Talia's Little Gym Birds Class

At the end of January, Talia finished her Birds Little Gym class and has since moved on to a Beasts class!

Favorite January Pics

Who stole the candy from the candy jar?

Talia stole the candy from the candy jar!

Snuggling up on New Years Day

The picture says it all...

Starting of the new year

We headed up to the Oakland Zoo on January 3, to let our little monkeys hang out with all of the other animals. Luckily, we were joined by cousins Jen and Brennie to help tame our wild beasts. (Ok, enough of that.) We had a really good time walking around the zoo, riding the train and taking a trip on the high sky ride (Eric's fav). Jason ran into a college friend he hadn't seen in over 10 years too.

Favorite December Pics

New Years Eve 2009! (Part II)

Around 6 ish, we headed to Paul & Shanda's place for an East Coast New Years Eve party. We hung out, ate pizza, chatted, and played Mafia (for just a bit too long). Then it was 9:01 and we blew our noise makers, drank champagne, got the kids in pajamas and headed home.

New Years Eve 2009!

In the afternoon, we headed to downtown San Jose to watch the ice skaters at the outdoor rink that is set up during the holidays every year. We walked around some, got treats at Starbucks and ran into our friends Kent, Tawnya and Garret.

Seeing Eliza & Karen

We drove up to Berkeley at the end of December to see Karen & Eliza, who were visiting family from Houston. It was our first time seeing them since they moved in the summertime. We met at Eliza's grandparents house and then walked/whined/walked/cried/walked/whined/walked/cried to a nearby playground. (Eric fell asleep on the way there and was *gruuuumpy!* the whole time we visited!) It was great to see them, just wish it had been a more pleasant visit.

LA Trip December 09

In addition to visiting with family and friends, our trip was filled with a lot of celebrating, plenty of food and tons of presents. We started the trip off with a visit to Hermosa Beach with Blair & Molly for an aquarium visit and lunch, then a Hanukkah celebration with the Musicer/Fuerst side of the family. A Hanukkah gift exchange and indoor playtime (at a local kids' venue) followed. We met Kellie & her kids (our first time meeting Daniel!) at the park for a couple hours, then an afternoon hang out session with Aaron & Julie (soon to be parents!). To end our trip, we spent the day at Aunt Sherrie's for Christmas and spent time with the Katz/Valera side of the family.

Hanukkah 2009!

With our friends and family, we gathered to light the candles, sing songs, exchange gifts and stuff ourselves on December 12.

Beckman visits in December

My friend David, with whom I used to work when I taught in LA and currently lives in PA, came to visit for one brief afternoon/evening/morning. After picking up Eric from preschool, we went to Barnes and Noble to do some shopping, then to dinner at our local sushi place and finally to see the Festival of Lights at Vasona Park. The following morning we found frost on our lawn and then drove David to SFO on his way to LA.