Peace on Earth

Mike, Amber, Ediza, Maggie, Golden and Sherpa wish you a beautiful holiday season!

Today we took Maggie for a walk in the freshly-fallen snow, ate warm chocolate chip cookies and wrapped Christmas presents. We hadn't been in the snow since we were in the Swiss Alps back in June. The fluffy flakes that fell today have left us dreaming of a white Christmas.

'Tis the season

We walked two llamas -- Mac and Golden -- in the 25th annual Historic Downtown Sonora Christmas Parade. The parade is held each year the night after Thanksgiving. Last year the llamas wore packs with presents in them, while this year we put lights and bells around their necks.

Thousands of people lined Washington Street to watch the parade and get into the holiday spirit. We continued with the momentum of the parade by attending a Christmas craft fair today and tomorrow we'll cut down our Christmas tree. Not bad for it still being November.

Second fall

During our around-the-world adventure from February until July we stayed in a variety of accommodations: guest bedrooms, fancy hotels, cheap motels, historic homes, modern lofts, a chateau, a motor home, and so on. Now we can add another to our list: tent cabin.


This weekend we stayed in a canvas tent cabin in Curry Village, a longtime establishment in Yosemite Valley. Our heated tent was just a short distance from an area roped off (and now permanently off limits) due to a large rock slide last month.

Despite Curry Village being the site of a convention for recovering alcoholics this weekend, we managed to drink a bottle of champagne (and eat way too many chocolate-covered espresso beans) in celebration of my 27th birthday!



Earlier this year, during California's spring, we were in New Zealand during their autumn. So, really, we are experiencing fall for the second time this year. The crisp air, the foliage, it's amazingly similar whether you're in California or thousands of miles away.

Happy Halloween!

This Halloween Amber and Ediza were a pair of witches while I was some sort of disco-hippie pirate.

We started the day with Ediza's usual Friday morning singalong and ended it with singing around a bonfire at an elaborate Halloween festival put on by the Sierra Waldorf School.

Before we left, Ediza posed with the massive 26-pound pumpkin she picked out a few weeks ago at a nearby apple farm.

Meet Maggie (a.k.a. Draw)

Last year for Ediza's birthday we got her a Lavender Lab, a stuffed puppy filled with lavender. This year we got her the real thing!

Meet Maggie, an Old English Sheepdog who joined our family this weekend. Maggie was born seven weeks ago at Rainbow's End, another group home for the developmentally disabled. Her parents are Babs and Buster and she has six brothers -- that's right, she was the only girl in the litter.

While Maggie's name is technically short for Magnolia, Ediza still seems to like the name Draw. As you can see from the photo, Maggie has a white face, blue eyes and she's very tiny -- at least for now.

I guess potty training a toddler wasn't challenging enough so now we've added housebreaking a puppy. Finally, they both fell asleep this afternoon at the same time!

Ediza turns 2

Ediza celebrated her second birthday with an around-the-world themed party at a nearby playground. The celebration was inspired by all of the great children's birthday parties we witnessed in Amsterdam's Vondelpark.

For Ediza's party, guests were sent invitations that resembled an airplane boarding pass.


Those attending the party (like Amber's mom below) were encouraged to wear ethnic clothing. I wore a shirt from Peru, Amber wore a dress she got in Paris and Ediza wore a Chinese dress we bought her at Silk Alley in Beijing.



Amber made some neat decorations using construction paper, glitter and photos from old National Geographic magazines. Globe balloons, world maps and postcards from our trip were among the other decorations.





As for the food, there was hummus and vegetables for Greece, pizza for Italy and eggrolls and fortune cookies for China (ironically, the latter came from a Chinese restaurant called the "Great Wall.") To top off the meal there was a homemade globe cake alongside cupcakes and French truffles with miniature flags from countries around the world.

Party favor bags had stickers on them with sayings like, "See the World" and "Travel Light." They were filled with crayons, rainbow-colored bubbles, lollipops and globe bouncy balls. Ediza's goodies included a tiara, hot pink Crocs and a fancy tricycle. Today Ediza has been talking about riding her new trike "back to China."


Last year Ediza celebrated her first birthday with an elaborate outdoor tea party. This year she traveled the world and partied at a playground. Wonder what next year will bring?

Monterey

We traded in Sonora's heat for the chilly California coast this weekend. On Friday we drove down to Monterey and stayed with Maggy (one of the women we camped with at Strawberry). In an attempt to find her house we ended up at Lovers Point in nearby Pacific Grove.


After playing in the waves there, Ediza checked out this statue of a little boy and his toy sailboat.


The next morning we toured the world famous Monterey Bay Aquarium, where we saw sharks, sea otters, penguins and these mesmerizing jellyfish. Like a quote on the wall read: "The sea is as near as we come to another world."


Later that day we took Ediza to Dennis the Menace Park, a popular playground that both kids and their parents seem to enjoy.


On Sunday we drove down the coast to Point Lobos State Reserve, which bills itself as the greatest meeting of land and water in the world. While I wouldn't go that far, it is pretty spectacular. We walked sandy paths along rocky cliff tops, watching waves crash below and pelicans fly above in unison. Here I am pointing out some noisy sea lions to Ediza.



Hours after eating a picnic lunch there we returned to Monterey to meet up with Maggy and Karen (the other lady we camped with) for dinner at a local Indian restaurant. After eating a savory meal of samosas and curries we smoked mango-flavored tobacco out of a hookah. Only in California could you have a weekend like this.