Merry Christmas

                                               Jack and Harry on Christmas Eve.

Harry Explores His Inner Pastry Chef

The oven has been set at 350 degrees for about a week now.  We have baked DOZENS of our favorite cookie to share with friends, coconut cranberry chews with white chocolate.  We've also baked lemon poppyseed shortbread stars, "Hello Dolly's", and tourtiere.  It smells like Christmas at our house!

O Christmas Tree

The tree finally got decorated on Tuesday - one week before Christmas Day.  We had a lot of fun pulling out all the old ornaments and putting up the new ones too.  Jack chose a "David Ortiz" ornament this year and Harry chose a "Shrek" ornament.  

"Christmas in the Park"

Harry's preschool class had a field trip to downtown San Jose for "Christmas in the Park" last week.  He enjoyed it very much.  He loved looking at all the decorated trees and Christmas displays, especially the trains.  He also had a great time riding the lightrail from Tamien station to get there, and stopping for hot chocolate before heading back.  The best part was going someplace fun "with all my friends".

                           

Robinson Family Highlights for 2007

Santa Barbara

We spent Harry's 3rd birthday in Santa Barbara this year.  He got to swim in the hotel pool, play at the park and eat "Lightning McQueen" birthday cake.

The Annual Camping Trip

This year we camped at Caswell Memorial State Park in Ripon, CA.  This group of moms originally hooked up in 1998 in a post-partem step class and have stayed in close touch all these years.  Some families have moved away and some others have found us along the way.  This year we were six families all together and we had a fantastic time.  The kids had a great time scootering, playing in the river and starting turf wars with other kid campers.  Activities included group hikes and bonfires.  The trip was bittersweet because we knew it would be the last trip with the Sumi family, who moved back to Switzerland this summer.

Tahoe

Chris decided to spend his 40th birthday on the slopes, pretending he was turning 20.  What better way to pretend you're 20 than snowboarding, Dude?  Jack joined him for some snowboarding and skiing.  Mommy and Harry spent our time tobaggoning, playing in the warm condo and drinking lots of hot chocolate.

Maui

This was definitely our biggest highlight of the year.  We spent a week in Maui in April and enjoyed every minute.  Our mornings were spent on the beach, playing in the sand, swimming in the warm ocean and snorkeling.  We usually stopped for lunch at a local Kihei eatery on the way back to the condo.  Afternoons were spent in the pool and watching Sharks hockey (we still had a chance at the cup at that point).  Some evenings we ate out, and some we stayed in.  The best part of the trip for Chris and I was playing rummi and drinking maitais on the lanai after the kids were in bed.  

 

Arcade Fire @ the Shoreline Ampitheater

The kids are big fans of Montreal band Arcade Fire (with a little influence from their parents), so we took them to their first big show back in September.  It was awesome.  Jack liked the experience so much that Chris brought him to a Silversun Pickups show at the Fillmore in October and we are planning to bring him to an Editors show in February.  

No more braces!!!

This was a big one.  After a little over a year in braces, they finally came off in September.  Jack celebrated with popcorn, soda and sticky candy.

Chris

Chris started the year off by turning 40.  In lieu of a blowout party, we spent the milestone up in Tahoe snowboarding, skiing, playing in the snow and drinking lots of hot chocolate.  The highlight of the year was supposed to be the Sharks winning the Stanley Cup, but once again, it was not to be.  Maybe this year?  He is still at Symantec and still enjoying the work, the schedule, the commute and the culture there.  He travelled to Singapore in September for work and wished he could have taken the whole family with him.  He's keeping busy with the Hockey Dad duties, being Harry's plaything, Netflix nights when Mary-Anne's working, playing family dj and sudoku.

Mary-Anne

I'm still at Tamarine Restaurant, where business continues to boom.  I'm working three nights a week, which is about all the family schedule allows.  I also work one morning a week at Harry's parent participation preschool and do the homework marking for Jack's teacher.  I'm the PTA treasurer again this year, and we all know what that means; Chris is the PTA treasurer this year and I'm his trusty bookkeeper.  Hockey Mom duties keep my busy on Monday and Wednesday nights, when it's my turn to taxi Jack to his practices and lace up the skates for him.  I've been really into knitting lately.  The cold weather brings on the urge.  I'm working on some scarves for Christmas presents and have started a blanket project that will probably keep me busy all winter.  Reading is another thing I've made more time for recently.  Some good books I've read recently are "The Gathering" by Anne Enright and "Mister Pip" by Lloyd Jones.  My big news of the moment is that I have FINALLY, after 13 years, begun the naturalization process and may be legal in time to vote in the next election, although I hear that my vote means nothing because I live in California.

Jack

Jack is doing great.  He's playing hockey again this year.  He's now a Squirt A with the California Cougars.  He plays goalie.  His other hobbies include reading (especially stories about dragons), drawing (especially drawing dragons), listening to music and putting mixes together, knitting, playing Nintendo DS and XBOX and cooking.  He's doing very well in school.  He has plans to enter a film competition, sponsored by the Cupertino Education Endowment Foundation, in the new year.  We'll keep you posted on the progress of that project and hopefully will be able to upload it here.

Harry

Harry is three now.  Three going on nine.  He loves preschool (especially playing outside), music, cars and trucks, wrestling with his big brother,the beach, puzzles, reading, running errands with Daddy and being naked.  His favorite movie is "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh".  His favorite song is "Intervention" by Arcade Fire.  His best friend is Arnav.  His favorite food is waffles.  He likes to make his family laugh and he gives the best hugs and kisses.  His big milestones this year were learning to use the potty and going to his first concert - to see Arcade Fire, of course.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Welcome to the Robinson family blog.  We thought we'd kick the blog off with our annual Christmas post, especially since our Christmas card may have directed you here.

We are in the thick of Christmas preparations and enjoying every bit of it.  Mommy and Daddy are on top of the shopping and so have been able to slow down and get into the fun part of the holidays.  The outdoor decorations are up, the Christmas movies are in regular rotation, the craft and baking bits and pieces are on hand and the tree shopping happens this Saturday morning.

Next week's activities include some gingerbread construction and baking.

The kids are getting pretty excited.  Jack wants to rip into the parcel that arrived from Gramma earlier this week and Harry keeps saying, "Today is Christmas", like he can will it to happen.  He loves watching all the classic Christmas tv movies, of which "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is his favorite.  Jack is nine and knows that the mall Santa is not Santa, but I think he still believes in "the real Santa" because he has decided to ask "the real Santa" for an XBOX 360 because he says that's too expensive for his parents to buy.  

We'll be spending Christmas at home this year.  Chris' work has a holiday shutdown, that we are all looking forward to.  We are going out to Susan's beach house for the weekend before Christmas, which also happens to be the ONLY hockey-free weekend all winter.  We'll spend Christmas morning at home and then head over to Susan's for Christmas dinner.  Then hockey takes over on Boxing Day.  Jack's team is playing in the San Jose Sharks Winter Classic tournament, so that will keep the whole family busy for a good four days.  I'm working on New Year's Eve, which is always fun at Tamarine.  And the remainder of the holiday will be spent relaxing, playing with new toys and just hanging out together.