We did lots of fun things to celebrate the season. On December 11th, Gabe, Lucca, and I drove to Berkeley and rode BART into San Francisco. This was all of our first time on BART and it was quite an experience going underneath the bay to get into the city! We went to Union Square to see the Christmas decorations then we walked to the Opera House where we met Grandpa Bruce, Grandma Lissa, and Grandmarty. Grandmarty's Christmas present to us this year was tickets to see the Nutcracker. Lucca and Gabe had never seen in at the Opera House and it had been at least 10 years since I had. It was incredible and really put us in the Christmas spirit. After the ballet, we went to Max's Opera Cafe for a yummy dinner then rode BART back to our car. We were so exhausted after such a long day that we didn't really think about our gas situation and we realized when we were in the middle of the country roads, miles from a gas station, that we needed gas! The gas light went on and we were still 40 miles from Chico! It was quite a stressful drive, as we chanced it and literally rolled into the first gas station in Chico as the car was sputtering out of gas! It was definitely a close call!
The next weekend the girls and I went to Nevada City with Grammie for the Victorian Christmas. It was a really stormy day so Gabe and Papa decided they didn't want to go. We braved the storm and enjoyed the old fashioned festivities. Even more so, we enjoyed visiting the three wine tasting shops in the town! We had a delicious dinner at Friar Tucks! Yummy!
Other notable events were Lucca's Winter concert for her school and a special relative party in Lucca's class. She has been writing about me in Writer's Workshop for the past month. Each student invited the relative they have been writing about for a special celebrations. I took the day off from school so I could be there. We had warm beverages, cookies, and fruit and were presented with handmade wrapped gifts, which were the beautifully bound finished copies of the relative story. It is an amazing story! I am so impressed with Lucca's writing ability and filled with pride! It was also Lucca's teacher's last day of school. She has retired and Lucca will have a new teacher, Carol, when she returns in January. We are sad to lose Kathy, as she challenged Lucca and provided her with some amazing learning opportunities, but we are also excited about her new teacher. She is coming in with lots of enthusiasm.
We enjoyed our winter break, although it went by way too fast! It was really nice to have a whole week off leading up to Christmas. I really felt like I was able to get a lot accomplished and I didn't feel so rushed this year. The girls also got to have some down time at home before the holiday rush began.
Heather and I took the girls to the Butte County Library for Babies Love Books. Luciana and Siena had lots of fun singing songs, doing finger plays, and reading books. Lucca was a big help corralling them as they ran around the library!
On Tuesday, we went to Canyon Oaks for the annual Pasta Dinner with Santa. It was especially fun this year because Myriah, Blair, Matias, and Theo were able to join us. Siena had been very interested in Santa up to this point, always pointing him out and talking about him. However, the moment I got her close to Santa she freaked out! She would have nothing to do with him. I was hoping I could hold her and get close enough to have a picture with her and Santa next to us but she wouldn't even allow me to get close to him! Oh well...there is always next year! Lucca enjoyed her visit with him and so did Matias and Theo. All that Lucca had been asking for was an American Girl Doll, a Girl Journal, and a pillow pet! :) After our visit with Santa we had dinner. Siena has been refusing to sit in high chairs at restaurants so she was sitting at the table next to Lucca. All of a sudden, I looked up and she was gone! We all began to panic as we looked around and realized she was not around. She had fled all the way out of the dining room and was halfway down the stairs when Lito finally found her! The first thing she said was, "Santa." Apparently she had decided that she was ready to go back and take a look at Santa. Oh my! She is going to give me so many grey hairs!
Speaking of Siena and her antics, during the break she also decided to climb into the bath tub as it was filling up with water. This wouldn't have been such a bad thing except for the fact that she was FULLY CLOTHED! :)
We enjoyed being able to spend time with Myriah, Blair, Matias, and Theo while they were here. Myriah and the boys came over for a play date and Lucca had a blast showing Matias all of her toys. They also got to decorate gingerbread men.
We celebrated Christmas with Nana and Grandpa on December 22nd this year. They got us new couches for Christmas (yay!) and they got Lucca a new desk. They came down in the morning as the delivery men were coming. Lucca is absolutely thrilled to have her own desk in her room now, as she has outgrown her little table and gets frustrated with Siena always messing up her work. Now Siena gets to have the little table and Lucca has her own space, so it is a win-win situation! Later in the afternoon we went up to their house and had prime rib dinner and opened presents.
Grammie, Lucca, and I had our annual stocking breakfast at Mom's Restaurant on the 23rd. We enjoyed opening up our gifts and eating a yummy meal!We celebrated Christmas with Lito, Lita, Grandpa Ray, Grandma Pat, Aunt Jan, Uncle Bob, Kaysen, Myriah, Blair, Theo, and Matias on Christmas Eve. We had brunch and then did the annual gift card White Elephant. Matias did not like the fact that gifts could be stolen and he freaked out! It was an interesting concept for a small child! Other than that, it was a great day! Afterwards, we took Siena home for a nap then returned for dinner. Grandpa Ray and Grandma Pat left and Grandma Julie arrived. We had a ham dinner and the opened presents. Lucca was thrilled to get her American Girl doll, Julie, from Lito and Lita. Lita also made her an amazing bed. Lucca got some outfits for Julie, as well. She even got a pair of matching PJs to wear with Julie!
After gifts we went home and got ready for Santa's arrival. Lucca frosted some sugar cookies for him and we got celery and carrots for the reindeer. Lucca wrote her letter and then we went to Norad.org to see where Santa was and to check out videos from some of the places he had already visited. Since he was already in Nebraska, Lucca decided she better get to sleep quickly so that he would be able to deliver presents. 
We woke up on Christmas morning at 8:00 and the girls ran out to discover that Santa had been there, filled their stockings, eaten the goodies, wrote a letter back, and taken the Elf back home with him. Santa brought the girls many great things, including a DVD player for the car and pillow pets for both of them. We spent a leisurely morning opening gifts then had Eggs Benedict for breakfast. The girls spent the day playing with their new toys.
We went up to Paradise for Christmas dinner around 4:00. We had appetizers and champagne then a delicious turkey dinner. After dinner we opened more presents! 
The next morning we woke up and drove to Sacramento to for Christmas with Grandpa Bruce, Grandma Lissa, Grandmarty, and Auntie Britt. We had Golden Cadillacs, snacked all day, opened presents, then had a wonderful fondue dinner. It was a fun, relaxing day!
We spent the rest of our winter break relaxing. We had a low key New Year's Eve. Gabe and I went out to dinner at the Raw Bar early in the evening while the girls played at Lito and Lita's then we came home and were in bed by 10:00! I actually had to set my alarm this year to wake up and watch 2011 come in! Lucca made me promise to wake her up, too, so Gabe, Lucca, and I watched 2011 come in together! Here is to a wonderful, blessed New Year and many more happy memories to blog about! :)
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