California

Unfortunately, we had to take the early flight, which meant the 4:15am bus. The kids went to bed in their clothes and they were actually quite good about it. They were excited to see Mémé and Grandpa. We all slept to Frankfurt Airport.

Check-in was easy. We had plenty of time to get to our gate. We stopped at the Lego display, which all three liked;









I basically had to pull them away. It really appealed to all age groups and parents were dragging their kids away in all sorts of different languages.

We had an uneventful flight and luckily we had good films; Mama Mia and The Grinch. I gave the girls a new video of Barbie Diamond Castle and they didn't want to watch anything else.

Here they are checking out the kitch holiday decorations in Kmart in Concord. They don't sell anything like this in France so the kids wanted pictures taken with them.









On Friday, after my hair and dental appointments, I took the kids into San Francisco. We met up for lunch with my girlfriend Jody, whom I was glad to see since she was soon leaving. I had fantasies of letting the kids ice skate in Union Square. It would have been very special...but a long wait! The line went all the way around the rink. We gave it a miss.





This is the same statue I took pictures of the kids with last year;



Davina went crazy over this dog so we asked the owner if she wouldn't mind a photo with him.



This cookie castle was built by a French chef at the St. Francis;



Guk came over to help the kids make a Gingerbread house. The hats actually were from Daniel. A hotel gave them to him for the kids and they brought them to California;









This is Zoë and the finished product.



First night of Hannukah was celebrated at Tata Guk and Ton Ton Will's house. Barbara and Ysabel came, bringing the son of a friend of Barbara's who is Talia's age. We also had Evanthia, whom I hadn't met in person yet. Evanthia is a lawyer who had a rare form of breast cancer. Vicky wrote her story for the Chronicle, of how her insurer wouldn't pay for her best-chance treatment. It's an interesting story so here's the link to Guk's article;

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/article?f=/c/a/2007/12/15/MNQETTOVL.DTL

Evanthia contacted me while she was in Paris because she needed to get one procedure done at a hospital. I only made a couple of calls for her. She was very organized and just needed to get by a (rude) secratary.

She's in the back in a grey sweater talking to mother.



Guk gave the kids some noisy toys which scream when you throw them to the ground. They can't be turned off and one did let loose in the suitcase on the way to the airport.





This red nose got a lot of milage that evening.







Often, even if the evening isn't going to be terribly late, I like to bring the PJ's and dress the kids before leaving. That way, I only have to slide them in bed if they fall asleep on the way home (and if not, I can get in a tooth-brushing).



One of the presents was a picture from Guk to Will.