We've had several traditions in our family for the day after Thanksgiving so it's really hard to nail one down as a family "tradition". One of my favorites has always been when my kids and their families would gather at our house for the Thanksgiving dinner (and therefore be in town for the day or two days following). We would use the free labor to clean around the house and yard; retrieve the Christmas decorations from storage and put them all in place around the house; paint the house, fence, neighbor's fence; get an extended family photo taken; etc.
Well, this year since the focal point of the family gathering was Jessica and Jon's house as well as Libby's baptism/birthday and Colin's blessing, we couldn't do anything that was particularly centered on us. But that didn't slow us down in keeping busy the whole day.
The day started at 5:30 am with Carolyn and Tiffany taking advantage of the day after Thanksgiving sales. I'm hopeful that what Carolyn bought was for other people since there certainly isn't that much that we need.
Those of us who didn't get up early to shop, arose at a more leisurely time, ate breakfast, and then met at the Seal Beach Community Center where the kids mostly played in the sand and the play structure while the adults most played tennis or watched the others.
Although it was small, the play area allowed for lots of creative play -- for those who were interested. As shown here, Tim wasn't about to be seduced by fun.
It didn't take long before Tim was enjoying the place as well as the others. Meanwhile,
the tennis courts were being kept busy by players as young as Sage,
as adept as Staci,
as powerful as Jon, and
as anxious as the rest of the group who were waiting their turn.
Lunch was back at Jessica's house. She's really trying to get rid of 25 pounds of cooked turkey that didn't get eaten on Thanksgiving.
During the afternoon, we descended on a bowling center where 19 people commandeered 4 lanes for a couple of hours. I really like how user friendly bowling centers have become with many more light balls that are color coded for ease of finding one children and even adults can handle; gutter bumpers to eliminate gutter balls for those prone to bowl a lot of those; ball release ramps so that even the smallest bowlers can get a well aimed ball down the lane and actually consistently get strikes and spares; and of course in California a smoke-free environment with bright lights and music.
Michael showed Jill some of his best moves.
Jake was the master of body english.
Jillian had some pretty good moves of her own, helping her dad and grandma as well as bowling in her own lane.
Tim showed off some of the techniques he had learned from a professional bowler and thereby
tying with his cousin Ben.
Some of the younger bowlers tried the release ramps which are designed to allow anyone who can push a ball off the top of a ramp to get it down to the end of the lane. Brooke tried it but preferred the normal throw.
I tried at least three ways to bowl including holding onto my walker for support and stabilization;
sitting on my walker and pitching the ball from between my legs; and (the one that worked the best) walking carefully up to the lane and from a dead stop tossing the ball down the lane. I was able to break 100 with the gutter blockers.
Dinner at Ruby's Diner was next on the list. Who couldn't enjoy something on Ruby's menu and our waitress was especially patient with the kids who made up more than half of our crowd of approximately 30. Grandma seemed to enjoy footing the bill for this and the bowling.
Now most families would consider that enough for a day but Jake and Tim wanted everyone to come over and swim in "their" pool and enjoy "their" spa - meaning the Marriott Residence Inn, of course. The addition of our family to the half dozen guests already enjoying pool and spa pretty much filled both to capacity. After an hour or so of that, everyone agreed that we probably could call it a day. Tomorrow would be another big day.
Richard & Natalie:
Although it was small, the play area allowed for lots of creative play -- for those who were interested. As shown here, Tim wasn't about to be seduced by fun.
It didn't take long before Tim was enjoying the place as well as the others. Meanwhile,
the tennis courts were being kept busy by players as young as Sage,
as adept as Staci,
as powerful as Jon, and
as anxious as the rest of the group who were waiting their turn. 
Michael showed Jill some of his best moves.
Jake was the master of body english.
Jillian had some pretty good moves of her own, helping her dad and grandma as well as bowling in her own lane.
Tim showed off some of the techniques he had learned from a professional bowler and thereby
tying with his cousin Ben.
Some of the younger bowlers tried the release ramps which are designed to allow anyone who can push a ball off the top of a ramp to get it down to the end of the lane. Brooke tried it but preferred the normal throw.
I tried at least three ways to bowl including holding onto my walker for support and stabilization;
sitting on my walker and pitching the ball from between my legs; and (the one that worked the best) walking carefully up to the lane and from a dead stop tossing the ball down the lane. I was able to break 100 with the gutter blockers.
While some of the family were picking up and washing the dishes, David was putting the finishing touches on "Flat Stanley" a visitor from out of state who, like us, was visiting the family for the evening. For reasons which shall soon be obvious, Flat Stanley was mostly an observer.
Carolyn contributed her skill, experience, and recipes to help make the evening a success. The temperature of the sugar mixtures is critical for the candy to set up correctly.
While most of us washed our hands and spread them with margarine, others of the group like Travis were skeptical. OK, he said, show me what's going on but don't about think about getting get my hands wet or messy!
Justin finds that it isn't as easy as he expected buy it does start coming together.
Victoria and her mother
demonstrated the pinch and pull technique to get air into the sugar mixture while not burning yourself.
Senni picked up the technique almost automatically,
although she was a bit melodramatic when showing the technique to her aunt Ryann and Flat Stanley. As you can see, a fun time was had by all.
As I held my 14th grandchild in my arms today, I marveled at his perfect body and at the technology that allowed his doctor to monitor his progress in his mother's womb. As his placenta kept getting in the way, it was nip and tuck for Colin to have a normal delivery. But as many as 13% of American babies can't use this technology because they don't have adequate insurance.
Steve and Lisa have had a couple of wonderful things happen in their lives recently including their moving into a really nice rental house and Steven being accepted into UC Santa Cruz's Master's program in Chemistry. I don't want to steal any of their thunder but did want to show by way of this small photo essay what we thought of their recent move.
During our recent visit there Steve and Lisa shared with us some of the planting they have been doing to get the most out of their space. Here Steven was explaining that their citrus is a dwarf that they have transplanted from a 1 gallon to a 5 gallon pot by the deck.
Other than some very pretty flowers, this potted plant has some very sharp needles - on BOTH sides of the leaves. Steve also showed me how, once the leave and dried up the needles look even more threatening.
Inside, we got a tour of how much more space they have in their living room and entertainment center. And this is in spite of the bunny condominium between the couch and the stairway:
The condos are even more luxurious than they appear as many of them are actually two-storied affairs. Steve and Lisa have laid down laminate flooring outside the condos to make cleaning up a little easier. 
Upstairs we saw that they have even more space available so they don't have to put away Lisa's hobby in order for Steve or work on his or vice versa. We were impressed with all the storage and their usage thereof.
Our final treat for the day (lunch at Hula's was an earlier treat) was a demonstration of the Wii guitar and drum playing game. I couldn't picture how playing musical instruments could be part of a game. They almost has us convinced to get a Wii set.
