December 30th

It is December 30th.  One more day until it becomes the New Year holiday.  Time to look back on a great Christmas:

Ellen & David's tree.

Aunt Shirley & Uncle Jim
provided props for another wonderful
Christmas Eve Pageant.

Everyone played a crucial role.

Time to eat.

Impromptu jam session.
They let me join in on harmonica to practice
Christmas carols.

Holy cow, Santa stopped by.

Opening gifts.  Yipppeeee, I got a Roomba.
Blake calls it the Roombot.

A great crew.

Now time for Christmas day at my parent's house.
The boys loved their new rubber band guns.

Great Nana opening the garden stepping stone the boys
made for her.

Another great bunch.

One of many Lego sets to be constructed.

Foodies

Everyone ate well throughout the whole Christmas season.  Piper joined in on the fun:

At It

Cousins.

Appropriate reading material.

To be read to cousins.

Men playing dominoes.

Teaching Mia how to change a diaper.

Chairs left behind to watch the game alone.

Dinner before the big Christmas Eve dinner.

S 

Finishing up some cookies.

No Rush

Andrew has taken the last few days off and this house is moving at a relaxed pace. Some "things" haven't turned out like they should so it looks like we might be spreading New Year's Cheer instead of Christmas Cheer. No one else is in a hurry right?

Six hands around to knead some dough.

Festive fridge.

I took the initials off of A & I's stockings
so all three kids now have their
own hung off their beds.
Someday, I will make A & myself
new ones.  

Fire Station Cookies

We made cookies for the firemen at our local fire station. They were very nice and let the kids check out the fire engine.

Reade's fire hat got crumpled so Blake let
him wear one of his fireman shirts.  Reade
opened the costume box up and got out the
helmet and the sword saying he was a
Fireman Knight.

Not A Picture

I am late on posting Piper's 5 month photo and we are days into her 6th month. I am thinking of combining the two and starting fresh. Add that to her therapist's chart.

 

Over and Back

This time of year is a good time to look beyond yourself and share peace with friends and family.  I took a break from that for a couple of hours so I could drive over a bridge and buy myself something off of Craigslist.  Now everyone is happy, right?

Rain Songs

It isn't raining yet, but we are enjoying this dance number until then:

 

Timber

Tree up, hot chocolate doled out, ornaments in place.  Done.

$Tree$

 Our adventure to get a Christmas tree:

1. Pile into the minivan and head towards Webb Ranch

2. Arrive and are greeted by giant, beautiful
Christmas trees ($800).

3. Fall in love with these new, skinny models
(perfect for small homes).

4. Lose my breath when I see that these trees
start at $98 for a 5 foot model.

5. Take some family photos and ditch the ritzy lot!

6. Drive family over to Osh and check out the trees.

7. Deem the trees too bushy and make husband and children drive home.

8. Find tree of my dreams at SummerWinds nursery, inbetween
dry cleaning and Christmas gift shopping, for
a reasonable cost.

Ah, 'tis the season.

December Doings

Andrew cleaned the leaves off the roof
and put up our Christmas lights.

We are exploring options for new flooring.
Chickens + white carpet = icky.

Mmm...a tasty sandwich shop lunch.

Our first satsuma tangerine from the tree I planted
in our front yard.

Proud Mom Elf

Got to love those Winter Programs put on by the school:

Finally

I have been waiting for four years for this!  I got to check the "breastfeeding" box.  One of the two perks.

Requests

We put in our requests over the weekend: