Little December Things

More of Tyna's "good":

I wanted the girls to help me organize/clean up the playroom. This is their version of cleaning:

California burned. There was a huge fire in Ventura really near Christian and Shandra. Then one started by Bonsall (dubbed the Lilac Fire), and it moved very rapidly straight west toward us. Leela's mom, Anna, called that afternoon shortly after I found out about the fire to tell me that her friend in South Oceanside was packing bags. Anna said she normally doesn't worry, but she was a little freaked out and wondered what I was doing. She erroneously assumed that if anyone would be prepared and on top of an emergency like this, it would be I. I told her I was not at all prepared but wasn't really worried, and we agreed to be in touch when we found out more.

Then I saw Scott Cikanek, our neighbor, and he was making fun of Rebecca, who was inside packing bags, worried about being able to evacuate quickly. She came outside and tried to defend herself, saying she wanted to be ready so that if it came time to evacuate, they could get out quickly before the rush of people. She was planning to take everything they might need (formula, diapers, clothes, etc.), but Scott was laughing that they'd just buy what they needed and stay at the Four Seasons or at some hangar where his company has supplies to last a month.

Maybe a half hour after that conversation with Scott and Rebecca, there was a knock on the door. It was Scott coming by to tell me there was a fire off of Skyline, right by our neighborhood. He and I laughed that Rebecca was redeemed; she'd been right to get prepared. Later Anna sent me this picture of Rafi and Leela watching the fire:

Fortunately, that Skyline fire was contained quickly.

The Lilac Fire, however, kept coming. By evening, a few people in our ward were only a couple miles from the evacuation zone. Derrick Karner took this picture from their backyard (across the golf course from us):

We gathered some important documents and made a list before we went to bed of what we'd want to take if we had to leave in the night. The fire was moving so quickly that day because of crazy Santa Ana winds and dry conditions.

I thought I'd wake up to news of more land scorched and people evacuated, but in the morning nothing had changed. The firefighters got it under control. A little over a 100 houses were destroyed.

The littles like to climb on things on the couch (mainly Jim or stacks of pillows) and fall or jump off.

One Sunday morning, for no reason, Ever got up and went straight downstairs to prepare breakfast in bed for Jim (a bowl of cereal) and me (Grapenuts and yogurt). It was the cutest, sweetest thing. She had to make multiple trips to bring up our bowls, our water glasses, and a whole gallon of milk so Jim could pour it on his cereal. After we finished, we went to get Tiny up and found that Ever had also delivered breakfast in bed to her. 

The kindergartners performed some Christmas songs in the courtyard on the Wednesday before Christmas break. It was not very professional, but they were cute. Here's a sample (Ever and Leela in the back in the middle):

Jim and I took Ever to The Nutcracker (full-length). She claimed to prefer it to the abbreviated, kid-friendly version we attended last year.

Amazon saved our lives this December. Going to actual stores sounds way too hard, and Jim is wild about one-click. He officially buys everything on Amazon. So many packages. So much cardboard.