Parker wore himself out playing with his train tracks. He won't let anyone push the trains on the lines. He may not even do it himself because I've never seen him do it.

We made a mountain in the front yard and the kids slid down it. Parker had his hat in his face the whole time and didn't want anyone to move it. Carrie put garbage bags over the kids pants to reduce soaking since we don't have snow clothes. They had a lot of fun.

OK, so we got a Christmas Tree this year. It's not extravagant, partly because it was given to us by some friends who probably thought we weren't going to buy one again. Anyway, the kids decorated it with their ornaments that they made, under Claire's direction. She loves cutting and taping, and making paper creations that are all over our house as decorations on the walls. One of them makes me think there's a spider on the wall every time I see it in my peripheral vision.

The best part was when our neighbor came by the house with a load of presents for all the kids. He was dressed like Santa and his 'helper' was his wife who took pictures. We did too. That was the best part of this Christmas by far. He made the perfect Santa. Claire was kind of wary of it all because there was no sign of reindeer and she asked about why our neighbor was here with him.

Overlooking the coast

Warm sand

Claire in the Pacific

Parker's faceplant in the sand

Parker fell down a small sand hill, right on his face. We took several pictures before we cleaned him up.