Will my TV survive the Wii...???

We got a Wii from my family for Christmas. Grandpa Dan brought it down with him and it was the coolest, best present ever.

We got it set up a couple of days ago but haven't had a lot of time to play on it. Decided to try some tonight. So far the kids like cycling. And of course boxing and...

swordfighting!

We have a winner!!!

The only problem is that I'm not sure if my TV will survive the Wii. Nicolás is pretty good about staying back.

Agustín, however, really gets going. He gets off into his own little world and doesn't realize that he is about to smash in the TV screen.

Gulp.

Raclette and airplanes

Bati had us over today for lunch at his new place. We had Raclette, which is where you put an electric grill on your table and heat up cheese, meat, potatoes (in this case) as you eat. It's something the Swiss do, I guess. We had chocolate fondu with strawberries and bananas for dessert.

It gets a little smoky when you've got the Raclette at work.

After lunch we went downstairs to the park. Bati's apartment is right in front of Carolina park. Grandpa Dan had brought the kids some blasa wood gliders and we put them together and flew them for a while. It was really fun, although Nico seems to be getting sick. He was so crabby and cried and whined the whole time that he couldn't get his to "go like Tin's".

That kid is a handful, I'll tell ya!

Happy New Year!

Well happy new year! Welcome 2011. Wow. When I was little that sounded soooooo far away. Thought we'd be living on the moon or driving in flying cars or something. Of course, we DO have iPods so... almost the same thing! haha.

Had a quiet day at home. Not much going on around here on New Year's. Most people just went to bed by 6 a.m. when the kids are getting up. Nothing open. Dad helped me take down the Christmas decorations though. It's so nice to know that that is taking care of!

New Year's Eve 2010

What a great way to spend the end of an equally terrific year.

A tour of this year's año viejo contest on Amazonas.

Some pretty architecture.

A tour of the city and the viudas and viejos. (Grandpa Dan has some great pictures of the viudas, or widows.)

The green wig was a hit this year!

Lots of time with family.

Celebrating another year. (Happy birthday, Grandpa Dan!)

And we did end up making a viejo...

and burning it. (Shhhh, don't tell Agustín. He would NOT be happy! He prohibited us from burning the viejo this year.)

Amidst LOTS of fireworks. (Maybe a bit too much. A few went off a little too close to us, as well as our house windows!)

And my personal favorite story of the night. It was getting late, and Agustín was trying his best to stay up. We put him on the stairs to draw a bit. After a while he got up and started passing out pictures of dinosaurs that he had drawn. He had pictures for everyone, even people who weren't there (Great Grandma Ali is in Cuba at the moment on a trip, and Nico had fallen asleep in the car while we went out to see the viejos.) It was super sweet as he passed them out. He had written a dedication on each: To: (name).

He made it until 11. After I put him to bed, I found another drawing he had made. It was a picture of a a Hot Wheels car (a 7x7 - "Daddy, if 4x4 is good, why don't they make 7x7? That would be even better!" - his own personal invention). The drawing said: To: me.

I just love that sweetie!!!!

Happy New Year.

A Common Sight

Feel like you've seen this before?

He will never get tired of Legos.

Mask hunting

Got out today to look for the perfect mask and see what kinds of things will be showing up in our viejos this year. Some Michael Jackson (as always), Shrek, Correa and police officers (re: Sept 30), Toy Story.

Back home it was reading time. Again. And again. And again. And again.

A Star in our Midst!

There has been so much excitement around here waiting for the famous Grandpa Dan.

This morning at the beach the kids were ready to leave by 8 a.m. because "Grandpa Dan is coming!"

Every plane that went by later that evening had Grandpa Dan on it.

And now he is here and the kids are so so so happy. He is like a celebrity in their eyes.

I have a feeling he won't be getting much of a break from their attention!

Swimming in the rain

Spent the morning basking in the hot sun at the beach, then the afternoon in the pool. We didn't even get out when it started to rain.

Love these faces.

Post-Christmas Trip

We decided to take a little trip to the beach the day after Christmas to warm up a bit from the colder Quito temps. The kids didn't seem to mind. It was nice and hot, hotter than the last time we were there.

Four pineapples and three papayas for a dollar means one big fruit salad!

Merry Christmas!

Hello Christmas 2010.

A visit from Santa during the night.

Stockings stuffed with cool treats. (When I was little the stockings were always always a favorite.)

Lots of discarded wrapping paper.

A few toys strewn every which way.

And a few favorite presents.

Family Pics

Christmas Eve. We spent part of the afternoon at Great Grandma Ali's, and the evening at our house, opening presents and having a nice turkey meal. We got our annual family pictures as well. It isn't easy getting the kids to sit still long enough to snap a couple of pictures, but I think they turned out OK.

Maybe our last Freedom Christmas pageant?

Today Nico had his annual Christmas pageant at his school (named Freedom). It was a bit shorter than other years but still a good three and a half hours. It started with a procession through the streets, election of the Christmas Queen, then a dance in Spanish and also in English for each grade level and class, then ended with Santa and presents and a special Michael Jackson performance from one of the kid's father. Nico did great. His dance was with ribbons and the kids were actually quite in sync with each other.

Last year he was one of the smallest kids in his class, but this year he is one of the tallest. Same kids. Go figure! I have no idea how he is growing - he sure doesn't eat much!

Agustín went with us since Daddy was working, but got a little bored. He's to "old" for this sort of thing now. I gave him my camera and he took a series of over 150 pictures with it. But I got a few gems!

He thought he was so funny, turning the camera upside down like that. I didn't want to disappoint him by telling him that I could rotate it back rightside up again on the computer.

December Daily 2010

Many of you know that I have been working on my December Daily. This is my third year in a row, and it is something I plan to always do, at least while the kids are small. It is a place to record my thoughts of the holiday season, our family's traditions, the way we spend a little of our daily life during the season as well. You may be reading these thoughts in my album at this moment, as I am using my blog this year to help me record my thoughts so that I can work on the actual album later in 2011.

The base of the album gets done in October or so, and then each day we record 1 or more pictures and a few thoughts about the holiday. This year I have been having trouble keeping it up to date since the Kodak place that used to be on the corner has moved to the mall, and what used to be a 10-minute trip up to quick develop a picture or two has become an hour or more, trying to battle holiday crowds and sparse parking at the mall. So I have made peace with myself and decided that getting it done in 2011 will be fine this year, for the sake of my holiday sanity. Here is my work station, which I will presently be putting away to make room for the festivities and guests. It has been here since October, so I think it is about time. :)

The Observatory

Every year the university gives the teachers a little "present" for Christmas. One year they had a choir sing carols outside in front of the cathedral. That was very beautiful. This year it was a tour of the Quito Observatory. This is special because the observatory is not open to the public yet.

We were given the tour, and it was cool because as not all the glass is on the stands, the tour guide actually took some of the instruments out and showed them to us up close. The building belongs to the Politécnica, but hasn't been fixed up or given any maintenance for decades. Finally they are doing something about this, and it looks very nice. It is an exact replica of another observatory in Germany. Apparently observatories on the equator are very important, which is why is was terrible that Ecuador hadn't taken very good care of theirs.

We brought the kids and they really enjoyed themselves. Especially Tin, who loved getting a first hand look at all of those cool instruments!

Later that night it was another edition of The Grandpa Dan Show. This is NOT getting old. It was the big Christmas finale show, and the kids had a great time, as always.