This was our second year spending the holidays in our home here in LA. Last year Iya and Papa came to visit just before the holiday and we had a couple of Christmas celebrations! This year, we kept it simple and it was again, wonderful!

All December long we have been reading the book “The Elf on The Shelf” and the kid shave LOVED it! Every morning Ella would wake up and run around the house trying to find what that silly little elf had gotten himself into. Luckily for us he usually did nice things (like help me with the dishes or play the guitar). On Christmas eve Bruce sat down with Ella to read her the book one last time – as the elf needed to get back to Santa and help him with all the work he had ahead!

I love to watch these two together! <3 Though, they really can push each others buttons from time to time! haha Ella adores her father, and I know that feeling is mutual.

On Christmas morning the kids woke up to a bunch of fun new toys from us, family and Santa. It was really great to watch their excitement and see how they enjoyed opening and discovering what each gift was. Santa got the kids a new play house this year and I must say, while I thought the kids would like it, I am blown away by how much Bastion LOVES it!!

He spends loads of time ringing the doorbell, shouting his trademark “EL-O” and opening and closing the little door. <3 The elves forgot to send any screws along with the playhouse, so I had an interesting time trying to make it safe for the kids haha. Luckily, the kids are not annoyed with this in the least!

I loved spending the day as a family, it was light and comfortable... we could stay in our jammies all day (and maybe we did!) Another big hit present wise for the kids is a digital art studio. Ella has REALLY started taking to this and wants to use it all the time. She "builds" her name over and over. This has also now lead to her discovering that she can text her name We may need to get an unlimited texting plan!

A very special part of the morning happened when Ella actually caught Santa in the act! Since Santa is magic, we couldn't get a clear picture of him while he was in our house, but she woke up to him finishing off his cookies!

I feel so very lucky to have this family. We got to Skype with Oma and Opa and Iya and Papa as well as our siblings <3 I feel like even though we are hundreds and thousands of miles from each other we are all so lucky to be able to pop into each others livingrooms (or offices) and share these special times.

So sad that it has taken a huge storm to get me back on here writing – but life has really gotten busy! These two little ones keep me on my toes and now with Ella in school we are much busier than I ever expected!!

Well, lets get to this storm… and what a storm it was. I remember hearing on the news that “dangerous weather is headed our way” and I kind of laughed it off. Really, ‘dangerous weather’ here in LA? I figured there would be some strong Santa Ana winds – but nothing like what we experienced. We lost our power on Wednesday night… this also just so happened to be the night that Bruce was working late for month end. He didnt get home till 3:30am! With the power out the kids and I made a game of everything. Bastion went to sleep with no problems – that boy is a great sleeper now! Ella was just too excited. I sat in our big comfortable green chair with a big candle by our front door, leaving Ella’s door cracked so she could see me. Every ten min or so she would ask, ‘mama, are you still there?’ About 11:30pm she finally succumbed to sleep. I sat there in our big chair, watching the wind tare through the neighborhood. I could tell whenever a big rush of wind was coming; I would start to hear this loud rumble, then the house would start to shake – very much like an earthquake, the windows would rattle and then you could see the trees bending. I watched four transformers blow up in the matter of about 2 hours. I was so worried about Bruce driving home. I slept on the couch that night so that I could be close to the kids if they needed anything or got scared. In the morning we all woke and went outside to survey the damage… this was the first thing we saw:

This is across the street from our house, a 100 year Oak came crashing down. This driveway leads to 4 other houses and all the families were blocked in. The wind had come in from the north and blown the tree south, into another of our neighbors yard/house. Luckily the house has some tall thin trees and a palm tree that saved them from having their house broken down by the tree. It was such an intense sight to see.

Here you can see the palm tree that saved their house.

And here is a shot of their house, with just SOME of the debris that was created.

Well into the night they worked trying to clear the driveway so the families could get out.

I climbed into the driveway to get a shot of how it looked for the families who live down the driveway.

We had 4 days with no power. That lost its charm VERY fast! By the 4th day I was done. We were not sleeping well, the house was cold, the kids were restless and all our food had gone bad. The last night we had no power and Ella woke up in the middle of the night puking. Poor girl! That same night Bastion pee’d through his diapers and the double layer of jammies I had him in. I went to go buy the kids more warm weather clothes to make it through another night and as I pulled into our driveway – THE LIGHTS CAME BACK ON!!!!!!! I promptly ran into the house and turned the heat up! I was so happy I broke out in tears!

Ella now plays a game she made up called “wind storm!” She will stack items on top of one another and then knock them all down yelling “WIND STORM!!” haha. She is still excited every time we can turn on a light – as am I. This experience has showed me ways we need to be more prepared for a large disaster. We were lucky to have gas and still be able to use the burners on the stove and have hot water. We lost all our food (including an upright freezer and chest freezer). I now have enough tea-candles to last a huge storm again! The evening after we got our power back I was holding Bastion on that big green chair I wrote about earlier. He was snuggling into my chest and we were both warm and cozy. I felt so relieved, I felt so humbled and so grateful that I could once again keep my children warm and safe.

Another note I want to add is how wonderful all our neighbors were with coming together to help each other out. We shared breakfasts and dinners to ensure everyone had food and there was nothing left over (since there was no way to store it). We all came out to help clean each others yards to to make sure that we all had everything we needed. We shared candles and stories and wine.