A Busy Month

Happy 12.12.12!  Last weekend was busy.  k had a Daisy event in the morning.  Then she had a birthday party for one of her classmates.

Then we drove straight to our church’s Christmas dinner/program.

n kept his shirt down this time.  Good thing, since he was front and center.

Electric candles for the kids…

Real candles for the adults.  (Photo: GT)

Smoky Black Bean Stew

So I signed up for the L.A. Marathon! I decided to pay for the race by skipping eating out for all of December and January. In order to do that I wanted to make sure I ate good tasty food. So I told L that I would make soup. I saw a Smoky Black Bean Stew in Runner's World that I was going to make. L being an awesome wife, bought the ingredients and made the soup. It was INSANE! It was spicy and I loved the tomatoes! Yum!! Here is what it looks like.

Runners World: Easy, One-Pot Postrun Meal

New Sports List

Sometimes less is more, and that is how I feel about my new sports list. Here I just focus on Cal and IU football and basketball post season results e.g. bowl games and NCAA tournaments. -- Rose Bowl or the 2nd place team bowls. -- NCAA Tournament Championship, Final Four or Sweet Sixteen. In additon, the best alumni in NFL and NBA -- Passing, Rushing, Receiving. -- Points, Assists, Rebounds.

Advent Activities

Every year I try to plan activities to go along with our advent calendar.  However, sometimes it is difficult to think of things for weeknights when we don’t really go out.  Tonight’s activity was “giant coloring page”, which I downloaded and printed out from Mr. Printables.  It took longer than expected to put together, but the kids had a lot of fun with it.  I think it will keep them busy for a good while!

Christmas Program

Last night we went to the Christmas program held by a local church.  It consisted of instrumental and choral music, a play, and devotion.  There was an amazing piano player that was unreal—I would go back just to hear him play again.  It was almost two hours, but the kids sat through it all.  What a wonderful way to start off the Christmas season.   

Character Counts

k received an award at school today and I was able to attend the assembly.  She received the “Character Counts” award; this month’s focus was “respect”.  It was nice because the teachers prepared a short explanation of why each child received his/her award. 

At the end of the clip, when k is receiving her award, you can hear some of the girls in her girl scout troop cheering for her—aww, how encouraging.

Now we just have to make sure that “character counts” at home, too!  It is a good reminder for all of us. 

LA Zoo

Someone gave us coupons for $1 children’s tickets to LA Zoo so we decided to check it out.  D had never been and I cannot remember the last time I went.  It didn’t seem familiar to me at all, so I guess it’s been a long while.


Hello, Mr. Meekrat.

I always enjoy looking at flamingos, but they smell pretty gross.


The kids were most impressed by the Asian elephants.  k said that she’s seen elephants on television, but this was the first time she remembers seeing one in real life.  I guess n won’t remember this elephant encounter either.


D’s favorite was the rhino.

I always like the giraffes.


The howler monkeys were making a racket.


The chimpanzees provided some exciting entertainment.

Don’t mess with this guy.

The newest exhibit is called LAIR, with reptiles and snakes.  In retrospect, we should have gone here first, because it was crowded.  Plus, the kids were losing steam.





Kids losing steam.

We refueled at a place called Dino’s Hamburgers in Lincoln Heights.  We ordered two 1/2 chicken plates which was more than enough food for us.  Crazy that this plate of food, plus 3 corn tortillas plus a small container of cole slaw plus a drink was less than our Intelligentsia bill.