It will take me a few blog posts to recount our holiday travels to California, but I'll start with our first Christmas celebration in Hemet. Anna deserves credit for most of these photos. In general, if you see a picture on the blog that looks great, she probably is the one who took it. If the picture is blurry or crooked, it's probably from me.

The girls were great on the plane ride over. They each had a special set of headphones and watched videos pretty much the whole time.

As soon as we got to Hemet, hiking was our #1 priority! Somewhere there is a picture of me and my sisters hiking, but I can't find it. Kelly? Kara?

Anyway, we spent quite a bit of time outdoors as you might imagine.

We also celebrated Kara's birthday

The kids spent lots of time reading with family

And playing cymbals. Thanks, Pa and Wa.

Now, on to the main Christmas event! Let's start first with the night before Christmas, at which point I opened up the package that contained the tutu for Quinn I had shipped to Hemet. If you're a follower of this blog, you'll recall that a "tutu with a bow" was the only thing Quinn asked for from Santa. And when he went to bed that night before Christmas, he looked and me and said, "When I wake up I'll open just one present, and I hope it's the tutu with a bow from Santa!"

So, you might imagine my dismay when I opened that package and the tutu was WAY.TOO. SMALL.  It's possible I shed some tears, and went into a state of panic.

My sisters are awesome, and given my incapacitated state went to the Hemet Mall at night (yikes!) to locate a tutu. Amazingly, they found one.

Now this tutu did not come with the bow you see above. My sisters bought that separately, and Moin then sewed it on late that Christmas eve night.

I hope one day Quinn reads this and sees what a family affair his present was! But you know what? His face the next morning made it all worth it! And yes he opened that present first :)

Other gifts - Kara bought the kids some cool superhero capes

Santa bought them all helmets

And Moin and I got them swimsuits and towels (along with winter swim lessons).

Wa and Pa also bought Quinn United States Bingo which we all played countless times with him before the vacation was over.

We also got a visit from cousin Luna!

The girls loved her, and did some serious supervision of her diaper change.

It was a great day. I'll end with a few more Hemet holiday photos.

Eli and P. Don't they look just alike?

Kelly and Z. You will notice that Z is still much more of a "poser" than P. The three below are also of her.

Quinn is having a great time in California. or, at least, according to reports from Wapa. He doesn't want to talk to me on the phone.

Of course, he was jumping at the chance to say hello to his sisters on the phone today!

Anyway, here's a few pictures sent to me from Wa.

Quinn at In-N-Out.

Making a gingerbread house

And decorating a tree

Pretty good life, right?

The girls had their two-year doctor's visit today.
They had a lead test, a shot, and all their vitals done.

Look closely at the picture, and you'll see that meow the cat and toodie are also wearing band-aids from a lead test...

Here are the girls' stats:

penelope:

23 lbs 4 oz (7%)

34.5 inches (55%)

47.1 cm head (34%)

zahra:

24 lbs 14 oz (20%)

34.75 inches (60%)

48.3 cm head (67%)

And, for fun, here's a picture of the girls with all their "friends." Hope they're not all coming with us to California!

Updated photos!

 The girls on the balance beam at gymnastics class

And their gymnastics class "completion" certificates, of which they are immensely proud.

The girls enjoying the snow

And Penelope sliding down a snowy hill

Hanging out after gymnastics class

Quinn enjoying hot chocolate on a cold day

Mosaic

What the doorway looks like in winter

Z at midtown global market

 P enjoying a croissant, also at midtown global market

The girls are really into posing now. Penelope was saying "cheese" in this picture! You may notice she and Z are wearing bibs in some of these pictures. After two years of refusing to wear them, they're now interested in them as fashion accessories.

Zahra - note her carefully arranged Yo Gabba Gabba dolls in the back

Zahra has always been our most adventurous eater, but now she's really shown an interest in helping moin out in the kitchen as well. She loves to help him, and to taste what he's making.

Finally, Quinn has left for California to hang with Wa and Pa for the week. Here's a picture Wa sent me of him taking off his shoes as soon as he got there!

We had our first big snow today. In the end, it will be over a foot in St. Paul.

Ready to go outside!

All the kids sledding down the driveway

Moin shoveling/pelleting the kids with snowballs

helping dad shovel

Snow!

Taking time to pose

 Hot chocolate was too hot, so it's cooling off in the snow

We had an impromptu neighborhood party, complete with a bonfire, hot chocolate, sledding and fun. All in a snowstorm!

See the hills that go down to the street from our house? Miss Penelope was sledding down on those full speed on her bottom, and wanted to do it again and again. The other two joined in as well, but with a little more trepidation than their tiny sister.