Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we had a relaxing evening at my parent's house. We ate yummy seafood ravioli, had birthday cake for Jesus, and opened our stockings. It was a wonderful evening of celebrating our Savior's birth.

Christmas in North Dakota 2010

A few weeks ago we went to Grand Forks, North Dakota to stay with Micah's parents to celebrate Christmas with his family. We had a really nice time spending time with family. It was so fun to see Andrew play with his cousins. And a nice bonus was he became interested in learning to use the potty more. He saw his cousin Violet, who is a couple months younger than him, and she is fully potty trained.

Making Bread

I just made bread for the first time. When we were in North Dakota one of my sister-in-laws showed me a book she has, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I was intrigued and looked through it. When we got home I saw our library had it, and put in on hold. I recently got the book, and was excited to try it out. And I was really excited that I was able to make bread! I have been intimidated by making it before, but this book explains how to make it really well. And you make a big batch, then take off enough for one loaf, and leave the rest of the dough in the refrigerator for another time. Each batch makes about 4 loaves, so one batch would probably give you bread for a week if you baked a loaf every other day or so. I am looking forward to trying out some of the different recipes in the book.

Christmas Traditions

Christmas Eve Eve going to Downtown Seattle

Decorating Sugar Cookies

Weekend of Lights

This last weekend we did some fun outings to see Christmas lights. First, on Saturday we drove to Leavenworth with our friends John, Tricia and their son Aaron. While we were there it ended up snowing! It felt so Christmasy. All of the adults had lots of fun, but the 2 year olds ended up missing their naps, so Andrew was really cranky. And then they both conked out right before the tree lighting. To start out the lighting they had someone come up and talk about the real reason for Christmas and say a prayer over the lighting. It was beautiful to see the buildings light up one by one, and then to see the park of trees light up. What a great way to start our week leading up to Christmas!

We had an early dinner of bratwursts and beer.
Andrew crying and being cranky. He kept saying he was cold, so we got some hot cocoa, but he wouldn't drink he. He was
Josiah hanging out in the Bjorn. He is wearing an adorable hat that a cousin of mine knitted.



Then on Sunday evening we went with my family to the Point Defiance Zoo for Zoolights. We were thankful we are members and get discounted tickets; we didn't think it was worth the full ticket price. Andrew did have fun riding the carousel and seeing the lights, but he kept asking where the animals were.

Decorating for Christmas

We have a tradition of decorating the day after Thanksgiving. This year Andrew got to join in the fun. Although, it was an exercise in patience for Mommy and Daddy.

Setting up the tree.

Helping Daddy troubleshoot the lighting problem.

Setting up the Nativity.

Pictures of Josiah

Here of some pictures of our adorable Josiah.

Winter Wonderland

Last week we got some snow it the Seattle area. On Monday morning there was just a light dusting at our house, but we still wanted Andrew to get a chance to play in it. So we bundled him up in his snow boots and coat, and let him play around in the snow for a little bit. Then I took him and Josiah to my friend Lyndsay's house. While we were there it started to snow more, and Andrew had lots of fun playing with Owen and Jack. You can see pictures on Lyndsay's blog. After a couple hours Micah called me and said the snow was starting to stick to the roads. I didn't think too much of it, and I stayed a little while longer to finish my baking project with Lyndsay. When we left I was kicking myself for not leaving earlier. The roads were slippery and the drivers were scaring me. And then Josiah started screaming. After 10 minutes of listening to him screaming and not getting very far on the road I decided to call it quits and have Micah come rescue us. It took him an hour and a half to get to me, and I was only about 5 minutes from our house (when the roads are normal). Once he got to us we went in the Starbucks to get some hot cocoa. Micah got Andrew his very first Starbucks kid drink. We enjoyed sipping our cocoa, and then headed back out on the roads to go home.
You can see the difference in the amount of snow in the two pictures.
On Thanksgiving we ended up having some snow flurries. It was a picturesque morning with the snow falling, Christmas music playing, Daddy and Mommy making French toast and bacon, and spending time as a family. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures.

Future Pilot?

Recently we got to go to Micah's work, and Andrew had to go in one of the simulators. He likes to talk about the "flagger guy". He is the guy on the runway who tells the pilot when to move. Andrew loves the simulators and anytime he goes to Daddy's work he wants to fly one of them (off motion of course).