Kokochi

Doing Christmas

The kids have 2 weeks off, and so does Dav, so we're all excited to do a staycation! Lorene is visiting, the tree is up, we have yummy dinner plans for Christmas eve, and we are hoping for a lot of lounging, eating, and a few touristy fun here and there.

To start off, we visited my brother's fam for the annual Christmas light show his street is famous for. 

Ian's festive house.

Tesla is already  jaded about Santa (not that we ever really pushed the whole concept), but she still went up with Aila. This year's Santa was covered in white curls; we could barely see his eyes.

The kids were delighted in the gifts they scored from the Kennedy's. Thank you!

  

Today we went skating at Union Square. We figure if the kids are growing up in SF, they should have plenty of memories skating at this iconic place.

 

Afterwards, we had lunch at Empress of China. So sad they are closing end of December. When you go there, you enter a bygone era. A special place indeed. 

Then someone got some nice shoes in Chinatown.

 

My Blog Action Day post

We just got back from L.A. last night, and if there's a city that makes you think about consumption and polluting transportation, L.A. is certainly one. We were actually quite busy with a packed weekend, so I didn't have much time to reflect on this year's Blog Action Day theme, the environment. And I guess that is my point...that I find daily life so full and busy, that even though I care about our future and environment, I'm way too focused on feeding Tesla, getting to and from work on time, remembering our social engagements, trying to keep in touch with loved ones, etc. But changes have to start somewhere. We do our share in recycling and buy organic, sustainable items when possible. Yet I catch myself drinking bottled water at work. And I don't have a mug for all the tea I drink, and use the disposable ones. Shame on me. So my post here is a declaration that I will use only a mug now, and I will bring my own permanent water bottle to stop drinking bottled water when possible. Small steps count. And this is what I will teach Tesla. [update] Here is my new mug and my water jug in the background.