Christmas Eve.
Up at Dawn's crack, and off to the Grove.
Yes, we're wrapping pressies in Barnes & Noble for 'Cheritee, mate'. In aid of a doggie rescue. Well, the missus started off at 9am prompt and I started my stint of looking after the littl'un. Upstairs to the kiddy section - bless that Thomas table. That's good for a coupla hours. Not forgetting, of course, a trot to the lav every 20 mins (potty training, remember). Fun fun fun. Popped down to the ground floor to check on the girls and their wrapping. The line was nearly always 2 or 3 deep waiting for the 3 eager volunteers. About 1pm, I gave 'er indoors' a break and started wrapping. Well, bugger me, if we didn't go non-stop until 6pm. Most popular item I wrapped was the Oprah DVD set and the most expensive was the Sex in the City DVD set ($299)!!
Home, completely knackered. Last minute wrapping and watched some BBC America. Little Britain was pretty funny!

Early morning with the monkey!
Off to the park and met up with his play buddy! Ahhh.
Pressie wrappping in the eve.

Little man wakes me up at 7.45am when he appears at the side of the bed (remember, he's in a toddler bed now)!
Dropped him at drop off and off to Sears for last min pressie shopping. Actually, mostly for pressies but also for a vacuum cleaner (exciting).
Into the office and I was the only one there for the two hours I was drinking coffee. Caught up on some email. David had his baby - yeehoo - 9lbs 0.5oz - blimey! Oh, Americans always give you the length of the baby too whereas us Brits don't.
Picked him up and home to more colouring. Fab. Out for a walk to visit Anita. Ahhh.
Watched HHG2TG on DVD. Brilliant!! I love the movie (I'm also a fan of the original radio series and the UK TV show). Saw it on the first day it came out in LA at the El Capitan on Hollywood Blvd.
Also watched the film with the commentary. Excellent trivia! Mos Def was drinking the wrong glass in the pub and actually got hammered on real beer. The Old lady seen at the cafe table before the Earth is destroyed is actually Douglas' mum! The whole commentary is full of that kinda stuff. Brilliant.
Also found a website with the original Capital Radio jingles when they were on AM (194 - remember?). My goodness, it really just rolled back the years. If you're a Londoner who remembers Capital on AM, check it out here.

Class had that 'last day of school' feel today! Just Tina and I and two guys from AdvInt. Worked with Tina - it was very real, not like an exercise at all (Sean, quote, unquote), which, of course, is what I was aiming for!
Did lots of colouring when I got home, and also converted littl'un's bed to a toddler bed. Brief pause here to point our to readers that this is a HUGE step with the littl'un. Basically when your kid manages to climb out of his crib/cot (he had all the poise and technique of an Olympic gymnast), that's the time to give in and convert it into a bed. A little worried that he was going to keep getting up during the night but, when I thought about it, he was able to get out whenever he wanted to anyway.
So, bed converted and he was as good as gold. Slept thru!
Watched the finale of Martha Apprentice and I am now totally convinced that she is embarrassingly inept and very rude. At least she was to the poor girl who she fired before appointed her apprentice. This woman has a live TV show? How? Can't believe it.
Wrapped a ton of presents, all for you know who. He's going to be very happy chappie on Sunday!

Off to Santa Monica for another script review. Much tighter and funnier too! Trying to write an entertaining script around the corporate speak that has to be in there is a challenge. Bloody suits! Found out that the Tahou leg of the job may now be in Canada (hooray) but the Costa Rica leg may now be in Panama (booooo). Still really looking forward to the job though!
Quick drive up the PCH to the Getty for rehearsal. Ran the whole thing and it's almost there! Still running long though. M's going to make some more cuts over the Christmas break.
Sent some emails and ordered a pressie online!
Stimulating stuff, eh?

Ahhh, another piccy of the sky above Malibu. It's nice even when it's cloudy, innit!
Littl'un at the bedroom door at 7.30am. This 'climbing out of the crib' thing isn't good at all =). There was a time when you could at least corral him behind bars when you needed to but... no longer!
Movie meeting this morning. The plot is really coming along. Y had done a lot of work on the script outline.
Class today, went well. Did a door with Chris. Tony was pretty happy with it. We recapped our work in 2005. Left early to head off to rehearsal.
Recapped some scenes and went thru 'Guilty' with all the changes I missed on Saturday. No probs!
Headed home and monkey was still awake so he had a story and some songs with Daddy.
News today... seaplane went down in Miami. Very sad. Someone took video of it and it went down like a stone.
Also, Arnie is so pissed at Austria's decision to vote on whether or not to remove his name from a local stadium as a consequence of not saving Tookie Williams from execution, he's told them that they can't actually use his name for the stadium any more anyway. So there. He's also told them that although he regrets having to do his job as Governor, he's probably gonna have to withhold clemency from a good deal of other murderers during his term. Shame. Good on you, Arnie.

Off out with the littl'un again today. Amazing, same place, same time, same pants full of pooh. Great! Went to the Zoo via Burbank to watch the planes flying into the airport. Fab!
Loo every 20 minutes again today. Excellent fun!
Read a story today: "Compton Offers $50 Gift Cards For Surrendered Guns" which I thought was a superb idea. I wonder how many guns police across America (and the world) would remove from circulation if they did this too. Worth thinking about....
Went online to order something a little different for Christmas: Calendars with your own pictures Pretty cool! Books too!
Oh, also read about this complete bag of shite today too. What the hell are they doing remembering this guy? Prats.

Well, the littl'un decided to appear at our bedside at 2am this morning (yes, he can climb out of his crib now - he's expert at it, actually) to enquire as to why we were sleeping and not playing. Back to his bedroom we went and we sat in the dark for an hour before he finally gave up and went back to sleep... for half and hour. Back he came and back we went. I gave up and let M take over. We basically fought with him for a couple of hours before he went back to sleep for real, until 8.30am. "Daddy, wake up".
So, I was up and we had breakfast together.
He's getting stickers on a little chart for going potty which seems to be keeping him focused on the task in hand. The poop dance before he actually goes is very entertaining and takes the form of him refusing to sit on the lav but Daddy letting him run around with no clothes on until he gives up and goes!
We went out in the early afternoon off to Burbank for lunch (he had a rather wonderfully dump in McD's - very pleasant - that was his only 'accident' of the day though, I was very proud of him!) and then to the Zoo. The Zoo was very cool. We took some photos... very Christmassy.
Shopping & back home.
Oh, by the way, finding a lav every 20 minutes for a toddler in the 'potty training' phase is a major life challenge. Ultimately very rewarding though! I recommend it.
Mummy was very happy to have been left alone without her boys for 6 hours too.
Win-win all around...