Some Images of Our Christmas

Hunter is our most consistant child. He has been asking for a remote control monster truck for months--never wavering. He was so excited that Santa brought it for him.

Hunter and I went to the Nutcracker together at the Pacific Northwest Ballet earlier this month. Maurice Sendak designed the costumes and the sets. It looked like a giant story book come to life. We loved it and can't wait to go back next year. Since then, Hunter has really been into nutcrackers and wanted one for Christmas too.

Alex had to have the Alton Brown salt cellar--you know the one with the flip lid. The tupperware container wasn't cutting it for our Kosher salt.

An Easy Bake oven for the manly man. Dylan put an Easy Bake oven on his Christmas list. Alex said "I am qbsolutely not getting my 11-year old son an Easy Bake oven." He has no aversion to men cooking (see picture above), just thought his son was a little old for an Easy Bake. We compromised on this Star Wars creepy crawly oven. Dylan liked it. It doesn't do muffins, but when he gets hungry he can make muffins in the regular oven.

A coffee grinder. This is Seattle. What home can be without a coffee grinder? There is the best spice market downtown and now he can grind his own spices.

Matching Sock Monkeys and their stuffed animals too.

Thanks Hunter.

Megan loves princess movies.... Okay, I must admit so do I.

Lily slept in until after all the presents were opened. Then it was her turn. She loved eating the wrapping paper and banging on the boxes.

She looks like one of Santa's elves here. Our little girl, already hogging the phone.

Can you guess what this present is? An umbrella stroller.

And last, but not least, the Nerf Vulcan machine gun--apparently this year's must have toy as evidenced by the outrageous prices on amazon and ebay. We did manage to find one at a rockin' price at Target. Dylan was thrilled for the day that it lasted until it broke. We returned it, but there was not another one to be had for quite a while. We managed to secure another one in Seattle. Hope this one lasts longer.

Christmas Eve Traditions

Christmas Eve is traditionally our spiritual celebration. We have a nice dinner. We invited friends to join us this year. We can't forget the traditional cranberry sauce. Alex likes the kind that conforms to the can when you take it out. I prefer Trader Joe's fresh cranberry sauce, so we compromised.


After dinner we had a Christmas Eve devotional put on by Megan and her friend. We sang, Dylan played the trumpet, I played the cello and the children re-enacted the nativity story. It helped that our friends have 5 children, so we could fill more parts. Here are the highlights.

Joseph is confident that everything will work out.

Mary and Joseph and a very wiggly baby Jesus.


Shepherd keep watch over his toys. An angel appears to him and his is sore afraid (note the sucking of the fingers in the mouth.)

The wise men visiting the finally calm baby Jesus and playing the trumpet for him.

Another Christmas Eve tradition we have is that the children get to open one present--It's always new pajamas. This year the pajamas weren't even a surprise since they were home on snow days when I was trying to sew them.

The boys matched and the girls matched.

Finally everyone sat down together to read "The Night Before Christmas."
By the way the only creature stirring in our house on Christmas Eve was Lily. She still gets up 3-4 times a night.

Fireproof

Alex and I braved the snow and went to see this movie this week. It was a great movie. Megan called it a "church movie, only not from our church." Alex called it a "chick flick." But I loved it. It's about saving a marriage. It had several sweet moments. Bring tissues. There was nothing bad in this movie either. It was refreshing to see that.

Ironically, the next day I went to see Nights in Rodanthe (which I loved because it took place on the Outer Banks which I miss terribly), but it was the total opposite. The lady decided to leave her marriage because she didn't feel fulfilled. Because she didn't want to work things out with her husband, she had an affair (okay, it was with Richard Gere, but still...). Now I've ruined Nights in Rodanthe for you, but I thought the juxtaposition of the two movies was ironic. The marriage in the first movie could easily have gone this same direction, but didn't. Maybe that is why our divorce rate is so high now.



The music in Fireproof is nice too. I put some of the songs on the right side of the blog at the bottom. I especially like "Love is Not a Fight."

Skiing Down Bishop's Hill

Alex and Dylan skiing...down 28th St, around the corner from our house. We call it Bishop's Hill because the Bishop lives at the top of the hill.

Boot Scootin' Boogie

Dylan had his first concert for beginning band last week. I was 15 minutes late in traffic and missed his whole performance. Alex called it "horrifyingly cute." I did manage to make this gem of a performance. His band teacher thinks dance is essential to rhythm, so he had all of the band perform the Boot Scootin' Boogie at the concert. It was priceless. Enjoy.

I feel like I'm in a Snow Globe

When we looked out the door tonight, it was again snowing--big flakes. The kids said, I feel like I'm in a snow globe. That sparked my creativity. What do you think? Just shake us up.

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

Well, we are going on day 8 of the great Seattle Snow-Out. Days 1-3 were fun... We've missed Church for the 2nd week in a row. The kids had 2 hour delays on Monday and Tuesday and school was canceled for the rest of the week. We've got at least 8 inches on the ground. This is incredible. If I wanted weather like this, I'd have moved to Cleveland (sorry, Mike and Diana. Enjoy the sun now.) The only problem is that this is so rare here, that they aren't very adept at handling it, so the roads are treacherous. As you can see below, the road leading to our house is at least 200 feet tall. Not gonna happen. (Luckily there is a back route.) Alex has been home from work for 2 days. Luckily, my Christmas shopping is all done and we can hunker down for the spell. It looks like more snow the rest of the week. Enjoy the pictures of our adventures in the snow:


the trampoline, the swingset, and Alex sledding.

a makeshift baby sled and the baby enjoying it, Dylan enjoying his early Christmas present from Megan.

Megan pulling Lily in her "sled", We even got Hunter out to enjoy it. Note the glove on his cast.

Hunter attempting a run down the hill. Alex showing him how.

Have you ever seen this much snow on a palm tree????

Alex shoveling the walk. Megan set up our lights in the snow. Thanks Meg.

Hunter's reaction to the snow. Lily's reaction to the snow after about 20 min.

Tree Lighting Ceremony

One of the advantages of living in a small undisclosed community in the south puget sound area, is that you get to know all your neighbors and the local community workers (although they will still give you a ticket if you speed in a school zone, I've learned from painful experience.) Every year our small community has the cutest tree lighting ceremony. Santa rides through the neighborhoods on a city bus accompanied by one of the two city fire engines. Quite exciting. There is free punch and cookies. Local people perform. One of the churches has crafts for the kids to do and the highlight of the night is visiting Santa. He actually gives out pretty rocking presents--not just candy canes. We had a blast this year.

Dylan sitting on Santa's lap so he can get his present. Megan couldn't be enticed.

Lily trying to figure out just who this guy was.

Hunter sat on Santa's lap too, but we weren't quick enough with the camera.

Santa arriving via City Bus. I guess he is going green this year.
Quite an endorsement for the bus I'd say.

My brother Mike was visiting from Detroit where he is doing his internship with MIT. He got a job offer from Boeing and was kind of checking out the area (and enjoying a free trip and free cookies.)