The Morning Zoo Crew

Misery loves company. When six people are confined to a 1260 sq. ft. Southern California house, the best thing you can do to feel like you have elbow room is to go to the L.A. Zoo and see some animals in similar circumstances. It was a little chilly by So Cal standards (Mimi & Grampy thought it was subtropical), but it was brilliantly clear and beautiful and the animals were generally out and about.

Our first stop, and biggest hit of the day, was the petting zoo. While N may bite, scratch, claw and scream like an untamed dingo at all his family and friends, he's surprisingly sweet around fellow animals. He found a brush and ran from goat to goat, brushing their coat with the greatest care, whispering to himself the watchword we are always using on him at home: "gentle, gentle, gentle."

We took the tram up to the top of the zoo (it's built on a pretty good hill), and meandered back down. The ride to the top was maybe 10 minutes, but that didn't stop L from asking with ever increasing fervency whether we were "there yet?"


As we strolled down the hill we got to see and take lots of blurry pictures of the standard assortment of Noah's ark denizens.

Mimis are wonderful inventions. They are designed to spend all their time hauling oversized kids around in strollers!

Evidently N is training to be a Mimi.

A somewhat unexpected resident.

On the way out we also got to visit an old friend. Reggie, the Harbor City alligator, is featured regularly in L's bedtime stories. He's an extremely friendly alligator and a very good friend of L's. In recent stories he's had tea with Grandpa Wayne's kitty cat (Grandpa Wayne is our next-door neighbor), and has gone for walks around Lake Machado with Beau, the poodle (another frequent subject of bedtime stories). In the most recent installment Reggie fought off a vicious attack by a bear while L and N were visiting at the lake. This last story was deemed by L to be "a little scary," so I've been instructed that the next story is to feature the return of the bear where he apologizes to Reggie, L and N for being disobedient.

Bedtime Betrothals

L and I had one of our disturbing philosophical discussions when I put her to bed tonight. We were originally discussing the merits of her brother N, but things took an unexpected turn down a path no Dad wants to think about.

Daddy:	N's a pretty good brother, huh?
L:	I love N. I'm going to marry N.
Daddy:	I don't think you want to do that. You want to marry someone who isn't your brother.
L:	Like John [E., a friend from church]?
Daddy:	Yes, I suppose you could marry John.
L:	If I marry John, then I can come over sometimes with Aunt Karla [her would-be mother-in-law].
Daddy:	That would be a benefit, yes.
L:	I love you Daddy. Maybe you can come to my wedding?
Daddy:	I'll make it a point to be there, now let's change the subject.

(I guess the signs were there [Click Here], and I should have seen this coming.)

Generic Christmas Pictures

Chocolate and presents: Kiddie crack.

I am contractually obligated to post Christmas pictures. I'm not sure who signed the contract, but I'm informed that, indeed, I am obligated. It's very hard to make Christmas pictures exciting for anyone but those in the pictures... actually I'm in one of the pictures and I can't get too terribly excited. But never let it be said I don't meet my obligations. Therefore with no further ado, I hereby present (get it? "present", ha ha...)

Christmas pictures!

Stacy did knock herself out pulling together a pretty awesome Christmas dinner. She polished her silver and dusted off the china; an extra leaf in the table and candles specially designed to drip large amounts of red wax on a white lace table cloth. I worked hard too - building an appetite. Ham, rib roast, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, collard greens, green beans, wine and champagne. If anyone went home hungery, it was their own fault.

Aunt Joyce and Mr. Jay came over as did Kirk and Lynne, so the kids had all four grandparents in the same room!

Tamales and Toddlers

On Christmas Eve Stacy's family holds a traditional tamale party. For the last couple years its been at Stacy's folks house in Agua Dulce. The kids love going up there, and this year there was the added bonus of going up with Mimi and Grampy, and in seeing all their second cousins that they don't see any other time of year.

Second cousins Grace and Brian.

It seems sleigh rides were the hit of the evening, with a fortunately-colored Coleman cooler standing in nicely for the Santa-mobile.

Merry Christmas!

Mimi & Grampy Are Here!!!

Christmas may still be a day or two away, but L and N got their Christmas present early. Last night Mimi and Grampy arrived from the North Pole... or rather from Maine, which is pretty much the same thing.

Sounds like it was a challenging sleigh ride. They left Portland, Maine at 6:05am Tuesday morning, getting into Newark without incident. They got their boarding passes issued for their flight to LA, but they weren't able to board because the plane was stuck in Florida with mechanical problems. They sat in Newark for six hours until their plane arrived. When they were finally called for boarding they waited through the line, and as they ran their boarding passes through the scanner all the alarms went off and the SWAT team descended en masse. Actually, the boarding agent just asked them to step out of the line, which is pretty much the same thing.

Evidently in the six hours they were milling about the Newark airport their tickets and reservations were cancelled. The agents tried to give them a hard time, saying that they must have cancelled their flight on line or something a few days before and they weren't going to be allowed on the flight. Fortunately the previous gate attendant of six hours earlier had checked them in and stamped their boarding pass, confirming that they had been good six hours earlier. Confronted with their own evidence, they semi-relented and put them at the head of the stand-by list. If a group of six hadn't failed to show up for the flight, Mimi and Grampy would have been stuck in purgatory until the end of time, or rather Newark, which is pretty much the same thing.

But arrive, they did, at 7:24pm California time (10:24pm Maine time), after sixteen hours of dealing with our celebrated travel industry. (I could mention the airline by name, but we all know they're generally interchangeable in terms of their stellar service.)

L and N had been spastic all day long, getting more and more frantic as the delays mounted. As we bundled up to head to LAX (the Los Angeles airport so named for its security -- Ha ha, yes I use that same joke over and over), the kids went into hyper-gibberish, bouncing from wall to wall, chittering and chattering like a movie in fast-forward. We waited at the baggage claim until the magic moment when an exhausted Mimi and Grampy descended the escalator like the royalty they are. Many squeals and hugs and kisses on both sides. L and N were quick to grab the bags (which mercifully arrived intact) and helped them to the car. The chittering lasted all the way home until we all collapsed in a dilapidated heap in our beds.