Happy Christmas!

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas from Southern California -- where it's 63, sunny, and without a cloud in the sky.

That's how we do Christmas here...

Santa Drives a Saturn

With Cole and Braydon getting older by the day, I wanted to try and do something to make Christmas a little more 'alive.'

I remember being a little kid and thinking every sound I heard while laying restless in bed was Santa on the roof. But that was just my wild imagination.

This year, Em, Mom and Dad, Ashley and myself crammed into the Vue and took a drive by Sara and Jeremy's place. Parked in front of the bedroom window, I shook a few sleigh bells while Dad did his best impression of a Southern California-based Santa.

Inside and dressed in his holiday PJs, Cole was thrilled to hear Santa outside his window, and his reaction -- priceless -- which you can see in the video below.

Hopefully, next year we'll remember to make this a tradition and spread these kind of reactions to other children. But only if they're on the "Nice" list.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

It was published in 2005, but just before the decade ends, I've just now finished Jonathan Safran Foer's novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. He also wrote Everything is Illuminated -- a book I've raved about before.

Extremely Loud is a multi-layered narrative of a young boy's mission to search New York City for the lock that matches a key left by his late father -- who died in the September 11th tragedy.

I'm not going to try and give a short recap of the book, frankly because I don't think I can give it the justice it deserves -- especially considering the fitting subplots it features.

So if for some reason you have some time to kill and you don't have a pile of books next to your bed that need to be read, you should pick up this book. It's fantastic; it's emotional, humorous, and so very well written.

That Christmas Smell

It's finally here. For awhile it was here. But only because of a clearance candle from Home Goods that gave the house 'that Christmas smell.'

Yesterday, after Emma, Sara and I had lunch at Porto's with Auntie Alex and Uncle Bob, we took a trip around the valley looking for an acceptable Christmas tree.

Four Christmas tree farms later, we finally found a tree that'd be perfect for our living room.

The tree's elegant and simple -- decorated with our growing collection of angelic ornaments, a figure of a Bella-like pup, and of course a selection of white/silver/glitteresque globes.

And now we have that Christmas smell along with the source of it all.

Downtown on Ice

On this near holiday weekend, Emma and I elected to take Metro's Red Line subway down to Pershing Square for the Downtown on Ice celebrations.

A seasonal ice rink, stairs packed with snow, funnel cakes and arts & crafts booths promised a day away from the norm.

And before you ask: yes we're wearing scarves; yes it was raining for a bit; no, it didn't get below 32 degrees; and yes, Californians are pathetic in our "cold" weather. Satisfied?

Fully expecting rain, we were quite surprised to see sun peaking through the skies. Which was unfortunate for those trying to mend the ice rink. Rain + sun = slush.

Between the slush and the large number of kids' day camps at the park, we elected to take in the holiday festivities but keep our ankles safely protected from the thawing ice.

After a quick, 2-hour visit to get Emma's wedding set cleaned at our jeweler across from the square (an entirely different story), we headed North on the Red Line to Hollywood and Highland -- the intersection/mecca of all things touristy in Hollywood -- which was also decorated for the holidays.

Here, just a few miles North, it was pouring. Which was interesting -- I'd never seen Hollywood in the rain before. Not bad, just different.

After navigating our way through 300 women gathered for a private event featuring a former New Kids on the Block member (ugh), Em did a little shopping and we headed home.

A good, long, festivus day.