Would It Be Alright By You If I Degreenify You?

Tod has never seen Wicked. We (mostly A&L) are always talking about it and he was curious. It swung through town so we swung in to see it, but planned it strategically so that we could go as soon as all the kids were gone to their other parents for Christmas.

During intermission I looked at my FB and Lily left a really long, obnoxious message on my wall so I responded with a picture of this to get back at her. They didn't know we were going before this picture showed up on Lily's wall.

The show was great. It was my third viewing. I saw it on Broadway once and at The Pantages Theater twice. Man that is a rad theater. Tod and I stood around gawking after the show until they kicked us out.

Enjoy our photographic studies of the place.

Can I get a holla for my Tod? Every other time I've been to Pantages I've had to explain to my companions what art deco is. I know I always say this, but it's sooooo great being married to someone who appreciates and understands art too. We totally geek out on it all the time.

And he's darn cute to boot. 

After the show we wandered around Hollywood a little and stumbled into a museum for the Church of Scientology. Tod is a huge science fiction fan and really loves Battleship Earth by L. Ron Hubbard. As such he respects L. Ron. We ended up having a long discussion with the lady at the desk. She was very sweet and kind. I left with a different view of scientology. I really don't know much about it, besides the Tom-Cruise-jumping-on-Oprah's-couch madness. We all agreed that we belong to a faith that is sorely misrepresented and misunderstood. She also invited us to attend a very cool science fiction convention for writers and artists. Coolio. After we left Tod said "what she didn't tell you is that their god is an alien named Xenu." I responded by telling him that they may just be right....

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Lily starred in our community play the last couple weekends. She did a fantastic job. She worked very hard for 2 months memorizing her lines and understanding her character so she could play the part well. She nailed it! 

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is the story of a woman who is directing her church's Christmas play and gets some unexpected visitors...the town's very most roudy children....the Herdmans. 

This is the opening scene with Lily (Grace) and her family. Her husband is actually a girl named Chloe.

In this scene Grace is selecting parts for the pageant when the Herdmans show up. They shove other kids out of their chairs and Grace says wide eyed "Wellllll, let's just make some room for the Herdmans...." Note that many of the "kids" in the pageant are taller than Lily...even in her high heels! She's such a shrimp.

Here's a video clip. After the Herdmans show up (they were told there are unlimited deserts at Sunday School...this is why they come), Grace has to help them understand what the Christmas story is. She's explaining it to them here.

 This was a very cute scene. All the kids go tearing through the church screaming because it's full of smoke. Turns out, Imogene Herdman was just smoking cigars in the lady's room.

Here Grace is telling the Herdmans that "break a leg" is just a theatrical saying after they had just tried to break their little brother's leg...

As it turns out, the Herdmans end up having their hearts touched by the Christmas story and they don't even eat any of the deserts after the show. It was a very cute little story.

Here is Lily leading the cast in the bows. 

I was feeling so much pride for Lily when I realized what great actresses both of my girls are. They both had their first part as a supporting role in their first play and then in their second plays, each of them got the lead part.

Ana as Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls.

The kid in the white suit was Ralph Herdman in Lily's play.

I love having my kids in drama. Especially when it's a musical because they get exposure to acting, singing & dancing while they're there. And they LOVE it. Ana's next play starts in January. She is the youngest amongst the seniors now, so she is just in the ensemble. She will play a cocktail waitress and a nun in the same play..... 

Anyway GOOD JOB LILY! WAY TO BREAK A LEG!!!

Grandma Mary came to see it this last weekend. It was super fun to have her here. We walked through Candy Cane lane after the play on Saturday night. Here's a blurry picture of us. (Thanks lady who snapped it for us. Grrrr).

The Thanks We Gave

We joined some friends this year for TG in Oceanside. We left our beach home (3/4 mile from the beach) for a REAL beach home...across the street from the beach. It was heavenly. 

We didn't want to haul all the food there and spend the day cooking so we had it catered. Genius! I did, however, still whip up mashed potatoes and cranberry raspberry salad. My kids couldn't call it Thanksgiving without these side dishes. 

This is the view out our front window. We watched the sun come up/go down over the ocean every day. So lovely.

The wonderful and adorable David and Tiffany (with a spectacular sunset behind them).

Todd and Carlos sharing a boisterous moment.

Enjoying some camaraderie on the rooftop balcony. Of course we can't get a good shot of all of us. Lily would never allow that....

A typical scene. Enjoying the ocean and some great music.

One night we built a campfire on the beach near our place. We had the fixings for s'mores, but didn't have sticks for roasting marshmallows, so we assembled them at home before we left (had to stick them in micro for a few seconds to get the marshmallows smooshy), wrapped the whole pile in foil, stuck it in a pot and threw the pot in the fire. Totally brilliant.

Lili and Lily.

It's actually even more confusing than that. Lili's real name is Liliana. Lily, Ana & Liliana. Thankfully there is a slight difference in pronunciation betwix their names. Lee-lee and Li-lee. They're both total turkeys.

The ladies.

The gentlemen.

I was experimenting with a function on my camera that works well at night, but it requires perfect stillness. As you can see, the pics didn't turn out perfectly, but I think they're charming like this.

Incidentally, I was in love with the pier behind us. I drove to Oceanside with Pat, Jen, Trevor, Amber (relatives)  & Gma Jane once when I was about 14. We stayed with the Allen's (more relatives). After our arrival, Grandma took Susan and I to walk on the pier at night. It was magical to walk down it again and revel in the memories.

No flash (firelight in front of us).

Flash.

What's your preference?

Sister Soup

The Hursts came to LA last week. Woohoo!!! They were staying in Pasadena for the first couple days of their trip because Mitch had a conference. By the second day we couldn't stand having them so close, yet so far away so I went to pick up the girls and steal them away.

Arriving at the hotel

Trip to the beach

 

Later in the afternoon Les & Mitch showed up

We ditched the kids with explicit instructions NOT to call 911 while we were gone. We had dinner at one of my favorite LA joints, Tara's Himalayan Cuisine.

The girls were in AG nirvana for a couple days. It was an elaborate set up.

We somehow scored 6 free tickets to Disneyland so we went on what happened to be an extremely rainy day. It doesn't rain much down here, but when it does it can really lay the smack down. It was VERY soggy.

I found this picture of the grandkids at Disneyland when they were tiny. Edie didn't even exist yet. 

Before.

After.

We spent their last day here in Manhattan Beach...

Eating.

Squishing faces.

Strolling the pier

Petting star fish.

Munching on ice cream.

Taking interesting self-portraits.

And constantly trying to hide these damn crutches from the kids. For some reason we have them in the house and my kids (i.e. Lily) constantly have "reason" to "need" them. Mostly they are just really fun to play with. I don't think anyone was convinced that Ella needed them while crossing a tiled watery walkway.

THANKS FOR COMING LES!! FYI, Les owns the prize for visiting the most since we moved here a year and a half ago...4 times (right, Les?). She's my hero.