Merry Christmas to All... and to All a Good Night!

Christmas day was a lot of fun. We let the kids sleep in a little bit, and then opened presents when they got up. My parents flew in from Michigan, and we picked them up from the airport around noon. Trav's parents, and Chuck, Kim & Lola came over around 4PM to open family presents and have Xmas dinner.
Christmas Morning -- kids taking a picture with Cocoa: Evelyn's big present was a play-house for her Barbies... this picture was taken right after she walked into the spare bedroom (where it was hiding) I love having Xmas dinner at our place -- it works out well since we have the most space for everyone... and I enjoy putting our china and crystal to use!!
Family photo right before we ate dinner:
Evelyn, Lola (cousin) and Noah -- I hope they stay close buddies :)
This picture was actually taken on the 26th or 27th... but it shows Noah's "big" present. He got a big race car track. It is really pretty cool -- Travis, my dad, and I all had a lot of fun with this, too!!

Christmas Party and Run

We were at a Christmas party last night -- Trav's side of the family gets together every year -- usually a weekend or two before Xmas. It is a big potluck event and a gift exchange (I think there were 19 people not counting kids). Here are the kids with their favorite second-cousin, Kaitlyn.Here I am after my 12K's of Xmas run this morning. This photo looks kinda distorted -- Travis took it looking down on me...I switched from my red/white candy cane socks to these socks that were red/pink/green. I am glad I did --- a ton of people had candy cane socks on.... but I didn't see anyone wearing these :)
I am paranoid about getting blisters... so I won't wear any socks except running socks (no cotton at all!!) I had to turn these socks into leg warmers and wear my other socks, too :)

I had a great run this morning --- it was an absolutely beautiful & sunny morning (right around 36 degrees) I could tell that most of my longer runs lately have been only around 6 miles or so.... the last mile (6.5 to 7.5) was brutal!!! It felt great to push myself though -- I haven't worked that hard in a really long time :)

Holiday Spirit

My computer is giving me problems with the blogger website lately --- so I haven't been as motivated to post since I have to use Trav's laptop. These pictures are from a week or so ago...

Family outing to go cut down our tree -- this is the first year that the kids got into it. I can't remember exactly... but I think last year we even took our BOB stroller out into the tree area with us! Notice Noah has a book in his hand... it is his Bob the Builder book... he takes it EVERYWHERE!


This picture is from an event in our town called Clam Lights. It is hosted/sponsored by Ivar's (seafood restaurant chain in Seattle) It is a fun little holiday festival held at a park on Lake Washington. They had caroling, free rides in Santa's wagon (horse and carriage), and of course the big lighting event. They do a spectacular job with the lights --- the entire park is lit up. AND they have dancing clams!!!

I have to be honest... this year I have been a little more affected than usual by the rainy season. I check the 10 day forecast every morning and when it says rain showers for the next 10 days I get a little frustrated. Since I grew up in Michigan, where it was rare to have a Christmas that wasn't white, it required some extra effort to get into the holiday spirit this year. The non-stop Xmas music has helped... and the house totally festive... and the kiddos are getting excited...

I will also be running the 12 K's of Christmas this Sunday. I am tying bells onto my shoes and might even try to put together some festive running attire (think red & white striped knee high socks!)

A Story A Day Til Christmas

Last night was the first night of our Christmas book tradition. Sally (Trav's mom) gets the credit for this one :) She picked up really nice, collectible type Christmas books for us and also a basket to hold the books. We wrap them up the beginning of the month, number them, and then read one every night until Christmas.
We have about half of the books being fun "Santa" type books and the other half being religious, nativity story type books. A few of the books are short (one of them is a golden book) -- and some of them are longer (Polar Express, Nutcracker) -- but it is a nice mix :)
The kids were SO excited last night to see the book they opened. We only have the books out during the month of December, and then we pack them away until the following year -- so they are "new" every year.

I think we are getting our Christmas tree this weekend --- I am seriously like a little kid -- I love the experience of cutting down the tree, decorating the tree, making the house festive, etc I can't wait!!!