family, holidays

2010

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Here’s a snippet I wrote Christmas day before “play bath” was over and, in fact, maybe I just need to start publishing incomplete pieces since I seam to be rarely having enough time to write down complete thoughts…

12/25/09
Sitting on the counter in the bathroom. Zooba’s in the bath playing w/ her super cool Little Mermaid water slide thingy. Flounder even squirts water; pretty awesome. Got my Dundee “festive ale” nearby, one of nine holiday brews in my stocking. Mamas and Maia are napping in the room next door. Poor little Scrimesties couldn’t sleep until she took care of her special Christmas poo. But after that “gift” was opened, she crashed like a champ. Uncle Peter’s visiting us for the holidays and he’s keeping Miko company in the living room, checking his email, even though he should probably sleeping. It’s good to have big brother in town, we’ve missed him here at Team Hokama Headquarters.

The festivities basically started last night at Sarah’s Uncle Jim’s house for their annual tamale feed. Scrumdidilyumptious. I matched my record of seven and I wasn’t even too full. Good or bad? Who knows? But the girls were perfect little pre-Christmas Angels and we all had a lot of fun. I think Keana and Maia were asleep by 10:30 with visions of Santa, smooth-sleighing through Fresno’s Old Fig area, ready to drop Team Hokama loot down the brick stack. Peter, Sarah, and I proceeded to wrap presents, a task which had been grossly underestimated. Luckily Peter’s elf-like wrapping prowess was at hand to help guide us through this arduous task. At the last minute I remembered Santa’s treat, and forced down a strangely garlic flavored ginger cookie, leaving just a bite for further dental analysis for proof of Santa, followed by a little milk, followed by a thank you note and a self-portrait; had to be sure the little scrubbers knew who ate their offering. Then we nodded off, finally, around 2 a.m., with visions of the impossibility of sleeping in past 8 a.m., dancing sadistically in our heads.

Keana woke first at a respectable 7 a.m., mostly because she had to pee I think. Maia followed about 30 minutes later, mostly because she was hungry I think. The urge to wake Uncle Peter, and check for evidence of Santa, overwhelmed all parental procrastination and reason around 8…

So I could give more of a blow-by-blow, but honestly I don’t have the patience. If you were involved in our holiday celebrations, don’t take it personally, we loved seeing you:-) Here’s the rundown:

  • 12/19-20, Peterson Christmas: Headed to Great Grandma and Grandpa’s in Los Altos to see my mom’s side of the family. It was really good to spend the night and have a little extra time there. The girls had a blast (as usual) with their cousins McKenna, Cassidy, and Riley. Also met up with Kacie, Larry, and Ksenya for our 6th annual Sagittarius Brunch!
  • 12/24, Tamale Feed: Went to Sarah’s Uncle Jim’s house for their annual Tamale Party. SO good. Stayed up till almost 2 a.m. wrapping presents with Uncle Peter.
  • 12/25, Grandma Jennie’s: Tia Iana, Ryan, and Cousin Olivia came up from Long Beach and we all gathered at Grandma Jennie’s. Great Grandma Bev made a special guest appearance which we all loved (of course).
  • 12/26-27, North Fork: Headed to Grandpa Robert and Nana Cin’s house/cabin-thingy up in North Fork. Really good to get away to the country/hills, and it was fun to have Uncle Peter along for the first time.
  • 12/28-31, I got hit with gut demons (gnarly) but Sarah, Keana, and Maia enjoyed a little R’n’R and extra time with Tia, Olivia, and Uncle Michael. Uncle Peter went back to the bay and Uncle Ryan headed back to Long Beach.
  • 1/1-3, Grandpa Jon: My dad came and stayed with us for a couple nights on his way back from visiting his parents in Honolulu. It was great to see him and Maia kept calling him Grandpa Robert (oops).
  • 1/4, Back to Work: Enough said.

As usual, the two weeks blew by like nothin’, and we’re already two weeks into 2010! In fact, I had to work in Berkeley 1/6-8, so The Ladies came with me and enjoyed some time with good friends Caroiine, Jay, and Sage, and we got to meet up with all our homebirth homies from when Keana was born. (As well as the usual friends from work.) REALLY good to reconnect with bay area.