San Francisco service project

For our Christmas gift this year, my parents gave us some money and asked us to do a service project with it to bring the spirit of Christmas into someone else life as well as our own. We decided to serve the homeless in San Francisco.

We begun by making scarves and blankets out of fleece material.

The kids decorated white bags to fill with food and supplies.

We filled the bags with scarves, socks, wipes, snacks, and Christmas treats.

We then made sack lunches to go with the bags and blankets.

Monday evening we headed into the city to seek out those in need. At first the kids we're scared to approach people but got really excited about it once they saw them light up when they gave them our gifts. We had a great experience serving some less fortunate individuals and bringing them some Christmas cheer.

It was fun to see San Francisco at Christmas time all lit up. Union Square was amazing with all the huge trees and decorations. Macy's had a wreath in every window - a really cool sight.

Thanks to my mom and dad for encouraging us to look outside ourselves and serve others this Christmas.

Let it snow, let it snow....

Yes, it snowed in Danville, California last night! (hasn't happened for 16 years I understand) The picture doesn't do it much justice but we did wake up to a bit of snow ground cover. The news said it snowed 3 inches (definitely more downtown than in our backyard). When I dropped the kids off at school this morning, there were kids on the playground throwing snowballs. Fun times! I think the kids will always remember the year it snowed in Danville.

Ashlyn and Dallin's birthday

A very Happy Birthday for Ashlyn (13) and Dallin (11). For those who do not know, they share a birthday - both born on December 1st. We had to have two different cakes - chocolate for Dallin and lemon for Ashlyn (we're still trying to eat all that cake!). How blessed we are to have these two great kids in our family!

Thanksgiving weekend...a little late

It's been a bit crazy lately but I finally have a few minutes to update the blog. We spent Thanksgiving with my family down in Southern California. Everyone was there except my sister that lives in Singapore (sorry Anna, not trying to make you feel bad). There were 31 of us - crazy but fun.

Thanksgiving morning, Ashlyn and Craig ran the 5K Turkey Trot in Dana Point. There were over 5000 runners and Ashlyn came in 18th place in her division and beat her previous time. It was such a beautiful day - couldn't have asked for nicer weather.

I didn't take too many pictures but I thought this was priceless - all the men doing the dishes after Thanksgiving dinner. That's the way to end a great meal!

Alexa was a little addicted to the Wii while we were there. She couldn't get enough Mario Cart.

We spent most of the time just hanging out, chatting and eating. The kids spent a lot of time up on the 'hill', playing Wii, and putting together Lego's. We did go on a long walk at the beach one day and spent some time playing there - can't go south and not hit the beach. We took the puppy with us - he did a great job traveling and had fun with all the kids.