That’s my boy!

(Not him.)

Him! Hudson feels exactly the way I do about the “All I want for Christmas” scene in Love, Actually!

He’s not, however, so fond of Santa.

[images from top: Colin Firth via Fanpop; Hudson dances to Christmas music from Aron Bruhn on Vimeo; our friend as Santa at a Harp and Beer holiday party]

Family Travel: Flying with a baby or toddler

Many of you are probably flying somewhere for the holidays. And some of you might be doing it with a very demanding little companion for the first time. It can be dread-inducing, right?

We’ve actually been pretty lucky as far as flights with Hudson have gone. No hostage situations on icy tarmacs. No solo sojourns. No vomit. (Yet.) Sure there were poop-explosions and a couple of crying bouts: he had a tooth literally break through the gum as we took our seats to fly home from St. Lucia. They paused the safety announcement because passengers probably couldn’t hear how to fasten their seat-belts over the wailing 10-month-old in the back.

Still, we’ve logged many hours in the air these first 16 months, including a cross-country flight at 8-weeks and a trip to (and from) Bali with three legs that added up to 40-hours of travel each way this past summer.

We talked before about favorite travel gear. Now, here are a few of my best travel tips for flying with a baby or toddler. Buckle-up… it’s a long one…

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Have a nice weekend!

These photos are from a couple of weeks ago–biking in the Davis arboretum, and hanging out in the backyard with friends who were visiting from New York… in our new chairs! It wasn’t even cold, but we thought the scenario was deserving of a midday fire. Slowly but surely, new furniture is making its way to us. We found these chairs at Room & Board and are really happy with how they look with and without the cushions (especially key since we went with white). And we just learned that the rest of our outdoor furniture is arriving next week! More accurately, it’s arriving at the port of Oakland sometime next week–having made the long, slow boat ride from Bali, where we ordered most of it in August. I’m so excited! We pretty much just showed them photos of what we wanted and, a month or so later, they emailed us photos of a finished chair, table, etc. But it still feels so, well, unknown. On top of that, we had only seen our house once when we made the decisions we did. Fingers crossed!

Here are a few other things I’ve been thinking about lately:

Another anniversary today: Aron and I have been together 11 years as of today. Wowzers! Happy anniversary, love.

It’s been a long time since I’ve visited the Huntington Gardens. These lovely photos have me pining for a return trip.

What a thrilling installation! I wish we could see it in person.

Does anyone recognize this photo from Pinterest? I’d love to know the source.

A gift guide featuring Kids’ toys on Etsy.

Next weekend, San Francisco will play host to the Renegade SF Craft Fair and the Kindred Pop-up shop. If you’re in the area, you should check them out! Here are some photos from Renegade Brooklyn 2012 (and 2010).

Kelly put together her fantasy Christmas dinner–amazing!

Honey Buns. When I was a kid, I used to regularly eat something from the frozen section called Honey Buns by Morton and they have suddenly been on my mind again. Sadly, when I looked them up on BrandlandUSA:

“…There were Morton Pot Pies, Morton Creme Pies, Morton Cinnamon Rolls. But the real star was Morton Honey Buns. Morton Honey Buns came four to a package, and there was so much sugar on each that when you pulled the buns out, the sugar frosting was all over the package and the four came out like a brick. But the brand is gone, nowhere to be found. And since the launch of the BrandlandUSA blog, we have discovered it is one of the top searched for dead brands on our site. People far and wide are searching for Morton, but cannot find it. While we knew Morton’s was a personal favorite, until we launched the blog, we didn’t know how many others loved the brand too. Apparently, they are mostly searching for the Morton Honey Buns, and not so much the Pot Pies, though those get requests too.”

Do you remember them? The closest thing out there? Krispy Kreme donuts, microwaved for about 7 seconds. Now I’m hungry.

Have a good one!