Tahoe New Year's Eve 2009

One of the things Tom really wanted to do when coming for a visit was go to Tahoe skiing. So - we packed the car, two cars actually, and headed to Tahoe for New Years.
Although we skied, sledded and played in the snow - making the snowman was a highlight for the kids. Despite many mitten mishaps and a few fallen snowman heads - they prevailed. Here is the fruit of their efforts.

Despite mitten mishaps, a few falls and unsteady legs while skiing - the adults prevailed as well.

Evan got on skiis for the first time and declared, "let's go daddy." While Kiira is a bit more careful, she also did super well. We skied Tahoe Donner this time and later went over to the recreation area for some killer sledding.

Christmas 2009

Christmas has come! What the kids wanted more than anything from Santa was an American girl doll for Kiira and "Cars" cars for Evan. Santa must have received their lists because both were waiting for them. They also got a saddle for Kiira, a big "alive" horse Butterscotch to share and a special wooden garage for all of Evan's cars.



Santa also enjoyed the cookies the kids left him. The reindeer enjoyed the carrots that were left them.





Harper, although she loved all her gifts - seemed to enjoy the boxes the best!

Christmas Eve tradition

We kept our annual tradition of Christmas Eve at Mike and Hilary's house. The kids entertained us with their tricks and "excercises". The grownups celebrated with good cheer. Thanks Mike and Hil!

Beach

While I sometimes miss a white Christmas, I have to admit, it's pretty nice to be able to go to the beach at Christmas time. We took Kiira, Evan, Harper and adults (Rennie the pup too) to play while we adults soaked up the sun. On the way we stopped at a few beautiful overlooks and Tom and Liisa did their tricks.

The beach we go to we call "Feather Mountain" but in actuality it is Fort Cronkite in the Marin Headlands. So lovely. One of the many reasons I love California.

Kiira's 7th Nutcracker birthday party

Every year Kiira picks a theme for her birthday. This year was a Nutcracker theme. Given enough time, mom can make a dream come true. So, I started a couple months ahead of time and made Snowflake costumes for all the kids coming as their party favor. White sparkly tutu, white leotard, white sparkly armbands, small crowns and wands and a snowflake necklace.



Everyone changed into the outfit as soon as they got here. Boys had a special cape and crown and were officially the "kings" (there were only two boys - Christian and Evan). Evan got to invite a special friend, his all time favorite friend - Ginger.

We danced, watched a segment of the SF Nutcracker, had lunch and opened presents. I think Kiira was quite pleased. Even Mom dressed up for the part. I was a Victorian maiden for the big occasion.

Hannukah 2009

As you can tell by the various posts, December is a busy month for us. I love having family and any celebration. Hannukah falls right in the middle of everything. Each year we celebrate with our good friends Nancy, Gideon and their three girls - June, Ginger and Holly. Evan and Ginger have a little love affair going on and it is so cute to see them having their "playdate".

We had some traditional salmon, latke's, veggies and then donuts for dessert. December is filled with presents between Kiira's birthday, Christmas and Hannukah. My goal this year was to give one present on Hannukah and the other 7 days have the kids do a mitzvah. Well, good intentions but alas, I just didn't get it together. Next year.



Still - we were treated to a show by the big kids after dinner. One of the main points of most holidays is togetherness and the little recital we were treated to definitely showed us the meaning of that.

Nutcracker Tea at the Fairmont

Once again we attended the Nutcracker Tea at the Fairmont. This year we had a first. Evan got to come with us. He was particularly pleased seeing that he wasn't invited to the Nutcracker ballet (we decided you had to be 4 yrs old to go - next year Evie!). Kiira and Evan decorated a Nutcracker cookie (most of the frosting went straight into their mouths) -



- and Auntie Liisa, Nanny and I enjoyed the high tea treats and champagne. Everyone enjoyed doing toasts!





The Fairmont had built an incredible Gingerbread house in the lobby. More magic to add to the season.

Chopping down the Christmas Tree

Every year we make it a point to go cut down our Christmas tree. Since Liisa was visiting this year and Tom and Mom we wanted to wait until everyone was here for this tradition. Although it was a week before Christmas, which was cutting it a little short, we figured there would still be a good array of trees from which to choose. It just seemed like it was more in the holiday spirit to make the trek to Petaluma, walk the trails and find that perfect tree.

We piled into two cars and decided to make a day of it. Well, the first farm we went to said "closed for the season". Lame I thought seeing as many people have a tradition of getting their tree on Christmas Eve. They had a sign up that directed us to their sister site. Luckily not far away, we drove over there. Excited that it was open and that the kids could sit on Santa's lap, we unloaded.

First we see Santa. Kiira dutifully lets him know that more than anything she wants an American Girl doll. Evan on the other hand wanted nothing to do with Santa.

Next - tree. We head out and get the cart to pull it on. I am looking around for the saws, not seeing them. Hmm....unusual I thought. We ask someone - only to find out that LAST weekend was the last weekend to cut your own tree. Uggghhhhhhh......just a LITTLE bit of disappointment. So we pick out an already cut tree load it on the car and head home. I think to myself, well, we could have driven 10 minutes to do this instead of 1 hr 15 but then, well, I guess I wouldn't have this story then. Sigh.....

Nutrcracker ballet

In the Hirvonen family we LOVE the Nutcracker. We love seeing the Nutcracker ballet (which we do annually in San Francisco), we love going to the Nutcracker Tea (see tea at the Fairmont) and we love having Nutcracker parties (see Kiira's birthday). This year Auntie Liisa got to join us for all the Nutcracker festivities! Yeah! We wish she could be here EVERY year to celebrate with us.

As usual the San Francisco ballet did an incredible job of dancing the story of the Nutcracker. The costumes are even better every year and if I could get a photo of the horses (my favorite costume) I would.

Harper turns ONE!

How lucky were we to be able to celebrate Harper's first birthday. One of Harper's favorite books is a pirate book so that is what the party theme was. We all dressed up like pirates and Tom made a special pirate cake. Liisa planned a treasure hunt and we ended the party with walk the plank. I think Harper really enjoyed opening all her presents (although Evan tried to help a bit too much). Nanny carried on her tradition of giving the gift of pearls to the girls on their birthdays. Each birthday that the girls have, Nanny adds an inch to their pearl necklace. Although Harper didn't appreciate it yet, she will in the next several years.

The Sharks

While Liisa and Tom were here we tried to show Tom a good time. This worked to our advantage because Alan and I had never been to a Sharks game before. We wanted to surprise Tom so we tried to pull out all the punches to hide what we were doing. We drove down to San Jose and had a nice dinner. Unfortunately before dinner ended, Tom had figured out that we were going to a hockey game. What he didn't know, however was that we had fourth row seats. Man THAT was good.

Nanny arrives

Yeah! Nanny has arrived and with her comes the magical suitcase - filled with surprises and treats. Never a dull moment when gifts start emerging.

Harper meets Rhett

In keeping with dragging my family around with me while they are in town - Harper accompanied me to the barn. Auntie Liisa came too of course! I couldn't convince Liisa to get up on Rhett but Harper had a fine time feeding him carrots. Well done little one!

Kiira's 1st grade Christmas party

Kiira's first grade class celebrated Christmas this year by reading holiday books (Hannukah AND Christmas), decorating cookies, making holiday cards and playing games. It is always fun to get to know the kids in her class better as well as the parents. Evan came along to the party too and thoroughly loved being a part of the first grade. We love that Nanny was here to share in all the festivities!

Record lows

The temperature has been unusually low for this time of year. It has dipped into the twenties and dare I say it has been colder than Ithaca!!

It snowed at 500 ft and the kids were dying to see the snow. Unfortunately, they had to be happy with a photo of the snow.