Christmas with a tiny squee

We all flew to my grandmother's for Christmas. It was a lot of people (me, Mike, Sterling, my mom, my brother, his wife, their 2 year old all stayed there and my aunt and uncle came for Christmas day). There were a few stressful moments. But overall, it was good to be there with everyone and to celebrate Christmas with family.

Sterling was an excellent flyer. She was a little rambunctious on the way down, but slept the entire flight back, which was awesome. She enjoyed looking out the windows of the plane. Unfortunately it was cloudy the whole way, so she couldn't see anything really cool.

My grandmother loved seeing her. Granny's house is not what one would term baby-proofed, so we had to watch our TS closely, but she was able to rampage about in the living room without too much damage. Granny had a lot of good toys: a few old watches, some necklaces, tupperwares, and all sorts of stuffed bears and dolls. TS enjoyed determining the merits of each of these. Her favorites were the watches and a large silver necklace. She also liked the TV remote controls.

Mike and I had headed down several days before Christmas so that we could go into San Francisco and wander about for a bit. We took BART in and TS fell asleep partway there. Here she is sleeping in the sourdough bakery that we ate lunch at (very tasty). Then we checked out the Cartoon Art Museum, which was "tiny, but interesting" (according to the review). After that, we headed to the Children's Creativity Museum, but got sidetracked at another museum where someone we knew was having an exhibit. By the time we made it to the Creativity Museum, it was closing. Oh well, next time.

 My brother and his family showed up a couple days after us. Their daughter is just over 2. She and Sterling had a good time together. Their Christmas present to everyone was to cook Christmas dinner. My brother had told Granny to buy a 7 pound roast (for 9 of us, including the two babies). She got an 18 pound roast. She wanted leftovers. Despite the excess roast, they pulled dinner off astonishingly well. Everything was very tasty.

My aunt makes cookies every Christmas. I look forward to them all year.


My mother flew in last. I wish she had been there a little earlier. It's always easier when she's around.