Finding Balance in San Francisco

Time to take the Christmas picture

Sunday was the chosen day for the annual Christmas picture, and as expected, there were many pictures taken (thanks again Heido and Joe!) but few real choices in the end due to closed eyes, turned heads, shadows, hands in front of faces, the works. Taking Christmas pix is always a bit of a hassle, but working with small children is sort of like working with time bombs.

Here are a few contenders from the whole family shot....

and a couple of just our family (Quinn is patting me on the head in a whole series)...

and a couple of Rick, Sarah, Charlie and Ella:

It would be great to could knock the Christmas picture process (aka ordeal) out of the way early this year, to make some room for the craziness that is sure to come in December. Next comes the choosing procedure... with someone(s) undoubtedly taking one for the team. Wonder who it will be this year.

I must admit that I do love looking through Christmas pictures of years past, and I also love to get other people's photos in the mail. In the end the ordeal of getting the pictures taken, chosen, printed and sent out is indeed worth it (I suppose).

Batman and the Sunrise

Much to the boys' delight, it recently rained here in San Francisco. This gave our boys and excellent opportunity to don their new Batman raincoats (complete with capes). Here they are, posing, on our back deck:

At the end of that day, Quinn said "the trick with these boots is that you have to walk on your toes."  Upon further questioning and examination, turns out the boots are 2 sizes too small. Quinn's take: "wherever I go, wherever my heels hurt."  Santa may need to bring some new rain boots for the Mighty Quinn.

On another note (but also on our back deck), since the time change we've been waking up with the sun most mornings.  Walking out onto the back deck to see the sunrise has developed into a lovely morning ritual- a refreshing and inspiring way to start the day. 

And lastly, welcome home to my cousin Adam, who is a medic in the military and who has been over in Afghanistan. It's been a brutal past couple of months, with his unit losing several men. We are all so very proud of him and relieved to have him back home, if only for a few weeks. Adam's on the left in the photo below:

We think and pray for you often, Adam.  Thank you for your service to our country.

Snippets

Quinn was awarded "Star of the Week" at school yesterday, and we're all so proud.

When asked what he was going to do to help keep the planet clean, Quinn told his class that he was going to stop screaming.

Jordan's favorite new move is to wrap his arms and legs around my neck and waist and pretend to be my baby Koala.  Jordan has also taken to calling me "Sweetie," as in "Don't worry, Sweetie, I will clean my room," or this morning, after putting on his Batman rain coat, "Don't worry, Sweetie, Batman's here."

As of yesterday, we have 2 new fish: Alligator and Crocodile. Alligator is all black with bulgy eyes, Crocodile is all white with an orange head. Welcome to the family, fishies.

Happy Haunting in San Francisco

Halloween roared into our lives this year

and it's been almost a week of celebrations.

Photo above is a chocolate-drunk Quinn with his line partner, Eduardo, at the school Halloween fair.

As has been our tradition for the past 5 years or so, we met up with the Taylor brothers for trick or treating on Halloween night, kicking off the evening with a playdate/dinner in the Presidio at the Taylor's home.

Ry and I got into the dress-up action this year, too.

we love to trick or treat through the mansions of Presidio Heights- many houses decorated to the nines and great candy

the boys were pleased with their haul at the end of the night, and a great time was had by all.

That bowl there with the spider is for the "Switch Witch, " who gets almost all of the candy and replaces it with a present for each trick-or-treater, to be found the next morning.  I'm a big fan of the Switch Witch.

Oh, and I should say R.I.P. to our fish Dino, who didn't live through Halloween night.  I guess he gave up the ghost.

SMHS 20ish High School Reunion

On Oct. 24th, the classes of 1988, 89 and 90 got together for a "20ish" reunion. Lots of fun to see some old friends.

Here's my brother (class of 90) and Aaron Kivel (class of 88):

and me and Aaron

and me and Rick (we really mixed it up here with the people involved in this photo shoot)

it was fun to go to the reunion with my brother, and I'm glad they combined the classes like that. Here's a short video with Adam Burton and Dane Scharetg, from Tim Weiland's pre-party:

Adam and Dane from kathy hassanein on Vimeo.

Here's a shot of my one-time Homecoming date, Kevin, and a 30 weeks pregnant Michelle Gross and my bro. at the reunion itself. That's Ken Armstrong with the glasses and beard/moustache combo in the background

and here's a shot of my brother, Karen Levine in pink and my sister in law Sarah in black, whoopin it up on the dance floor.

Meanwhile, back at home my boys were making a volcano.  This from just before I left for the reunion:

Volcano Making, 101 from kathy hassanein on Vimeo.

And that's all she wrote.