Its been a while since I’ve written. I usually try to get in at least one blog entry a month!…! However, I haven’t written since before Thanksgiving. I guess the whole holiday season swallowed me up this year.
I finally took down the Christmas decorations. I love all the Christmas lights and sparkly objects. However, the day after everything is over, they must come down. There is just a stale feeling in the house the next day, a claustrophobic feeling…an anxious feeling of being surrounded by so many things. I have such a sense of urgency to get everything packed up.
Let's just get back to reality!...
Besides, two days after Christmas we have Evie's birthday.
Let the celebrations continue!
Thanksgiving was spent with John’s brother Rob, his wife Melissa and their two girls, Cady and Geneva and John's mom and dad. Once again, John wowed us all with his smoked turkey and a fantastic feast!
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| Geneva and Evie and Thanksgiving feasting |
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| Fun Uncle Rob |
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| The boys still weren't too excited about Thanksgiving food this year.... |
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| Food comas... |
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| Evie's Thanksgiving party at school |
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| GG and her clan |
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| Getting ready to visit Santa! |
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| On Santa's trail... |
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| On the "nice" list... |
Right after her departure, our lives were just packed with activity. We had Christmas desserts, two friend’s birthday dinners, fundraising events, church events, ballet performances, cookie exchanges, gift exchanges...
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| Evie and Brittney at her ballet show and of course our annual Christmas cocktail party in our basement. |
This was our 9th year putting this on. Its always a good time seeing all of our friends. This year we had a lot of new people, which was really exciting and fun. I’ve gotten to know a lot of women from our neighborhood the past few months. We’ve started getting together once a month to socialize and play bunco.
On Dec. 20, my parents flew in to spend Christmas here in Oregon for the first time ever.
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| Grandpa's here! |
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| Evie built a gingerbread house with Grandma and Grandpa |
I haven’t spent Christmas with them in two years, so it was so very special. AND, my brother Brad flew in a few days later to hang out with everyone too. It has been a year and a half since I’ve seen him and it was really good to catch up.
Christmas Eve we all went to a candlelight service at church, which was really wonderful. Christmas day just unveiled itself All* Day *Long. We had both Grandparents amongst the joyful chaos. It started out early with stockings,
and gifts,
and then more gifts, including a jeep
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| These jeeps don't build themselves... |
and a wagon
and finally a basement full of tunnels and tents to explore and climb in.
We spent part of the evening dancing and playing along with John as he sang with his guitar. We ended the evening by having a quiet Christmas dinner by the Christmas tree, with just the adults. It was perfect.
The next day we went to the Portland Aquirium….tried to detox a bit…..before tumbling into Dec. 27 which is Evie’s 4th birthday.
It was a 4:00 dinner at Red Robin kind of celebration!
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| a new bike from Grandma and Grandpa |
Finally, after the wrapping paper and cake were settled and the kids in bed, John and I giddily took off for our two night escape downtown while my parents held down the fort with Amanda. Hehe..yes, I was giddy.
John and I ushered in the New Year with Moscow Mules and Dateline, barely making it to midnight. We started off 2016 with another Christmas celebration with John's side of the family
and an unexpected snowfall! There was just enough snow and ice to cancel church, school and Evie's birthday party. However, there was also enough to build a very small snowman.
John also took Evie sledding down an inclined cal-de-sac near our house.
Onward to 2016!
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