the maroneys

Have some patience, Julia gets it going later in the video
(Click here if you can see the video below)

Have guests over in mid December. While guests are in town, purchase tree. Send guests home. Have Christmas Eve party. Do Christmas day thing. Repeat. We’ve been doing this since 2008 . And you know what? It was a blast once again. We may mix it up in 2012, but 2011 was another success. It’s tough not to enjoy the holidays.

Back in our Bernal Heights days, we’d go to the neighborhood tree place on Bayshore .

Here’s a pic of the happy family there way back in 2008

The first time we went and bought a tree, I thought it was a little pricey but I just rolled with it because it’s SF. Things are pricey here.

This year we went to a different tree farm in a nicer area. I won’t mention its name but we have gone to many pumpkin patches at the same location.

And it kinda looks like this

Let’s just say that the tree was expensive and leave it at that.

Moving on …

Our Christmas party welcomed a new guest this year

I use “welcomed” loosely, because the kids were not all that enthused about our special guest.

I’m trying my best to capture some of the action while holding on to Kenzie. Kenzie’s reaction can be heard in the audio (Click here if you can’t see the video below)

Santa was a kind and patient guest. I’m sure he will be welcomed warmly by the kids the next time he comes to the Maroneys house.

No Racer 5 for Santa this year

The hyper expensive tree

A big book and sporting good year for Julia

Hopefully the last princess year for Kenzie

Julia and Dad loved Julia’s new marble run

It was Jodi’s idea to mix up Christmas Day a bit. After we all recovered from opening gifts we headed out to the Union Square Ice Rink .

Mom and Julia had a blast

Click here if you can’t see the video below

Dad had a little fun

Dad and Julia (click here if you can’t see the video below)

Kenzie was not photographed or captured on video. She did not enjoy most of the ice skating. She’ll do better next year.

Following ice skating we grabbed some fries at a diner around Union Square and then later that evening we did the American classic and had Chinese food for our Christmas dinner. That was a first for me. Hopefully not the last.

More pics/video available here

Chad Robertson of Tartine Bakery in San Francisco released his highly anticipated sourdough bread making book in the fall of 2010. Here’s the video promo . Tartine’s country bread is one of those urban goods that is very hyped and very hard to obtain. What came first the hype or the difficulty to obtain? Nobody knows. Tartine makes it available every day around 5 pm and it is often sold out within an hour. We tried to obtain a loaf around Christmas time back in 2010 and the whole bakery was closing @ 6:30 because “they ran out of food”. Crazy demand for this stuff, to say the least.

The book spells out a method — using a cast iron dutch oven — where sourdough bread making @ home can produce a loaf comparable to the loaves cranked out by the artisan professionals.

You can be the judge.

Give me some of that!

When it comes to activity, I’m a conventional sports guy. Hoops, baseball, football, golf, whatever. To all of you that have witnessed me dancing, I apologize — it ain’t pretty. Dance w/o rhythm just doesn’t work. Trust me.

My fingers are crossed for my offspring. I hope they have what I do not.

They dropped the gymnastics this fall and decided to go with ballet. They have classes at the coolest and quaintest little place in the city. Their teacher is a treat. We dig the place.

Let’s take some peeks at them in action

Kenzie (click here if you can’t see the video below)

Julia (click here if you can’t see the video below)

Kenzie (click here if you can’t see the video below)

Julia (click here if you can’t see the video below)

More media available here

While we were living in Bernal we were unaware of the Halloween scene that’s present in Cole Valley on Belvedere Street. It’s not like we didn’t have a great time in Bernal. Who could forget 2010 , where Halloween intersected the Giants World Series run? 2009 was probably the first Halloween that Kenzie truly enjoyed. (Proof is in the pudding if you check out her pic in the Halloween post of 2008 . Those were all great times.

Belvedere is an amazing Halloween scene. It’s a 4 to 5 block stretch in Cole Valley. Every house is decorated to the gills. One house was opened up with a 2 room stage and rotating collection of performers — I think they were all characters from some Pixar movie. Really cool stuff. I didn’t get to take any pictures because I was so focused on not losing my children in the large crowd. It’s hard to control kids when free candy is involved. Next year, I’ll snap some shots. Promise.

Not a crowd favorite:

The kids were … surprise … Disney characters

All of us:

Something fishy here

More pics available here