Our Budding Leibovitz

Hannah got a new toddler-friendly digital camera for Christmas. Daddy got it out yesterday, and fun was had by all (but mostly by Hannah). She took approximately 372 pictures. That was just the first day. I had to download them all because she filled up the memory. The camera also records video, and you can add fun sounds and graphics to the pictures. Below is some of her handiwork (with the first picture taken by daddy).

Christmas Eve

8 Months Old

My two babies, both taken at 8 months. Any resemblance?

So Much Snow.....

So much time! This stuff isn't going anywhere! Hannah had fun playing with Daddy in the snow. She really liked the sled, although she tells me once they crashed in a ditch and had to crawl out. Any truth to this daddy???

And here she is after she decided she just could not walk another step!

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When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Start Drinking!

Sadly, Our wine "fridge", the temperature of which should never drop below 46 degrees, decided to go postal on us and somehow got down to a frigid 23 degrees. Which is exactly what temperature is needed to freeze wine! And did you know, when wine freezes it pushes all the corks out (if you're lucky the bottles won't explode)? So as you can see from the pictures, we have suffered a loss of near epic proportions (ah, really we're over it but doesn't "epic proportions" just sound better?).


Some of this wine had plans to be saved for quite a few more years. With that now impossible, we are going to be learning how wine tastes after it's been frozen.

So far, not too bad.

You'll shoot your eye out!

The votes are in (all 20 of them!) and the almost majority has chosen the 1983 classic "A Christmas Story" as your favorite holiday flick. Now, this doesn't have anything to do with the fact that it's on 24/7 every Christmas Eve?

And let's not ignore our second place finisher, "Christmas Vacation". Oh, Clark would be proud.

Cold December Weekend

Our weekend started with a holiday party at Semiahmoo. Fun was had by all.

By Saturday the snow was arriving and the cat knew just the place to lounge.

On Sunday we woke up with a winter landscape. Hannah and Baxter enjoyed their time outside.

And when playtime is over, nothing beats a warm cup of milk and a nice warm fire.

Keeping Up with The Joneses

Now that we live in an actual neighborhood, we have noticed that lots of people decorate for the holidays. We were taken aback during the month of October to be surrounded on all sides by homes with Halloween lights, sounds, and decor. Our home had 3 jack-o-lanterns on the porch, which quickly became 2 after one was squashed on the road Halloween night. Probably because we didn't have our Halloween lights on! So, we knew we had to go the extra mile for Christmas. Here is the Christmas light master and his eager helper working away.


And after 3 days, several trips to Lowes, here are the results on the front side of our home:

Shortly after our lighting ceremony we were startled when all the lights went out! Apparently our electrical system has "rules" about how much you can plug into the outlets at any one time. But with some clever thinking, I am happy to report that all of our lights are shining bright with no circuit breaks. Now, about that power bill......

Enjoy!

A Visit to Santa, 2008

What a difference a year makes. Here is our 2007 visit to Santa Photo:


And here is our 2008 photo:

Hannah was ready this time. She was pumped, couldn't stop talking about it all the way to the mall. Brought stuff to show santa, the works. As soon as we got into the mall and she could see his area though she immediately started in with the "I'M SCARED"!! And tried to get away. Fortunately there were people ahead of us in line, so she was able to watch and warm up that way. Eli was not so sure about it. He cried the first time we tried. But Santa was recovering from a bad cold and tried to cough up a lung, so we had to take a break and get back on his lap. Then Eli just stared...but he looks like he's saying "get me out of here now!". As we were leaving Hannah goes "I guess I do like Santa after all!".

Put on a Santa Face....

Here is Hannah after I asked her to put on her "I'm going to see Santa" face.

She's ready. Right? Stay tuned for the outcome of Visit to Santa 2008.

A Few of Our Favorite Things....

I love the holidays. The decorations, the music, the gatherings of family and friends. The excitement in the eyes of children. And not to be forgotten, all the yummy treats that are designed specifically to make you forget all about your healthy eating plans. Here is one such temptation in our household:

Trader Joes + Chocolate + Peppermint = One Yummy Cookie. Or two. Maybe three.

November 30th

We are slowly getting the Christmas decorations up. Here is Hannah working on her decorating skills and helping mom with the tree.

Later in the day Hannah and Eli decided to take a ride in a favorite toy - an empty box. Hannah could do this all day. Eli was ready to get out after this picture. I'm guessing in a few more months he'll be ready for endless backbreaking (for the parents) box rides around the house.

Hannah's Decorating Tip #23

When decorating a tree, as Hannah is helping Grandpa Norm do in the below photo, always cluster all your ornaments together. That way it is easy to see them all on display without having to circumnavigate the tree.

Hannah's finished product: