The girls got out of school on Weds, Dec 21. We were mostly packed and within the hour were on the road to Burbank. The drive down was fairly smooth. The girls watched movies and Chet and I had lots of time to catch up.

We spent the night at Uncle Tim & Aunt Kelly’s house with the cousins and then we went to the LA Zoo to see all the animals – especially the two new baby tigers – and resist the girls’ pleas for every sweet treat they saw. Urgh.

We drove back to Burbank, picked up our stuff and then drove to Hollywood to meet Uncle Myron and Aunt Liza and the boys for a 7pm dinner at their favourite Chinese restaurant, Yang Chow. We had a little time for window shopping in Chinatown, but were surprised that the stores were all closing up at 6pm! We stopped by a bakery and bought Coconut Bread and some other yummies for breakfast.

Myron and Liza had described this restaurant for years and we’d always wanted to eat there. We were not disappointed. The Spicy Wonton soup was the absolute highlight and I wish I could find the recipe! Liza has been coming to the restaurant for over TWENTY years and we relied on her to order for us. Everything was delicious and we ordered an extra supply of soup to take to Aunt Cindy’s house.

We walked down to a cool little square where there were a few shops open. Chet remembered the wishing well from his childhood and we brought a bunch of pennies for the girls to throw in it. Unfortunately it was all dark, but the square was prettily lit and we browsed in some shops that were still open.

We managed to get to Aunt Cindy’s house before the jacuzzi closed and we finished a fun-filled day with a dip in the spa.

We slept well and the girls jumped in bed with Aunt Cindy the next morning. We’d planned a quieter day of sewing. Cindy had a bunch of organza that she needed turned into table runners for daughter Priscilla’s wedding next summer. Priscilla came over and we had two sewing machines and one iron going.

The girls watched several movies and took the dog for a walk while Chet fixed some shelves that Cindy needed put back on the wall.

Cindy made yummy pasta for dinner and Chet and I accepted her offer to watch the girls while we went to see the musical Wicked on Broadway. We’d noticed the signs when we drove to Chinatown the night before and on a whim, bought tickets off stubhub at a big discount. The production was amazing and we had such a great time  (thanks Aunt Cindy!!).

The sewing continued on Christmas Eve. In the end, we got through 14 of the 22 table runners before we stopped to clean up for the dinner.

The whole family came over for a yummy dinner – even Grandma Hoo Hoo drove down from the mountains to join the fun. Uncle Myron hands out each present and everyone gets to open their gifts. We’d let the girls open their presents from us earlier in the evening so that we’d have a little more sleep overnight before Chet had to go to work. We left the party at 7:30pm to drive home. The girls fell asleep fairly quickly and I was able to stay awake most of the time to chat with Chet and help keep him awake.

It was a long drive and we were so glad to be home safely. Fortunately the traffic was really light.

We got home to a freezing cold house and a kitty with a big swollen abscess on her tummy! We quickly got under our quilts and tried not to worry about Lilly (the cat).

Chet got up a few hours later and drove in to work. When the girls got up, we opened our stockings and packed Chet’s up to take to him at the station. Lilly didn’t seem really sick – just had their weird plum-sized swelling on her tummy (ack). We cleaned up and drove over to Uncle Paul & Aunt Miriam’s house for a Christmas visit.

After a short visit, we drove over to the fire station to join Chet and his crew for a casual evening of tamales and football.

Steve taught the girls how to play table football and I don’t think anyone was able to score a point! It was fun hanging out at the fire house and we were lucky that the guys didn’t get a call while we were visiting.

We drove home not too late and got a good rest before waking up and taking Lilly into the emergency vet ($$). By morning her abscess had popped and was draining, so I guessed it was an infection and not something weirder and more expensive.

The vet and staff were really nice, but poor Lilly wasn’t very happy. I think she’s saying, “You guys got lots of presents and fun for Christmas, but all I got was this crazy hat!”

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