The Eve of the New Year

 With Papa Todd busy all new year's eve day putting in our new cooktop, which required lots of horribly challenging electrical work, we realized we needed to abandon ship and celebrate 2011 at Gigi's. So we packed up our new game, fun appetizer dinner and drinks, poppers and such and headed on over. Gigi had already left town a few days before, but we were so thankful to have her house to escape to. 

We had a fun and silly night too! There was some game playing, appetizer dinner eating with mini ice cream dessert, a little daft punk dance party, and grape eating while watching the ball drop to the east coast new year!

Christams Night

We spent Christmas night with the Martin fam at my aunt Lee's. The night was filled with more gift exchanges with Cassie and Dashel, cousin time for the kids (H loved her Nola time, and Q was claiming Jack for his lego star wars video game tutorials), 

lots of Just Dance watching and a little playing, tasty food and desserts, seeing Lee's newest book, and just time to chat a bit with family.

The night went by quickly, as the whole day did, in a whir, a fun whir!

Christmas Day with Grandparents!

After Christmas morn at home we headed down for another fun morn with Gigi:

 First we posed by the tree:

Then it was time for gifts, brunch, and more gifts! 

The kids loved their presents from Gigi (and Poppi Vince too) and so did we!

Here's a little synopsis of this collage: Q getting his coveted Republic Frigate (the lego set with a jedi named "Quinlan Vos" no joke!), H opening her incredible homemade book by Gigi "Hazel Up North", some very tasty cinnamon rolls, H getting a whole dress up collection, another Star Wars lego set for Q! from Poppi Vince, H warming her hands by the on screen "yule log" ;), H and her monkey hat opening stocking gifts, Q with the wild hex bug collection:

 

It was a festive time with Gigi! Thank you so much!

Then we headed back home to meet Nami and Danpa for more gift exchanging before the next party! I got the kids to pose for anther pic:

with their new scooters!

They were also excited to get coveted books, cute ornaments, handy compasses, and among other treasures a new big hammock for our living room. Thank you Nami and Danpa!

Christmas Morn

Christmas this year was certainly a whir of activity. We had the delight of waking up at 6 (though we somehow managed to keep the kids in bed with us resting until 7 when they realized it was Christmas!), and then the joy that comes with walking downstairs to the site of the tree and stockings in all their glory. 

Our morning was actually not overly exciting, the kiddos opened their stockings, we had some light breakfast, then they got to open a few more gifts in between times of play and brunch prepping.  

Q loved his Star Wars gifts this year, you know underwear, a shirt, legos!, a game, and even a lightsaber from his friend Alex!

 

H was pretty excited about her "big baby" with the purple clothes, her new books, and just like Q a tiny gift from "Tiny" the elf. 

The kids also enjoyed giving their own creations they'd made at school to Papa:

It was a lovely family morning and such fun to see their faces light up on this special day!

Twas the Night Before 2011

As per tradition we arrived home from our Christmas eve dinner at Gigi's, let the kids open a little gift,

 the kids chose their gifts to each other, H got a sweet set of magnet paper dolls from Q, and Q got a coveted little Star Wars lego set from H.

then we read Christmas stories together, and of course The Night Before Christmas:

 

Later on that night, I snuck downstairs after Santa arrived and this was the scene in our home:

 He sure makes a good Santa Claws that rascally pup of ours.

Cowgirl Jane

In honor of Mom's Birthday Todd (with help from Gigi in the drawing dept) created "Cowgirl Jane". She's cut out of wood and meant for Mom's cowgirl cabin. Even though Q came down with a bug that kept us from heading to Vashon to celebrate Mom's bday, I got to go on my own to deliver her. I walked on over on the ferry with her, which must have been a sight to see. Since I realized she was unlikely to roam again I decided to take her pic along the way:

Mom was pretty exited about her, and she ended up right in front of the house, as seen in that middle picture! Then, we had just enough time to enjoy the lovely day and we took a walk to the beach,

 

 It was such a rare thing to do with just my parents, what a treat!

Thanks to my handy hubby for her creation and for letting me deliver her.

I got to enjoy a peaceful and beautiful ferry ride home as well, 

 so much to be thankful for this season! I'm just happy I got to see my Mom on her bday!

Lights of Christmas

We tried a new holiday event this year, the Lights of Christmas up at Warm Beach. It was incredible! Gigi joined us for a lovely and bright night! 

 

Advent Season '11

Here is a little of what we were up to for advent season 2011:

"handcrafted" gifts, seeing the holiday lights, the sneaky elves who leave snow globes, picnics by the tree, celebrating St Nick Day, oh my the magic of the season is upon us for sure!

Winterfest Day

 We met up with some pals for Winterfest at the Seattle Center today! This family hadn't all been to the Science Center before, and it turned out to be relatively calm, so we had a lovely time. We enjoyed watching and learning from the live science demonstrations going on today, and of course just being there with pals!

 

After our time at the Science Center we went on over to the center house to eat our lunches while listening to some high school singers, and then letting the kids play in the little playroom up near where we'd found a table. Down at the train display we ran into pals from the neighborhood, the Roberts, and pals from Froggy Holler! 

 For our last stop we popped on over to the fountain to run off some of the sugar from the tasty carmel corn Gigi got for the kids.

It was a fun and festive visit!

Vashon Playgroup Christmas Brunch

 

Anna P hosted this year's Vashon Playgroup Christmas party on the island. Of course it was wonderful to see everyone, eat tasty food, and play together.

I'm so glad we made sure to make this party happen again this year and that we got the kiddos to do the couch pic! It's a challenge but so worth it! Thanks for hosting Anna and Kenan!

Reindeer Visit

Our advent adventure for today was to visit the reindeer at Swanson's (had to cancel last week due to illnesses). So, we got to go with Gigi, who enjoyed being at the nursery with us for her first time. We did a loop of activities there, saw the reindeer, camel and donkey, went through the shops, visited the koi fish, saw the train display, ate a treat in the cafe, and then back out to see the animals get fed, and even help feed the reindeer.

One of my favorite moments was as we were leaving when H started asking questions about Santa's reindeer and where the rest of them were? I explained that they were visiting other children around the world, and they would all go back to the north pole in time to help Santa. Her face really lit up when we then talked about how these guys would soon land on our nice flat roof on Christmas eve. Tonight at bedtime she and I decided that along with the cookies we leave for Santa, we'll be sure to leave some apple slices for the reindeer, since we know now that's what they really like!

Growing Up

At nearly 3.5 Hazel has seemed older lately, in some ways. She is loving this holiday season for starters, she's so curious about the wonder of it all and SO excited. 

 But tonight she was talking about when she has babies, she even learned a new world "uterus" which she said in the cutest way. We talked about how that would be in a LOOONGGG time, after she was all grown up, out of high school and college, and probably married and much bigger. We talked about how I would then be a Grandma like Gigi and Nami, and I would be "bigger" too. Having these sorts of conversations really puts it all in perspective.

The funny thing is she has been really into playing baby and crawling around acting like one lately, even wearing a cloth diaper cover and sucking a pacifier for pretend. Today she was "Baby Queen Amidala", which comes of having a Star Wars addicted big brother I presume, and yet still wanting to make her own rules. 

She also has had some of the same fears lately that I SO remember Q having at this age, that Mama and Papa would someday die. Ack. She was falling asleep one night worriedly telling me about how she doesn't want me to die.

So, between the conversations of her having a baby of her own someday, and the fact that I will one day die, I feel like I'm growing up too, egads.

Christmas Ship

It was a much drier time at the Christmas Ship this year and more popular too! We enjoyed stopping in at the Frog shop, having treats, hearing the carols, and seeing the ships all lit up!

 

Annual PEPS Christmas Party

We had our 6th annual PEPS Christmas party, I wish I'd remembered to take a group shot, well of the kids looking at me anyway. But we were busy eating, decorating graham cracker houses, playing, listening to Christmas music, chatting, doing the gingerbread man book exchange game, you know general holiday merriment sort of fun.

After the party Q and H used the craft table to set up a fort and we had a lazy afternoon at home.

That craft table would then make a great elf workshop zone for weeks to come...

December Family Art

Tree Hunt 2011

We spent the night on Vashon and after a bit of a lazy morn with Nami and Danpa, we headed out to pick out our Christmas tree on the way home. We stopped first at a spot my family used to frequent, but couldn't find the right fella, so we headed to the next spot and found a lovely one! I think it's a blue spruce, and it might not be perfect, but it's probably the biggest tree we've ever had, and displays our ornaments in all their glory. ;)

The kids looked pretty cute in their new Christmas jammies (thanks Nami!) in front of the tree, though it was a trick to get them to stop playing around they were so excited.

 

Tis the season for snuggles!

Visitng Santa and Open House Eve

We arrived on Vashon in the afternoon in time to visit Santa. The kids gave him their letters and sat on his knee to chat with him/be their nervous selves about the whole situation, and then we tried to get them to smile. The photographer may have gotten H to smile, but by the time I took pics she was like this:

 

I'm pretty sure Todd and I had smiles on our faces laughing at her. She was just so slouchy and smirky, which I guess was her way of being nervous this year, cause she really was!

Both kids were actually pretty quiet, but they were happy to get candy canes!

After Santa we went and browsed at the Pharmacy, and then had an early dinner at Casa Bonita with the Sander family. Then we joined the parade with Santa's sleigh on through town to the tree lighting. It was a Vashon style tree lighting, complete with "Oh Christmas Tree" singing and technical difficulties. Eventually the tree was light, oh joy! and we wandered through town a bit to see some of the shops, eat cookies, craft an ornament at the Pharmacy, and check out the first annual gingerbread house contest:

What a festive, fun night!

Beach Time at Fort Worden

We had a fun time on the beach at Fort Worden. The kids were exploring, balancing, rock collecting, seal watching, "horsie" riding, having a shoulder ride, and doing a lot of star wars play with "lightsabers" and "lazer blasters" (aka sticks):

Secret Mini Vacation!

As a fun surprise for the kids we went to Port Townsend overnight (Papa had a little conference in PT he wanted to be at) and the kids were thrilled to head out on this secret adventure. Heck, they were happy just to be on the ferry:

Fun times fake playing the car racing games, running around the deck, and pointing out where we were headed on the map

Once we got to town, we got ourselves a room, at a cheap motel that fit the bill perfectly for them = 2 beds to jump across, a TV to watch cartoons on, and even a balcony looking right out on the water.  Then we went to a crepe shop to have a little afternoon snack, yum. Then across the street to a toy shop where we browsed and Mama bought something she never intended: 2 of those guns that spark when you "shoot" them. Sorry, I know Bad Mom, but I couldn't resist knowing we were going to head to the dark fort and they would be so cool in there (which they TOTALLY were). Q was absolutely being so cute, by this point he'd already thoughtfully thanked me 3 or 4 times for each little treat I was giving them. Port Townsend is so festive this time of year with all the little shop windows all decked out with lights and decor, so it was fun to wander a bit with the kids. But then we had to hit the fort I couldn't stop telling them about. So, they loaded up their blasters and hit the fort!

So, there were some teenage boys in there making creepy noises as went went into the darkened passageways, totally freaked the kids out, and honestly me too! It completely brought back the days we'd go there at night with the whole post Thanksgiving soccer gang that we'd stay with at Fort Worden. I'm a pretty big wimp, but really this made it more fun for the kids. It's good to be scared sometimes so you can have someone to imagine you are battling (plus we saw them walk away later, so we knew they weren't really scary bad guys). To finish off the fun afternoon we played at the beach, picked up Papa from his meeting, where we stopped in to meet people he works with, and then headed out to have a little dinner together before heading back to the motel to bounce and watch cartoons! Papa got to head back to his event though to listen to this hilarious guy give a great talk. Milton Love is a wonderful and funny guy (I got to chat with him a bit) and his jokes about hagfish, spiny lumpsuckers and such are pretty awesome! He made my cutie's night, so I was thankful we got to be there!

Dear Santa

Advent season has begun, the kids could hardly go to sleep last night they were so excited about opening up the advent calendars in the morn!

First up for the advent activity calendar, write a letter to Santa. Here is Hazel's:

She spotted a baby doll with purple clothes recently and really wanted one like it. 

And Quin wrote his own this year for the first time, well copying the words from what he dictated to me:

He was so thoughtful to include a wish for his Papa as well, both of them are wishing for Star Wars lego sets, what a shocker!