Jamie and I are back from the West Coast! In a strange reversal, it was pretty cold in Los Angeles when we left -- we had to curtail a visit to the playground with our nieces on Sunday morning -- and pretty warm in D.C. This morning we walked over to the market to get breakfast and groceries and enjoyed the warm sun and clear skies.
While it was hard to leave the family yesterday, it is also nice to have some time at home to do some clean-up and resting up before returning to work. Sadly, I don't know that Jamie and I did the best job combating our jet lag. We went to bed after 2am and woke up around 10:30. Whoops. It'll be fun trying to get to bed tonight.
But that's neither here nor there. On to the important stuff!
You could tell me that there are cuter little girls in existence, but I would tell you that you are a liar with your pants afire. Leah and Riley are growing so fast -- last I saw them they were just trying solid foods; now, Leah was shoving as much banana into her mouth as possible in one bite.
Fortunately, she has deluxe cheek capacity. The girl likes her bananas!
They are both crawling around and "reading" flipping through books and chattering happily. They are also exploring their surroundings bipedally while holding someone's fingers. Even though neither of the girls remembered Jamie or I at first, they warmed up faster than I thought they would. When in a room full of strangers (one where I was the lesser of all evils) Leah would come to me. I would venture to say by the end of the trip, Riley even preferred me! She would grab my legs and say something resembling "up!" and then point me around the room to look at dolls and flowers. (That girl likes her dolls!) She was also quite fond of her Tio Jamie.
On our walk back from the market today, I was daydreaming of a time when we could take our beautiful nieces to the playground near our house. Hopefully some day they'll make it to D.C. Although, right now I'm just hoping that the car trip back to San Francisco wasn't too rough on them or their poor parents.
I already filled you all in on Thanksgiving, but I figured I could share a picture of the final spread (minus the cornbread and cranberry rolls that went in that empty gap on the right side of the picture.) There's also a big and delicious salad that my Tia Carmen made hiding behind the giant stuffed turkey centerpiece.
Like a doofus, I forgot to take a picture of the completed turkey before I carved it up. Just trust me that it looked pretty darned good. That picture makes me wish we got to take some of the leftovers home with us. Boo.
After over 3 decades of Thanksgivings with the Chui's, they were unable to make it to Thanksgiving this year. But, we did get to see them on Friday for lunch. Of course, they went all out (they are quite the gourmands) and made their own sausage. I'm talking, ordered casings online, ground their own meat, etc. They grilled the sausages (as well as portobello mushrooms and tons of veggies) and we all assembled our own sandwiches. So good.
Better still, we got to play with Diego -- the newest member of the clan. He is just a few months older than my nieces and is quite adorable. Somehow I managed to not take any pictures on Friday, but take my word for it...ADORABLE. He was so generous with his toys and would pick up toys to give to everyone around the room. He even graciously allowed Leah and Riley to monopolize the use of his toy trucks.
On the way home from the Chui's we stopped at Jamie's house for the evening. Jamie's family got to meet the girls, and Jamie and I stayed behind for dinner and a big birthday party (for Jamie's brothers, father, myself and Jamie -- all with birthdays in November and December). Again, I neglected to take any pictures...Jamie and I definitely made of with some pretty great loot!
The brothers Long drove us home and we played a Ping Pong tournament. Scott, of course, destroyed Jamie and Kevin -- I was too scared to play him. But, in doubles I came out victorious as the only undefeated player. Scott and I trounced Kevin and Jamie, and then Jamie and I -- the true underdogs -- were able to beat Kevin and Scott. I think this may only be because Scott was nice enough not to smash every shot at me. Very gentlemanly.
The trip back was easy and uneventful. I got to read halfway through the book that Jamie's mom had bought for my birthday (I may be one of the last people to read "Lovely Bones", but it's a good book.) Our Thanksgiving break was great but too short. I am already looking forward to the holiday break when we get to spend more time with our family in the Bahamas...
4 comments:
Oh THERE'S the stuffed turkey!
Don't worry, I took plenty of pictures. I'll send you one of you and Diego.
We were trying to think of a name for the stuffed turkey. Unfortunately, we were too tired from all of the turkey we ate to think of anything clever.
Ideas?
(Excited for the pictures!)
I am, indeed, quite gentlemanly. I appreciate your taking the time to note it.
You know what else is gentlemanly? Humility. :P
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