December - Part 2

Christmas Eve we had a lovely feast at John's house (Scott's brother), cookies, food and fun

Later we stopped by Pa2 and Ma2's house to see their tree

and their new couch!

And even later we had our own family nativity

It was fun

And we had our first ever family Christmas concert

Matthew played Good King Wenceslas

And supported John on Jingle Bells

Grant played Greensleeves / What Child is This?

I played The First Noel on the piano and Emma recited a Christmas essay she wrote

Anna declined to perform on her violin - maybe next year

And we opened Christmas jammies from Ma2

So fun

We left cookies for Santa

And everyone did a good job sleeping all night, although morning seemed to come early!

We had made-from-scratch cinnamon rolls, orange rolls and a double batch of German pancakes

And it was too much food!  But still good.

Emma got brave and tried some German pancakes.  She is a very picky eater and I sometimes put a taste on a tiny plate for her, to help her give things a try.

Merry Christmas!!

We opened presents and got a family photo

The kids enjoyed relaxing, playing video games and building Legos that day.  I was so happy we weren't sick around Christmas like last year.  Emma made this Lego birdhouse

John built this Lego piranha plant

We had both sets of grandparents over for a lovely Christmas dinner...and I didn't get any pictures. I often forget to take pictures when we have guests.  But it was all nice.  Here's the table after dinner.

Two of my brothers came into town - one from New Jersey and one from Hermiston, OR.  We had fun getting together but I didn't get pictures.  My older brother, Matt, got us all tickets to the Blazers game.  It was very nice!  I haven't been to a Blazers game before but love basketball!  It was so fun!

Woohoo!!  The Blazers lost but we still had a great time!

And I need to do better at taking pictures next year!

A little bit of outside play time

New haircuts - John is not happy about his

I am several months into my new church calling as Relief Society secretary.  I was quite shocked that any human person who knows me would want me to do this job but I am trying my best - here is a snippet of the monthly newsletter I'm working on for January.

More Christmas break puzzling

New Year's Eve we had cheese fondue and Italian sodas

And later chocolate fondue, board games and movies

One of the cards from one of the board games was very apropos

We easily made it to midnight this year...and beyond!

We couldn't see fireworks from our house this year, as we usually can, because it was so foggy, but we had our own kind of fun

Happy New Year everyone!!

See you in 2024!!

December - Part 1

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas .  Emma is excited for Christmas and wanting to look extra festive.  she dressed up for a girl scout activity on this day

John and I played at a park while we waited for the activity to end - getting too cold for this!

Another festive Emma outfit

John had another tooth issue - this time it was just a baby tooth that cracked instead of just falling out and freaked us out a little.  But the dentist helped us with the tooth and all is well.

John also made this cool snowflake to make things look extra festive

We had a little fakes giving feast.  Everyone was wishing we had Thanksgiving leftovers, turkey in particular, so we made a small feast one night.  Sadly the turkey didn't last long.  May need to make two turkeys next year.  We took lots of shortcuts on this feast but I still made the cranberry compote and sweet potatoes from scratch, and the turkey but without the brining.  We did Rhodes rolls instead of from scratch, Costco masked potatoes, gravy from a packet and Stovetop stuffing plus pies we still had from real Thanksgiving.  I also made overly rich chocolate pecan pie bars.  I love pecan pie but its so sweet!!  Anyway our mini feast was fun, even if the leftovers didn't last.  The turkey was gone within 24 hours - sad.

Fakes-giving table

Here we are heading out to get a Christmas tree from a local farm

Emma found a baby tree

John

Grant with his hood up

Anna ready to find us a winner

And Matthew

We found a winner!!  It's pretty tall

And got some hot cocoa after

Ma2 and Pa2 came with us to get the tree and hauled it in their truck for us - lots of fun

The tree made it home!

And found a place in the house

Let the decorating begin

And John capped it off with the star on top

The tree lasted 6 weeks without getting dry thanks for Scott's careful tree tending

Me and Emma matching

We kept a close eye on the river - we like to see how high the water gets in the Washougal River, especially near the Sandy swimming hole

Another day checking out the high water after church

John and Emma helped me make gingerbread houses and people

So much gingerbread to make

Decorating gingerbread houses - the kids can manage their own frosting pretty much now so that makes it easier on me.  Although I do most of the structural assembly with the frosting they can decorate with it.

Lots of fun house designs this year - I didn't get good pictures - I was waiting until we placed them all on the table and then forgot to ever take a picture, but all the kids had fun making houses

Here's Anna working on her design

Emma and John got to be Mary and Joseph at our ward party.  

They did a good job, although John was pretty nervous.  He pulled it off in the end.

Anna had her winter choir concert

Some frustration about homework but mostly going well

Making Christmas pretzel treats - Grant is proud of how fast he can unwrap Hershey kisses, and it is amazingly fast.

Matthew tries to gain a hair advantage when checking if he's taller than Dad.  We determined Matthew is about 6'1" and Scott about 6'2" so we're watching to see if Matthew gets taller.

John and Emma having a nice moment reading together

Anna being silly pretending to be Justin Bieber

Anna made this beautiful dragon postcard for school

Here it is colored in

Emma has been having fun playing outside with friends a lot.  A few times we have served Emma and friends hot chocolate on the front step.  I am a nice enough mom to make them all a hot chocolate tray and take it to them, but not nice enough to let them all in the house.  John was the hot chocolate butler and helped with all the cocoa delivering.

We went out to dinner at Gustav's one night - to kick off Christmas break.  This was our first time there since new management took over.   I was happy to see that it was busy.  So Gustav's lives on.  The food was good.

We made a bunch of cookies - including these sugar cookies

We did several puzzles over the break and watched lots of Christmas movies.

More Christmas adventures to come