St Nicholas Day

St Nicholas day (Dec 6th) means eating St Nicholas bread, which NO ONE in a 25 mi radius bakes, so, we baked our own with surprising results. Jack decided to make "bracelets":

Michael disowned his 'cause of cracks, despite our protests.

Elle's had a classic look:

Mary Poppins

Michael discovered Mary Poppins around the time we discovered Jack (Deyang Orphanage below):
He could dance to the Step in Time finale energetically and hold out two fingers, expecting a nearby bird to light on them.
We've been eagerly anticipating the Mary Poppins musical, which we saw at the downtown Ahmanson Theater during Thanksgiving break, bringing Luke along
who accompanied us for the film screening in Santa Monica a few years ago.
We stopped by Japanese Town after the show for udon (noodles & broth - good for colds), while Jack and Luke shared the tuna rolls.
Events of the season seem to punctuate, bookmark, or frame the everyday quality of our lives. With that in mind, we step into Advent.

Faulkner Farms

Beacon Hill took a field trip to Faulkner Farms in Santa Paula, a sleepy farming town we fell in love with a few weeks ago. Local grocers, a town center, roadside vegetable stands, canopied streets meandering like rivers around homes made of river rock.
It was a genuine farm, less commercialized than ones closer to home that incorporate amusement park into their scheme (Knotts Berry Farm as a predescessor).
The guide actually had the kids pick and wash vegetables, which were taken home and turned into a salad for the next day's potluck.

The requisite haystack maze
and mountain

Amos loves Jack

Linda, Michael, Aiden, Gabr

Carolyn would love to take a master gardener class there someday. The miles from our suburb into surrounding valleys lead to ranches and farms from a bygone era which reminds you what people saw in this area. Most people my generation can recall orange groves, dairy farms (I miss the drive-in dairies of my youth):
where we would pull in and out for our milk, eggs, last minute stuff. The "checker" would automatically load our backseat and away we'd go.

Incidentally, I also miss the drive through coffee stands and ATMS of the Pacific Northwest.

Last Game

It was a nice way to spend an hour late Friday afternoons, watching the YellowJackets practice, then play their last game of the season - a tie.

Each game ends with a cheer for the opponent:while the season ended with a pizza lunch and spinning soccer trophies:

Coach Mike gave a nice personal touch to the trophy handouts.

At this stage, it's all about being positive. I got the sense parents were trying to avoid repeating bad childhood memories about team sports, thus the heavy emphasis on making this non-competitive, fun. Other areas seem more ramped up - increased expectations for academic outcomes in even kindergarten now - so this felt like nostalgiac reprieve, retaining a bit more of childhood; incidentally, that's what drives much of homeschooling.

Michael and buddy Jeremiah.

Bay Area

I took the whole family to the Bay Area, where I was at a conference and
King Tut was at the de Young Museum - the exhibit, to be precise, NOT King Tut, in contrast to the famed tour 30 years ago. Still mindblowing, complementing Michael's Playmobil pyramin and the Ancient Egypt rubric at school.
The cable car stopped right in front of our hotel on Powell; we rode to Fisherman's Wharf and back, wandering to the recommended R & G Lounge in Chinatown for dinner. A car with Chinese Consulate plates pulled in, so we thought this must be OK dining. Jack went for the egg rolls, ignoring the 1 per person rule that the rest of us seemed to quietly accept.
There was a nearby office plastered with the following signs and blown-up photos regarding the 1894-95 Sino-Japanese War.

We had just had a fantastic discussion in class about comparative traditions of war memory - Japan's versus the USA's, Germany's - so the topic was fresh. As you may know, complexities surrounding Japanese colonialism have never been resolved in East Asia, thus the ongoing controversy with school textbook omissions, politicians' speech gaffes, etc.

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Re: cable cars and San Francisco (although I just had a memory flash to Hitchcock's Vertigo, filmed in SF and using memory in a big way; remember the staring at the crosssection of a sequoia image?):
Anyway, we remembered learning that a Swiss engineer had originally built the system. Thank you.
I love the old-fashioned coffee shop/grill joints you find in downtowns. We looked up Sears for a most yummy breakfast of Swedish dollar coin size pancakes. Jack plays with the jams.
The Weinstein Gallery had impressive Chagalls and Miros. Michael honed in on a pyramid!

Then on to Bart to visit the Lancasters in Lafayette. A visit with them revolves around grilling and walking.And lots of conversation.

The great vegetable garden of years past has narrowed to this broccoli plant (due to dog).

Jeffrey made balloon art

and Michael discovered the neighborhood cat. He has always had a fond love for felines. He sleeps with his stuffed toy cat, Simba.

The godchildren.

Halloween 2009

Reepicheep and King Peter

Michael's Narnia party did double duty as Halloween costumes. Unless you've read CS Lewis' Narnia, Jack's mouse costume will have been lost on you; we seemed to spend all evening explaining Jack's fantasy rodent ID to everyone on the street.

This year's festivities seemed scaled back, even for North Ranch, which was fine by us. I missed last year's magical expression of Michael as he, for the first time, witnessed teams of children in costume out at night: "There are children everywhere," he nearly gasped.

For Michael, the meaning was in the journey, as they say - his candy trophies nearly forgotten. Jack, on the other hand, has been plowing through his bag; I found it next to his pillow. Is he a chocoholic?

Our new church, with its refreshing non-sanitized approach to life, had no alternative celebration: no mentioning of a harvest or Reformation party. Their children, it was assumed, would also be out on the streets.