I don't look a day over 33. Right?!

My wonderful family treated me to a birthday lunch. Enzo enjoyed a lunch of red vines, sweet tarts, and sour patch kids (I've lately been known to do anything to keep him happy in restaurants.) I was especially sensitive since this restaurant was the scene of the crime.

Here, I read from the gift my creative mother gave to me - a romance novel with Jeff and me as the main characters. Boundaries?! Uh.... I haven't gotten to the real steamy parts yet. Ha!

Merry Christmas!

Jeff and I had to wake up this little elf ourselves. And he must have been so excited to see what Santa left for him, that he almost undressed himself. A big day was ahead of us, with visits to my mom's and Jeff's grandparents', so we had to start early so we didn't have to rush around.


He almost could not believe his little eyes. Santa came!


I thought I'd recreate an old tradition from my childhood - the compulsory picture on the stairs in our jammies. Next year, two little elves will be on the stairs in their jammies!


First up, the block train left all set up at the foot of the Christmas tree. It was pretty awesome since each gift Enzo unwrapped occupied his undivided attention for at least 15 minutes. Our gift giving took a few hours.

The carnage.

Santa must have visited Mema's house as well, because he dug out this rocking horse from MY childhood! Big hit with Enzo. At my mom's, a Christmas miracle happened. It's tradition that the youngest in the family lay the Baby Jesus in the manger on Christmas. But my mom had misplaced Jesus and had been on the hunt for him for a few weeks. About halfway through the afternoon, Jesus appeared in the manger. And still, noone has 'fessed up.


Is it me, or does Kayden look a lot like cousin Scotty? Here's Auntie Mary Jo, too.

And at Great Grumpy and Nana the Great's house -- his first tricycle given with love by Nana.


Here, Nana dancing tamborazo zacatecano with Enzo. Today was a loooong, but fantastic, day of family, great food, and togetherness. Merry Christmas!

The Lord (and Dad) is Born!

After Jeff got home from work, we spent over an hour on the freeway to my dad's house - which usually only takes 30 minutes - to celebrate the birth of my dad. And Christ. He cooked us a lovely roast beef dinner - Uncle Johnny was able to join my sisters, Jeff, Enzo and I for some good Jesmer fun.


This year, Enzo was completely engaged in the unwrapping of gifts, which was a lot more fun than watching him eat wrapping paper. One of the favorites was the bouncing turtle. And that was BEFORE he hopped on.

Another favorite was a custom gift conceptualized, designed, and produced by my ingenious husband, Jeff. Since my dad has excessive arthritis in his back as well as two fake hips, clipping his toenails is quite the challenge for him. And since we've each been asked repeatedly to clip them for him, Jeff created a solution. The Extender Jesmer Clipper. Yes, a toenail clipper as well as magnifying glass mounted to the "Gopher" grabber. A freaking cable actuated toenail clipper.

And, please take note of the hooter hider covered in skulls worn by my sister, Claire, as she nurses Kayden. I'm so borrowing that.

Here, Enzo tests out the gift he gave to his cousin, Kayden.

A delicious cake baked by Josie. And decorated by Uncle Johnny. "Mer-py Birth-mas Gor-ther" translates into "Merry/Happy Birthday/Christmas Gordon/Father." Year after year, it never gets old.

Christmas eve eve

Enzo has thoroughly enjoyed his Advent calendar, especially because it has low-quality chocolate candies in each window. Each night after dinner, we ceremoniously open up the new window, push the chocolate thru and Enzo gobbles it right up. Then, he ceremoniously closes and opens all the windows again to ensure he didn't miss any rogue chocolate. Only one more window, Piccolo!

Tanzore and LA Athletic Club

As the end of 2009 quickly approaches, certain gift certificates expire. For the past few weeks, we've been on a mission to use up our expiring vouchers. Tonight - an overnighter!! (I don't know, after 19+ months, it's probably time for Enzo to have his first night without us, eh?) A staycation! A parents' night (whole night) out. Jeff picked me up at work and we were off to have dinner at a nice Indian Restaurant in BevHills called Tanzore. And boy, was it delish! I even splurged with an iced green tea.


Then, we checked into our Country Club Suite at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. Posh. Can you tell that this 6-month preggo girl is excited for a night out?! I was the grand prize raffle winner at last year's office Christmas party at USC Annenberg and won this dope gift. Our plans for the morning were to work out at the athletic facilities, maybe get a massage, and enjoy our complimentary breakfast buffet. Instead, we slept waaay in (a night with no baby monitor static, nor a baby babbling us awake!) and crawled to breakfast before it was too late. And the workout was replaced with a stroll and browse at the LA Jewelry Mart.

Enzo did quite well and barely missed us at all. Must have been all the attention he got from Mema and her dog Max who came over and played with him. Thanks, Ma!

Joy to the world!

Enzo did NOT get the memo.

Gingerbread, er, graham cracker house

Enzo was invited to a gingerbread house making party with a few friends from Gymboree. Since Kylan and his mom Kathy live just a few houses away, we walked up the hill to find lots of fun (and sugar) awaiting us. Of course, it took Enzo a good 30-40 minutes to warm up to the kids, but surprisingly, he was one of the only kids who actually participated in decorating (or helping to un-do what I was doing to) his house.

I asked him to pose next to his house, and he took off a gumdrop roof tile and stuffed it in his mouth. He has never seen or tasted this much (or any?) candy.

The deconstruction continues...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I pulled down all the Christmas decorations, rolled up my sleeves, put the XM Holly-days station on, burned some cinnamon apple incense and began going to town. And it was a race against the clock before Enzo awoke from his nap.


Once he did wake up to see the bannisters wrapped in pinecone, snow-capped, white-lit garland, he says "oooooooohhhhhhhh!!!!!!" with his eyes wider than I've ever seen them before. This Christmas will be different than last year when all he did was eat wrapping paper. I introduce him to this very special music box, with a train, carolers, and snow frosted pine trees. Mesmerized, I say.


We head out over the river and through the woods to the Christmas tree farm/lot (aka Lowes) and Enzo sprints toward the trees. Why is it he picks the most expensive 10 foot Noble fir? We're going Douglas and we're going 8 feet. And I recall that last year I was stoked to bring with me a $10 off coupon that was conveniently mailed to me. This year, not so much. (Can you tell I still have a philosophical problem with spending $50 on a dead tree?)

Enzo says "There's gotta be a better/fresher/taller/fuller one back here in the tree jail" - if only he could speak. So his mother kindly asked the lumberjack man to find her one.

After making Jeff spin it around 143 times (hey, he was prepared with his headlamp and anti-sap gloves), we decide yep, this is the one.


We do the furniture dance to make a spot for the tarp and tree stand. And, by the way can I ask -- why was it with my first pregnancy I was coddled and protected and told not to lift anything heavy? Why this time is it more like "pick up your side of the couch higher and move a little more to the left, please!" Whatevs.

To tether the tree to the wall, or not to tether the tree? (per all parenting mags directed at moms with toddlers I've read for the past two months.) I think we'll take our chances.

Rudolph and the elf with the ceremonious North Star topper.