Christmas 2011

Ok, ok. Here it is. What you've all been DYING to see pictures of and read about. May I present [drumroll please.....]

Christmas 2011!!!

And only 1 month after it happened!
{Sigh.... Someday I'll be more current.}


* Christmas Eve's Eve

Spent the morning finishing everything up - wrapping presents, packing and cleaning the house. {I can NOT leave the house messy...}

At this point we had picked Christine up from the airport the night before, so between the four of us and it being Christmas, we had the Explorer packed to the brim!! You can see it a bit in the picture below. I caught Ethan as he was nodding off in the car, so he was being silly.
* Christmas Eve

Uncle Tory came over for a little while and after much, much persuasion we convinced him to tag along while we braved the mall and took Ethan to see Santa.

Why-oh-why do even the minimum picture packages have to cost so much?? We opted out.

In the evening we headed over to Aunt Kay's house for dinner with my mom's side of the family. Christmas Eve used to be a big shin-dig at my parents' house back when all the cousins were little. Now, most of us are married and have families of our own and are in different parts of the country. In fact, Ethan was the only great-grandchild there. It was quiet, but fun. Papa's Pizza, salad, chips-n-dip and my dad's "famous" appetizers - ham roll-ups and little smokies (wrapped in bacon and topped with brown sugar). After dinner, everyone else went for a little stroll to look at the Christmas lights in the neighborhood (my aunt's neighbors go all out!) but my Mom and I stayed back to chat with Grandma Mary a bit.

After everyone got back from the walk, we opened presents - Ethan was so good about waiting, even though it was killing him!! The first present he opened was a Ratchet Transformer toy from Grandma Mary. He squealed with delight and I'm pretty sure it was worth the wait!

What's this?! A shot of Sean and I?! This is a RARE occurrence!

Arms straight and stiff by his side - like the giant nutcracker!

Sisters. Youngest to oldest. :)

Couldn't get Ethan to look at the right camera - but here's our Christmas Eve family picture.

Then, after Ethan was "nestled, snug in his bed" and we were sure he was asleep, Sean got to work on Ethan's Christmas present - a new bike! Despite what the pictures show, we actually did not leave the bike in front of the tree for Christmas. We hid it - to be revealed at a later time!

Meanwhile, Christine was on her laptop, my Mom was watching Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol (and trying not to fall asleep!) and I was wrapping the last couple presents and making sure stocking stuffers were in order.

* Christmas Morning

We got up bright-and-early, got dressed in our Sunday best and ignored the piles of presents and overflowing stockings. First, and most important, was church. We went with my parents to their ward and enjoyed sacrament meeting and feeling the spirit that Christmas morning. Of course, after church we had to snap a few pictures with everyone by the tree, all dressed up.

My handsome boys.

The whole Toftdahl/Southworth family

You'll notice Ethan is wearing jammies - even though we'd already been dressed for church... Yep, while we all got dressed in more casual attire, Ethan insisted that to open stockings and Christmas presents you have to be in jammies!

First present - a tool set from Mommy and Daddy!

A gag gift from Christine to Lizzy - a reusable, but disposable swimsuit that the have in the medical office Christine works at. Somehow, I don't think it will hold up in Lizzy's swim practice!

And then, after all (or almost all of the presents were open) a small gold box, tied with a red ribbon was pulled from under the tree. Inside was a letter from Santa. And here is Ethan's reaction to it all. It is hilarious! And priceless. :)

"There's nothing!"

Early afternoon we headed out to my grandparents' house for Christmas dinner {which was so, so good}, a few more presents (mainly for Ethan) and the annual grandchild/great-grandchild change grab! I think {and I know my sisters will correct me if I'm wrong!} that I won this year.

After dinner, my grandparents' devotional and presents, we had dessert - including an ice cream cake for Grandpa Chuck's birthday. Yes, it really is on Christmas.

And.... after all of that, we all crashed!

Well, pretty much everyone but Ethan. He kept himself busy playing with his new toys.

That night, back at my parents' house, we opened our gifts from Sean's family. We were all spoiled and missing them so much!! We were able to skype with them for a little while and are hoping to plan a visit to SoCal soon!

Semi-Homemade Christmas: Everything Else

So I had originally planned to make the post about our semi-homemade Christmas gifts be all-inclusive, but once I started writing about the jam I kinda realized that it was its own thing and needed a separate post... Quite the adventure teaching oneself to cook/preserve jam!

Moving along...
Here's a wrap-up of the rest of our homemade goodness. Oh, and let me just publicly thank Pinterest right now. Because, really, most of my ideas came via Pinterest and I just ran with them!

* Temple Blocks
Like most of the stuff I did, these were time-consuming but fairly easy. 2"x6" board from Lowes's cut in 7" sections - sanded, painted and then personalized {with "For Time & All Eternity" and anniversary date} antiqued temple print mod-podged to the front. Then I just added a strip of silver ribbon (hot glued tight to the back) and a bow. Done.

[Free, antiqued temple prints found here. Temple block tutorial found here.]

I loved how these turned out. Simple, but pretty. I want to do a 16x20" poster-size for Sean and I... eventually.
Also, I thought it was kinda cool that on the L.A. temple prints (for all of Sean's family) the angel Moroni and the bow pretty much line up down the center.

* Christmas Ornament
So, the jam was my first grand homemade idea and then the temple blocks, but then, I decided to do an ornament because we've given ornaments to Sean's married siblings every year. It's tradition! Every other year I have found a Hallmark ornament that I like specific for each family - it gets a little spendy, though. So, I decided to make the ornaments this year! Styrofoam balls mod-podged with green tissue paper w/ gold embellishment. And yes, those are individual 1 1/2" squares that I mod-podged onto each and every ornament. I made 12.

Music and lyrics came from a song in the Christmas cantata that Sean and his Dad wrote together - this part was a little tricky. First Sean had to create the music and lyrics part in his music software, then I had to screen-print it and save it in Picasa. Then do a manual crop and save that as a new picture to then insert into a word document to re-size and print! Let me just tell you, we did not get it right on the first try!! It was worth it, though, to have the ornaments be so personalized to our family. Once those were all cut out, I had to mod-podge the music onto the ornament and very carefully and very slowly smooth it out so that it contoured to the shape of the ball. This had to be done by hand. It was messy. Once that was all dry, I added two coats of a sparkle glaze, a gold tag with the year attached to the ribbon for hanging it and a bow on top.

[Ornament tutorial found here. Though, you'll find mine look a lot different from hers - she used sheet music napkins as her background and just lyrics around the middle. This was my original plan, but I couldn't find any sheet music napkins or tissue locally, so I changed it. I actually think I like mine a little better.... I'm just sayin'!]

This was the project that I kept thinking, "I'm pretty much done! I just have to do this and add this and do this and.... yeah, I'm not even close to being done!"
Oh, and full lyrics read: "Holy One, Father's Son, he will come a baby, the Lamb of God, the Savior of all the world."

* "I Am a Child of God" birth info frames
I don't really know what to call this one... But I made it for each of our nieces and nephews - we have 7. Basic rundown: cute scrapbook paper, black & white baby photo and lyrics to the first verse of I Am a Child of God w/ the child's name, birthday, city of birth and parents' names printed on white textured cardstock. I know, it's really hard to explain. This isn't the font I used, but it will give you an idea:

I Am a Child of God
Ethan G. Southworth
And he has sent me here
April, 20xx
Has given me an earthly home
City, OR
With parents kind and dear
Sean and Jennifer Southworth

Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way.
Teach me all that I must do to live with him some day.

I actually did two different fonts - one for the lyrics, one for the child's info and the lyrics were printed in a dark gray so they were just a shade lighter than the rest. Once everything was all glued together, I just had to put it in a frame.

Not the most exciting gift for our nieces and nephews (the older ones got another little present as well), but I knew the parents would probably appreciate it!

* Sugar Scrubs
After all the hard, out-of-my-comfort-zone work I had done on all the other projects - sanding, painting gluing, etc., etc. I was so pumped to do the sugar scrubs!! Finally! In my element - the kitchen - and working with familiar ingredients and tools - sugar, oil, spices, mixing bowl, spoon. Wahoo!! I did three different scents: 1. A spicy brown sugar with brown sugar, white sugar, olive oil, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and vanilla. 2. A lemon sugar scrub with just white sugar, olive oil and the zest and juice of a whole lemon. 3. A candy cane sugar scrub with white sugar, olive oil, peppermint extract and candy canes that I had pulverized to dust in our mini food processor.
These all went to my friends in WA, as stocking stuffers for my sisters, a hostess gift for my aunt and the only package I was able to squeeze one into was for Lynnie in the SoCal box. I had a couple left over so I could try them out - so far I have only used the lemon, but love it!! My skin is silky smooth and I think I will continue to make this throughout the year to refill my jars. Seriously, so easy! I just used the Walmart brand olive oil because it was the cheapest. Mix everything up (I've got several recipe links on my "Gift Ideas" Pinterest page) and throw it in a cute jar - I used small canning jars. Don't be discouraged if the scent is not very strong at first - let them sit overnight or for a couple days. I was really bummed after I made my first batch, the spicy brown sugar one, because I didn't think you could smell the spices at all. Couple days later I opened one up and it was lovely. Same with the lemon and peppermint. Just be wary of letting them sit too long because the oil can go rancid and especially with the lemon one it could go bad. Just do small batches and leave the jars in your fridge until your ready to use them. I soap up, rinse off, then use the scrub, rinse off and then lotion up once I'm out of the shower. Silky smooth, I tell ya!

* Glass tile necklaces
These I made for my two oldest nieces (the third/youngest is just a baby). Nothing fancy. Just a glass tile with some cute scrapbook paper and a ring-thing to hang it off a necklace. Made them at Super Saturday for our ward. I think we had to use diamond glaze or something like that to "glue" the paper to the tile.
* Personalized hand towels
I know I already touched on these, but I wanted to include them since they were "semi-homemade." Again, the towel/oven mitt was a combo set I picked up on mega-clearance last year at Target. Kept them safe in our hall closet ALL year and then pulled them out to use as gifts this year! See, last year my mom gave me and Christine matching dish towels to take to our new, out-of-state homes because she also had the same dish towels. Just a little something to remember home. Seriously, we all teared up. Over dish towels! So, I thought I'd do a repeat on that gift with the red snowflake towel/oven mitt - also helps that my mom and Christine love the color red! So, I took my already-inexpensive gift and spruced it up for another $1 or so each - thanks to the use of Jenn's sewing machine w/ embroidery feature. :)

I think I will be doing more gifts like these in the future. It just adds so much more, that little touch of personalization. My mom and Christine loved them!

And I think that about wraps it up! Get it?... wraps it up. Just had Christmas.... Lots of present wrapping... Wraps it up!
Oh, never mind.
It's late.
I'm going to bed.
Clearly, my most-excellent puns are not appreciated!

Anyway, though it was a bit *insane* (see previous jam post) I did enjoy doing a semi-homemade Christmas and, assuming people really did like their gifts, will probably do it again... also, assuming I can find more good ideas on Pinterest!

PS: These past two posts are not, by any means, meant to sound like me tooting my own horn. If it comes across that way, I'm sorry! I'm just trying to document what took up so much of my time in December and also provide links to tutorials because I had people asking about it. That's all. Peace out!

Semi-Homemade Christmas: Jam

I'm honestly not sure what got into me, but for some {*insane*} reason, this year I decided to go homemade with our Christmas gifts. And, I think, other than Ethan's gifts and some bath stuff for my sisters/sister-in-law almost everything had at least a touch of hand-craftedness. {Yes, that is a word. As of... now.}

It all started mid-August when I read this {Introduction to Home Canning and Preserving} post on the Our Best Bites blog. I had never, ever canned before. Summer 2010 I did ONE batch of strawberry freezer jam, but that was the extent of my knowledge of pectin. My parents did some canning when I was younger and still do a little some summers. My grandma cans food. But I, like learning to sew, had no desire to learn how to can food.

Besides, I didn't think I could.
I had ZERO equipment.
No jars, lids or bands.
No canning utensils.
And, most importantly, no pressure canner!
But, wait! What was this??
As I read through the post I learned something I didn't know...
You can do waterbath canning.
Wait, what?!
Back that truck up....
I can attempt canning with just the huge stockpot we have out in the garage?
You've got to be kidding.
Nope.

Over the next several days I mulled this idea over in my head. Could I really add canning to my list of domestic skills? I mean, I already have a decent mastery of the kitchen. My cooking is better than OK. My baking is kinda well-known around these-here parts. Why not try [waterbath] canning?

And then my *brilliant* idea hit. I would can jam for everyone in our family! And not just a single jar or flavor. Oh, no! My brain doesn't work like that. I knew I wanted to do strawberry (everybody likes strawberry.) And personally, I fell in love with peach jam a couple years ago when my friend gave me some of theirs. And then I decided I needed to do blackberry or something that would be dark purple.

"Wouldn't that be pretty?" I asked my friends?
A red, strawberry jam. A golden, peach jam. And a deep purple, blackberry jam.
And I knew my friend Jenn (same Jenn mentioned in the sewing post) could cut some vinyl labels for the lids.
Of course, I specifically wanted the jam in the "quilted" canning jars. Picky, picky, I know!
And I decided to keep everything local to do a "Taste of the Pacific Northwest" - you know, just to make my first canning attempt a tad more difficult.
So my mind was made up!
Jam for everyone!!

HA!!
Let me remind you, all this *brilliance* struck me at the END of August. Aka end of or past berry season up here.
So I scrambled. I caught the tail-tail end of strawberry season and did my first couple batches of jam at the very beginning of September.
A little messy. A little stressful. A lot sticky. But surprisingly satisfying when all my lids sealed and I had a couple beautiful rows of strawberry jam.
Strawberries came from California, though, so I decided to make it a "Taste of the West Coast".

Then, in October, same Jenn says her bro-in-law can get some fresh peaches at a farm he drives past for work. Perfect!
So I caught the tail-end of WA peach season and busted out more-than-a-couple batches of peach jam.
Oh.My.Heavens. Peach jam is golden goodness. LOVE that stuff.

But, by then, I had also completely missed blackberry, blueberry, marionberry and you-name-it-berry season.
Hmm... What to do, what to do??
I couldn't just leave it at two flavors.
I had a vision in my head and I had to follow through!
So I called my good friend Danae (a canning queen!) and asked for advice. Could I maybe do frozen berries? I was thinking blueberry might be fun... Well, she suggested the mixed berry bag from Costco. Blackberry, raspberry and blueberry. Sounded good! But, I admit I was a little bummed to not get to follow through with my "Taste of the West Coast" idea.

Next time I was at Costco, I checked out the cost of the frozen mixed berries. Not bad at all. And I knew one bag would probably be enough. Curious, I checked to see where the berries come from... a farm in Washington!! Even though I felt like I was cheating by using frozen fruit, I could still keep my "Taste of the West Coast" idea!!
So my last round of jam-making was completed in November and the black-rasp-blue berry jam was just what I was looking for. Rich, berry taste and dark, purple color. Just what I wanted to round out my jam sets. Plus, I was starting to feel a little more confident with this whole waterbath canning thing.
Success!!

And the final product?? CA Strawberry, WA Peach and WA Black-Rasp-Blue Berry jams. Aren't they beautiful?! I felt really good following through with this. I learned a new skill, made Christmas gifts for everyone and some for our food storage as well. As an added bonus, these turned out exactly how I had envisioned them - complete with the cute vinyl labels on the top!Each family got their own trio of jams and the great-grandparents and living-on-their-own, college-age sisters got dual-packs. A little taste of the West Coast. :)

Christmas Goodie Plates 2011

Christmas goodie plates for 2011 were very similar to last year's....

We had the traditional sugar cookies (about 7 dozen), gingerbread softies (about 8 dozen and a change from last year's gingersnaps), chocolate peppermint crunch cookies (about 8 dozen), orange-cranberry cookies w/ orange drizzle (about 6 dozen) and raspberry shortbread cookies w/ almond drizzle (about 9 dozen). Then Sean did a double batch of Buckeye candies (chocolate peanut butter balls) and a batch of homemade caramel.

This year I put icing into a bag for the drizzling - so much easier!! And looks so much neater than when drizzled with a fork. I let Ethan do the orange icing for the orange-cranberry cookies and I did the icing on the raspberry shortbread.
We made up almost 20 goodie plates and delivered them to friends in our ward, a neighbor and the landlord's family. Depending on the size of the family, I think most plates ended up with about 2 dozen cookies (give or take) and then a handful each of Buckeyes and caramels.

I love the combination and variation of goodies on our plate, but I think this year I'll be ready for more changes. I don't know what, but I'll be on the look-out for cookie recipes this year....

Christmas Ships 2011

So the Christmas Ship Parade is one of those events that we heard about from quite a few different people last year, but being new to the Portland area had no idea what they were talking about! This year, though, we paid attention - I cut out the schedule from the newspaper and when some friends said they were going, we volunteered to meet them there! We ended up with four families and watched from the outdoor patio of Joe's Crab Shack - a seafood restaurant just east of the I-5 bridge and right on the river.

We had hot chocolate and seafood appetizers - though I steered clear of the appetizers because my insides were still having issues from the previous week's stomach flu and I'm not a big seafood fan to begin with.

Anyway.

It took a little while for the ships to get down to where we were, but it was pretty cool to see the boats all decked out in Christmas lights. The fire truck boat w/ sirens was a big hit and the CO HO HO Salmon boat got a laugh.

The video's a bit long... and shaky... but it was the only way to get any "pictures" because trying to take pictures of the boats out on the water, in the dark was not working out for me!
Overall, we decided the Christmas Ships weren't quite a must-see every year, but definitely worth it if you have the time and some friends to go with.

Learning a new skill: Sewing

About three things I was absolutely positive. First, I was not a sewer. Second, there was a part of me - and I didn't know how strong that part might be - that despised the thought of learning to sew. And third, I was most certainly and undeniably friends with the wrong people if I was going to continue to be a non-sewer.

I blame it on Jenn.

She is my most crafty friend. And super-talented. And determined to teach me to sew.

I did my best to resist.

In October we made stuffed pumpkins - they required a single line of stitching to attach the two ends. Her machine was all set up. Easy-peasy. Her machine even has a button to cut the thread when you're done. I sewed up my pumpkins - a little begrudgingly, though.

Then, in December, I went to wrap up a dish towel/oven mitt combo I got for me, my mom and Christine {last year, on mega-clearance} and decided to wait because surely my friend Jenn could help me spruce them up just a bit. I was right. Her machine does embroidery. She helped me set up the first towel and we added snowflakes and my sister's name. Surprisingly, I was ok with this part of "sewing" - the machine was doing all the work! I just had to supervise. I finished up the towels and got ready to go when Jenn threw out more ideas...

Ribbon? Buttons?? Bows???

Ah, crap. Decisions.

I went with ribbon and some buttons. This meant actually pinning the ribbon into place and {gasp!} sewing it. I went slooooooow, but got it done. Then I hand-stitched the buttons into place. This was the final product.
And then it hit me.
Ah, crap.
I was learning a new skill. Sewing. And I was actually kinda liking it.

It's been downhill from there.

The next time I was at Jenn's, {and really, let's be honest, it was probably the next day because she helped me with a lot of my Christmas presents this year - even if it was just use of her paper cutter or getting some vinyl} she had her flannel fabric stash out and was helping another friend pick fabric out for her kids' pajama bottoms. She pointed to a cute navy plaid she had pulled and let me know that there was enough, you know, should I want to make Ethan a pair of pajama bottoms.

I told her I'd think about it.

That evening I got a text. Sewing party at Vicki's. Jenn would wash and bring the navy plaid fabric if I wanted to make Ethan's pajama bottoms.

Ok, fine!

So that night, totally from scratch, I made my very first article of clothing. Jenn helped me with directions every step of the way. I pinned the pattern to the fabric, cut it out, {I'll skip the part about how I almost cut out two left legs - I swear I had flipped just the pattern. Apparently I flipped the fabric and the pattern. Jenn caught my mistake though!} pinned the pieces together and then it was GO time. I sewed. First one leg. Then the other. And then put one inside the other {who knew you had to do that to sew the two legs together - not this chica, that's for sure} and suddenly my creation was more than just some random pieces of fabric. I had pants! After some hemming and with the addition of an elastic waistband I was done! Yes, it took me two hours. But that was with chit-chatting with my friends, stalling and learning the whole process start to finish. I felt so accomplished!! Jenn had to take pictures to document such a momentous occasion.
And here's the finished product! I promise, it's just the pictures that make the length of the pants look uneven. In real life, I think there's only about an 1/8th of an inch difference.

I think it was about a week or so later that I got the email that the quilt idea for Sean's grandma was a GO and each family needed to make a quilt square. Back to Jenn's I went. I added the green border to the dark denim fabric and then let the machine add the embroidery - with a little set-up by me (and Jenn). After I got home I decided the square need just a little more color, so I added a button for each of us. A dark gray, suit-coat-looking button for Sean, aqua flower button for me and small red one for Ethan.

I haven't done any more sewing since then {a little too busy getting everything else ready for Christmas}, but I know it is just the beginning for me. Well, that and the fact that Jenn has a spare sewing machine that just needs a new part to be up and running...

Weekend Adventures w/ Molly and Preschool Wrap-up

Let me just start out by saying that Ethan LOVED Preschool! Never a problem getting him to go - in fact, sometimes it was a bargaining chip for good behavior. "No Preschool if you don't [fill in the blank]." Mean. But effective.

So one of the highlights for Ethan was getting to take one of the class "pets" home. His class had two stuffed animals - Molly and Rufus - that the kids took turns taking home and then could add pictures and write about it in the pet's journal. Ethan got Molly on a Thursday and since Preschool is only Tues/Thurs, it meant he got to play with Molly ALL weekend. He loved it! Molly went EVERYWHERE with us. Ethan bundled up and played outside with her, held her when he watched a movie and snuggled with her at bedtime. She was even took part in picking out and decorating the Christmas tree!
Since Preschool was over 3 hours, they got to do a variety of activities. They got a PE time with big two-seater tricycles, obstacle courses, sack races, parachute, etc. And each day included some time to be artistic. Ethan's two paintings, below, were a "tank" (labeled) and "army camouflage " (the green one). Bottom middle is an edible turkey made from cookies, candy and frosting. Bottom right are a couple of snowglobe/glitter jar things he did. Top middle is a pinata-thing... I think. It has eyes. And yarn (for hair?). I don't know but, of course, I love it! Top right was their last craft - a handprint ornament for the tree. I picked Ethan and his friend, Sarah, up that day. Sarah's handprint ornament was painted in bright, rainbow colors. And then there was Ethan's - gray, brown and muddy looking. "Camouflage," he said. Yep! Between the tank painting, army green camouflage painting and the camouflage handprint, there is no denying the boy in him!!


The last day of Preschool was a Dress-up Thursday - favorite color day. Ethan combined two of his favorite things: the color red and Transformers. Never fear, he also wore a nice, warm coat that day!

* We are counting down the days to the Spring session!

Portland Ensign Choir & Orchestra Christmas Concert 2011

Just a little over a week before Christmas, Sean performed in the Portland Ensign Choir & Orchestra Christmas concert. Tory, Melanie (his mom) and Alysha (his cousin) came up for the concert, so I sat with them. There were also quite a few people from Sean's work at the performance (#2 of 3) and, in general, I couldn't believe how many tickets Sean had sold ahead of time for the concerts. The show was beautiful and here are some of the highlights from the night.


Part of Handel's Messiah Hallelujah Chorus.


Carol of the Bells.



Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

Still Alive... Still Kickin'... and Ready to BLOG!!!!

This past month, I took a vacation. There was no packing, no plane ticket, no sandy beach and not even a road trip. I took a vacation from blogging. And it nagged at me ALL month. But I knew I was far too behind and far too busy to even attempt to catch-up, let alone throw in a few short posts with our random December events.

So, I neglected it.

100%

Didn't even upload photos.

Yesterday the tree went out, the decorations came down and living room was rearranged.

Today, Sean went back to work and so am I!

Ladies and gentleman, I am now in blog catch-up mode!! Or, at least, I hope I am.

So, what was it that kept me from our family journal, aka: Southworth Family Updates? Well, let me tell ya... In the past month (in random order), I:

- learned to sew
- made a quilt square for Sean's grandma's quilt and then jammie bottoms for Ethan
- decorated the house for Christmas
- took family photos
- followed through with my "brilliant" idea of a semi-homemade Christmas for all of our family (this took up the bulk of my time)
- wrapped a bazillion presents
- shipped packages all across the country
- had stomach flu
- baked around 38 dozen cookies, divided amongst 5 different kinds and then made up 20 goodies plates that also included caramels and buckeyes made by Sean and then hand-delivered them to our WA friends (this took 3 1/2 days)
- made a quick Christmas card online and mailed out cards (some before Christmas, most after Christmas!)
- picked Christine up from the airport and the next day packed the Explorer up to the brim w/ suitcases, gifts, pillows, etc.
- attended Sean's choir concert with the Portland Ensign Choir & Orchestra
- hosted a Christmas sing-a-long and had over 30 people show up for our last-minute shin-dig
- taught my last Sunday School class in Primary with my 2011 class
- watched the Christmas ships on the Columbia River
- celebrated Christmas in Oregon with my family
- missed Sean's family terribly and hated that our budget didn't allow for a trip down to SoCal to visit
- went shopping with my sisters
- took Ethan to see Santa
- went to a Woody Allen & His New Orleans Jazz Band concert
- went ice skating with the Colemans
- got pink eye
- celebrated New Year's in Washington with some of our WA peeps
- watched the Oregon Ducks WIN the Rose Bowl!!!

Not to mention the daily stuff, like cooking, cleaning, laundry and being a wife and mom - though some of that stuff also suffered from neglect but not nearly as much as the blog!!

My friend Lindsey said it best on her blog, "Ahhh......December. You busy month, you. So very fun and full of activities & excitement & magic. How can I feel so happy & trampled all at once by you?" My sentiments exactly.

Preschool Dress-up Thursdays: Crazy Hair or Hat

Dress-up Thursday a couple weeks ago was Crazy Hair or Hat and when I told Ethan that the about it, it only took him about 1/2 a second to inform me that he would be doing "crazy hat", NOT "crazy hair."

Why does this not surprise me?! This boy already has his signature look and it is not be messed with. No spikes, no faux-hawks, no hair product. Just straight and "like Ethan."

So, crazy hair was out of the question. He chose his Mickey Mouse ears that "don't light up" and, naturally, we had to pair it with his Mickey Mouse shirt!
Oh, and he is absolutely LOVING Preschool!
On this particular day they made snowglobes. Super cool. And this weekend he had "Molly", one of the class stuffed animal pets. Molly goes with him everywhere and is currently sleeping in his bed with him. :)