Birdyhead

Christmas is for visiting

One of our first visits was over to Mike and Erik's to see their tree... and to listen to records, go for a walk...
Admire the local decorations
We went to Lumbini to see Miss Leslie and everyone. Miss Janet made sure Theron got his fill (3 servings worth) of her inari sushi and marinated cucumbers.
Theron and I went to Morro Bay ahead of Ashley, who had work to do. Theron has never met the older boys and he and the youngest, Orion, haven't seen each other since they were babies. We rang the bell, Ori opened it, took one look at Theron and ordered him into his room. We were standing there for about 3 seconds. Then for the rest of the trip they virtually inseparable, except when they had to be separated because they couldn't stop bickering. Still, I think Ori was especially gracious, though probably disgruntled. He let Theron time share the Spiderman suit since we didn't bring ours. Sometime during the trip Theron lost his first tooth and it was a big event as there was a full house of little boys from ages 5 to 10 who gathered round to congratulate him for being so tough, to give him paper towels for the blood, and to admire the new hole. The tooth popped out when Ori either hit him in the mouth with his head or slapped him - I'm not clear on that part. However, Theron hugged him and told him Thank You.

It takes a village

Sunday Joan's mom watched the boys and fed them lunch while Joan and I and her stepfather went to Costco. Before we left she said to Theron, 2 rules - I'm in charge and you do what I say. Theron laughed. I told him it was actually not that funny, it's true. For some reason Theron decided to go on a hunger strike while we were gone. Kathy said, Don't you like noodles? Yes, he says. Then she explained to him that not eating meant he was holding everyone else up from watching a video, which constituted bad behavior, and Santa might not come. He thought about it. Then he told her, it was okay because Santa would come anyway because of Ori.
After we got back Hal took all four boys to the movies so we could wrap presents. He said he only had to tell Theron to be quiet once.

Christmas Eve Ash came up on the train along the beautiful coastal route to San Luis. He brought the Spiderman costume.
Christmas was in Santa Maria where Theron found that Santa did indeed read his list. Isn't it great Santa was able to make it over to the Rite Aid to pick up this fabulous Spy Guy kit?


We took a lovely drive through the hills to see Grandma Mary and Grandpa Richard and of course, the beagle, Sam. Then it was home again to our little house which was much cleaner than how I left it thanks to Ashley. There was a mini emergency because we couldn't immediately find the Spiderman suit and in order to watch Spiderman 3 he needed the Black Spiderman costume (the outfit you see above is reversible). It didn't reappear until we unpacked everything and thank goodness because Theron was ready to call 911 and/or end up in the longest time out of his life.
Ashley went through the newspaper flyers and catalogs that accumulated while we were gone and said, We don't really need anything right now, do we? And I agreed that we don't. So we're pretty fortunate.