Monday, September 1, 2014

December 2013 album: traditions

We landed our 8-foot Noble Fir at a Christmas tree farm west of town just after Thanksgiving.  Truth be told, I think it gave me a headache all month.  But it was beautiful.  Next year, maybe a Doug fir?

2013-12-01 ChristmasTree 001

And a funny thing happened one day in early December: it snowed!  The kids and I took a walk in it while Dean was at school.  We were somewhat unprepared for this change in the weather.  Fiona wore Dean’s fleece, and Leo wore Matt’s cap, since that’s all I could find at the moment.  It would melt the next day, so we had to take advantage of it quickly.  Little did we know, a snowstorm awaited us in 2014.

2013-12-06 Snow 005    2013-12-06 Snow 007

We saw Peter Pan this December, too.  It was Leo’s first time to see it.  He was a little unsure about the pirates, but by the time it was over, he wanted to meet Captain Hook.  Fiona wanted to meet Wendy.

2013-12-14 PeterPan 017    2013-12-14 PeterPan 006

We went by Pioneer Square again this year so that we could visit Santa.  He is so beautiful!  Leo did much better this year compared with last year, and no tears were shed. 

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They all remembered that last year I bribed them with roasted almonds after our photo, so we treated ourselves again this year too.  Guess it’s a tradition now…

2013-12-18 PioneerSquare 006   2013-12-18 PioneerSquare 010   2013-12-18 PioneerSquare 014

We made Grandma’s cookies – the official smell of Christmas!  Can’t wait to do this again.  The secret is to let the dough sit in the refrigerator for at least a day, and then break it up with more anise tea when you’re ready to roll them.  Hands down, it makes the cookies softer.  Oh the messiness and yumminess of making Grandma’s cookies with these three.

2013-12-22 Grandmascookies 003  2013-12-22 Grandmascookies 004

matt phone-2013 338

This year, Oma and Papa spent Christmas with us.  We had so many fun adventures with them, including a transit day downtown where we took the bus, the streetcar, the light rail, and the aerial tram.  Dean had to be convinced that he would be okay to ride the tram – he was really freaked out by the cables and the height.  But at last, he relented and it wasn’t all that bad! 

2013-12-26 Tram 009  2013-12-26 Tram 0062013-12-26 Tram 004   2013-12-26 Tram 003

We unpacked a fun box of costumes from Aunt Ayme – Professor Dumbledore, Queen Amidala, Mickey Mouse, a matador...  We are looking forward to future Halloweens and any time we feel like a transformation.  These costumes would come in handy on New Years…

matt phone-2013 388 - Copy    matt phone-2013 386 - Copy   

And what else?  Oma and Papa gave us a night out to do some last minute Christmas shopping, stay in a hotel downtown, go to a movie and spend a lovely night out.  Best gift ever.

Merry Christmas to our munchkins. 

2013-12-25 Christmas 005   2013-12-25 Christmas 013

matt phone-2013 364

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