Christmas Day

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
We had a quiet day at home with presents and presents and more presents. All is well with the Porter's on Christmas and we hope all is well with you and yours. Here is a picture of Kira and Andrew in the their new pajamas by our tree.

Christmas with the Scholz Family

Every year before Christmas my family gets together for an early party. The kids draw names (there are currently 16 grandkids) and exchange gifts when we get together. We eat, sing, play and oh yeah, eat some more. This year it was at my brother's house in Valencia. We went to Disney on Ice, Princess (the boys were thrilled) on Friday and then Saturday was the party. This has been a tradition since back when I was a child and we would get together with my cousins. Sometimes it is difficult to get there and make it happen, but once I am there it reminds me of how great it is to get together with family. Amid the chaos, there is always good times.

This is Kira hugging her cousin Tessa after opening her present.

A game of tag before the party. The dad's were it, and the tree was jail. See all the kids waiting to be rescued?

Andrew's Performance

You didn't think it was only Kira with a singing voice around here, did you? Andrew also participated in his class Christmas performance this year. I have to say, his class was not as polished as Kira's, but what more can you expect from a group of high energized 1st graders. Enjoy.

The Christmas Cards are back on.

They went in the mail tonight. Tom got me an early Christmas present and replaced my camera (thanks Tom). I am still learning the in's and out's with this new one, so the picture is nothing to be thrilled about. This and the fact that Tom looks like he would rather be anywhere but in the picture, but at least they are done. Enjoy and Merry Christmas to all!

Oceana Pool is Cool...

...in more ways then you know. It is pretty common on a Friday night that you will catch us down at the Oceana pool. For those of you who are not familiar with Pacifica, it is a city that has pretty cool temperatures and very different then the Central Valley where I grew up. When I first moved here I was really missed having a hot summer where you lay by the pool, but soon fell in love with the foggy summers, and Indian summers that we get here. The winters are pretty mild, around 40 degrees at the coldest and that doesn't stop us from getting our swim on at the local pool. It is an indoor pool, that they claim is heated but I doubt it. With our teeth chattering and our lips blue we swim with the bravest in the city. Here are a few pics from tonight's swim.

Andrew jumping off the low dive.

Brave Kira jumping off the high dive.

Can you tell we are done?

Andrew... Our deep thinker.

So it is a daily occurrence in our house that Andrew says something that makes one of us, if not all of us giggle. I am going to try and share them more often because if I don't I tend to forget them.

Andrew is learning how to read, and he reads everyday for 15minutes. Today we he was reading to me a story about a hog and frog. He stopped in the middle of the story to tell me,

"Mom, hog is a fancy word for pig."

Who knew hog was so fancy?

Kira's Christmas Performance

On Thursday Kira came home from school and told us that she was in a performance that night with her class (thanks for the notice Kira). We quickly gathered ourselves and headed out the door. To our surprise it turned out to be a great night. Kira was born to perform and she makes us proud every time. Way to go Kira!

Here is a clip of part of her performance.

No Christmas Card for the Porters

Last Sunday we were all laying around the house and I realized it was one of the few opportunities to take a family picture for our Christmas cards. With much grumbling (Tom was the loudest) I got everybody dressed somewhat nice and out on the front porch. I set up the tripod, placed the camera on top without screwing it in, and it fell off the tripod and broke. I haven't been able to get it to work since. With that said, I am not sure at this point if you will get a Christmas card with our photo or not. Stay tuned to see what happens.