For Our Fans

Christmas 2009. This year Brian and I decided that we would not get the kids any toys for Christmas. Before you say, "humbug" let me explain. Last year our children received an insaine amount of toys. The day ended feeling empty and very commercial. I knew that the next year we would try something different. Originally I wanted to adopt a family, but oddly enough I couldn't find anywhere that would let you do such a thing. The places that took donations let you drop toys in a box or send $$. I wanted the girls to feel connected to someone less fortunate. Unfortunately, nothing really worked out, and we had to spend a lot of money on an unexpected car repair, so it was a very slim Christmas at our house. We did make a turkey to take to the Stake Christmas dinner at our church, so hopefully that counts for something. We got the girls books and lessons. AE is currntly in swim lessons and will take track and field in spring. SG is in a soccer class and RR is taking creative dance. SM isn't really old enough to take classes, but is very eager to take dance classes when she turns 3 in November.

We always start Christmas morning by opening our stockings (Christmas bags). There are oranges inside to remind us of Great Grandma Jones who only recived an orange for Christmas one year when oranges where very scarce and times were difficult financially for their family.

G&G Jones sent all the girls stuffed animals. The new stuffed animals were promptly welcomed by all the other stuffed animals at the welcoming party later that afternoon. G&G LeMon sent us our new fav. game Wackee 6's. My bro. Steven gave us a date night and Aunt Shelley gave SM and RR pajamas. Aunt Shelley also gave AE and SG a big surprise! A trip to visit her in Washington D.C. this summer.

New Year's Day

Ok, so I'm only about a month late posting about New Year's, and well, I probably won't even post about Christmas, unless our fans really want us to.

On New Year's Day we went downtown to the Olympic Sculpture Park. We found parking and looked across the street and had to laugh at the contrast in these cars.

A few minutes after we arrived it started to rain. Then the wind picked up and we all got soaked. I'd love to come back again and spend more time here.

Seriously??

My tulips are coming up.

Ah, the Memories

I often get a bit nostalgic when I think of NY, however in January all I can remember is how cccccooolllddddd it is there. January was often a month where temps. would never get above freezing. One winter we had a bit of a thaw and then all the water froze making this lovely ice skating rink right in our front yard.

AE in an igloo.

Look at that frozen child. Brrrrr.

Christmas Eve in the City

Christmas Eve we ventured downtown to explore the city a bit. We parked near the Space Needle and then took the Monorail to Westlake. We found an overlook of Westlake Center and people watched for several minutes. There was a man preaching at one corner, a cyclist on a stationary bike raising $$ for a slain police officer, singers and best of all dancers. Then we rode the Holiday Carousel and had a lot of fun.

These street performers were really quite good and I could have watched them for an hour.

Cool street performers.
Then we headed over to the Sheraton hotel to see a cool gingerbread display. Here's Snoopy.
OK, these are houses that AE and SG made for their school teachers.
The theme was "Reel Christmas." Classic Christmas movies. I'm sure you can guess which movie this is from.
Gotta love the leg lamp.
We had just watched this the night before, so it was fun to see this display.
Then we headed over to Pacific Place to see the snow. Every night they turn on the snow machines at 6PM for fun in the snow.

By the time the snow was over we were all hungry and since it was Christmas Eve everything was starting to close, so we considered ourselves lucky to find this Johnny Rockets still open and had dinner here. Our kids were cranky and loud, but we didn't really care. We had a lot of fun and plan to go again next year, but not on Christmas Eve.

Picture a Picture

A few weeks ago we went to Ikea and bought these lovely frames. We spent a lot of time and money on this, but I think it was well worth it. Thanks again to the amazing Shelly!

Cookie Monster's New Look

 

Seriously: she growls when she wants another cookie. I need to feed them to her from the safety of a shark cage.