Pre-Christmas Craziness

This holiday season for us, has been a mad house.  We packed so much into the week leading up to Christmas I didn't think we'd get it all in!  So in the spirit of Monday Night Football (which has nothing to do with nothing) here are the highlights!

Bug and Bunny taking their yellow belt test..  We won't find out until January if they passed.  I think the parents are more worried about this than the kids are!

We took a trip down to San Diego to visit with our friends Tamlin and Joanne and were surprised with the bonus of Tamlin's son (who I need to find a fun nickname for).

We met him about 5 years at Tamlin and Joanne's wedding, but honestly, I didn't remember anything about him.  Now that I've re-met him I can declare him good people - if in desperate need of some geeky education.  We introduced him to Eddie Izzard - specifically the Star Wars Canteen..

We watched the latest Star Trek movie - which he'd never seen and while we mentioned Firefly, we're really going to have to sit him down for a day and force him to watch all the episodes.  You can watch below some of their highlights!  I have faith we'll bring him to the dark side.. we have cookies after all.

We also went sailing.  Technically we were supposed to be whale watching, but we didn't see any.  We did see some dolphins which was fun.  And we saw this lovely little guy sun bathing.

The Tweedles got to play "I'm King of the World" under the careful supervision of "Uncle" Tamlin.

And we wrapped up the weekend at a BBQ joint where Bunny and The Hubs played a rousing game of patty cake.

We went to the Christmas Eve Children's service at our church whose halls I must say were decked.

Bunny sang in the service while they told a very humorous version of the Birth of Jesus.

And it all culminated to walking into our living room 6:45 am Christmas morning to my Tweedles cuddled together in The Hubs recliner watching cartoons waiting for the rest of us to get up.

All in all, it has been a very Merry Christmas.

Seriously.. Thoughts?

Sailing Sailing Over the Ocean Blue

In San Diego Harbor you see the darnedest things.

Puppy and owner paddling around in a blow-up kayak.

Who was friendly enough to come closer so we can get a better photo.

It's got pelicans just hanging out
.

And people everywhere fishing.

There's sailboats of course.

There's also smaller military boats...

and bigger military boats they're refurbishing (The Hubs says this is called a Air Craft Carrier and I'm not sure but I think he also rolled his eyes).

There's big military boats you can walk through.  This is The Midway which my parents took us to when they visited last. (Again, The Hubs says this is an aircraft carrier, not a boat - he's getting quite insistent).

There's huge container ships that honestly could plow over you and never be able to stop in time.  It's wise to stay out of their way.

There's older boats like The Star of India which is a merchant ship (A clipper ship according to The Hubs) and the world's oldest active sailing ship.

There's an even older wooden ship used in the filming of Master and Commander, The HMS Surprise.  It apparently built in the 1970's as a replica of the 18th century Royal Navy frigate Rose.

There was a B-39 Russian Sub (The Hubs says Soviet Sub and in this case, he says I can call it a boat and this time he really did roll his eyes, I'm sure of it). This is an actual Soviet era diesel-electric sub.

There's the Stars & Stripes - the ship that won the America's Cup.  We've seen this in action on other trips and man can they make this boat fly through the water.  It's impressive to see.

And another cool masted boat called The California, the official tall ship for the state of California and a replica of the 1847 Revenue Cutter, C.W. Lawrence an original Coast Guard cutter during the Gold Rush.

And not to be outdone, a USS Dolphin Submarine the deepest diving submarine in the world.

On the shore, they're building a really cool replica of an old style Spanish Ship called the San Salvador.  This is history coming to life and there are all sorts of demonstrations from ship building, sail making and blacksmithing to Native American Kumeyaay demonstrations like tulle boats, baskets and pottery making.

And of course, Coast Guard Boats (those guys are such hotties!).

And just when you think the waters are safe..

A pirate ship sneaks up on you.

This is just an average day in San Diego folks.

Seriously.. Thoughts?