All Thomas All the Time

My dad came up for work last week and took us all out to dinner - and bought a bunch of Thomas the Tank Engine stuff for Toby at the toy store. His timing could not have been better. It's been raining a lot lately, so this is pretty much how we have been passing the time, most days:

Our new vacuum cleaner!

I got a gift certificate to Macy's for Christmas and had been having a hard time deciding what to do with it. Then, my mom told me that she is planning on getting me a new camera for my birthday, so, that made the decision a lot easier. I came home with a new vacuum cleaner. Our old vacuum cleaner sucked - but not like a vacuum cleaner should. I had just vacuumed before I got the new one, and it was absolutely amazing how much dirt the new one extracted. I am very excited about it. Toby thought he box it came in was pretty exciting too!

Mama Moutain

Toby says the trains are going up a "really huge mountain," aka, my thighs.

Meeting the newest family member

I went to Santa Barbara this last weekend to meet the newest member of our clan. Welcome to the family Penelope!

My niece, Penelope, sister-in-law, Laurie, brother, James, and my mom, Juli.

Fairytale Town, Sacramento

Toby and I went to Faiytale Town today. It was awesome.

The Little Engine That Could

McGregor's Garden

They have it set up so that the kids can water the plants / flood the area, with little plastic watering cans and then play in the mud. That's what Toby did anyway. Next time I'll bring a change of clothes - he was pretty wet and muddy afterwards, but he had a lot of fun playing in Mr. McGregor's Garden.

There are all kinds of animals, all over the place too, goats, a cow, a donkey, chickens for the kids to chase around - some of them were quite unusual - several varieties of chickens - but, with all the kids chasing them around, it was hard to photograph them. I only got pictures of the more common ones - but you'll just have to take my word for it; Fairytale Town, Sacramento has some cool looking chickens.

Toby, saying hello to Charlotte in the barn. In Fairytown, "Charlotte," of Charlotte's Web fame, is a tarantula.

Also, I had to take a picture of this, because I think this might be the cutest public men's room I've ever seen. In fact, I don't think I've ever described a men's room as "cute" before. But, here it is:

Fairytale Town is pretty great. We had a fantastic time there today.

Sunflower Drive-In and the Zoo

Toby and I went to a natural foods, vegetarian and vegan take out restaurant called "The Sunflower Drive-In" today. I've been wanting to check it out since we moved here because the reviews on-line are amazing.

Toby fell asleep on the way there so I had lots of time to take pictures of the place from the car.

It's in Fair Oaks, which is a very chicken friendly town. You have to watch out for chickens when you drive because there are chickens and roosters all over the place.

It was good, but we won't be going there very often. It's really out of the way, and it's more of a restaurant with primarily outdoor seating, than a fast food joint, or a drive-in. You have to wait in line to order so it doesn't have the kid-friendly convenience of a McDonalds drive thru or Sonic Drive-In - even though the food is much, much better, in so many ways. I practically inhaled my vegan nut burger and Toby really liked his vegan cookie too.

Then we went to the zoo - which is awesome. It's so cool to be able to go to the zoo whenever we want!

An older, much bigger boy at the zoo was going around yelling, "I'm a mountain lion! Rrrr!" and Toby responded, "I'm a little sleeping turtle." I love my little turtle. He is just the cutest little guy ever... most of the time.

Toby has also gotten over his fear of slides and mechanical toddler rides - which is both good and bad news, as the dump truck ride ended up costing me $2 in quarters now.

I met another mom at the zoo today. I gave her some wet wipes for her son's snotty nose and she invited us over to her house for dinner tomorrow. She gave me her phone number and address. Ah, the power of a well timed wet wipe offer to open the doors of potential friendship. I still can't believe that she invited me over to her home after just meeting me. I am excited and nervous about the whole thing. Underneath the gray hairs and crow's fee, I'm secretly 14 years old, and socially awkward as hell.

Christmas

I had a fever of 102 Christmas eve, so I didn't attend Christmas mass this year. I spent Christmas eve in bed, and my mother-in-law, Louise, came up to visit for Christmas and part of the weekend.

I cooked part of a Christmas meal - I made green bean casserole, balsamic vinegar marinated vegetables, garlic rosemary mashed potatoes - all made with ingredients I had purchased a few days before - before I had gotten sick. My plan was to buy the ham or bird the day before so it would be fresh, and also because I hadn't decided what to serve yet, but when I discovered that I had a fever on Christmas eve, I just got a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken instead. Actually, I asked Oliver to pick up "the ham" at the store, and he went to the store and brought home ham, in lunch meat form (he doesn't usually do any of the cooking or shopping you see) - so, sick as I was, I ventured out to the store again and bought the pre-cooked rotisserie chicken - thinking, at least we could eat that if I was too sick to manage anything else - luckily Nyquil is a wonder drug, and I was feeling much better the next day.

I hadn't eaten anything but toast for two days before, but I sure made up for it in the next 24 hours! Lots of food and cider, and chocolate, and cookies... lots of food.

The obligatory photo op by the river shot:

Toby, making himself at home on the bed linens Louise brought with her.

We ate, walked along the bike path by our house, went to the park, opened presents, ate some more, drove around and looked at the Christmas lights, played Scrabble and watched a Saturday Night Live Christmas special on TV. Oliver's mom watched Toby for an hour the day after Christmas and Oliver and went out for a "date night" breakfast. We had eggs benedict at this funky little Asian cafe across the street from us - decorated with Asian art and Chicago Cubs fan memorabilia - an odd little breakfast spot, but nice to get out of the house as a couple nonetheless. After breakfast we all headed out to the Sacramento Train Museum in Old Town Sacramento.

The park

Christmas lights (not ours)

The Train Museum

We topped off the weekend by visiting with Oliver's Dad, his sister Amanda, brother Nikolas and his girlfriend Veronica, on the computer via Skype. It was fun watching them all play "peek-a-boo" with Toby via web cam.

When we turned it off Toby said, "That was a good show!" It was pretty cool.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Lots of love from the Greene family.