Christmas Recap

Daddy & Zach shoveling the walkway before Christmas.

December 24: Christmas was a success! Ryan worked Christmas Eve, so I celebrated with the kids for a birthday lunch at Aunt Dru's with Grandma & Grandpa driving over from Sequim. I braved the elements and took the kids to Christmas Eve Church Service at Grace. It was lovely for the first hour. The last half hour was spent in the nursery playing with the kids. Thank goodness we were sitting near friends.

Adrian (11), Jackson (13), Zach (4), Mom, Julia (9) & Sofia (7)

December 25: Santa was generous to Zach and Natalie but he was perplexed what to do since Ryan was getting off work on Christmas Day and wouldn't be home until 9:30. Should Santa come the Day after Christmas or should the kids wait until Daddy got home, or should they just get their presents upon waking? Santa decided on the latter. I have decided one of the best things Ryan's family did growing up was that Santa presents are NOT wrapped. This would have never worked in my family because my mom was a planner and we all were snoopers.

(Natalie in Zach's old jammies & Zach on Christmas Day)

Christmas Day - Ryan's mom (Nana) and Grandma (GG) came over. They watched the kids open WAY too many wonderful gifts. One of the best parts was Nana and Zach play football in the house and Zach laughing so hard, we were all laughing.


Natalie & GG (Her great-grandma)



December 26: On the 26th, we headed to Sequim to celebrate with my family. Again, WAY too many gifts but the kids had a good time. Then we also were able to gather as a family and spread Grampsie's ashes before heading out to dinner.

December 27: Rest, Relax (Put away Christmas Stuff, Bake for Zach's birthday party)
December 28: Zach's Party - Party was fun after the first hour. "Mommy, can you make everyone go home." Pinata was a huge success. But next year when he says he only wants one friend, i'll let him do that :).

White Birthday?

So we are hit again, the 2nd snow in 1 week - but this is a full on dumping.

(Motorcycling in the snow earlier this week)

Before the "big one" hit, I took Zach down to Aunt Dru's for his first sledding experience. After wanting to watch for the first 15 minutes and variations of "Mommy, I'll watch you go", "Mommy, I'll push you down," "Mommy, I'll push the slide down with nobody in it,"I finally told him, if he didn't go we were going home because I was cold. Reluctantly, he climbed aboard with mommy & aunt Dru and off we went. He was curled in a ball in my lap, but then we got to the bottom and he said "Ok, this time I go by myself."



The tree is on an incline . . . just FYI - it looks worse than it really was. After 30 times or so up and down the big hill, we went home. At dinner, his head was on his arm at the table - needless to say he was POOPED! So fun.

Today we have weathered 2 power outages lasting 45 minutes each. We had 7 inches and that was a couple hours ago and it hasn't let up.

It truly is beautiful but the cabin fever is a little much. Thank goodness we had football on today and I managed to sneak in to the city yesterday to drop off Christmas presents. Unless it really warms up, we may have a White Birthday for Zach and a White Christmas as well! 3 days until I have a 4-year-old!

In Less than a Week

Today we woke to snow. It's fun, but boy is it cold! A week ago today we were at Disneyland where we could wear a light sweatshirt and shorts. Ahh, welcome back to the northwest.

On Disney - it was really fun. Zach LOVED it so much - he wound up going on Space Mountain twice and liked Big Thunder Mountain - we were both really impressed . Natalie liked the mellow rides - some of the ones with dips she wasn't too happy about (Dumbo, Pirates of the Caribbean (just the drops). Her favorite was the carousel - she cried when we took her off the horse. And I knew it was a good ride when she would start dancing.



Had a great time, but boy was mommy pooped after the "vacation." Happy to be home but now the things I've been putting off (Christmas Tree, Christmas shopping, planning Zach's 4th birthday party) need to happen.