Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Full of activities and family. The aftermath has been less fun: messy house, Andrew sick, toys run rampant...but we've had a really nice last few weeks of 2008.




On December 14, we went with a few (read, 18) friends and family to go see the Singing Christmas Tree at Capital Christian Center. This is an annual event for Sacramento, in fact this year was their 52nd year! Our group took up 3 rows! It was quite an impressive setup. And that church is HUGE. It felt like a stadium inside.

Our group

The "tree" -there are people standing inside!

Aiden's last day of school before the break was his Christmas Party. Both the morning and afternoon classes combined to put on a Christmas performance for family. They sang Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Jingle Bells and more. They had cute little sticks with jingle bells glued on them that they shook to the beat. They even had a piano accompaniment! It was really super cute.

Aiden amongst a GANGLOAD of preschoolers (he has on a maroon shirt and is holding his stick up in the air - he's to the left of the girl in the light blue long sleeved shirt)

Santa showed up for the event. Here's Jeremy telling Santa what he wants for Christmas (he said, "candy").


Here's Aiden telling Santa what he wants for Christmas (he said "a Darth Vader suit")

Here's Aiden singing with the kids

The weekend before Christmas, Dionne invited us to the Elks Lodge in Elk Grove that was having a Disney themed Christmas party. We went with her along with Gina & kids and her friend Ann & son. The kidlets decorated gingerbread men, had their faces painted, and got balloon animals (well...Aiden and Jeremy prefer balloon swords to balloon animals. black balloon swords really say "Christmas" to them)! After eating lunch at the Lodge, Santa made his grand entrance. The kids lined up and got to sit with Santa and take pics. He gave each of them a stocking filled with treats like stuffed animals, hot chocolate mix with mugs, and coloring books. They really enjoyed those stockings. Jeremy got an unidentified animal that he's completely in love with. We were calling it a yak. But now we think it's perhaps a bull or a bison. Whatever it is, Jeremy says it's a bunny (his favorite) and carries it around everywhere.

Gina and Jocelyn with Santa (Jocelyn was nice enough to help pull the tickets and read numbers for the raffle...we dont THINK she rigged it! But Aiden and Jeremy did both win prizes!)

Jeremy and Santa (see his yak/bull/bison in his stocking?)

Aiden making a gingerbread man with Auntie Fifi (aka Dionne)

Alyssa with Santa (she got a butterfly painted on her cheek)

Aiden with Santa

Another activity we did this year, that we've been meaning to do EVERY year since Aiden was born was to go Christmas light looking. And this year, we went for the big guns. There's a community in Citrus Heights that decorates every year. Everyone who moves into this neighborhood has to agree when they purchase their home that they will decorate for Christmas. It's all on one street called Dovewood Court. There are probably a dozen or maybe 16 homes on the court. Some of them have a theme, like "North Pole" or "Disney". This year, we saw themes of the Grinch, Peanuts, Spongebob, Disney, North Pole, and more. It's quite a sight to see.

Peanuts Home

One of the mechanics that works on our cars lives in this house. Can you see the leg lamp in his front window? How cool is that?!

The Disney house

And of course, what would Christmas be without cookies? Drew made cookies with the boys one evening while Maria was out. They did such a good job! They even made the traditional candy-cane style cookies like Vavu makes, and the Summits made this year. Then they also made sugar cookies which they had fun decorating. They especially liked adding the sprinkles! Jeremy mostly liked sticking his fingers in the frosting and trying to eat it. Aiden took his cookie decorating very seriously, tho.

Christmas Day was a full house here at the Pascoal home! The Gonzales clan came over on Christmas Eve and spent the night. We went to the early version of midnight Mass at St. John Vianney (they do "midnight" at 10pm). Then we got ready for the big day! Angie and Heath, Grandma and Grandpa, and Angela and AJ all slept here and got up with the kiddos on Christmas morning. Shortly thereafter, we were joined by Dionne and Vito and Jake and Laura. We opened stockings and presents...then Drew got onto making some turkey! Gina stopped by with the girls for a bit, but they had other destinations to visit, too...so they couldn't stay for too long. It was nice to have so many of us there. We watched Christmas movies and played games. The boys got TONS of toys and clothes. They were in heaven.

Jeremy wearing the new Hulk gear~ "Hulk Smash!"

This bow and arrow set was in with the presents from Dionne and Vito. When Aiden opened it, he said, "this is what I've always wanted!" It's so funny to hear kids say things like that. But he was super-excited and was calling himself the "Green Arrow" (he KNOWS his superheroes)!

The wrapping paper carnage

Aiden opening presents

Only a few days left 'til 2009!

December Update

Time to catch up on the blog before Christmas! Here's what's been going on in our world lately:

San Francisco
Laura and Jake took us as a treat to San Francisco for the weekend. It was so nice to have a spontaneous trip with our friends! They arranged for the boys to stay with their aunties and then we all took off for the Bay. We walked from our hotel to Union Square to see the Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony in front of Macy's. It was a very large, very beautiful tree. After hanging out there for a bit, we took the cable cars down to the Wharf where we saw a dinner show called "Tony and Tina's Wedding" at a restaruant called Castagnola's. The show was really funny! Almost like being at a real wedding - but more dramatic! We had breakfast the next morning at Cafe Mason, appropriately named! It was a fun getaway and we are really thankful that Laura and Jake wanted to spend the weekend together with us like that.

Drew on the Cable Car

Tree at Union Square

Eating at Cafe Mason with the Masons!

View from our Hotel

Rancho Cordova Tree Lighting
There's a lot of new shopping, dining and housing off Zinfandel and Hwy 50. So the Rancho Cordova Tree Lighting Ceremony relocated from in front of St. John Vianney's to a little park in the new developing areas called Village Green. We went to the ceremony with the boys and enjoyed meeting Santa, listening to local groups perform Christmas music, riding a little train, counting down for the tree to light, and a "snow" flurry when the tree lit up! There were local organizations and vendors there with free items (for instance, Rubio's served nachos, and Beazer homes had free balloons for the kids), as well as items for sale (Boy Scouts selling holiday wreaths, etc). The kids really seemed to like the snow, except that it was so light, that sometimes you would get a noseful of foam when you would inhale! Yikes! It turned out to be a really good evening.

Aiden with Santa- Aiden took 2 tries.
Decided he didn't wanna see Santa the first time.
Then he reconsidered and got back in line again.

Jeremy with Santa - telling him that he's been a "good boy".

Rancho Cordova Christmas Tree

There was a freak snow storm right when the tree lit up...and the snow was quite strange and foamy!

Birthday Party

One of Aiden's friends from school celebrated his 5th birthday in early December. Aiden was very excited to attend the birthday party at his house. Aiden picked out a present for his friend all by himself - a Red Power Ranger. Aiden has been pretending to be a red Power Ranger for the past few weeks, so that's the newest interest there. The party was great. We had pizza and brownies (kids favorites!) and there was a cool party craft - rubber band shooters! The kids decorated their shooters then went outside to knock plastic bottles off a TV tray. They ate it up! Jeremy would walk right up to the bottle and shoot it point blank, then be so happy when it tipped over! It was too cute.

Aiden with his rubber band shooter

Jeremy outside shooting down plastic bottles

Our Christmas Tree
Most recently, we went with Auntie Dionne and Uncle Vito to the Christmas Tree Farm in Apple Hill. That was a great day. The weather was perfect up in Apple Hill. Down in Sacramento it was all doomy-gloomy. But as soon as we got east of Cameron Park, we were above the fog and it was crisp and clear with a crystal blue sky. We were a little overdressed for the occassion in our scarves and big jackets, but it was a relief to see that sun! We went to McGee's Christmas Tree Farm for the tree. Since it's a flat-rate price for the tree (regardless of height), we got a HUGE tree this year. It's so fun to have a little change from the usual. It's fun to see our big tree when walking down the hallway to the living room. After getting the tree and having it tied to the top of the van, we went to Boa Vista Orchards to buy apple pies, apple dumplings, apple everything with Dionne and Vito. It was great, because we had gone early in the morning, and seemed to really beat the crowds. Yahoo!

Aiden told Vito that he wanted THIS tree. Unfortunately, it wasn't for sale. Plus, it would have been hard to tie to the top of the van!

Aiden taking a break

Jeremy really wanted to wheel down the tree on a cart like this. He settled for pushing the cart around empty.

Our tree! Maria loved it!

Us in front of our tree

Getting (and eating) apple items post-tree-hunting

Jeremy singing Christmas carols on the way home (this one is the Chipmunks)

Jeremy playing with the Monorail this morning

Aiden brought this ornament home from school today. Too cute!

A Day in the Life...

So I'm sitting here, trying to wade through the confusion that is registering Aiden for Kindergarten next school year, and I'm listening to the boys in the dining room. They are telling "jokes" to each other. Which is basically saying a bunch of words then laughing. Here's a sample:

Aiden: What did the apple juice say to the apple juice drink?
Jeremy: What?
Aiden: Oink, Oink! (both laugh hysterically)

Aiden: Okay, it's my turn now cuz I'm funny.
Jeremy: Okay.
Aiden: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10!
Jeremy: HAHA!
Aiden: Your turn.
Jeremy: Okay. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10! hahahaha

Oh...they've moved on to an "eyes open eyes closed game". Guess the joke session is over.
Bye for now! –Maria

Merry [fake] Christmas!

Well, tonight is the last night Mom and Dad Pascoal are going to be here in CA. We are so sad that they are leaving, but so glad they were able to be here for so long. We celebrated Christmas with them today, since we won't be able to all be together when Christmas comes this December. We've had a lot of fun building it up. The boys have been anticipating it. Jeremy's been telling people (even strangers) that "it's almost fake Christmas". Of course, they don't know that he's actually talking about something we've really been planning!

We all met up at Gina & Dan's this afternoon for the big celebration. Since they have an artificial Christmas tree (actually, they have 2!), they put up all their Christmas decorations early. So the atmosphere was great! Everyone brought one gift with them - and it could only cost $1. Then we did a gift exchange where we chose presents based on age. It worked out great for the kids - except poor Alyssa, whose 2 presents were both swapped - one by Aiden and one by Jeremy. She was very nice about it.

We did our traditional Christmas activity: playing games! We played the Christmas game, which is of course a staple. And there were tons of other games going on. There was the Bean Game (a must-play), Ticket to Ride (3 times!), Scrabble, Rummikub, Christmas Trivia, Democrazy, Encore, Taboo...possibly some others that are being forgotten here. And then the other Christmas Day staple - football - was on. So it really did feel like an actual holiday! Too bad we all have to go back to work tomorrow...

One of the highlights was Vito's famous cheesecake. He came through at fake Thanksgiving with pumpkin cheesecake. And for fake Christmas he didn't disappoint...*drum roll, please*... Peppermint Cheesecake! As Rachel Ray would say: yum-O! [made with Andes mints]

We almost stayed late enough to celebrate fake New Year...but left before the stroke of midnight. Oh well - guess we did enough fake celebrating for one year!

Us with Aiden during the gift exchange

An AWESOME $1 gift: Twinkie the Kid

Aiden with "Santie Auntie" Gina

Jeremy and Jocelyn



Jeremy choosing his gift

Vito and Dionne at the gift exchange


Playing the Christmas Game

The boys with the Christmas tree



Bean Game!


Heath and Angie

Bible Nursery School Performance

Today Jeremy's Bible Nursery School performed for the Women's Bible Study group. It was only the cutest thing EVER! Check it out...

Fake Thanksgiving/Chicago

The Pascoal Family has been hopping this past week with activity! We hosted our Fake Thanksgiving feast here at the house on Wednesday. There was quite a turn-out! We had the whole Thanksgiving spread - Turkey, Potatoes, Stuffing, Sweet Potatoes, Veggies, Pies...the whole nine yards! The only thing missing was the Portuguese touch of Shay. But we figured we already had that covered with our Fake Thanksgiving in Arkansas. So we let it slide. But we more than made up for it in pie! Banana Cream, Double Cream Blueberry, Razzleberry, Chocolate, and best of all - Vito's Pumpkin Cheesecake! Yum!



The house was full with friends and family alike. Maria's family was there in spirit - we got to talk to them over the phone. It was Maria's mom's birthday that day. Happy Birthday, Mom! We also celebrated Angela's birthday on the 4th. So happy birthday to you too, Angela. :-)

Happy Fake Thanksgiving!

Cousin Playtime

Maria left on Friday for a conference in Chicago for Recovery International (RI). RI is a self-help mental health organization that offers cognative techiques for managing anxiety, temper and fears. Maria has been practicing the RI method for close to 3 years now. She began attending group meetings after experiencing panic attacks and anxiety a few years back. She is now an assistant leader at her meeting and on the Area Leadership Team, helping others to spread the tools and techniques and offering support.

The conference was very rewarding. It was held in a hotel near Chicago O'Hare. She was gone for two nights. But since the conference ended early on Sunday, she had time to take in a couple of Chicago sights before departing.

After the conference closed, Maria took the "L" Train to downtown Chicago, where she had authentic Deep Dish Pizza at Giordano's, then saw Wicked the Musical.

Chicago is a HUGE city. Riding the train from the hotel to downtown took an hour. And that was only taking HALF the distance of ONE of the subway lines. It's really amazing just how big it is there. It snowed a little bit too, so that also added a little excitement. It was really quite pleasant because there wasn't much walking involved, and Maria was all bundled up. Plus since it was Sunday, downtown wasn't terribly crowded. Also, a large portion of the population seemed to be too busy watching the Bears game to crowd up the streets. :-)

Wicked was so great. It was quite different than the novel, but still equally enjoyable. Glinda was a crack-up, and the show was much more family-friendly than the book. You'll never watch Wizard of Oz the same again.

Maria @ Wicked

Maria eating authentic Chicago Deep Dish Stuffed Pizza:

a local said that people come from other states to buy these pizzas, freeze them and take them home with them!