Since Thanksgiving was late this year, we basically stepped off our flight from Mexico and into the Holiday Activities Season. We kicked things off with a night at the SF Symphony, to watch "Ghostbusters" while the symphony plays the score live - although this year the kids knew what was up and didn't moan and complain about going to the "boring symphony". Also, the Ecto-SF parked out front might have been a giveaway.
We also had our end-of-season Jellyfish soccer celebration at the Ice Cream Bar, which we had to push to December since their last game was followed by parent-teacher conference week and then Thanksgiving break.
Next up - Lucie's Birthday Party! I had solemnly sworn that she could have a "real" party this year, with a big group of friends and an Official Party Activity, instead of just throwing together some sort of movie viewing in late January or February. We picked a weekend in early December, to avoid conflict with travel, teddy bear tea, tree-lighting, Nutcracker/Velveteen Rabbit/A Christmas Carol, Etc. She decided on ice skating at Union Square, and I bought tickets a month in advance, and went on a reconnaissance mission to find a nearby swanky hotel where we could have post-skating cocoa.
So it seemed about right that 2 days before the party, a big winter storm system started heading our way. Cue my second reconnaissance mission, to attempt to return our Union Square tickets (NO), find out if the Yerba Buena rink could accommodate a last minute group of 10 or so (YES), find an alternate nearby cocoa spot (I think that's the happiest I've ever been to find a Ghiradelli Cafe) and a lot of frantic texts to see if everyone could arrive an hour early (YES again).
I wondered if I was overreacting, but when the national weather service issued a flood warning, and we watched buckets of rain pouring down the cafe window, I felt I'd made the right choice to move the party indoors. And with a little persistent hassling of the Union Square rink's manager, including a photo of our very first holiday skate at the rink, I got the other tickets refunded. So it all worked out.
Also, the rest of a very rainy weekend is an excellent time to finish a end-of-semester project, such as constructing a replica of a traditional Wiyot redwood plank house. I have to confess to steering her to use strips of eucalyptus bark, and I initially assisted with the gluing, but the rest was all Lucie. Including the creation of the waterfront, complete with sand, since the Wiyot are a coastal tribe.
Just for fun, here's a flashback to Brennan's project on the Cahuilla tribe. It was a lot harder to glue pine straw to a compostable ice cream cup than we expected.
We decided to give the theater a try, and went to see A Christmas Carol. The A.C.T. has been has been doing their holiday production for the past 42 years, so it was a pretty good bet. Also there were large cookies.
As winter break approached, Santa hats were all the rage:
Finally it was Dec. 22 - Lucie's 9th birthday! Thanks to a fast moving snowstorm and some bad timing leaving the Truckee house, we thought we might get stuck in the mountains, and it was about to be The Worst Birthday Ever. But then the snow stopped, the accidents cleared, the pass was re-opened, and we made it home in time for a birthday dinner at Zazie, capped off with Chocolat Pot de Creme -
- And presents!
Then of course, 3 days later - more presents!
After a a fun day enjoying all our new stuff, we capped it off with a special Christmas dinner: gussied-up bar food delivered to our seats while watching Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker at the Alamo Theater.
Because Lucie's original birthday plan seemed too good to waste, we had our Union Square skate outing a few days after Christmas.
With a stop for fancy cocoa in the lobby of the St. Francis Hotel -
Followed by a forced march up Nob Hill to check out holiday decorations in some of the other historic hotels. We even blundered into the rooftop garden at the Fairmont while on a quest for a water fountain.
Daddy was meeting us for our (sort of) annual dinner at the Nob Hill Cafe - which gave us just enough time to walk the labyrinth at Grace Cathedral.
We have a little more Winter Break - time to find some snow...
No comments:
Post a Comment