Author: brookeshelf

Eleanor came downstairs on New Year’s Eve and handed me this:

Arguably one of the better uses for googly eyes.

Meanwhile, our New Year’s Eve included a thrilling smash-up of the gingerbread house:

. . . however, this was kind of anti-climactic since everyone in the family (except me) had ALREADY PICKED THE GOOD CANDY OFF THE HOUSE.  When I was growing up, the gingerbread house was hands off until it was smashed.  In Brian’s family, gingerbread houses are slowly picked to death.  Since I’m the only one who subscribes to the former philosophy instead of the latter, it was a losing fight and that house was hardly worth the bowl it rested in afterwards.

We also popped British “crackers” (although I did not wear my hat, because I hate wearing those paper hats).

The evening was spent eating chocolates and putting together a “Wonders of the World” jigsaw puzzle, which we didn’t get to photograph before Katie wrecked it.  Happy New Year!

 

 

So . . . when we returned back to Shoreline House, Christmas was still unofficially still going for my family.

Mainly, because we had left almost all of our presents behind at home.  (In a locked closet with the treadmill, actually.  I was mad paranoid that someone would break into the house while we were gone.)

We also had a freezer full of holiday food that I had purchased just in case it snowed and we needed to produce a holiday feast for Dec. 25.

In other words, the carols were still playing, the chestnuts still roasting.  I took William and Eleanor out to get the free paperwhite bulbs they were offered as members of the Junior Gardeners’ Club at Sky Nursery, and . . . this happened:

It’s a christmas tree hat!  I’m still regretting not buying it (75% off!  I should do all my holiday shopping on Dec. 30!).

Also this:

It’s a Santa cookie, darnit!  Not “a butt,” as my friend Shannon described it.  Hey, bakers have to do SOMEthing with an upside-down heart cookie cutter!

And so, with the grand Opening of the Presents, I was able to officially declare Christmas o–

 

–oh, wait.  And then we invited friends over for a big ham dinner on Jan. 3rd.  Sheesh, the holidays will NEVER END!

Coming right up, courtesy of Grandma Kathryn and Grandpa Randy!

All of our kids were cute opening their presents in Provo, but Katie kinda stole the show, cuteness-wise.  That happens a lot when you’re two.

Brian’s mom gave Katie this little stuffed pegasus.  She dubbed it a “unicorn!” and refused to let anyone tell her otherwise.  Little Unicorn! spent its first ten minutes as Katie’s pet being rubbed on a cheek, then cuddled:

Our days spent in Provo were marvelous.  Uncle Jake’s mom was visiting, too, and she is a pie-making whiz.  I thought I was on top of my game when I arrived in the kitchen at 8:30 a.m. showered and dressed, but no:

Eleanor and Laurie were just putting the finishing touches on these apple pies.  There were already pumpkin pies in the oven.  And a german chocolate cake from Uncle Jake’s birthday.  And did I mention that my pants are feeling snug?

Grandma Kathryn had the very good idea of taking us to the Carl Bloch exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art.  The exhibit was gorgeous, and very fun — the museum had iPads for patrons to borrow, and a bunch of digital exhibit information, including activities for kids to do that taught them about the art.  I was impressed.

Also, we took time to play The Cones of Dunshire:

Plus another round of sledding at the reservoir (little did we know this would be our only sledding for weeks!)

It was difficult to pack up and drive back to Shoreline House, but I can’t think of a more lovely Christmas.  Visiting Utah was my present this year.

You can’t have Christmas without a picture of all the children on the stairs.  In Salt Lake, we even took pictures of everyone on the BASEMENT stairs.  Because that’s how much of a traditionalist I am.

More tradition: the photo of all the stuff Santa brought, both before . . .

. . . and after.  Everyone got what they wanted: Jeff and William their Lego Ninjago sets, Eleanor a “watch with hands like Mom’s,” and Katie a “Minnie Mouse dress,” which she tried on once, declared it “too scratchy,” and has never worn since.  Such is the life of a Santa present.

Actually, Katie was a little disappointed, because she thought that Santa would be waiting for her in person on Christmas Day.  “Awww, I missed him!” Katie said to me, looking like she was about to cry.  But then she found a little plastic Santa toy in her stocking, and somehow that made everything okay.  “Here he is, here’s Santa,” she squealed, holding the toy up for me to see.  All was well.

We spent Christmas afternoon taking advantage of the snow (a good thing, since the Cascades has had a dry winter).  The kids went sledding in the park behind my parents’ house (Katie once again took off her snow boots and socks and had to be carried back inside), and later Brian made a snow sculpture.  Can you tell what it is?

It’s a little difficult in these photos, so I’ll help you out: it’s a squid attacking a whale.

And in the evening: Garage Band with grandpa and cousins.  The Partridge Family has nothing on us, let me tell you.

I love the lazy coziness of Christmas Day.  Fortunately for us, we had at least two more Christmases ahead of us!

Brian and I kept going back and forth on whether or not we should drive back to Utah for Christmas.  We’d do it if the weather was fine, we decided.  And as luck would have it, the canyons were clear.

At 5 a.m. on Christmas Eve, we loaded everyone in the car and began the 12 1/2 hour drive.  As we drove onto the freeway, Jeff stirred and asked if I would recite a poem he’d heard in school, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost.

“Because,” Jeff explained, “we also have miles to go before we sleep, Mom.”

Awww.  I was impressed he remembered that poem.  Many thanks to my smartphone for allowing me to look it up.

Was it worth the drive?  Well, you tell me . . .

We made it to Uncle Pat and Aunt Deb’s house just in time for the family Christmas Eve dinner.  The rest of the fam had just listened to my mom’s bell choir concert at the Rock Church on Capitol Hill.  Can’t tell you how lovely it was to get out of that car and sit right down to a spaghetti dinner.

Katie and Cousin Emmy shared this little table.  I think Kate was thrilled to find someone her own size to play with.

After dinner my mom got us to play a whole bunch of silly games.  It was just the right amount of silliness for everyone.  There was much kazoo-ing of Christmas carols . . .

. . . and whenever someone kazoo-ed a carol that contained the word “snow,” we threw around these fabric snowballs.  This was difficult to photograph, but I randomly lucked out with this one:

I don’t know what I like better, the snowball magically floating over June’s head, or the expression on my dad’s face.

After the games, we gave the kids their new Christmas Eve pajamas and we ate Aunt Emily’s delicious yule-log cake.  Once again, Kate & Emmy stole the show, cuteness-wise.

Mmmmm.  Cake.

So Brian and I finally decided that we’d lived in Seattle for long enough without visiting the Space Needle.  The fact that we had also stumbled upon buy-one-adult-fare-get-two-kids-fares-free was purely coincidental.  Coincidental, I say!

This is what our family’s trip looked like via the complimentary green-screen souvenir photo they gave us:

And this is what our trip looked like in reality:

And yeah, it was a cloudy overcast day which meant we didn’t see much of anything at the top, but the view isn’t the point of the Space Needle, I rationalized.  The point is to say you’ve been there.  So now we can do that.

Annnnnd we also got to visit with Space Santa, who wears a 60s-retro suit, sits in a little silver-and-red spaceship, and is assisted by “elves” in alien costumes.

We also got to frost and decorate spaceship cookies.  The children were given an absurd amount of sprinkles and frosting.

Jeff was worried the whole while that the Needle was going to tip over and fall.  (He’s got a point, it does look rather top-heavy.)  They explained the careful engineering of the building on the elevator ride to the top, but Jeff hates elevators, too, and spent the whole time covering his ears and just wishing it were all over.  Poor guy!

He did enjoy the indoor exhibits, though.

I have only seen it snow twice here at Shoreline House, and both times it was the last Friday before Winter Break.

Those poor teachers.  Like they need anything else to make the kids giddy and excited.

It was only about a 1.5″ snowfall, but it was still enough to get us a 2 hour delay with the school day.  This was perfect — the kids got all dressed, fed, and instruments practiced, and then got to play for a good couple of hours before school started.

We are all still homesick for Utah powder.  We miss Brian’s snow sculptures and forts, and sledding days in the canyons.  My kids were famished for snow.

William and Eleanor built a snowman (we didn’t have carrots, so a yellow pepper was his nose).

William loves snowmen so much that he built a second one under the basketball standard.

Jeffrey made a fort out of the snow pile Brian had shoveled that morning and tried in vain to begin a snowball fight with . . . anybody.  Alas, nobody was interested.  When I handed him a sled and suggested he take a ride down a hill, his response was, “Hey, this is perfect!  I can use it as a shield in my snow fort war!”

To a hammer, everything looks like a nail, right?

Katie, in the meanwhile, briefly disappeared.  I found her mittens lying in Jeff’s snow fort, but couldn’t find her.  Then I heard a soft whimper coming from the greenhouse.  Katie had grown tired of wearing her snow gear, so had gone into the greenhouse and took it all off.  She was standing in her playdress and leggings, barefoot, with her snowsuit, socks, boots, and hat on the floor around her.  “Mama it cold,” she cried.  Well, no kidding, Katie-boo.

They did go sledding on a few little hills in the neighborhood.  It was heartbreaking to call them back inside for school.

To continue the celebration, I prepared a delectable Christmas tea party for when they got home.  Gingerbread-spice herbal tea, scones with cream and lemon curd, fresh berries, salami-cream cheese sandwiches, and butterscotch cupcakes.  Not quite the Grand America, but the closest I can come to it at home.

I got really crafty in the last few days before Christmas, mainly trying to make and complete Katie’s Christmas stocking in time for the holiday.  Here are the work-in-progress photos:

  

The best part of this project was the happy knowledge that I will never have to make a Christmas stocking ever again.  (“Hey, let’s make a complicated hand-sewn heirloom at the busiest time of the year!  Let’s do that four times!”)  Here they all are.  I can’t believe it’s been a decade since I made Jeff’s.

Eleanor must have caught the craftiness bug, because while I was busy constructing a stocking, she was busy corralling all her siblings into making a nativity pageant.  The results are below.  They wanted to perform the whole thing by just the light of one candle, but I persuaded them to have one light on, just so I could film their performance.

Forgive my singing, it’s really loud on the video since I was the one holding the camera.  I should have stayed silent, but the kids really wanted that audience participation, and I couldn’t help myself.  I case you’re wondering, there’s a Wise Man drawn on that big piece of cardboard.  Jeffrey is an angel who likes to bare his bare chest.  Katie is . . . herself.  Wim is a shepherd, and Eleanor is Everyone Else.  And that’s a star made out of Lego, not a crucifix.  Got that?

Eleanor wants to make sure that everybody gets a Christmas present this year.

She made a little purse out of paper and pipe cleaners for Mrs. Claus.  It’s sitting wrapped under the tree.  She wanted to make a new sleigh for Santa out of cardboard until I convinced her that Santa didn’t need one.

Then, today, she brought home this:

She made a present for the Christmas tree!  (An ornament is inside the bag.)  To thank it for “sheltering all the other presents.”  Awww.  (Sorry for the large pictures, but I wanted the details to show.)

As my friend Libby put it, “you better make sure she doesn’t get coal in her stocking.”

The botanical garden in my neighborhood held its very first Solstice Stroll the weekend before Christmas.  It was . . . low-scale, shall we say, but very nice.  Anything that comes with a free cup of cocoa has my vote.

Brian’s cousin, Heather, came along with us.  I still don’t think the kids have quite figured out the family relationship.  (Not an aunt . . . but not like Cousin June . . . )

The garden hasn’t been around long and doesn’t have a lot of money for programs.  Almost all the lights and decorations were donated by the community.  You wouldn’t guess it, but these pictures were taken at 4:30 in the afternoon.  Sigh, long winter nights in the Pacific Northwest.

After the stroll, we headed over to a senior rehab center with a group of friends to sing carols.  My throat, already under siege by a cold, was in tatters by the end of the evening.  Because of this, I wasn’t able to sing in the ward Christmas program the next day.  But that turned out to be a good thing, because . . .

. . . I was able to take Eleanor’s picture during rehearsal!  Eleanor has enjoyed her experience in the Seattle Children’s Chorus so much, that she decided to start singing in the ward choir.  Several people afterwards commented on how cute she was, struggling to balance the big music folder on her little fairy arms.  I love that girl.