Christmas Card & Outtakes

 This year we thought we'd get family photos taken with Louis.  As if that weren't enough of a challenge,  the morning of our family photos Blake decided to take Chad's clippers to the sides of his head.  On the way to our photo session Lauren got a giant wad of gum stuck in her hair (that I pretty much just squished further into her hair for the photos).  Needless to say, I was pretty sure the photo session was a bust.  A few days later I got the kids dolled up and took them to a park for a few more pictures so I'd have something for a Christmas card this year.  They were so good! Smiling, eyes open at the same time and Blake was the ultimate poser!  He kept saying "what if I have my hand/arm/leg like this mom?".  We did manage to get ONE picture out of our family session, headed to your mailboxes this season.

Nutcracker 2014

Alison and I grew up going to the Nutcracker almost every year with my mom.  Some years we had great seats, in the leaner years we were definitely in the nose bleed section, but my mom always found a way to make it happen.  We loved going, but I think my mom loved it most. This was the last year of the Stowell/Sendak Nutcraker, the one we grew up seeing. The tag line for their ads was "love it again for the last time" and one of the radio spots had a grandmother talking about how watching her grandkids see the Nutcracker was so magical.  Let's just say there may have been a few tears shed EVERY time I heard the ad. Grandma Claudia would have loved this.

We took Blake, GG and Lauren on Sunday.  They had some special activities for kids before the show, Blake was even called on to help with a magic trick. The girls sat together and held hands for the first half of the show.  We toasted my mom during intermission (or halftime according to Blake) with champagne and sparkling cider.  For me, it was a bitter sweet day, but the kids had a great time.  

let it snow, let is snow, let it snow!

We set out to find our perfect Christmas tree in the SNOW! It was so pretty and very cold. We quickly pick out our tree and headed in for some hot apple cider.  And this year, we made it home safely with our tree in one piece!  It's thawing in our garage. 

Festival of Trees

The day after Thanksgiving we went to the Fairmont to check out the Festival of Trees.  We started this tradition quite a few years ago when our dear friend, Calvin, had a tree dedicated to him.  This year our friend, Molly, had a tree dedicated to her.  The Handsakers met us there, we all looked at the beautiful trees, checked out the teddy bear suite and had some hot cocoa and champagne. Such a fun way to kick off the holiday season.

Molly's Tree

GG liked the name of the dining rom

Thanksgiving 2014

We had a really fun Thanksgiving this year.  Brian was called out to fly very early Thursday morning, so we decided eat a little later than usual so we could all be together.  There were a few minor mishaps in the kitchen (my hubby accidentally turned one of the ovens OFF so our turkey was "resting" for approximately 45 minute) but in the end everything came together well. We ended the night with a dance party, our little partiers were up until close to 11 p.m.

 My little helper and her flawless yams, not one speck of skin left (of course).

turkeys waiting for turkey 

At one point in the day everyone was dressed nicely for Thanksgiving, by dinner Lauren made it to the table in her jammies. 

 While everyone was watching the Seahawks game this little scavenger hopped up for another round of pie.  His sister's pie I think :) Leo, you are so cute I could eat you up!

 Thanksgiving dance party (dancing grown ups not pictured)