Christmas Trip Part 2: The Rhynes

When we last left off, the guys and I drove from Santa Maria to Woodland to spend a few days after Christmas with Grammy and Grandpa Rhyne. Alton hustles around: "There's no time to waste!"

We pause to enjoy what might be one of the last sweet, somewhat innocent Christmas seasons, when Alton prefers the simple joy of sitting in a rocking chair and reading with Grandpa to ripping open the piles of presents behind him! The adults were definitely much more impatient than the kids, anticipating seeing them open the gifts we had so thoughtfully chosen.

Luckily, none of us had long to wait, because the day after we arrived at Casa Rhyne, Uncle Zach, Auntie Karen and Cousin*P came over for a belated Christmas celebration and dinner. Unfortunately, when they arrived in the afternoon Alton was still catching some serious Zzzs during his nap! So *P killed some time reading with Grammy....

The poor thing was so bored waiting for Alton to wake up that she had to get out a seed catalog to peruse!

Finally he is up and at 'em. "Drink down that water and let's go to town, Coz!"

With Alton still a little groggy from his nap, A and P settle in to start tearing open their presents. Andy and I had already purchased and wrapped gifts for Alton back home in Oregon, but had been debating before we left about when he should open them. It was silly for us to take those gifts along with us to California in an already-overstuffed car, just to open them in front of the grandparents and haul them back home to Hillsboro. So we decided that he should open them before we left home for the trip (before Christmas Day), but somehow in all of our crazy trip readiness, he only opened one or two small things (accessories for his train set, naturally) prior to our departure. We regretted not creating an opportunity for him to unwrap more things, because it might have helped a bit for him to have some experience along this line before diving in to the packages from all of his relatives! After waking up from his nap for the Rhyne Christmas celebration at Grammy and Grandpa's, then immediately being surrounded by gifts and entreaties to "Rip it! Rip it!" he was pretty overwhelmed. Several times he just kind of looked at us, frustrated and weary, as if to say, "Look, you have never let me rip paper any other time--how am I supposed to know what to do now? There are all these cool toys that Grammy keeps around that I never see any other time except when I am here, so how about I just go play with those, you guys do this paper-ripping thing you're so excited about, and we'll meet back at the prime rib. Sound good?"

*P fortunately had enough energy for her wilted cousin that day, and so her enthusiasm eventually caught on for Alton. "I am so happy that we gave you this Tonka truck; I give you a big squeeze!"

"Woo-hoo! Let's hit the road!" The cousins demonstrate just how hardy the Tonka Toughest Mighty Truck can be.

Alton opens a Mr. Potato Head set from Zach and Karen, and he and *P adopt identical expressions trying to make something of all these cool little pieces.

Among many other fun AND educational toys, Grammy and Grandpa gave Alton a little bike! It's called a "balance bike," and is a wooden bike body with solid rubber tires and no pedals. The idea is that by placing his feet on the ground and using foot power to propel the bike forward, he learns the side-to-side balance required to ride a full-size bike, and training wheels become unnecessary. My cousins up here in Oregon were able to successfully use this concept to teach both of their boys to ride training wheel-less bikes, and so Andy and I were excited to introduce it to Alton as well. We researched bikes to find one that was both sturdy (nice easy-grip rubber handlebars for the little hands) and sized appropriately; we wanted a bike that would fit closer to a 2-4 year old range, so that after that age Alton would be ready for a regular child-size bike with no training wheels. Grammy and Grandpa knew how stoked we were about the bike and had been eyeing them in catalogs, too, so they were glad to share it with Alton. Here he tries it out indoors with Daddy for support.


Right now, his little toes just barely touch the floor while he is sitting on the seat (not enough to give him support to sit on it alone), so we know with some shoes and a couple of months, he is going to be riding in style this summer!


In the meantime, Daddy shows him how to walk the bike, which is also fun!

After a fun and exhausting day of gift-opening and toy-testing and grubbing down with all the rest of the Rhynes, it was New Year's Eve, and a great day to catch up with friends. Alton, Andy and I drove down to Vallejo to the gracious hospitality of our friends Charlie and Jesse, whose house was the site of a fun brunch morning for reuniting with our North Bay buddies! We chatted with Peg and Bobbie, did some reading with Jesse...

and got to spend some time with Megan, Jenna, and their little boy *F, who just turned one in December. The last time we saw him, he was a tiny little newborn, and now he's a full-size toddler on the verge of walking, who weighs more than Alton!

Alton and *F bonded over a shared love of trucks, reading, and reading about trucks, and we even slipped in a quick hello with fresh-from-the-airport Josie, who came straight off a plane to the brunch. Before too long, it was time to head home to rest up for our big New Year's plans.

Nothing big planned for New Year's Eve, mind you. For that, we ate in with champagne and brownies (I think we did EXACTLY the same thing last year), watched Harry Potter, and went to bed around 10pm. But for New Year's Day, we had something major cooking: the Tilden Park Steam Train!!!

This was the inspired brainchild of my longtime friend Christa. She and I were comparing schedules, trying to find a mutually-convenient time to get together while we Rhynes were visiting Northern California (Christa and her husband Paul live in the SF Bay Area). We knew that New Year's Day was most do-able with her vacation time, it's not typically a crazy travel day, and neither of us had prior plans. But what to do? Christa's suggestion of the Steam Train in Berkeley's Tilden Park coincided wonderfully with the burning desire Andy and I had to revisit Zachary's Pizza on College Ave, our favorite, most oft-eaten pizza in the world. Trains for our locomotive-loco son and a pilgrimage to Zachary's sounded like the perfect way to spend the first day of 2010. We brought in some co-conspirators--Grammy and Grandpa, of course, and another close friend Jamie and her boyfriend Dave, who live in San Jose--and made a rendezvous time for just before the steam train was set to open. We Rhynes all drove down to Berkeley from Woodland, and killed some time stomping around in the muddy grass of a nearby field.

We were so surprised that the parking lot was empty and there were no other early bird families like us loitering at the train gates! New Year's Day was the only day during the holiday season that the steam train was open--normally its hours are limited to weekends.

The train cars of this "Redwood Valley Railway" are equipped with little open-top benches that are wide enough to seat two adults side-by-side. The trains are a proportional, scaled-down version of the real-life steam trains gone by, and a measly $2 ticket buys you a 15 minute ride through beautiful, tree-filled passageways of Tilden Park. Our group assembles eagerly on the train in the picture below; note that there really isn't anyone else on the train yet!

The conductor politely waits for the families that we can now see swarming out of cars in the parking lot, then finally issues one last "All abooooooaaaaarrrrd!" and we are off! Alton rides with Grammy and Grandpa on the first ride of 2010 on the Redwood Valley Railway.

In true Alton fashion, he adopts a very studious, serious face and gravely examines everything around him, certain that if he lets loose too much, he would somehow miss out on something important to do with this trip! He solemnly waves to the waiting passers-by and leaves the enthusiasm to Grammy and Grandpa.

We go through a tunnel--it was actually pitch black in the tunnel, so the blinding flash of the camera surprises the heck out of Alton!

Alton assesses whether or not he'd like to ride the train again. The answer is yes, of course!

For the second ride around, he sits with Christa and Jamie and shows them how a REAL train aficionado absorbs this ride.

We spent a great deal of time after the ride examining the caboose, with Alton intoning, "Bye, 'boose. Bye, 'boose!"

Some other friendly tourists snapped the photo of our little group! Now it's off to Zachary's Pizza for lunch....

Alton wolfed down nineteen thousand crunchy breadsticks along with the rest of his lunch while the adults demolished two heavenly deep-dish Zachary's pizzas. We even got Alton a shirt (youth size, far too large for him now) so that we can remind him of this tasty goodness in the future! He posed affably for pictures with Jamie...

and Christa, then it was time to conk out in the car and head back up to Woodland.

We were able to squeeze in a quick visit with Sydney, a high school buddy of Andy's, and meet her darling little girl *H.

We snapped a split-second modeling session of the hat I had knitted for Hayden's Christmas gift,

and Alton learned how to pour tea while sitting in a Princess chair. Make mine a decaf, will you?

So after another day of downtime with Grammy and Grandpa spent reading...

playing...

and reading,

it was time to pack up our books and toys in the car and head for home.

We felt so blessed to be able to have all of our family together for yet another Christmas, give Alton the opportunity to bond with his grandparents, auntie and uncle and cousin, reconnect with old friends, partake in a treasured Bay Area historical experience, and feel loved and cared for the entire trip. Even though we were glad to be going home, we couldn't be too sad, because we had a feeling we'd be seeing the family again very soon (to be continued...). Until then, a joyous end to your holiday season from alllll the Rhynes!