The Fallons: Random December Photos

Thatcher and Lila play a mean game of hoops.

Much to her mom's dismay and dad's delight, I tried to get Lila on a basketball team at the Page after the deadline but teams were full. It's on this winter, for sure!

Thatcher had optional book reports to do in second grade. I think he did two and this was one of them. I love that he chose, "What is a Wookie?" for his book. 😂

Not bad on the drawing!

Downtown Holiday Parade.

Hot dog from a State Street vendor. A little sketchy.

After-parade shenanigans.

Cute girls in boots.

Before the sunrises biz trip to SF.

I miss Holley living in town and her amazing entertaining!

My coworkers cute llama shoes! Or alpaca shoes? Not sure.

It's always good eating in the bay!

Face-timing with part of the fam.

Things you see in SF on the train. I made the mistake of trying to pet it and almost got my fingers bit off. Never put your hand near a chihuahua in a backpack. Lesson learned.

Goodbye SF.

And hello smokey, AWFUL, SB. The Thomas Fire had started the day before I left for my trip and while in SF I was so far removed from everything that I didn't know how bad it had gotten until I received an alert that they were actually canceling school due to the bad air quality.

Smoke, ash and and the glow of a bright orange sun was how the rest of our December would end up being.

It was all a little unbelievable what was happening. It would turn out that school would be canceled for the rest of the year!

Test holiday card that didn't make the cut.

Tree trimming.

Letters to Santa.

Questions to Frisbee.

How sweet is this?! BTW, I got my phone. No such luck on the truck though.

We didn't really leave town during the fire (our area was safe but air quality not so safe) while every one else did so we were an open home for dogs. Otis and Chloe checked in to Lollipop's cottage.

Otis always has a smile!

Lolly seems to be thinking, "Really, mom? TWO dogs..."

Our December accessories.

How funny is Chloe? She looks like a human sitting that way.

Not much exercise for these three when we really couldn't be outside.

Just me and all my buddies.

Making ornaments for Gwendolyn.

I'll only do amusement parks on a weekday when school is in. Since school was out for us due to the fire, but in for everyone else, I took the kids to Universal Studios. We loved it! No crowds, no lines, it was clean and super entertaining. We even bumped into two Santa Barbara families we knew escaping the smoke just like us!

We followed Gru.

And stopped him!

This show was amazing!

The kids were hoping to get a glimpse of one of the judges from The Voice. No such luck.

Some of the tram tour was how I remembered it as a kid but a lot had changed as well.

It was cool for the kids to see how fake Jaws was.

I mean, that's pretty bad.

I was so intrigued by "Norman Bates" who made an appearance.

So this is his job all day? He does this cameo as the tram drives by. I wonder if inside the motel he actually has a desk job at Universal and has to get up and do the "walk outside routine" every time a tram comes by.

Super cool sets for the kids to see and me! I really loved it.

Clowning around.

Oddly, Los Angeles was a breath of fresh air compared to SB.

Neither of the kids wanted to sit on Santa's lap and Santa called them out on it.

In case he was the REAL Santa they both thought they'd better go say hi.

Heading home from Universal back to our sweet town on fire.

A boat of sushi.

Followed by noodles.

Growing boy!

We Love Lure! So good!

Finally, we had time to get Samantha's ear re-peirced that had closed up.

Ear pierced, again. from ronda fallon on Vimeo.

Jo Jo or Thatcher?

A lot of restaurants closed up during the fire. Mesa Cafe held strong.

The new normal.

I mean....

This was the view from Leadbetter Point looking towards Montecito.

Masks on. Tito's in hand. Come on in!

Fiona was offering up free makeovers.

We sent this to our old boss, Carolyn, that we both shared. Otis was actually re-homed from Carolyn's son to Brady! 🐶

Our final holiday card. 🎄

The kids did a day of soccer camp and came home covered in ash. It was in their hair, on their faces and their shoes were completely black. They didn't end up going back.

Lollipop is all paws.

Sam is sporty yet girly and loves her Jo Jo bows!

She was hoping Lollipop does too!

Celebrating Alexis.

Uber rides included masks!

Little brother being a good sport.

It was a long month of no school so lots of house hopping and trying to figure out to do with so many kids with nothing to do!

Screen-time rules went out the door.

So much time was spent inside that everyone was getting on each others nerves. Sam and Thatcher definitely had their moments.

The beginnings of Thomas, our tumbleweed man.

Checking out Third Window Brewing with friends.

Tamale making party at Duo!

From tamale-making to Cards Against Humanity.

Holiday cocktails at Joe's.

Love their upside down tree hanging!

Finally some fresh air towards the end of December.

Eating outdoors and no masks!

Sam's legs are ridiculously long all of a sudden.

Lollipop's favorite outfit.

Decisions. Decisions.

Both Jill and I order our cards from Paper Culture (every order plants a tree!) and look at her tree dedication on her card! 😀

Testing out his new fishing pole.

Back from fishing.

And ready for football!

And happy hour!

The board game with that mouthpiece thing is hysterical.

My lunch date.

The Harbor Market has some good finds.

Gingerbread house making party.

Sometimes there aren't enough seats at Brophy's to all sit together.

Roo and Lollipop.

Happy Birthday Rio!

I got an email from L.L. Bean asking if Sam and Thatcher wanted to come to the casting for their spring catalog again but that if we had any friends that were redheads, that they'd love for us to invite them too.