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Christmas Photos

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours, we wish you much love, peace, and (ideally Lego-fueled) happiness. 🙂

ChristmasStory
SantaDoor

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Photos Videos

Uvas Canyon Adventures

Following our torrential rains, the dudes & I explored the waterfalls of nearby Uvas Canyon. The boys even took turns rocking my big camera, so this set includes the first Finn-captured photo upload to Facebook! They were also keenly aware of things we could do to images after the fact (“Dad-O, take a picture & then Photoshop me falling off the bridge!” “Dad-O, will your Google friends make this into a little animation?”).

Stay tuned for the Photoshoppery, and in the meantime, here’s the gallery plus a short video below.

Trailblazing

Goofyballs

Micronaxx + DSLR = Proud Paparazzo!

A video posted by John Nack (@jnack) on

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Photos

Sons From The Big Chair

Anyone excited to drop in on Dad-O at Google & pound down some ice cream? Anyone, anyone? 🙂

Big Chair

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Christmas Videos

The 12 Bots of Christmas

Thanks to Auntie Laura for some fun new reads!

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Photos

La Familia de Finny

We were delighted to discover this little composition en Español in Finn’s backpack. It shows our immediate fam plus Liggett grandparents & Lingle cousins, each performing our characteristic activities (click for larger version).

Mi Familia

Some translations:

  • Mom-O: Drawing
  • Dad-O: Working on the computer
  • Henry: Playing
  • Finn: Working at school
  • Auntie Laura: Being a teacher
  • Grandpa: Playing with kids
  • Grandma: Guitar (?)
  • Uncle James: Going to Safeway (!)
  • Patrick: Playing video games
  • Charlie: Playing
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Photos

We Like Sheep!

I’ve always gotten a goofy kick out of the line in Handle’s Messiah that says “We like sheep!” We sure did like some the other night when—thanks especially to Margot’s crazy skills with hot glue & cotton balls—our dudes were resplendent in sheep threads. Check out a gallery from their performance in Aesop’s Fables.

Lollipop

Special thanks to our pal Magdalena & her dad David for coming out to enjoy the show.

Munching1

In the clip below, the Willow Glen Elementary sheep take us to the jungle—the mighty jungle!

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Christmas Photos

G & Tree

Why hello there! You’ve just caught me drawing a little somethin’ somethin’ for Grandma & Grandpa… 🙂

Hen Tree

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Photos

Strigiform Silliness

Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you, the North American Bizarre Owl. 🙂

Silly Owl

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Photos Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving road trip!

Hearst1

This Thanksgiving we did not plan any long-distance travel, and did not have any out-of-town relatives visiting, so we decided to spend some of our long weekend on a family road trip to explore parts previously-unknown. Our good friend Reen came down from San Francisco to feast with us on Thanksgiving day, and by the time we went to bed that night, we had booked a motel in Cayucos, CA and had plans to visit the beach, San Simeon, and nearby Hearst Castle – all of which are just off the gorgeous coastal California Highway 1, south of Big Sur.

On Friday, the trip took a little over 3 hours, and we asked the boys to draw maps of what they were seeing as we headed south. Both boys did a fantastic job drawing mountains, trees, vehicles, road signs, oil pumps, freight trains, vinyards, and other things that they saw out the window, and the mapmaking kept them engaged and busy the entire trip. Listening to Johnny Cash on the stereo was also a crowdpleaser.

We checked into our vintage motor court motel room that evening, just after stopping at the beach to watch the sun go down. We popped some popcorn and watched a movie before bed, and then got some rest for the big day ahead. Friday we visited Hearst Castle (opulence is an understatement!), and spent some quality time horsing around on the beach before dinner. Sunday was rainy, so instead of spending tons of time on the windy, cold, wet beach, we toured Morro Bay’s famous Shell Shop (Excelling in Shells since 1953!) and then drove up to poke around some of the art galleries in Cambria, just south of the Castle. Then we drove home through the mist and fog.

Here’s a gallery of the weekend’s proceedings.

[Dad-O addenda: We were charmed that for some reason Finn took to referring to William Randolph Hearst as simply “The Hearst.” Henry asked our tour guide whether the castle featured a dungeon or a dragon, giving us a chance to learn about the fur-stocked basement & a statue of St. George battling a dragon (as glimpsed in the gallery). Finn named a little stuffed lion from the gift shop & named his shell-based race car driver “Shelby” (transporter of Henry’s little shell owl “Shelly”). Mom-O’s art history background came into play as we checked out the lion-heavy statuary, and Finn was fascinated to learn about the lion-headed Egyptian deity Sekhmet. Henry, meanwhile, was delighted to learn about The Hearst’s wiener dog swimming around in search of goldfish, and to point out the little ramp a gardener built so he could stop fishing the dog out of the pool (see also the gallery). —J.]

Hearst2

Hearst3

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Christmas Miscellaneous

Early Merry Christmas, Lego-style

Greetings from some truly micro Micronaxx, daily lovers of Lego Advent calendars. 🙂

MiniFigs