Ten Years

On this day ten years ago I was nervously getting ready for my first date with this cute guy I worked with at Rollingwood. He was picking me up and we were going to Victorian Christmas in Nevada City...and doubling with my mom and her boyfriend at the time...! Little did I know that ten years later we would have dated for 2 years, gotten engaged, had a wedding, two babies, and moved to Oregon. After the first year, I started making an ornament for the tree with our picture. It all started with one of those cute ornaments with the year on it from Michaels ..."2004" reads the first one. After the years and ornaments started accumulating I realized our tree would start to look like a shrine and I moved them to a wreath. For me it's fun to look back at each year and see them truly filling the wreath like they fill our hearts with the memories of all those Christmases. Christmas is already such a magical and special time for me that the fact God placed Tim in my life at Christmas is just the icing on the cake.  I can still close my eyes and be back in Nevada City on that cold night with carolers singing, the smell of kettle corn, the Christmas lights twinkling on the old buildings and watching people warm their hands by the fires. I went home that night smitten by this guy who is has become the man who still holds my heart. 

Gingerbread

I love gingerbread houses.  I like making them because of the whimsy and fun they represent at Christmas.  I remember making one in 3rd grade with graham crackers.  I made them with kids at Christmas and I am excited now that I have kids that it can be one of the things we do at Christmas time.  Last year I had a kit that Gracie and I did together.  I do one thing differently though...after many many houses falling apart (partly due to the fact that I didn't know until this year that there is a specific type of icing you have to make!) a few years back I started hot gluing my house together first.  I know, it's cheating but it's worth it to prevent frustration of walls falling down.  This year I wanted to do it from scratch.  I began the search online to get ideas for a design and then during nap time I set to work.  It took one day to make the dough then letting it refrigerate (is that a word?!) A couple days later I rolled out the dough and cut out the pieces after cutting pieces from cardboard to make a model.  The pieces baked and cooled and then I hot glued, stepped back and looked and realized it looked like crap!  Well...probably mainly because there wasn't frosting on it yet and there were a lot of imperfections.  Let me tell you...after looking online and having this idea in my head I was a little disappointed at what mine turned out like but oh well...I'm far from perfect anyway ;) I had invited our friends Mike and Joanne over for the afternoon to help decorate.  They enjoy being around the girls and we hadn't seen them since pumpkin time.  We had hot chocolate and coffee and they decorated the house and Gracie even did some gingerbread men.  After the house was done Joanne read to the girls (she is a retired Reading Specialist).  It was a very nice afternoon with a lot of sugar!

Portland Ship Parade

Every year ships and yachts from all over decorate for Christmas and participate in a parade on the Columbia and Willamette  rivers. Tim was working so I took the girls and met my Dad in St Helens (about an hour away) to see the parade of ships. It was only in the twenties that day so it was pretty cold for us but we saw the ships and then got to see Santa. Gracie decided to share some cookies with Santa and Mrs. Claus that we had made.

Family Christmas Service

Our church has a family service at Christmas and the older kids get up and sing, so it's more of a Christmas program which made it even more enjoyable.  Tim was off of work in time and Gracie was excited to have her hair curled.

I think the look on Charlotte's face is priceless...Gracie loves a mirror these days!

Admiring the Baby Jesus display

Frozen

One of the moms at gymnastics had mentioned that we should take our girls to see Frozen.  Of the six students in their class they are the only girls and they have a lot of fun together...and I enjoy sitting with the moms each week!  Anna (in the middle) already had a dress and I didn't want Gracie and Eden to be left out so I got some fabric to make them dresses of the other main character.  It was a CUTE movie and the music was even better.  

Andrea and Eden, Beth and Anna, and me with Gracie

It's been cold...

...well, cold for us coming from California!  For about a week it didn't get much above 30 but now it is back into the 40's during the day.  When it was cold Gracie still enjoyed gymnastics...

Charlotte learned how cool the heater vent is...


Our walks were cut short...


We hung out at the book store

Snow!

We got a little but of snow on two different days and Gracie was so excited!

Watching the snow beginning to fall

Finding a warm spot on the vent!

Family Days

I have been wanting to blog sooner, but I had a little "gig" going on that took all of my free time (meaning nap and after the girls went to bed).  I was making 200 fabric flowers for a bride whose wedding is not until September.  I could have taken months to get them done...but I don't like unfinished projects and would sleep better knowing they are done so I finished them in two days.  I think I was cutting, twisting, hot glue-ing (and burning my fingers!) for a total of 10-12 hours.  But they are done and ready to be handed off to the bride-to-be and she may have more DIY projects for me, but hopefully they do not include any more fabric flowers!

This was when I was done with just 132! I didn't finish all 200 until around midnight...

Family Day 1- Baking cookies and Zoo Lights

We began our family day by making cookies and letting the girls frost them and they had so much fun

When we became members of the zoo we were excited that it came with free admission to Zoo Lights and I was looking forward to going.  When we visited the zoo in Oct and Nov we could see the progress of setting up for this (apparently they begin in September!).  It was SO cold.  I think it was 24 degrees while we were there at 5:30 so we got some hot chocolate to keep our hands a little warmer.  Poor Charlotte just sat there...Tim said she was frozen and couldn't move.  

Charlotte is not a fan of anything large in costume

Family Day 2- Seeing Santa

On Friday we took the girls to see Santa.  I happened to see something online about Santa at a dairy farm/plant called Alpenrose.  They had Santa and little old fashioned store fronts that had trains, a bakery, and other fun things for kids.  The most amazing part was one building had "Story Book Lane"...I can compare it to (what Sacramento people will know) like a mini Christmas style Fairy Tale Town.  It is safe to say that Charlotte hates anything in costume that is bigger than her and when I sat her on Santa's lap she freaked but at least she sat there for her picture.  The wind was blowing outside making it feel more like 15 degrees instead of 25.  We definitely had a frozen good time.  

The waiting area before Santa

Aw sad face and Santa trying to make her feel better

Deep in conversation

The Three Little Pigs

Look!

Playing in the General Store

The Christmas Story