and made room for kids to run and play. We watch the ball drop live from New York at 9 pm ensuring the kids get to bed at a reasonable hour. We had eight kids total and it was wonderful to see them playing while getting another chance to catch up with friends. Once again we're looking forward to hosting this event in the new house this year with more space and more amenities for throwing big parties.
That catches us up to now with it being January. We have two birthdays this month Bill's and Leng's. I am woefully behind on getting pictures uploaded to Flickr which I will try to do in the next few weeks here before the move. As always we welcome any visitors to the region and I hope everyone had a happy and wonderful holiday and a great start to the new year.
