January Made Me Shiver

After an eventful holiday season, we laid pretty low in January.  The highlight of the month was definitely our several trips to the Alameda Little Ice Rink.  Virginia amazed us all and actually skated quite a bit on her own.  Best of all were the little seal ride-on toys that they provided - she could use them to practice skating and also ride on them when she got tired.

January also started Virginia on the party circuit - a lot of her little friends started hitting the three year milestone and Virginia was invited to several events (that almost always involved a bouncy house!).  Here she is at the birthday of her buddy Isabel, one of the members of her playgroup.

Finally, we capped off the month with an overnight visit to Double Creek Ranch - the Mendocino County home of the Griffingers.  It was great to get out of the city for the weekend and enjoy the country air and good company!

Playing with Papa

A cute video of Virginia playing with "Papa the Monster" while the Neelands were in town for the holidays.

Harvey Holidays

While the Neelands were in town for the holidays, we did a little San Francisco sightseeing in addition to all our Christmas events.  Since Uncle Dave is a big beer lover, most of these events centered around beer.  First up was a boys trip to Sonoma County to visit a few of the breweries there.  We also did a tour of the Anchor Steam factory in San Francisco.  And, of course, no visit to Alameda would be complete without dropping in to Forbidden Island, the amazingly awesome tiki bar just blocks from our house!

Christmas in California

Mimi and Papa arrived in California on Christmas Eve at noon and we were off to the races in celebrating Christmas.  We spent the rest of the afternoon at St. Clement's Church watching the children's nativity services, followed by dinner at Claremont Country Club with the Harveys.

We returned to Alameda to hang our stockings and get ready for Santa's visit.  This was the first year that Virginia really "got" Santa, but she proved she is still a toddler when she tried to swipe one of Santa's Christmas cookies!!!!  We have the video proof:

On Christmas morning, we awoke to find that Santa had forgiven Virginia's little momentary transgression and had nevertheless left us lots of presents.  Virginia got a train set and a pink bicycle, among other goodies.  We opened gifts with the Neelands in Alameda all morning. 

In the afternoon, we adjourned to Harvey Manor in Piedmont for dinner and more presents!  Virginia wore a dress that was handmade by one of Papa's coworkers, and she looked adorable.  She got a new dollhouse and princess castle from GayGay and Pop Pop and an electronically controlled giant Nemo fish from Uncle Biggie that was a big hit.  It was a great Christmas!

A December to Remember

This holiday season, the Harveys stayed in California, and everyone else came to us!  We had lots of visitors - Mimi, Papa, Liz, and Dave - and a full schedule of holiday events and activities.

Before all our visitors arrived, we made a visit to Christmas Tree Lane in Alameda.  For my non-Alameda readers, Christmas Tree Lane is a street in Alameda (Thompson Street) where every house puts up amazingly festive Christmas decorations each year.  Every house participates, and most have their own theme.  It's quite a sight and is the subject of lots of California news coverage - and even a visit from the Governor this year.

Virginia got to meet the motorcycle gang behind these hogs:

Winter Wonderland:

If she sees Thomas the Tank Engine, it's a fair bet he'll get a hug:

Liz and Dave came to town a few days before my parents, which gave us a chance to spend time together.  Thomas and Dave went off on a beer odyssey in Sonoma County, and Liz and I took Virginia to the Christmas party at Wee Play, followed by a visit to see the (very real) Alameda Santa Claus.

Disney Magic!

In the fall, Thomas and I spotted a Southwest fare sale that was too good to be true.  Naturally, we decided that another Disneyland trip was in order... $39 each way from OAK to SNA has to be put to use!  We had taken Virginia to Disney when she was about 22 months old, but we thought she'd get a lot more out of this trip at a few months shy of her third birthday, and we were certainly right.  She knew even more of the characters and was ready to dive into the experience.  And we were especially thrilled to get to see all the beautiful Christmas decorations.  Thomas and I had never been to Disneyland during the holidays before and it was pretty magical.

We spent the big bucks and sprung for a Disney hotel this time around, just to see how the experience differed from our usual plans (we usually stay at the cheap places across the street from the main entrance).  We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, which had just been renovated and was quite nice.  Virginia especially loved the headboard which had a carving of the castle and lit up with a fireworks display.  Thomas and I especially loved the newly added tiki bar, Trader Sam's.  The hotel was a bit more of a walk than some of the non-Disney places, so we'll see whether we stay there again.

(Trader Sam's Menu and Drinks:)

We hit Disney hard.  Because we stayed at a Disney hotel, we got early entrance one morning.  We took advantage of it to ride all the Fantasyland rides that usually have terribly long lines.  It always helps to avoid lines with a toddler in tow!  As always, we used Ridemax to plan our trip and were able to avoid most lines altogether (yes, we are geeks and use a software program that minimizes wait times, but it is truly a miracle product - we've been using it for years and we get to ride 5 times more rides than everyone else in the park).

It's hard to sum up everything we did in our three days, but it was a blast.  We got to hang with Uncle Doug, who joined us for one of our days in the park.  Virginia wanted nothing to do with Thomas and me when Uncle Doug was around, so she accompanied him on all the rides.  We met pretty much every Disney character available during our visit - Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Chip & Dale, Alice, Winnie the Pooh, and Sleeping Beauty to name a few.   We had breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen in our hotel, complete with visits from more of the characters.  

Virginia's favorite ride was Winnie the Pooh, which we rode 5 times.  She loved that the doors that the cars went through were dripping with honey.  Every time we passed through them she exclaimed "Honey Doors!"  Other favorite rides included Finding Nemo and Dumbo.  Best of all, Virginia even braved the Matterhorn!  She just met the height requirement, so we decided to chance it.  It turned out to be too long of a ride for that kind of intensity and she cried a little near the end, but we don't think we did any permanent psychological damage.  Our gal is tough!

Thomas and I ended up hobbling home with blisters on every toe, which means our Disney visit was a success!!!  Can't wait to go back.

 Loving Winnie and Friends:

"When I see an elephant fly..."

The family chilling with Donald:

 Virginia's favorite character right now is definitely Alice in Wonderland!

Giving Thanks

This Thanksgiving, we decided to stay close to home and out of the friendly skies for once.  The Harvey clan all gathered at Susan and Peter's home in Piedmont for a delicious meal and good times.  Virginia loved having her Uncles Biggie and Douglas in town for the celebration.

Boola Boola

We held our annual Yale-Harvard game party at our home in Alameda again this year.  As always, Yale completely folded, evidencing its embarrassing lack of football prowess for almost as long as I can remember.  But we had a grand time reuniting with old friends.  Virginia and Sebastian O'Neill (son of one of our classmates) played a rousing game of football in the yard, and Virginia got the chance to meet the newest Bulldog-to-be Andrew Alexander (son of Vanessa Alexander, one of my dearest Yale friends).

Uncle Ray and a Trip to NC

November was a sad month for the Neeland family, as we lost my dad's younger brother Uncle Ray to a combination of cancer and a heart attack.  Virginia and I had booked a flight to see him, but he died the week before our visit.  It was a blessing that he was no longer in pain, but tragic because he was far too young.

We decided to keep our plans for a visit to NC and spend time with the rest of the Neelands, and we were happy to have made the trip.  Virginia had not seen her Neeland side of the family in more than a year, and she quickly picked up where she left off with everyone.  Auntie Lynn smartly pulled Cousin Beth's old dollhouse out of storage, and it was a major hit with Virginia.  She spent many hours in Nanny's living room playing with those dolls.  We also visited the local park, ate at Dick's Hot Dog stand, and visited First Baptist Church (Virginia made it through 3/4 of the service, so we call that a success).

The dollhouse extraordinaire: 

Lovin on Aunt Lizzie:

With Auntie Lynn (a.k.a. the source of Virginia's fashionable wardrobe):

Virginia was obviously thrilled to see Mimi:

Serious conversations with Papa over the kitchen table:

Ready to go to church with Nanny: