red dress

Winter break is on! All four of us are home for the next two weeks, and we have been really looking forward to this time. We stay put every year at Christmastime. It's such a good time to recharge our batteries for the new year. Very little on the agenda this next week, besides a few parties to attend and another performance at The Uptown in Oakland this coming Monday night for me. 

Oliver is playing Santa as I sit here typing, delivering a load of toys to my lap. I guess he gets it now! Stella woke up and started cleaning her room this morning, and fed her fish, in an eleventh hour attempt to get a dog or cat for Christmas, which isn't happening. See "crying", below.

The walk to school on Friday. I couldn't edit enough of these out, they are so darling.

Oliver enjoying some borrowed lunch, Stella negotiating the terms of her performance in the talent show. Her act got bumped to the lunchtime crowd showing only.

Oliver enjoying participating in his sister's performance, uninvited.

Hot chocolate and stollen for breakfast.

A ladies' date! On our way to the A.C.T. downtown to see A Christmas Carol. 

David's Delicatessen across the street from the theater for a quick lunch. Terrible Jewish food. Good grilled cheese.

Nosebleed section. Dizzying!

The Macy's holiday windows at Union Square, with their pet adoption displays, turned a great day into a mess, with Stella crying the most of the way home on the bus because she wants a pet SO badly. Poor dear.

She chippered up by the time we got off the bus. 

The fun didn't end there! I had a wonderful dinner with some old mommy pals, Jeanette and Melissa, at the delicious Ragazza right down the street (too dimly lit for good photos), and then some drinks at The Page, my old stomping grounds from my single days (when it was Chances). What a dump! It was so nice to reconnect with a few of the moms I was close with when Stella was born. We have a lot of memories and a lot of advice for each other. It was so necessary for me when Stella was a tiny baby to have a group of people who could take care of her occasionally, and more importantly share all those new mommy troubles with. I didn't need that much help the second time around, but it made all the difference the first time. I sometimes miss those days when we didn't have school on the brain, just innocent meetings at playgrounds and each other's houses. Good times!