If you've meandered over here I'm guessing you're a big Ry and Si fan. So in that light, I feel I can be unabashadly proud and tout how great they are. You've been warned.

On Saturday, we watched Si sing in a preview concert in San Francisco for her girl's chorus. Afterwards, we went to the Parol festival at Yerba Buena, which is a traditional Filipino celebration of the Christmas season, and saw many beautiful lanterns. Finally, we ended up at XYZ - the restaurant at the W hotel. It's a lovely dining room.....very warm, comfortable and grown up. I always like to watch how the kids are going to be perceived when we go to these places. In fact, a couple of weeks ago we went somewhere very nice and the waitress said "oh, are we practicing going out to dinner?" and I thought, hmmm.....really? Does she not see other 7- and 8-year olds? And to be fair, I think they normally think that the check total is going to be significantly lower because the children will want a bowl of pasta or cheese pizza. Clearly they've never met Ry and Si. As we began to order at XYZ, Si (who was sitting up very properly perusing her menu), said "I would like the oysters, the seared tuna, and the butternut squash." "A very grownup order!" commented the waiter. Ry ordered lobster and seared tuna (what have we created here?) and we had a wonderful meal and a very good time. At the end of the meal, the waiter said "we have NEVER had such well-behaved children in here." The scary part is when they grow up and go off to college, and the reality of where they can afford to eat hits them. However, in that light, they have been learning to cook since they were 2, and are quite good at it. So they'll whip things up Jamie Oliver style....simple, satisfying, REAL foods. And they'll be a big hit at their house/dorm/dive they live in with 7 other starving students.

Unabashed proud moment #2: Before we got our tree yesterday, Ry and Si wanted to go to the main library in downtown Oakland. We have a friend who works there so it's their second favorite library after the Berkeley main library. We didn't have much time, so Scott said no, and as they protested, Scott said, no, but we can go to Boomers! [horrible, awful video game/mini race cars/overall screamy kid pit of running around crazy]. Ignoring her father's addiction to sarcasm, Si said - no - I'd rather go to the library.

Instead, we went for a family hike in Redwood Park....Si was hike leader because she had hiked the trail with me before, and Ry was yoga leader - in charge of a few breaks where we breathe and stretch properly. We hiked almost three miles with 700 vertical feet of climbing, came home, and Scott and Si cooked up a homemade lasagna and coconut rice pudding. All in all, a pretty perfect day.