Archive for December, 2011
Happy Holidays
Happy Holidays! This year we are staying in Seattle for the holidays, and although we will not have any family members joining us, we will be celebrating with our closest friends. On Christmas Eve we are having our first party in our new home. Christmas day we will join up with the Nelson’s at their house with their visiting family. For Tom’s birthday this year (a few days before Christmas) we will take a day trip to the mountains to play in the snow.
This morning we made our Christmas cookies. I say that like we do it every year…the thing is, this is the first time we’ve ever made Christmas cookies. Tom was a bit overwhelmed with the colors and sprinkles, but of course I reminded him that indeed, we are in America and this is how we do things here (the English don’t do Christmas cookies, they do things like minced pies, which actually don’t have minced meat in them but things like figs…go figure). Jacob helped make the dough and cut out the majority of the cookies himself (hence the very ‘homemade’ look). He also iced about half of the cookies (this is where I admit I gave the broken ones to him to ‘practice on’). His cookies actually looked about as good as mine did, with a few exceptions.
Even daddy helped out by icing a few cookies.
We also went downtown to Macy’s and Jacob sat on Santa’s lap and told him what he wanted for Christmas. Evie wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with that. Hence Jacob flying solo in the photo.
On the way home we stopped at the top of the Children’s Museum to check out the massive train display. I figured I can bring my laptop here next week and get some work done while the kids watch the scene. Really, if it was just Jacob I could probably get away with it. It IS in a food court…with bathrooms.
This year we got our Christmas tree at Swanson’s Nursery. It is a living tree and we are keeping it nice and cold on the balcony until a few days before Christmas when we will bring it in the house to stand tall above the presents. After the holidays we will donate the tree and it will be planted in Carkeek Park. I believe this is a start of a new family tradition.
Fall has been lovely in the new house/neighborhood. Our street and nearby Judkins Park have many mature trees and lovely fall leaves. We’ve enjoyed exploring the new neighborhood and have met many friendly and cool neighbors.
As Evie is now talking and walking, the kids are starting to play together more. Evie will pull trains along the track with Jacob and they both will play with their babies.
Near the end of Fall, we had a family photoshoot at Gas Works Park. Some of the pics are a bit dorky, but all in all we got a few cute shots. At least now we have a few photos of all four of us together.
Other Fall activities included a trip to the pumpkin patch and, of course, Trick or Treating on Halloween. Grandma Charmian was visiting from England just before Halloween and was able to come along with us and the Nelsons to the pumpkin patch.
We went Trick or Treating with our friend Isadora and her mom Katie in Columbia City. Isa and her mommy were pirates, and Jacob and Evie were monkeys (I was a banana, but the costume was pretty short lived). We got home just in time for it to be dark and for daddy to take the kids on a neighborhood Trick or Treat with our adorable neighbor Bryn and her daddy.
2011 rounded out to an eventful and busy year. We are looking forward to all the wonderful things that 2012 brings, hopefully to all!
