Christmas 2012

This year I had a harder time than usual getting into the Christmas spirit. I suppose that's understandable -this is my first Christmas since my father died, and last Christmas was the last time we were together. I've also been facing the toughest situation I've yet had to deal with as a supervisor, and one of the consequences was that my program suddenly became understaffed. Tyson, Tyler and I all caught the worst cold/flu we've had in years, and I had to keep going to work despite being sick. So I got a little down in the dumps, but those awesome guys, Tyson and Tyler, reached down and pulled me right back up. One day, both my morning plans and my afternoon plans fell through, but Tyson and Tyler decided we should bake cookies, and convinced me to join in. One Friday night, I heard Tyson telling Tyler we'd go get a tree the next day. The next day, I was having fever and chills, and told Tyson I thought we should wait one more day, but I looked at his face, and then thought about how disappointed Tyler would be, so I agreed to go get one anyway. It turned out to be wonderful! Tyler was able to help choose the tree, and then helped Tyson decorate it.

Grandma Allaire drove down on Saturday to spend time with us. Grandpa Keith came to spend time with us, too. On Christmas Eve, we decided to go to the 5:00pm "family friendly" church service. Tyler received the honor of bringing a Wise Man up to the nativity. He had a great time throughout the service.

It never occurred to me that going to the early service meant missing out on eating dinner in a restaurant! We got out of church by 6, yet each restaurant we tried had already closed. None of us felt like cooking, so we ended up at Jack In The Box! It felt so funny to be eating at a fast food joint on Christmas Eve! We got home around 7:30, leaving us plenty of time to set out cookies and milk for Santa, magic oats for the reindeer, and to read some books before tucking Tyler into bed.

Tyler woke up at 6am on Christmas morning, but I convinced  him to go back to sleep, and managed to sleep in til 7:45! He then proceeded to waken Grandma Allaire and Tyson by ringing sleighbells in their ears.

We repeated the Christmas Jammies tradition borrowed from Art's mom. We thought we bought pjs to match the Glass-Johnson family. But if FaceBook photos are to be believed, we bought the wrong ones! Oh well, I think we still looked good : ].

We continued the tradition of letting Vader open the first gift. This year, Vader was confident and efficient, needing no reassurance or persuasion.

Tyler's been dying for a train tunnel for months. Aunt Jonell, Uncle Art, Payton, Cole and Shelby delivered. So happy!

I've been looking for an animal print beanbag chair for weeks, but decided to go with this. Tyler's thrilled with his new bedroom book-reading station!

Leave it to Eagle-Eye Tyson to notice the details. I think he must have clued Vader in, because I keep discovering Vader laying on it!

Tyler loved Grandpa Allaire's dinosaur game!

He loves this too. He just doesn't know it yet! Thanks, Grandma Glass!

Ah, Santa. Good deal.

Tyler was so happy to receive Thomas the Train books!

And Thomas the Train dinnerware!

We are so excited about this easel/chalkboard/dry erase board/painting station!

I helped Tyson reminisce about our summer vacation by buying him craftbrews from Lost Abbey, Green Flash, Stone, and Port Brewing Co. 

Gigima and Auntie Em dropped by with more gifts!

I just love seeing these three gals (Arlette, Anita and Anne Marie) get together!

For the record, this is the toy Tyler went to sleep with tonight. No stuffed animal for this kid. It is hilarious to hear him say, "I want the excavator! In the crib! Excavator!" Thanks, Auntie Em!

The best Christmas gift of all!

Merry Christmas!

December 2012

So Tyson finished out this semester with straight A's. What a nerd. Oops, I mean "hard worker". I remember when I was a kid, some of my friends would get paid $5 for each A they earned on their report card. Tyson, I owe you $20.

Not only did Tyson get straight A's, he miserably worked on a team project for a case competition. I say miserably because a) he dislikes team assignments, b) the assignment wasn't easy, c) his team kept scheduling meetings for late at night, close to campus (we live about 40 minutes from there) and d) not only did he have to present in class, he ALSO had to [gasp] take time off work to present the project in a large, science-fair type setting.

He won the case competition. What a NERD! And by nerd, I mean "hard worker." Won the thing. Here's his grand prize:

I admit, I'm a little jealous. I never won any case competitions in college. I never HAD any case competitions in college, but that's not the point. Not that I'm competitive or anything.

But that's okay, it turns out I won an award this year too. One of my staff members embarked on a covert operation to nominate me for "Ben's Bells." So late on Friday afternoon, a bunch of our program alumni and program staff surprised me with roses, and a visit from the founder of Ben's Bells. Here's what she presented me:

The irony is, the entire time we were being photographed for the newspaper article, my new lightsaber (given to me by my staff for my birthday) was dangling from my belt. Can't wait to see that photo...

And here's the roses the alumni and staff chipped in to buy for me! What an awesome way to start the Christmas holiday!

Bragging rights for Tyler? His sentence structure has become much more complex, and his problem-solving skills and creativity are growing. For example, he has converted the infamous step stool into his dinner table - setting his plate on the bench part of the stool, and sitting on the step. Facing the TV, of course.

Halloween 2012

This year Grandma Glass came to visit in time for some of our Halloween rituals. We went to Valley of the Moon's Halloween performance. Seemed like Tyler was still a little young for it, but he was a good sport.

The next day we went to Buckelew Farms in honor of Gigima Arlette's birthday - Gigima, Grandma Glass, Grandma Allaire, Great-Auntie Em, Cousin Christopher, and even Grandpa Keith joined in!

We started off by getting lost in the Corn Maze, then rode the tractor out to the pumpkin patch. Tyler took Grandpa Keith on a pumpkin hunt.

Auntie Em was all smiles as she watched her grandson, Christopher, making his way through the patch.

The grandparents - from left, Grandma Glass, Grandpa Keith, Grandma Allaire, and Great Auntie Em.

Christopher, getting grandma-hugs from Auntie Em.

Great Grandma Arlette, aka Gigima.

As has become the Glass-Keith household custom, Tyson and I selected two orange pumpkins and one small albino one. This year, Tyler decided he needed a pumpkin of his own.

So proud to have his own pumpkin!

Two nights before Halloween, we carved the pumpkins. Tyler didn't make it to the light test, he'd long since fallen asleep. 

Since Tyler's enchanted with dragons lately, thanks to the "How To Train Your Dragon" movie, I thought he'd want to wear his dragon bartender costume from the year before. But while he liked looking at it, he didn't like wearing it. Meanwhile, Grandma Allaire had found a fire fighter costume. So on the day of Halloween, Tyler went to school wearing his skeleton pjs, then decided to wear the fire fighter jacket and hat  for the parade (with skeleton leggings).

Meanwhile, upon my staff's request, I brought my fog machine, fog juice, black light, spiders, and spiderwebs to work. We draped the spiderweb along the stairwell, with spiders attached, set the fog machine up in the zen rock garden, and set the blacklight in my office, angled to make Lucy, the Camp Wellness Skeleton, glow through my office window, to be seen by people in the lobby and hallways. Some volunteers got a little overzealous with the fogger - just as I came out of my office to say, "Hold off on the fog for a while!", the fire alarm sounded throughout our entire building. That's never happened before. I noticed, with a panicky feeling, that the fire alarm was hooked into our security system. As students evacuated the obviously not burning building, staff debated - "Do we call 911 to tell them not to come?" It occurred to me to try punching in my security code...Sure enough, the alarm company called to investigate. No lights or sirens necessary. Phew.

At 4:25pm, I announced, "I'm picking up my toys and going home!" and I felt like the Grinch, pulling down all the decorations, not organizing them, just stuffing them in a bag, and as soon as I got home, pulled them out of the bag and put them up again. I'd say I decorated our house for Halloween in about 7 minutes. But Tyler, seeing a rubber spider glowing under the blacklight, decided the spider was an essential component of his costume. Once we agreed to let him carry the spider, he agreed to wear the entire fire fighter costume.

What a difference, to trick or treat with a 2.5 year old instead of a 1.5 year old! Tyler ran from house to house, asking, "Gotta find the next one?" and while he may not say "Trick or Treat!" at each house, he at least said "Thank you!" and "Happy Halloween!" to everyone he saw. People were so good natured when Tyler blew out the candles of their jack-o-lanterns, saying "Oh, well, he IS a firefighter, after all."

Our neighborhood has come back to life - houses were decorated, people were out celebrating in the streets, we kept trick or treating to earn more candy to give away to more trick or treaters, and still ran out of candy before we could run out of neighborhood kids to treat. 

Today I took the decorations down, and we closed out the Halloween season by attending the All Souls Procession/Dia de los Muertos celebration. This year, Tyler was much more comfortable with the sights of skulls and skeletons.

A little girl voluntarily gave Tyler a glowstick necklace.

Tyson asked if Tyler could see the dinosaur. "No, it's a zebra!" "Tyler, that's a dinosaur skeleton!" "No, it's a ZEBRA!" People around us thought he was hilarious.

This couple got up close, shaking hands with the crowd.

This skeleton's sign said simply, "Tucson."

We didn't march in the parade, I didn't even go with the intent to celebrate anyone in particular, but when bagpipers marched by, playing "Amazing Grace", faces painted as skulls, carrying purple roses, and a sign counting down the number of days until St. Patrick's Day, I thought of my dad. (He hated bagpipes. Especially bagpipes playing Amazing Grace. But he would've found the countdown sign funny.)

Happy Halloween!!!

The 6 Days of Tyson: Saturday

Oops, we forgot to take any pictures on Saturday. I failed to mention, Anne Marie was feeling under the weather on Friday and slept almost all day. By Saturday morning, Tyler was missing her and so as soon as he woke up, he jumped out of bed, ran out of our room and pounded on Anne Marie's door. And promptly asked for a quesadilla. Sigh.

After breakfast, we packed and lounged in our room for a bit, then headed over to Coronado Island to walk around. I loved the architecture in the residential areas, and it was funny to see how dressed up people were, just to go walking/shopping on a Saturday morning there. We ditched our car at the hotel again, and walked over to the Waterfront for burgers, as it was recommended as the best burger in San Diego. We were bummed to discover that not only was the Waterfront not on the water, the waiter wouldn't allow us to bring Tyler in. But this gave us a great excuse to go walking through Little Italy to get to the Gaslamp district (at least, I think we ended up in the Gaslamp district...) and we found another burger joint, sandwiched between a trolley route and the train tracks. Tyler was in heaven, alternating between watching trolleys go by, trains, and airplanes. We hung out there until it was time to head to the airport. Tyler once again showed great excitement during takeoff, then immediately fell asleep, despite fighting it, and slept for the duration of the flight.

Thank you so much, Grandma Allaire, not only for making this trip possible but for spending your vacation time with us! We had so much fun!

And finally, Happy Birthday, Tyson!

The 6 Days of Tyson: Friday

On Friday, we revisited the beach and then ate lunch at Anthony's Fish Grotto. After he was finished eating, Tyler defiantly grabbed Tyson's empty pint glass, and rushed away. I chased after him just in time to see him enter the kitchen, hoist the glass above his head and shout, "All done!", waiting for an adult to take the glass away from him. The kitchen staff stopped what they were doing to gather around and laugh, with comments ranging from Tyler needing another beer, to his desire to bus his own table, to options for a future career in the culinary industry.

After lunch, it was time to get down to serious business. And by serious business, naturally I mean touring local breweries.

We loved Green Flash Brewing Company. Great setup, fun tour, and of course, great beer.

We anxiously awaited 5pm, the designated tour time.

However, Tyler, for what ever reason, didn't seem all that excited about it.

This is Green Flash's second brewery - when they expanded, they moved into this location, and their brewmaster, who we keep hearing spent 20 years on a submarine, designed this highly efficient layout.

The Green Flash employees all seemed to be very happy people, and their sense of humor was evident in various ways during the tour.

Every comprehensive brewery tour includes a hop and barley display...

And of course, that's about the time Tyler likes to wake up and pay attention - he loves chewing on malted barley. This always makes him a big hit with the tour guide.

Our tour guide was lots of fun, full of enthusiasm, and kept asking questions to asses "the nerd factor of this tour." Hey Erin, Jessica from Green Flash says to tell you hi!

Tyler eventually lost his focus. He instead turned to Lightning McQueen to assess his health status after poor Lightning suffered a near drowning incident involving a certain toilet bowl. (We're happy to report, Lightning has made a miraculous recovery.)

After the tour, we were invited to sample four Green Flash beers. It was tough to narrow all the choices down to four.

Tyson demonstrated the key technique for visiting multiple breweries in a single day - alternating beer with water.

Next on the agenda was Hess Brewing Company. Unlike Green Flash and Stone, Hess is a nanobrewery. It was a little hard to find, because it was simply one suite in an industrial park. We knew we were on the right track when we saw a bunch of twenty/thirtysomethings standing around in a parking lot with pint glasses in their hands.

Remember all that fancy equipment at Green Flash? Or even the photo of the equipment at Pizza Port? This is all it takes for Hess to operate at its current level of production:

Great beer, and I loved the casual atmosphere, drinking a beer in a parking lot. There was even a nice view of hot air balloons at sunset.

And a conveniently located food truck, serving quesadillas, tacos, and burritos. And this is where I learned that it is absolutely NOT okay to assume Tyler will share his quesadilla. I hope one day Tyler and Tyson both will forgive me.

Our final assignment for the evening was The Lost Abbey brewing company. Also tucked away in an office park, but the silo sits, a welcoming beacon to seekers of beer from near and far.

These pictures are a bit misleading, it was actually quite dark in The Lost Abbey, giving it a bar feel.

This painting seemed kind of out of place in the dark...

And I was completely confused to find this on the other side of it:

Tyson later explained to me that Port Brewing Company and The Lost Abbey are the same company, The Lost Abbey referring to their line of Belgian style beers.

Between the bar atmosphere, my full stomach's disinclination for additional nourishment (perhaps due to my intense feelings of guilt as Tyler clung to Tyson for comfort, still reeling from the betrayal in discovering the loss of  his precious quesadilla), when Tyson suddenly proclaimed, "This is no place for kids!", we called it an early night.

For the record, I fully intended to buy Tyler another quesadilla on the way back to the hotel, but when I heard Tyler snoring and saw he had fallen asleep in his carseat, I decided to skip it, thinking he'd forget about it by morning. Boy was I wrong. But that's a story for another day.

Happy Birthday, Tyson!