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Christmas Celebrations
12.26.14 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Christmas Celebrations
Mom and Dad came over for Christmas this year and we Lj’s had our first-ever opportunity to host grown-up out of town visitors. This, of course, prompted massive (and necessary) room cleanings, which then made us realize how nice of spaces our kids get to occupy, which, of course, prompted reflections of future projects to maximize the spaces… But for now, we just want to put a double bed in Gigi’s room. We loved having my parents in our house and hope that if we get a real bed, not an air mattress, that we might be able to lure them over more often.
We started out on the 23rd with a cookie decorating hoopla, followed by dinner out with the cousins, my brother, mom and dad. The next day was slower. We got food ready for the party on Christmas and otherwise were lazy around the house. My parents went out to a fancy-schmancy meal with my oldest brother (whose birthday is on Christmas) while we ate our favorite Indian food at home and emptied the advent calendars of all their spoils.
Mom and Dad came home to find us gathered around the hearth singing Christmas carols while Bradley accompanied with his guitar. Cookies were laid out for Santa, ‘krarits’ for the reindeer, and milk, not egg nog, to wash it all down. Milk just goes better with cookies, you know?! We sat around and shared wine, egg nog, treats and stories until we thought we might have heard Santa’s sleighbells, at which point our kids scuttled up to bed. Our kids were tucked in by 10:30 and were up and at ’em at 7:30 on Christmas morning.
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Satisfying Sunday
We woke up to frost and sunshine this morning and my body was grateful. The Lj’s shuffled out the door, all sullen and grouchy, blinded by the bright sun, unsure if we should even be in the sun anymore. It felt like it had been a long time since we had seen her and we were feeling rather vampiric. I find that when we lay around and don’t do a lot physically we Lj’s get pretty crabby. The kids were picking at one another, irritated at every utterance, every brush, and if I heard ‘he’s touching me!’ type of exclamations one more time… So we got in the car to get on some trails. It took just a few moments until the grouchiness began to fade and we embraced our walk in the woods.
It also took just a few steps to realize how out of shape we’ve become during the fall. I mean, we can still get around and we’re not doing terribly, but some people in our family have become more sedentary than others and were kinda outta breath, hating on the hills big time! We made it out just fine, however, with a solid reminder that we ALL need to be getting outside more often.
We’ve had some pretty terrific storms around here of late and there was evidence of it all through the park. In addition to the branches strewn about, a number of trees had fallen across the trail, some too large to be moved just yet, so we had to crawl under them; it was pretty exciting and fascinating to see this place we know so well look so different from the last time we had been there.
We came home, watched Christmas movies, made pizza, made fudge and had a lovely, family day!
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Reflections
Bradley took on the Reflections program at our kids’ school this year. I’m not going to go into the whole story about how a ten hour job turned into about ten times that, but I will say that Bradley put together a lovely program that encouraged the arts for our kids and all of the students at Moorlands. He had over 50 submissions and many went onto district, including our two kids!
Gigi earned two trophies for her visual arts: a photo of trees and a toucan painting, while Jude won honorable mention for his bananas line drawing and a trophy for his drawing of lavender! We are proud of our kids and I am also proud of the Papa Bear who ran the program this year!
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Kenmore Tree Lighting
12.13.14 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Kenmore Tree Lighting
We’ve been to them all, ever since the first year it was lit. We moved into Kenmore the same year they built the city hall and erected the tree, and every year it has grown! The line is long, but we wait in it to see Santa. Want to know why? We think he’s the real Santa since we saw him one summer in Fred Meyer and he remembered our kids… Every year… The only change was that this year Gigi sang in the choir and Jude snuck in and sang along to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer too!
This is the face of a boy who sees SANTA!
Our sweet girl who was so grown up all night that we hardly saw her. She had to be with her friends, twirling, singing and being silly 11 year olds! (It was a pleasure to watch her run so happily and confidently with her friends.)
Cute little face. <3 He wants a set of 'Star Wars Barbies', an electric drum set, Skylanders and a wooden boy Barbie house to play with his boy Barbies in. She was focused: Lego Friends sets! I think Santa listened well.
And the whole family!
This is the first picture we’ve done like this in a loooong time.
It was a wonderful night. I used to think events like this were cheesy and lame. Bradley would drag me to tree lightings and I just couldn’t muster a whole lot of enthusiasm for plugging in some tree lights. Whoopie. This year, though, I was so happy to be there. We knew a lot of people so the crowd was fun to walk through. When Santa got off of the fire truck, I was thrilled alongside Jude. When the choir sang, they were so cute and sincere. Santa was as jolly as ever and I actually teared up a little when they turned on the tree lights. Perhaps it was no irony that I happened to be wearing my grinch shirt that night. 😉
Whatever it was, no matter why, I was grateful that night for everything there, my family especially, but also the greater community that I actually do feel a part of now.
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The Return of the Elves
12.12.14 | Permalink | | Comments Off on The Return of the Elves
