Christmas 2014

Christmas was lovely! The minute I got out the decor, Sienna loved playing with the two nativity sets I inherited from my childhood. They have so many more broken pieces every year I open them that I decided this was their last year and they are currently on their way to the land of recycled ceramic pieces. We all got a kick out of the headless child shepherd. Next year I will be buying an indestructible nativity set either made of wood or cloth or one of each probably. Adios, piano playing wise men.

 The washi tape Christmas tree was a fun way to display the cards this year.

The kids saw Santa at the ward Christmas party. Sienna asked for  a Tinkerbell doll.

 Noah and his buddy Ben sat on Santa together. Noah asked for a Cookie Monster.

Noah participated in an adorable little preschool presentation of the story of Jesus. I love this old, musty Methodist church where he meets. Teacher Bonnie and Teacher Joan are the best.

 I believe he was a wise man / shepherd hybrid of sorts. I think. Whatever he was, it was so cute.

 We joined Adam's entire family in Denver for 10 days over Christmas. It snowed and we were in heaven.

 We made a tiny little snow man. Or two. And then Noah stomped all over them. Sienna broke the branches for the arms, and here she is "holding the snow man's hand."

 We went sledding a bunch of times. This was the first year they both unabashedly loved it.

 Sienna played Mary in the live cousin nativity.

 Diane had a vintage doll from her grandmother, I think, and Sienna got to take special care of it as her baby Jesus.

 It was so precious to see her take it so seriously. At the end of the day on Christmas Eve, I was walking her upstairs to bed and she said, "Today was a very bad day." I said, "Why?" And she said, "Everybody laughed at me." She is so sensitive to people laughing at her and we try to explain to her that people laugh at her because they think what she's doing is cute. She can't comprehend it yet. Always makes me sad. :( Ian, Max, and Sam are with her in this picture.

 Noah had zero interest in dressing up for the nativity but he was pretty animated when Santa came. Here he is telling Santa that he is three years old.

 Christmas morning!

 Adam's family draws out the gift opening all day. The kids took turns opening their gifts, then we had a late breakfast of traditional scones, and then we put on a movie while the adults opened gifts. It was nice not to feel rushed. We really enjoyed all of the day.

 Adam's parents were so kind to babysit for us a Friday and Monday so we could go skiing with Adam's siblings. I'm still sore! And almost got frostbite. It was around 10 degrees or less both of those days. But super sick powder, yo. Did some serious shredding. You know. Dude.

 Diane spoiled us again with a ladies' night to the Nutcracker ballet. What a treat to have Sienna come, too. She was restless during the first half, but luckily the second half we found her a booster cushion and fed her candy, and she rallied. I can't wait to put her in dance lessons. Maybe then she'll get what all this dance stuff is about.

 Diane outdid herself in hosting three big dinners for various friends and family. We ate so well. It's always tough coming off a trip like that. I get home and keep looking around for someone to appear to make us dinner.

 Adam and his dad and his brother, Jason, went to a Broncos game together. They figured it'd be their last time to enjoy to wonder of Peyton Manning before he retires.

It was a perfect Christmas! Now onto the New Year!

Adam Tries Cyclocross

Adam's friends invited him to try his first cyclocross race. We went with him to Whidbey Island to watch. The course was set up at a park. The race is 45 minutes long and the cyclists go around this course over and over until their 45 minutes is up. 

 It includes hills, grass, mud, pavement, and steps (you jump off the bike and run up the stairs, then hop back on your seat).

 He liked it! No gushing, but he liked it. The kids and I were better off at this race than any other race he's done because there was a giant playground in the middle of the course. So, I'm a fan of cyclocross, if that counts for anything.

Thanksgiving Weekend

I hosted Thanksgiving this year for some of Adam's co-workers. I wanted to try some new side dishes, so a couple weeks beforehand, I experimented by making roasted Brussels sprouts with apples and bacon. It's official: I don't like Brussels sprouts. I can say that with confidence because if they're not good with bacon, they're not going to be good with anything. So long, Brussels sprouts!

 I bought a brined turkey and brined it again. After his nice soak, I injected him with a blend of chicken stock, butter and garlic, then rubbed him inside and out with sage butter, and finally, I filled the cavity with celery, apples and onions. I didn't get a good shot of the after effect, but it was a beautiful bird and it was, by far, my best tasting, most moist turkey yet. I owe it all to the syringe.

 Buttered rolls fresh out of the oven.

 Guests dishing up. Aside from feeling triumphant about my turkey, I was also stoked to finally make a really good turkey gravy.

 These are our guests, clockwise from bottom left: Kristen, Dave, Yue, Joanna, Brett, Stephanie, and, of course, Adam. Not pictured: Kristen and Dave's newborn, and me. The meal was fantastic. The group was fantastic. We finished the evening by watching the Seahawks game.

 The next day it rained non-stop and we stayed inside as long as possible and watched The Sound of Music and Toy Story 3. By afternoon, we had cabin fever and decided to venture downtown for the lighting of the Christmas Tree in Westlake Plaza. We hit up Piroshky, Piroshky first because nothing is better on a rainy day than a piroshky (a soft bun filled with meat and cheese, or, for me, salmon pate).

 We sat in the hall to eat our piroshkies and Adam and Noah played with Buzz Lightyear and dragon car.

 When we were inside Westlake Mall waiting for the tree lighting to start, we became enveloped in a Ferguson protest. We were on the top floor, coming down the escalators, and tons of protesters flooded the building and went up the escalators. There were police everywhere, including those ones I've only seen on the news lately, with their fold-down masks and billy clubs. It was jarring and I forgot to take any pictures of the Christmas tree or any part of the whole event. The protesters were so loud that the program had to be cut short. The tree was lit and as well as the Macy's star, and the rain let up enough so they could set off the fireworks. After that we decided to jet. We saw on the news later that it did not get violent but there were five arrests. Yikes! It was sad. I was sad for the protesters and whatever pain they were feeling (even if some of them were probably just jumping on the next activist band-wagon) and I felt bad for us and all the other families who were there to enjoy some innocent holiday cheer, and I felt bad for the kids' choir that was too rattled to perform, some of them crying, and I felt bad for the shoppers because the mall closed three hours early. I have never ever wanted to be near - let alone in - a mall on Black Friday, but when I had a moment to peruse Zara while we were killing time, those incredibly low prices made me think twice. Hence my feeling sorry for the shoppers.

On the way back to the car, we stopped at Target for new coloring books (Sienna is obsessed with coloring lately, and had just finished burning through her mermaid book) and walked through a closing Pike Place. We couldn't pass Beecher's without stopping in for some cheese curds and fontina. That's dinner, folks!

 Yesterday was a homebody type day because: snow. It was frigid and windy all day and the snow is still here this morning!

Turns out I'm an Introverted Minimalist

I've discovered two very important pieces of information about myself in the past year or so.

1) I am an introvert.

2) I am a minimalist.

Explanation:

1) I am a social introvert. The part of the definition about being an introvert that applies to me is the fact that I need to be alone to recharge my energy. Alone and in silence. I love meeting people and hanging out with friends, but when I've had my fill of that, I need to go into my cave and bask in peace. This, of course, has been difficult since having children. But, the older they get the better they get at basking in their own peace: in front of the TV. So, yeah, let me recharge from your presence, and I'll love you so much more. Later. When I'm done being alone.

2) I slapped on my official "minimalist" label when I decided to embrace the capsule wardrobe. One day, I was listening to a podcast interviewing the blogger of Un-Fancy while I painted my bedroom closet. The blogger was admonishing me to take out all of the clothes from my closet, examine everything, and pare it down to 37 pieces to mix and match for three months at a time. The idea is to change out pieces with the four seasons, but for three months at a time, you work with the same 37 pieces and don't shop at all until right before the season changes. Every item of clothing I own happened to be out of my closet right at that moment so I started right then and there, got it down to 40 and decided to stay. I won't go into all the details of the capsule wardrobe, but suffice it to say, it was a revelatory moment in the history of Marthdom. And it made me understand why I am often overwhelmed by things like large houses, choosing clothes, doing my hair, decorating for the holidays, buying toys for my kids, shopping at Costco, too many pillows on a couch, too many things in general. It's because I am a minimalist. I don't like having more hair than I need (although I've decided to grow my hair for one more year...just to force myself to resist taking the easy route). I don't like food storage (what's a Mormon to do?). I can't buy holiday decorations because I have a hard time with the fact that they won't be useful for the majority of the year, or worse, I'll just throw them out. I have a hard time choosing toys for my kids because I dread the idea that they'll never play with them and I'll have wasted money and space. I have a difficult time watching professional decorators stuff homes full of beautiful things. I feel much better looking at spaces that lean toward the spare side of the decorating spectrum.

What a relief! Now if only I could figure out what color my aura is?!

Hiking

The sun came out on Friday! What a reason to celebrate by spending some quality time with nature. I got together with my nature school homies and we hiked around Carkeek Park.

Noah was energized by the presence of friends. Last week he and I hiked around Carkeek in the pouring rain alone and he was so angry. I don't blame him, but I was desperate for an outing. So I bribed him with the promise of a grocery store donut at the end. It did the job I guess. But he wasn't going to be happy about it.

I'm just so mean and horrid.

Anyway, back to sunshine. This tree was really cool.

 The kids explored inside it and Noah waved his giant leaf, indeed the biggest leaf we have yet seen with our bare eyes.

 It's salmon running season, which totally lived up to the hype! The salmon swim upstream to lay their eggs and then die. Isn't that strange?! They were HUGE, about three feet long, and thrashing all over the place in the shallow stream which made them easy for everyone to see. It was seriously so cool. Here's Levi, Noah, Brielle, and Lief watching them.

 After the hike, Noah still had some energy to burn so he and I headed to the train tracks and the beach to wait for a train. Alas, someone told us the trains were stopped because a young man was trying to throw himself in front of the train and was being restrained and about to be carried off by the cops. The weirdest stuff happens at this park; it's unfortunate because the scenery is so beautiful.

 A happy Mr. Nobes and mom.

 Yesterday was sunny again! A family hike was in order. We went to North Bend and hiked in Olallie State Park. I made the kids "fishing poles."

 They dipped them in every puddle they came across.

 Even on a cloudless day, you can still be stuck in dusk during a hike. Such is the state of the forest thicket in the PNW.

 The view at the end of our hike, Twin Falls.

Washington, you're a babe.

Happy Halloween!

By the time Halloween was done, the kids and I had been involved in seven Halloween/Fall related celebrations! Like Adam had said on Facebook, "Is it just me? Or has Halloween been going on for 3 weeks?" SIGH. These are the times in which we live. And..... I LOVE it! Why not celebrate everything all the time? I think our generation is on to something...

Here's Noah at his preschool presentation. They (read: their teachers) sang some songs about pumpkins and shouted BOO. It was adorable.

 Sienna also had a party at school and I forgot to take my camera. :(
Here they are on Halloween, just before setting off to trick or treat. Noah is a fireman and Sienna is princess Jasmine.

 We ran into my friend, Leah, and her kids.

 We also ran into our other neighbor, Jon, and his kids, so we all traipsed through the park together.

 It's the best day of the year to live across the street from our park. People really go all out to make the kids smile on Halloween. I just love it! These pumpkin heads were the perfect blend of awesome and creepy.

 Seriously, props to you, sir, for wearing a stinky, slimy pumpkin on your head. Wow.

 Yes, kids, take that candy from those strangers.

 When we were done, we ran into Uncle Allen who was just pulling up to our front door. He'd been working in Seattle for a few days and stayed the night. It was great to see him and catch up until he left the next morning.

Another successful Halloween in the .... pumpkin bucket!