Happy Birthday, Thanksgiving! We here at The Dex Files hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We are grateful that we got to spend the day with our family and friends at our new house.



My mom and brother, Victor, and Tita Nini drove up from Los Angeles to help us celebrate the holiday. Here we are posing with Dexter as the centerpiece as he's flanked by Uncle Victor, Lola and Uncle CJ.



The beginning of the holiday family portrait...



Lola and Dexter sharing a moment while reading a book. Dexter loves him some Lola!



Karen, Dennis and Baby Julian helped us celebrate Thanksgiving. Seeing as they're extended family, we thought it appropriate that Dexter and Julian have a little spate over who sits at the children's table.



And check out this lovely scene as Dexter sits on Lola's lap as they share a popscicle. It's Thanksgiving and that means sharing!



End result of Thanksgiving? Food comas all the way around...



Oh, and guess who had his second haircut?



The place we take him does such a great job of keeping him occupied as his beautiful hair is being trimmed.



And right before the holidays began, we had a wonderful brunch date with Uncle Todd and Aunt Sharon in San Francisco. Such a great time!

All right. Election day has come and gone. We have a new president, hurray! But Prop 8, a discriminatory measure with the aim of limiting the right to marry to couples consisting of a man and a woman, passed. Not long ago, it was illegal for Suzie and I to be married; so, aside from the obvious, we have issues with this at the fundamental level. Let's hope that the California Supreme Court makes the right decision in stating that all civil rights apply to the WHOLE population of the state of California, not just to select members. I want Dexter to grow up knowing that all his civil rights are protected. So the picture below started off as just the three of us walking by to cheer on some folks who were for the No on 8 side. We decided to stay and help out as much as we could by waving signs and making a fuss on a very busy intersection in Oakland for an afternoon.



So now that we've squared away the politics, we had to get involved in our own little quagmire at home. Dexter, as much as we'd like him to be, is not the centerpiece in this picture. We're proud to say that we laid down our own lawn! We did the whole "sweat equity" thing by purchasing sod and laying it down ourselves. Although it was quite literally back-breaking labor, I'm glad we did it because it makes the house so much more of a home for us.



Here's the left side (Ramon did this side).



Here's the right side (Suzie did this side).



And on a dark and stormy Saturday night, we had Stephanie, Matt, Sophia and Aidan by the house for a little pizza get together. Here are the kids enjoying a little "Cars" action.



Oh, and Ramon's softball team (yes, he does play softball), the La Pinata Sluggers, came in Second overall in the co-ed division! We only lost by 1 run. There's always next season!

Good evening to you all. Please, take a seat and enjoy this special post-Halloween installment of The Dex Files. Make yourself comfortable. You may be in for a bumpy ride. Leave the lights on if you like.



The fall weather is here and that tends to bring out tiny little ghouls and gobblins. Some are rather difficult to find and if you look closely, you might catch a glimpse of one in camouflage.



But let's not get hung up on the scary aspects of Halloween (and for some, Dia de los muertos). Can you guess what his outfit for Halloween is?



Here is the Dexican with his mommy dressed up and ready for his school's Halloween party.



These lips...kissable. Simply kissable.



It's the whole ensemble that's neat, but, you have to admit the yellow boots top it all off!



And here is our little friend Dexter sliding down the not-so-scary slide! Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!



All right everyone. We're gonna wrap up this installment with our friend playind drums or parading his cars around (not sure if it's one or the other or possibly both). See you all next time!