SoCal Allens: SoCalAllens swing into a new year

As we swing into a new year, we need to catch everyone up on life post-Halloween. Wow, it's been a long time!

Maintaining his record for the longest trip to see Miles, Uncle David again traveled from London to Santa Monica and prepared a magnificent Mexican meal.

Miles was thrilled to see his Uncle David again, while David was amazed by how much Miles has grown in the past few months.

After a long day, Miles enjoyed some down time on the couch.

The next weekend our friends Paul and Sharon returned with their twins so we prepared a picnic on the beach. Here is Miles with Jack.

Dylan was thrilled playing with the seaweed.

Mid-November we traveled to Berkeley to celebrate Miles' birthday, a reunion of Peter's brothers, Jill and Peter's first date 13 years ago, and Peter's second consecutive victory in the annual Allen brother poker tournament.

Miles' cousin Daphne graciously hosted a birthday party for Miles.

Uncle David and Aunt Judy share in the festivities with some sweet party hats.

Did somebody say cupcakes?

No birthday party is complete without a picture of a 1-year old covered in chocolate so here are a couple of shots for your enjoyment.

A slightly older and much more sophisticated Daphne enjoyed decorating her cupcake with blueberries under the approving eye of pasty chef Aunt Judy.

Olvia and Mark, Cyrus and Amy's kids, help Miles open a birthday gift.

After the birthday celebration, Miles, Daphne, and Olivia were kind enough to prepare a delicious pumpkin soup.

The next day we prepared for the Cal football game against USC. Rain and a Cal loss muddied the day, but we still managed to have fun.

After football, we visited with Amy, Cyrus, Mark, and Olivia. Miles spent most of time swinging, which suited Olivia just fine.

After a great weekend in NorCal, Uncle Fred wisely followed us back to SoCal before returning to a frigid world without fish tacos that he calls Boston.