Yes, we did celebrate Christmas

So I am behind on posting this, but here is a quick update of some of our Christmas adventures. 

Esther dressed in her best international attire (courtesy of my parents currently living in Russia while my dad works for our church) for a Christmas-around-the-world dinner and carol singing with some friends from the ward.

For me, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without home made gifts and lots of sewing.  My mother has been known to wake up at 2 or 3 am to sew for Christmas while we were still asleep.  Her creations were quite spectacular in the creativity of design and the sheer volume she produced.  I am starting quite small, but it's been fun beginning. Especially since I have also recently stated knitting and am a wee bit obsessed.  I have a lot to learn so don't judge too harshly.  Anyway, here is how it went:

Esther's silk Christmas dress with flower hair clip. (She was sick the day I took this picture...poor girl)

Knit cardigans for nephews Nathan and Daniel (sorry about the terrible quality of the pictures.  I could never be a professional blogger. Alas)

 Knitted Christmas stockings for the family.  Cream for mom and dad and red with cream cuff for Esther. Sewed Esther's fleece sweats...she looked like a round Christmas elf.

These are technically wedding gifts, but I gave them at Christmas time so they count. Right?  We have started a tradition of giving his and her's aprons as wedding gifts.  The yellow and gray set was for my friend Nina whom I met on our study abroad to Paris.  The blue and yellow set was for our dear friends from North Carolina, Charlotte and Asa.

We spent a warm and relaxing Christmas with the Crittenden's in Arizona.  I took embarrassingly few pictures, but we had a memorable time...in a good and not-so-good way. The best part was being together with family, watching Esther immediately reconnect with her grandparents and cousins Bristol and James, and loving our two new nephews Nathan and Brecker.  The entire family was there and we had a great time together.  We played LOTS of games, ate LOTS of great food, went the the Phoenix children's museum, had a grown-ups night out to see Les Miserables, and had a steady supply of sunshine and fresh citrus in the back yard.

On the other side of the spectrum, we almost missed our Christmas Eve flight due to our "ghetto-fabulous" long-term parking arrangements, and wondering if I would go into labor on the flight as I'm having lots of contractions as we ran through the airport (hauling bags with our Christmas gifts just in case the checked luggage didn't make it).  Fortunately both we and our bags (but not a new baby) arrived in Arizona ready for a great time.  We also brought with us a respiratory virus that lasted about 2 weeks, and then the stomach flu made it's way through the entire household except perhaps the newest baby and (thankfully) myself.  I credit my stomach's resistance to my highly sanitary childhood with horses, ducks, chickens, and I distinctly remember washing my hands in the mouth of our Saint Bernard dog, Chopper.  Lovely.

cousin Bristol and Esther...only 1 month apart

"shopping" at the children's museum

We went to the lovely wedding of my friend Nina and Landon in the Mesa Temple. It was such a beautiful ceremony and a happy reminder of was marriage is all about.  

We spent New Years with my brother Rick and his family, but sadly I forgot to take a picture.  It was so fun meeting little Daniel and seeing how much their kids have grown.  We can't wait for them to move to Idaho and be closer!We even got together with my dearest cousin Whitney who lives in Scottsdale.  We grew up around the corner from each other and it was SO happy to spend time with her again.  Love you!

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Did you know that December 6th is St. Nicholas day? If you leave out your shoes the night before, and if you've been very good, St. Nicholas will come and leave a surprise in your shoes.  This year St. Nicholas brought Esther two Christmas books, for Chris he brought peppermint syrup so we can re-create the Starbucks peppermint hot coco.  For me, a real treat, St. Nicholas brought Trader Joe's Sea Salt Caramels. I LOVE Christmas!

We had a fun breakfast of German-Apple Pancakes with yogurt and berries, listened to Christmas music, and felt very much in the Christmas spirit. Esther is still not sure what's going on, but that's okay.  Better too young than to old for these sorts of things.

Here is our   Advent wreath  and the pretty and thankfully non-fragile nativity from Chris' parents last year.  Still no tree this year, but we are slowly building up our repertoire of Christmas decor and traditions.  A new one that we started this year was reading A Christmas Carol because we figure if President Monson can take time to read it every year, so can we.  Chris or I reads a chapter or two out loud every night and we just finished last night. I'm excited to start another book  tonight.  Not sure what we'll read next, but I'm thinking perhaps it will be The Other Wise Man. 

We can only put decorations in very high-out of reach  due to a certain almost two year old wild woman who lives here.  Bless her. 

Thanks to Sarah and Jake (Chris and Amber's cousins who live in Kirkland) for having us over last week for a gingerbread house party with real gingerbread.  Esther learned the word "candy" and how to eat most of her decorations long before they made it on the house.  We had a lovely time!

Merry Christmas to all!

Thanksgiving in Winthrop

We spent Thanksgiving with my sister Cynthia and her family who live in Winthrop.  Having a sister just 4 hours away is a major bonus to living in Washington.  Especially when that sister has a daughter just 2 weeks older than Esther, and she lives in a place with this view of the Cascades from her family room.  Can we say gorgeous?  I was literally inside the house when I took these pictures of the deer that came up for a morning snack. 

 Harriet and Esther played amazingly well together, mostly playing with the light switches, jumping, calling each other's names "Esser!" and "Harri-eh!" or just yelling, and playing with the toy animals.  Harriet is quite the little firecracker and it was delightful getting to know her fun personality.  She is going to be a great friend.

 A neighbor brought over a refrigerator box for the kids to play with. As you can kind of see, much creativity ensued that involved lots of paint and eating various meals inside the box, passed via a small hole in the roof.  All five kids somehow managed to fit inside along with various furniture and toys.  So fun.

The Feast:

Emil, Joshua, Marta, Thomasin

Cynthia & Thomasin

 Esther snuggling up to Marta one morning.  We spent a lot of time by that fire, because it was quite cold up there, and on our last morning we woke up to...

 SNOW!

 We drove up the pass to where the road was closed.  The oldest 3 kids (Thomasin, Marta, and Emil) put on their cross country skis and the rest of us trudged along the road next to a creek.  It was absolutely lovely...but Esther, being the Carolina girl that she is, wasn't such a fan of the cold.

And that is about what the road looked like when we were driving home!

Oktoberfest

In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines

Lived twelve little girls in two straight lines

In two straight lines they broke their bread

And brushed their teeth and went to bed.

They left the house at half past nine

In two straight lines in rain or shine-

The smallest one was ...

The instant I saw this picture on Pinterest I knew Esther positively had to be Madeleine for Halloween.  My mom and sister helped me figure out how to create the costume, which I made for around $5.

  Even better, my friend Sammy had a perfect nun's habit which made it possible for me to dress up as Miss Clavel (the nun who runs Madeleine's school).  

If only I could have found a golden retriever costume so Chris could have dressed up as Genevieve... 

 Sometimes picture taking can be a challenge, hence the tiny box of candy in Esther's fist.Even then, it's no guarantee.

As you can see, Esther was anxious to get out the door with her cousins so we could go trick-or-treating together.  Trick-or-treating with Esther was an absolute delight.  At first, she was nervous of all the strangers at the door and I had to hold her bag an get the candy for her.  But as she came to understand  that these strangers were giving her treats, her attitude about the whole business quickly improved.  She clutched her bag in an iron grip, shouted "TREAT" along with the other trick-or-treaters, carefully chose her prize from the offering bowl, said "thank-you" often, and ran as fast as she could after her cousins to the next house.  Her bag was getting so heavy it was dragging on the floor, but if Chris or I ever offered to help carry it for her, we were firmly rebuffed. 

1 tiny box of pink nerds

+

1 late night trick-or-treating

+

3 whoppers (malt balls)

+

1 blue m&m peanut

= 

Time for bed!

But it was so worth it. 

Another fun event was our church's annual Halloween carnival complete with games, cider, face painting, and even a photo booth. The secret to a successful night=individual bag of popcorn.  Esther munched mostly happily all night without crying (even though it was late) and without eating the candy.  Brilliant.

A bit hesitant about this face painting business.

 Tricycle races

Those who hadn't read Madeleine were rather shocked that I dressed up as a pregnant nun.  Keeps them guessing I suppose... 

 Our friends Holly and Jason invited us to their 7th annual Halloween organ concert.  Holly graduated from BYU in organ performance and played a fun mix of music ranging from Schubert's Earlking to Pirates of the Caribbean. Moreover, she played in a spectacular Frankenstein costume which made it that much more spooky.

 Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!  

I celebrated November 1st by listening to Christmas music all day and didn't feel the least bit guilty.