We spent the day on the 3rd Street Promenade today, and the girls had the opportunity to sing a little over the microphone with one of the street performers. Cara did “Twinkle, twinkle” for an audience, and AJ went about ten letters into the ABCs.

I miss Santa Monica. Such fun!

The girls and I ventured out to El Dorado Park this morning to take pictures for our Christmas cards. Sporting their very sweet Hanna Andersson sweaters, jeans, and matching Ugg boots, they looked very prepared for the fall weather!

I took 49 pictures without getting a single shot of them both looking at the camera and smiling. At number 50 I bribed them with chocolate, and lo and behold, #50 was the magic picture!

Enjoy a few of the photos that didn’t quite make the cut.

I was afraid the icicle lights alone would look kind of piddly, but the house actually looks great! Todd says he feels like he’s in an Italian restaurant, and that’s not a bad thing.

Our first flocked tree since…well….ever. AJ tried to eat it, but we were able to steer her on to more nutritious fare.

Last night we said a toast to the Christmas season (the girls were thrilled to have sparkling grape juice to toast with), and I have decreed (haha) that we will have turkey pot pie for all future tree-trimmings. I wasn’t prepared to make it myself this year, but now I’ll know to make a couple extra pie crusts at Thanksgiving next year!

After a whirlwind trip to Vegas for Thanksgiving, we came home last night and started on our Christmas decor.

I hung the lights today on the outside, and our Christmas tree (the first live one we’ve bought since 2003) should arrive soon. The girls even picked out their own little tree for the bedroom.

In other non-kid, non-Todd news (what? I do have a life?), I had the pleasure of seeing two really cool shows within the last couple of weeks. In fact, so cool that I would classify both as once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunities to see my personal icons!

First up: Steve Martin. He is on tour promoting his banjo album, and I was beside myself to see him with the Steep Canyon Rangers at the OC Performing Arts Center. I don’t think I stopped elbowing Todd the entire time. (“Hey, that’s Steve Martin! That’s really Steve Martin! I’M seeing Steve Martin!”)

This week was John Cleese. Despite being a vegetarian (and thus, inherently untrustworthy ), I felt much the same as I did at Steve Martin’s show. John Cleese, however, did the show that I wish Steve Martin had. It was a hodgepodge of funny anecdotes, film clips, and interaction with the audience. Apparently, he’s quite fond of blonde American girls, and I nearly asked him to dinner in spite of the husband and children sitting at home. (Well, the children were home. Husband was at work. Thanks for watching the girls, Uncle Mackey!)

Todd who?

Yeah, it feels that way sometimes. We don’t see him much these days, as he is wrapping up his work on God of War III.

He and the rest of the Sony crew did have a new release of their first two games this week, though, so I thought it worthy of a mention!

The God of War Collection would make a great Christmas gift! (Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.)

The next day, Saturday, was the party to end all parties. We were blessed to have family and friends from all over SoCal join us for an open house to celebrate birthdays and our housewarming. It was really heartwarming to have so many friends make the trek to our new home!

I cooked. A LOT. For days. And of course wound up with way too much food…but better too much than too little, right?

My cousin’s girlfriend, Danielle, made the insane cake above for Cara. I think it’s fair to say that this was the highlight of her day (and there were a lot of highs!).

We also rented a bounce house, and this proved to be the perfect entertainment for the entire crowd. I don’t think I actually saw Cara for most of the day!

The day for me was a busy one. A lot of cooking and organizing and trying to stay on top of all of the party details, but I’m glad we were able to have so many people check out our new place. We felt very loved!

Cara’s birthday celebration at school was on Friday, three days after her birthday. Miss Tina made her a paper crown (as she does for all birthday celebrations) and Cara felt very, very special indeed.

I have become famous around preschool for Cara’s bento lunches, so I [foolishly] did a bento snack that day for the entire class. Someone slap me before I decide to do that again! It was a lot of work (and a lot of browsing through Flickr for ideas), but at least they came out pretty cute. The kiddos were very excited!

CB=Cara’s Birthday. We managed the stretch the celebration out for the better part of a week!

On the day of, our little family of four drove over Disneyland way. We couldn’t stay (Todd had to work), but as Annual Passholders, we wanted to pick up the gift card that Cara was eligible for as part of their birthday offering this year.

I was SO proud of my big girl. She and I went into the park, and I told her in advance that she’d be able to pick one small gift to spend her $62 on, and with the rest of the money, we were going to buy some toys to donate to needy families this Christmas. She picked up a little wallet and brush, asked if she could have both of those little tokens (how could I say no to that?) and then happily selected two really nice toys that are now awaiting donation in our garage.

After that, it was the ultimate breakfast treat–pancakes at the IHOP across the street. That’s usually a daddy-only treat, but I was lucky enough to tag along.

After Todd dropped us off at home, we spent the day playing with her new toy (the nifty princess castle above!) and then had some dinner with Grandma and Grandaddy. A lovely, low-key day!

…that our second bus trip to Disneyland went off without a hitch.

I still have to update about C’s birthday, our housewarming party, etc., but Lisa and I saw John Cleese tonight, I’m up too late, and I neeeeeeed to go to bed.