Merry Christmas 2009!

It was a quiet holiday week off with the girls as we celebrated at home on the mainland. The weather is starting to get colder and colder and every year it always gets me melancholy to be away from the islands during this season.

This year Derek had time off and we got to have some quality time off together. The girls were shaking off the last leg of a cold (yes again!!!) and the first day out we went to the Kennedy park out in Union City with Lauren and family. Sophie tripped in her new shoes and pretty much her face tells you what happened that day (see the pics).

On Christmas the girls opened their presents and had a grand ole time. Their favorite gift was the coloring books that Auntie Joy sent and it was hard to get them to open the rest of the gifts as they were crying to color their new books. They eventually opened the rest of the presents and we spent the day at home. Later that night I convinced Der to take us out to see the Christmas lights out in Pleasanton and we were sure glad we did. Apparently other families do that kind of thing too (you can find the places quite easily as the cars line up on the streets. The idea came to me from my friend Adel who suggested this site for the best Christmas lights in the bay area) and the houses we went to were so spectacular (just like a mini amusement park!) we ended up only going to two houses as it was just too much to take in. The girls had fun and so did we.

Our little Christmas tree.

Sophie and Hannah opening some presents.

Hannah loving Daddy and Mommy's gift - zhu zhu!

Poor Sophie and her cut up nose and mouth :(

Emi Emi.

The first house we stopped by in Pleasanton it was mind blowing, but little did we know that the next house would be so much more. This house was a corner house and had lights that wrapped around the corner. The garage had tons of toys fenced in with the Christmas theme. On the side of the house they had two mini scenes. Yes, there were donations for their electric bill.

Mommy and Hannah look at one of the many scenes at the second house we saw in Pleasanton. This house was amazing!!! The front yard had signs and lights which directed you to the back of the house. The backyard was so HUGE it contained so many different scenes and it seems like there was a miniature golf course that resided under it. It had to be the best Christmas light house in the area. It too took donations for PG&E.

Mommy looks in wonderment and Sophie explores every scene.

Sophie runs to the front of the house.

The girls open their first present.

It was too cute to see them dancing to the Beach Boy's Christmas song, but little do the girls know that mommy dislikes Beach Boys. This was in front of the second Christmas lights house.