Playing outside as the year comes to an end. Saying farewell to Aunty Celeste and Uncle Frederik as they return home to Canada after spending the week visiting.

Family photo session,  Uncle Frederik & Aunty Celeste and Ouma & Oupa with Etienne and Cezanne.

Happy New Year - we hope your 2011 was a memorable one and may your 2012 be event better !

The sun, the sea, the sand, rocks to throw, what more could a boy ask for…

Sticks ! Running with the seagulls.

The beach charge !

I sure am glad not to be on the receiving end of all that aggression. A final wave to Mommy before heading home again.

Etienne following Cezanne down the stairs and then on to check the status of the milk and cookies left for Santa. He looks on as his big sister checks the crumbs left by Santa. A quick pose next to the tree and the mountain of presents before the opening madness begins.

It really was madness, with 8 people in total, gifts were being handed out and opened faster than I could capture. Etienne scored big time and got 4 balls for different sports, here he opens his football to go with his basketball, baseballs and soccer ball. The big hit was his fleet of air planes and his gigantic aircraft carrier. After the madness a quiet pose with Cezanne next to the tree, now devoid of presents.

The local fire station / fire house help a type of open house and Santa visited and took pictures with the kids. We got to see a real fire truck up close and even got to climb on and inspect the many levers and hoses. The best part were the junior fire fighter badges and helmets that were handed out. Etienne could not get enough of the old fire engine and climbed it and inspected it and checked to see if any of the parts were loose. Thankfully everything was well secured and nothing broke off !

On a rather cold and windy day we decided to take a drive into San Francisco and show Ouma & Oupa the beach, get some lunch and try see the gingerbread house at The Fairmont.

Etienne and Cezanne both love the beach and even though we needed to wear jackets they were not able to hold back and enjoyed the beach as much as humanly possible.

Lunch was lucky  as we bumped into Santa who was taking requests at a restaurant just off Fisherman’s Wharf and Cezanne and Etienne needed to be asked only once if they wanted to see the old man. Etienne really seemed to be having a good chat with the man in red - wonder what he asked for ?

After quite a lot of time in the car the kids were sick of sitting and so by the time we got to The Fairmont and the gingerbread house all Etienne wanted to do was run around. The Fairmont is not really the place to do this, but the long corridors from the parking garage to the lobby were just what he needed to get his energy levels back to normal.

Oupa gives Etienne a trim before we take a couple hundred photos in the hope that a few are good enough to use for our annual Christmas card.

A little milk for stamina, it could take a while to get all these pictures taken just the way Mom wants them…

What a cute couple. Merry Christmas to you all. Think of this as a behind the scenes look at the making of our Christmas card for 2011.

We are thankful for all we have been blessed with this year. We hope your year has been a blessed one too and that you are celebrating your thankfulness too.

I think off all things, Etienne is most thankful for his big sister whom he love and who loves him back !!

Lanelle found some plans to build a book shelf for the kids out of rain gutters, yes those things that typically go on the outside of the house and ferry water from your roof to the corners and then to a downspout… Well we made some rain gutter bookshelves while the kids were playing and you can see the finished project behind the two as they share a book on their beanbag.