Christmas 2013 Begins

 So Christmas vacation begins...

Enjoying being at Grandma and Papa David's house:

Their friends came over and brought some whisky:

Reade loves his new doggie pal Olive:

We took Olive and the kids to the park for some sunshine and freedom:

Andrew, his father, and myself went on a little outing to test drive some Porsches...:

...and Teslas:

Ramping up for more fun days.

Snow Day

It's A Snow Day!

What a fun surprise this morning.  I didn't believe it was really going to happen.

We heard the neighbor outside so we had to get the sled out:

People were driving around just fine:

Mr. Snowman

Treats

My Christmas treats have been created, packaged, and delivered.

I made snowman cake pop treats for Reade's teachers.  Some may say it is a Pinterest fail, but I was okay with how they turned out:

All those snowmen crossing town alongside me in my car:

I made each teacher a bookmark with Reade's crazy face on it:

Next year you can all hope I cave in and buy gift cards instead of exposing them to my silly baking ideas.

Holiday Beginnings

Holiday decorations were definitely in their beginning stages this year.  I didn't have the energy to get everything done, but I know that things will progress in the years to come.  I am going to document the beginning so I can look back and smile at our first Christmas in this house.

I love my eBay Santa:

This ceiling window is perfect for my wooden trees:

I had envisioned an earthy fabric wrap beneath my white Christmas tree:

I just love my yellow entry rug.  I also spray painted three, black twig coat racks (my sister saw some similar ones in a local shop and gave me the idea - so I went onto Amazon.com and got them half priced) white for guest coats.  I love our lit up Rudolph on our porch, but Andrew calls him Christmas crap.  We need to make him a red nose:

P.S. Blake keeps printing out UW pictures and taping them to our windows.

Two out of three village houses remain.  The boys broke one last year.  The Santa is a preschool creation from yesteryear:

 And our tree.  I had high hopes of spray painting some white feathers silver.  I was going to gather three feathers (some white, some silver) and arrange them in mini bundles all throughout the tree.  I've got the spray paint, feathers, and 365+ days to get them done before next year!:

It is cozy enough and now it is time to forget about decorating and get busy baking.

Google Holiday Party 2013

Google Holiday Party 2013

Best holiday party yet!  Seattle people are way less pretentious and know how to have a good time.  I talked to more Googlers and their wives at this holiday party then I have in the whole time Andrew's worked for the company.  Great people and great stories.  The theme was 20's so there were lots of headbands with feathers in it.  Plus, I had the best mixed drink ever.  It was called a Pineapple Upside Down.  Delicious.

 Group shots.  A team that drinks together, stays together (or are those famous last words???).

More Shaky Videos

Blake has something at school called "Writer's Workshop" where they have a picture rectangle with a few lines beneath it so they can create stories a few times a week.  They have about 20 minutes to complete as many as they would like.  Sometimes they have an adult help them spell out their sentences and sometimes they do it on their own.  Each child got to pick their favorite story and then "edit" it by adding more detail or more words.  The teacher invited the parents in for the authors to read it aloud themselves.  It took so much courage for those kids and they all did a fantastic job.  I was so mad at myself for forgetting my camera so I had to use my lame cell phone to capture the moment.  

By the way, this town is so passionate about the Seahawks football team because they have been doing so well this year.  Blake is definitely picking up on this and is becoming quite the fan.

Tree + Kids

I put the kids on a movie so I could put the Christmas lights on the tree. I had to run and grab my camera since Reade was dragging his sister around in a basket. Please excuse my work in progress living room!

 

The Yearly Tree

The family piled in the car for a trip to go get the yearly Christmas tree.  We drove over to the East side to explore some Washington State countryside.  Carnation Tree Farm has two buildings registered as Historical Landmarks.  They are a family of proud Norwegians!

Blake got to hold the other end of the saw and cut the tree down with his father:

Santa was there so we got a picture.  Two criers out of three ain't bad.

Boating Ideas

Some things I have been meaning to get to around here:

1. Putting up my thrift store wreaths.  Adding a nautical bow is exactly the missing piece from the plan in my head.  Glad that is figured out.

2. I really want the Ikea Grundtal mirror (found over at this cute blog).  Definitely on my Christmas list (if only Santa would make the drive to Ikea for me).

3. Online tutorials so I can make some nautical garland.

4pm-6pm

A mom at school told me about the Gingerbread Village display at the Sheraton Hotel downtown.  I dug deep for some energy so that I could take all three kids there right after Blake got out of school.  We ended up doing a lot of exploring and had a bunch of fun.

Heading downtown.

After learning the ropes of a parking garage, we finally got inside.

Excited to be so close.

The gingerbread village was themed "Nursery Rhymes" this year:

Jack and the Beanstalk

London Bridge Is Falling Down (Front)

London Bridge Is Falling Down (Back)

Hickory Dickory Dock

I Saw A Ship A Sailing (Side)

I Saw A Ship A Sailing (Front)

There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe (Front)

There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe (Back)

Hey Diddle Diddle

Hey Diddle Diddle (Detail)

Since we were off to a good start, I thought I would walk a few blocks to check out what Macy's had to offer:

A Mini Donuts Booth???  Um, YES.  Could not pass that one up.

My son said, "Forget the donuts.  They have a merry-go-round."

Tickets purchased.

Macy's famous star all lit up:

Along with the merry-go-round tickets came entrance to the giant Snow Globe.  Kind of weird if you ask me.  You stand in line and are only granted a total of 2 minutes in there.  I think this will be the closest I ever get to one of those rooms where money blows up and swirls all around me (like on game shows).  I love the pictures since I rarely get a picture of Reade in candid happiness.  The boys kept pelting Piper with that fake, plastic-y snow.  I didn't notice because I was taking pictures, but when our time was up, I looked down and Piper was a mini abominable snowman.  No wonder the kids look so happy.  Naughties.