Christmas presents

It's Christmas time so time to get Christmas presents for people. I'm notoriously bad at remembering to get presents for people other than family. This year I am even doing poorly getting the gifts for family, but that's another story!

So now that Colin is old enough to understand the giving part of Christmas, I have some help with the old "what to give" problem. Even if it is a really bad gift, all I have to say is that it was all Colin's idea and instantly it becomes the greatest gift in the world. I think it also takes the pressure off of me to get the absolutely, most perfect gift. I want to clarify that's pressure that I put on myself, there is nobody else criticizing my gifting choices ... well maybe there was somebody and I was traumatized earlier in life -- but what's done is done. Anyway it would probably do me some good to remember the old adage, "it's the thought that counts".

A couple of months ago, Bob and I hired a part-time nanny to watch Colin and Nathan when I go into the office. She comes two days a week and is a really sweet lady. Today is the last time we will see her before Christmas. Naturally, yesterday was when I decided to go shopping for her Christmas present. I asked Colin what he would like to give her for Christmas. He says, "A flower". Ah, how nice! "But not a fake one", he continues, "one that can grow". So that means a potted flower or plant, not just a flower cutting. I'm thinking, what a perfect gift! Colin is a genius!

So we went to Home Depot to look at the real flowers. Of course every one Colin sees is the one he wants to get. Me? I've got to find the perfect one before I even ask for Colin's input (see above comments about perfect gifts). We decided on a little rose bush, you know with the teeny tiny roses. It might not even be a rose bush, but that's what it looks like to me. I couldn't find a nice pot to put it in, so I just wrapped the plastic pot with red Christmas foil. I hope she likes it!

Rocket ships & space suits

Yesterday I picked up Colin from school and he was talking a mile a minute about his activities on the playground. He said that they were playing in the rocket ship that went "5,4,3,2,1,blastoff!" And the rocket ship went up into the sky and he saw me from up in the sky, did I see him? Uh, no I wasn't looking, sorry! Then Colin said that the rocket ship went up to Mars two times. Wow, all during recess, that's a fast rocket ship. Colin's space suit was his coat and he had to wear his hood because it protected him. When we got to lunch (Harrison's birthday party which started at Savage Pizza then on to the Little Jumping Bean), Colin put his coat on backwards and put his hood over his face. He wanted Harrison to see him, I said that everyone was going to notice him! I guess wearing his coat backwards was a more protective space suit!

And there was so much more that Colin was talking about, he just went on and on and on about the rocket ship and space suit. I wish I had a better memory to record it all. I just kept laughing and laughing. It was so cute!

Photo shoot

My friend, Amy is starting up her own photography business. She did our Christmas pictures last year. This year she took more pictures that included shots of the boys by themselves and together and with us. It was pretty fun, and the end result are some amazing pics. I've only posted a couple of my favorites on this blog!

Crocs

Crocs, those lovely shoes that have swept the nation. In my opinion they are quite unattractive, but they do have some great qualities when it comes to kid's shoes! Crocs are all plastic (or similar substance), so kids can wear them out into rain puddles and mud, and all you have to do is hose the shoes down. Well, maybe take a brush to it to get them a little more clean, but that's all. Also no more tying shoes, and the best part is that young kids (like Nathan at 18 months) can get them on. So I love crocs! As long as I don't have to wear them myself.

So our story with crocs goes like this: this summer I realized the benefits of crocs and bought Colin a pair. A couple of weeks later, I noticed blisters on Colin's instep. Well, this is not suppose to happen wearing the most comfortable shoe in the world, so I figured that I got the wrong size. Got a new bigger pair, then Nathan started wearing Colin's old pair. Really cute, because both pairs are the same color. Really confusing too, because both pairs are the same color. So back to the store to get some "gibbits", which are little do-dad's that attach to the shoe to give some personality to the plastic shoes. I got 2 "C"s for Colin and 2 "N"s for Nathan.

So crocs are more than just summer shoes, just put some socks on and viola, winter shoes. But at first I didn't realize that crocs could be winter shoes too, so I bought a pair of sneakers for Colin when it started getting cold outside. The sneakers have not been worn once.

Anyway, last night Bob and I had plans with some friends, Bill and Karen who have a little boy, Fritz who is almost Colin's age. In order to save some money on babysitters, we had all 3 boys over at our house with one babysitter while we went out then split the cost. After the night was over, they left with Fritz and I looked down to see a pair of sneakers that I didn't recognize; Fritz must have left his shoes here. This afternoon while running some errands, I stopped by Bill and Karen's with the shoes. Bill looks at them and says, "These aren't Fritz's shoes." Omigawd, it's the sneakers that Colin has never worn. I didn't even recognize them! I was so embarrassed!

San Diego - Day 3

In the last post, I made a comment about how easy mornings are when you live in the East coast and travel to the West coast ... not so on the third day in San Diego after consuming way too much strong ale at the Strong Ale Festival. But I was able to put the previous night's mistakes behind me and go forth with the journey.


Our beer tour continued with a visit to Stone Brewing Co. which is the most polished beer establishment I've ever seen. WOW! The brewery is brand new and has a gift shop that you go through first, then you see the restaurant that has a wall of glass on one side that show cases the brewery. It's breath-taking! At the bar where Bob, Dave and Larry sampled, I could only drink cola at this point.

This is just Stone Brewing's growler filling station in the gift shop.

So many taps ... we couldn't figure out how they remembered them all.
Next stop was Port Brewing. We were spoiled at the last place so the lines and the waiting and the make-shift bar stools (grain bags on top of kegs) seemed so ... how do I say it ... so much like a let down. Oh well, I still was not drinking beer, but I'm sure the boys enjoyed their samples.


Then it was time to go back to the Strong Ale Fest. I finally drank some beer, but funny nothing really seemed to appeal to me like it did Friday night. There was no repeat performance, thank god! We hung around some friends that we met last year, Deanna and John. Last year Deanna was pregnant so she was happy to be drinking this time.

Deanna making up for last year!

It was an early night for us (again!). Our flight was early in the morning, and we didn't want to miss it. I was really missing Colin and Nathan by this time, and couldn't wait for my running hugs when I got home!

Some San Diego beer tour links to remember:
www.BrewHop.com
www.brewerytoursofsandiego.com

San Diego - Day 2

When you live on the East Coast and travel to the West Coast, mornings are so easy, at least easy to get up early! On the other hand, it's very difficult to stay out late.

So Day 2 of our Beer Fest Adventure in San Diego started at 6am for me. My goal was to go running on the beach. I planned out a long run so that I could stay on track for my marathon training. Well, 6am it was still dark but I did notice some mist in the street lights -- yuck! I hoped the mist didn't mean rain. At 7am I checked again, it was light but also raining. At 7:30am I finally convinced myself to just do it anyway, I might not run as far as I was planning on, but some running is always better than no running. The run was shorter than I planned, but I was really happy that I got out there. I saw lots of neat condos, some for rent. I also saw some porpoises along the shore -- very cool!

Then we checked out of the Surfer Dude hotel at Pacific Beach and headed up the coast to the not-so-good hotel in Carlsbad. The Strong Ale Fest is located in Carlsbad which I just don't consider as interesting of an area as Pacific Beach. Oh well, you gotta go where the beer fest is. After checking into the hotel, Bob and I grabbed a quick lunch then joined Larry and Dave in their room for a beer tasting pre-beer fest event. I tell you, the beer geeks are serious about their beer.


Time to go to the Strong Ale Fest. Remember that rain from the mornings run? Well it was doing the same thing in Carlsbad. We figured this meant that only the really hard-core, die-hard beer geeks would go so the crowd would be small and lines short. We were right. Unfortunately, I forgot that it was STRONG ale that I was consuming and by 6pm was done for the night. I won't go into the details involving my exit from the festival -- it was not pretty.

Tomorrow, more breweries and the last day of the Strong Ale Fest.

San Diego - Day 1

This series of blogs will diverge from the normal bragging and reporting of Colin and Nathan. Instead, I will follow our trip to San Diego without the kids where the Strong Ale Festival was our goal. But being that San Diego is in the heart of beer country, there were lots of side stops to make before we even hit the Strong Ale Fest. Now, some folks may say that Oregon is the home of the microbrewery which is not true, anymore! Something I read during this trip really put it into perspective for me. At the 2006 World Beer Cup, San Diego County alone won enough medals to place 7th if they were their own country.

So on with the trip details, our trip was with Bob, Dave, Larry and myself. The itinerary for Thursday included a stop at a beer store, two breweries, and a beer bar. First the beer store which was actually a convenience store/pharmacy. Larry found the place on the web and has been ordering beer from them. It is the South Bay Drugs & Pharmacy. Funny to go all the way across the country to buy beer at a convenience store/pharmacy, but that's what beer geeks do!



Next stop, Ballast Point Brewery where we finally were able to consume some beer! Lots of samples here.



Time to check into the hotel, the Surfer Dude, well that's what I call it, it's really Surfer something but I can't remember. I love this hotel. It's right on the water where all the rooms have an ocean view. It's also on Pacific Beach which has so much charm.

Then off to Alesmith! Yum, yum, yum! Alesmith does not do a bad beer, or even an average beer. Everything at Alesmith rocks!



Next O'Brien's, an awesome beer bar where we see a lot of the people that were pouring beers for us at the breweries. We meet up with some more Atlantans and beer friends here too.


After O'Brien's I turned in for the night. Larry, Dave and Bob went on to find more beer but I was done. Tomorrow, the Festival begins.