This year’s Christmas spectacular at Filoli was themed around owls and woodland creatures. Our favorites! Here are some pics from the magical event.

“I wish Wube was here, then he could claw Daddy’s ear.”
— the kid thinks of ways to wake someone up

Here’s a video of our Christmas morning. The first half focuses on a kid and her stocking, the second half on waking up a lazy daddy before presents are opened.

Music Used:

• “Jingle Bell Rock”, “Jingle Bells”, and “Winter Wonderland” from Christmas with Chet Atkins by Chet Atkins

“And that is Wubie dressed as an angel.”
— the kid explains a Christmas drawing

It’s that time of the year, so I’m cranking out some home movies. Here’s a video of yesterday’s our Christmas get-together at my mom’s place. Every year we say “Wow, look how grown up the kids are!” For some reason it seemed especially apparent this year.

Sorry you couldn’t make it!: Sam & Mirjana & family (OR), Tisa & Jim (HI), Nina & Larry (TX), Michelle & Michael (CT!)

Music Used:

• “Deck the Halls”, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”, “Silent Night”, “Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum)”, from Christmas Album by Charlie Byrd

“Whooah! They fall down on the floor, tiny ice cream.”
— the kid narrates as mom drops something on the floor

It’s 3:22 AM Christmas morning, so I better be getting to bed pretty soon. I stayed up a bit later than I thought I would, wanting to finish off this video Jill shot last night of the kid leaving out various foodstuffs for Santa and his trusty reindeer.

This is our fourth “Christmas Eve with the Kid” video. I really treasure these things and am already a bit fearful of the eventual day when the kid isn’t bouncing off the walls excited about Christmas morning.

Luckily, Gpa Peter, Uncle John, and Auntie Laura visited with us last night, so we got a bit of them in our little video. These are the good times. Merry Christmas.

“You can’t go to the airport, Wubert! There’s a plane squash you…and take you away. That’s not fun, Wubert.”
— the kid explains to Wubie why he can’t go on a plane trip in September, 2009

Here’s a quick video from this year’s Dicken’s fair. The kid’s Gpa Tom and Gma Karen are featured, along with some footage of the kid playing one of her favorite fair games, “Boot the Cat.”

Music used:

• “Christmas is Coming” by the Vince Guaraldi Trio from A Charlie Brown Christmas

Kid: “Let’s play Candyland!”
Dad: “OK.”
Kid: “In this game young people can never go backward.”
Dad: “Sounds fair to me.”
Kid: “But older people can go backwards!”
Dad: “You mean like mom? Ha! That means mommy has to go backward. But not me ‘cuz I’m young like you!”
Kid: “You, Daddy! You have to go backward! You’re like 82-69-million years old!”
Dad: “Yep, that’s about it.”

— a conversation with the kid

Last week I spent half a day helping out at Sacred Heart Community Service. I was actually a little nervous; all of my previous volunteer-work mainly involved helping out in a warehouse or backroom somewhere. This time I’d actually be dealing with people.

From the Sacred Heart web site:

“Sacred Heart promotes unity by bringing together people from all walks of life and organizations from all disciplines in the common cause of serving people in need and working toward the elimination of poverty in our community.”

It was a cold, wet, gray morning when I arrived at the center. The place was hard to miss; despite the early hour, they already had a long line of people curled around the block. After sitting in on a quick overview with the Sacred Heart team, I was dispatched to an area where people registered for holiday meals. There I greeted people, made sure they were in the right line, pointed them to open kiosks, and tried to answer any questions they might have.

I quickly realized my initial nervousness was unfounded. Despite having to wait for long periods of time in soggy lines, everyone I met was friendly and kind. Kids were smiling. Parents were thankful. I quickly learned (and have since forgotten) how to say “Good Morning!” in Mandarin and Spanish. I joked with kids and adults alike.

Later, I donned an orange vest and directed traffic in the parking lot. Truthfully, hanging out in a busy wet parking lot was not terribly fun, but it wasn’t too bad.

I literally met over a hundred people who were going through some tough times. Once my shift was over, I hung up my vest, grabbed my coat, and bid adeieu to Sacred Heart. When I got home I gave Jill and the kid each a big hug.

“It’s slightly dark, but there’s a cheerful light coming from the pumpkin lights.”
— the kid’s answer on Halloween night when asked if it was dark outside.

Here’s a Hi8 video dub of a Christmas Eve spent with Jill’s family back in 1998. Note: A young Wubie makes a brief cameo at the very beginning.

“You can put your finger in it. There’s no living creature in there.”
— Lucy, after teaching Wubie and me about limpets and showing us a snail shell

2010.11 Thanksgiving3 from Mike C on Vimeo.

Here’s a video shot by Jill during a Thanksgiving get-together at my mom’s place. It adds a nice glimpse of Lucy just being a kid with her cousins. I’m always thankful when I see how friendly and patient Lucy’s cousins are with her.

They make sure to include her when they can and Lucy gets a kick out of hanging out with “the big kids.”

“I was very fast, like a butterfly with his wings flapping trying to catch a necklace blowing in the wind!”
— Lucy, describing how fast she can run (I thought this description was awesome!)

Jill and I accompanied Lucy to her second ballet yesterday. (She attended her first ballet in May.) We were in the very first row, so Lucy had to sit in her mom’s lap in order to see over a partition that separated the audience from the the orchestra pit.

Despite this minor inconvenience, Lucy has a great time. Though she had to bury her eyes in her mom’s shoulder whenever the Mouse King appeared, she laughed at the little mice underlings and oohed and awed when she saw the dancers and various sets.

After the show, we walked across the street to the Christmas in the Park and Lucy got to play some games and ride a cat she dubbed “Wubie” on the merry-go-round.

Afterwards, we ended our day by hitting a Safeway for groceries. Check out our groovy shopping cart in the above pics.

Below are some pics from the San Jose Ballet website:

“Play with the baby while I’m gone because she’s real you know!”
— Lucy providing me with instructions on taking care of her baby doll

The night before Christmas I stayed up past 2 AM making a short Christmas Eve video. I should have known better, because Lucy was up at 5 AM on Christmas morning, anxious to get her day started. Of course she woke up her parents, who dutifully followed her to the Christmas tree to see what Father Christmas had left her.

Honestly, the next hour or so are a bit of a blur to me. I vaguely recall wrapping paper being strewn here and there as Lucy opened each of her presents. Bursting with energy, she provided a running commentary as she tore through each colorful package.

Later that morning, the kid tuckered out a bit and we were all able to go back to bed for some much needed rest. However, before I could fully revisit sleep, my rest was again interrupted; this time by a hungry cat demanding breakfast.

So I got up half-asleep and followed the cat to the kitchen, noticing the girls enjoying deep restful sleep as I trudged past. They were no doubt dreaming of presents, tea parties and candy…and whatever else girls dream about. Their pleasant countenances struck me as cruel exclamation points on the unfairness of my current situation.

“MEOWR!” Wubie reprimanded me for dawdling. I cursed my lot (and picked up my pace) as I followed my furry tormenter.

After feeding the cat I heard a knock at the front door. I crept over to the door and looked through the peephole. Of course, the only thing I could see was the back of the Christmas wreath Jill had slapped up on the front of our door, no doubt completely oblivious to the security concerns the wreath brought along with it.

I opened the door.

“HO! HO! HO! MERRY CHRISTMAS!” the lady dressed as Santa said as she handed me a package.

“Huh?” I answered back, my trusty mental faculties firing on all cylinders.

“MERRY CHRISTMAS!” a photographer yelled as she jumped like a ninja in front of me, snapping pictures.

“What—Huh?” Yes, I was really getting to the bottom of this.

“MERRY CHRISTMAS!” a reported materialized to my left, notepad in hand. “How does it feel to get a package on Christmas day from the post office?!” she asked.

“Uhh, pretty cool, I guess.” I answered back. As the photographer continued to snap pictures, I looked down and had it register that my morning ensemble, a dirty t-shirt and sweatpants probably wasn’t as fashion-forward as it could be.

Trying to salvage the situation, the reporter motioned to the package and said, “that’s for Jill. Is Jill a little girl excited about Christmas?” She looked behind me for a little girl to rush out and save the story. Unfortunately, the story-saver was currently fast asleep with her new dolly.

After a few more questions, the mailperson, reporter, and photographer left and I went straight to bed. Later I awoke, wondering if I may have dreamt the whole thing up. Proof it wasn’t a dream appeared the next day in the article above. Lucky for me, no pictures were used and my barely coherent ramblings were kept to a bare minimum.

Merry Christmas.

Excerpt from the San Jose Mercury article:

…Saturday was her first time to head out as Santa and she made sure to say, “Ho, ho, ho” every time someone opened the door. Like Mike C in — get this — North San Jose.

The package was actually for his wife, “but she’s asleep right now,” said Mike C, who signed for it and showed little interest about what might be inside.
“It’s always a total surprise,” he said. “I never know what my wife is ordering.”