Kids wear me out - Part 2

Day 2 -Sightseeing around L.A.
Rob and I traded tour guide duties. Cathee, the boys, and I had a big breakfast at Foxy's in Glendale and headed out. The boys are both fans of Gundam models. We made a stop in Chinatown at a few stores that I knew had deals of these models. The stunned looks on their faces were priceless. They had never seen stores with variety quite like that. They shopped until they dropped or something close to it. We refueled with some boba drinks or bubble tea. Then, we headed off to Olvera Street. We wanted them to see a bit of L.A.'s history. We took a short tour of Avila Adobe. We continued the buying frenzy with purchases of Luchador masks. The kids were ecstatic. We had dinner at Brownstone Pizza and cupcakes for dessert from Dots Cupcakes. We finished the day by passing out in my living room while watching "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles".

Franky & I at breakfast

Ethan & Cathee
Clowning around with the super candy machineChinatown
Toasting with their Boba drinks
At the Avila Adobe
Luchadors!
Dots Cupcakes in Pasadena
Franky enjoying the aroma
Doesn't this pizza look ginormous?!
Franky trying to make a dent in the Pizza

It's that time of the year

I can't believe it is December already. I love this time of year. What can I say? I am a sap. I have always associated this time of year with fond memories.

As I mentioned previously, our holiday season started with Black Friday shopping. As the oldest, I helped my mom with the rest of the decorating, shopping, and gift wrapping. I loved the bonding time. My mom has always been a career woman. This made one-on-one time with her very limited. The holidays afforded me time with my mom. It's one of the things that I miss now that I live so far from her.

Another aspect of the holidays that I love is gift-giving. I love getting gifts, but I love giving them even more. I enjoy finding little gems for the people on my list and their reactions when they open the gifts. For a short time, the shopping frenzy that takes place here in L.A. ruined my gift-giving delight. You haven't seen anything until you try shopping out here. The pushing, the shoving, the rudeness are unprecedented.

Thankfully, I have found a workaround. I now buy gifts online. This year I am being extra sporting, I am striving to buy mostly handmade gifts. No macramé or bead bracelets. I would post photos of my finds, but it will have to wait until after the holidays. It'll be good I promise. Until then, here's an article about buying handmade gifts.

Black Friday

For the fourth year in a row, I have skipped the shopping frenzy known as "Black Friday". While growing up, it was considered a sport by my family. My mother would have us scour the sales papers and we would come up with a "plan of attack". Our clothes would be laid out the night before. The woman was a machine. She would have us up promptly at 4 am with breakfast already on the table. To some this may be considered a smaller form of child abuse. To us, it was fun. It was the one time that we were ALLOWED to run around the store and grab what we were assigned to pick it up. What kid wouldn't want that? It was a weird form of family bonding. My mother had our undivided attention while we stood in line. She would subtly pick our brains as to what each of us wanted for Christmas. The woman was good.

Flash forward several years. I now live in Los Angeles which is considered a major shopping mecca. I tried "Black Friday" shopping with my cousin. I have never seen pushing shoving and maneuvering quite like that. These people were professionals! The thrill was gone. It was then that I realized that I was completely out of my league. As a realist, I decided that standing in line for $5 DVDs was not worth it for me. I have respectfully chosen not to participate.

As a result, I have become an online shopper. Last year I bought 50% of my gifts online. This year, I intend to buy 75% of my gifts online. To add to the challenge, I am attempting to buy mostly handmade gifts. Handmade gifts no longer mean ugly sweaters made by your Aunt. With sites like Etsy, unique and well-made handmade gifts are much more accessible. I plan to post my finds. We'll see how this goes...