Four Part Harmony

December has been busy and I haven’t put any photos up in a while so I figured I had better take the chance now.
I’ll start at the beginning (it’s a pretty good place to start I guess).

A bunch of parents got together and painted Anna’s kindergarten classroom early in the month. It was pretty fun, and came out looking really nice. The kids all got to try their hand at the roller too.

We went and got a christmas tree at a tree farm outside of Boring. The ignitor on our furnace had gone out this weekend, and so we had no heat for a couple of days. It was thankfully a pretty nice weekend, no risk of frozen pipes or anything, but the house dipped down to about 59 degrees. The sun came out, so we figured it was a good time to go get a tree.

I taught Anna how to count the tree rings.

Then we came back and the kids had tons of fun decorating the tree. All the ornaments ended up on one tiny corner of the bottom of the tree at first, but they proceeded to migrate their way around the tree (and the living room) throughout the month.

The kids were playing dress up, and posed for a picture in front of the tree.

We needed a good family photo for the christmas card, so we all decided to get in on the fun.

We made a batch of stamped cards using christmas light stamps cut out of potatoes. We had done this a few years ago and it worked really great. Of course we didn’t make enough…but that is the way with christmas cards. I think we made 30 cards but ended up sending out like 50 in the end.

My parents came out and the kids really, really had fun w/ grandma and grandpa around. My Dad was out for a couple days, but my mom had come out for over a week. Lots of projects and preparations for the solstice celebration and christmas.

Gingerbread house kits from Trader Joes were a big hit (and a huge mess). My God, the sprinkles.

We went up to the zoo one evening for the zoo lights, which is always an amazing spectacle. The kids had fun. We had hot chocolate.

Nicki and my mom took the kids on the Portland spirit for some crazy adventure which involved a cinnamon bear? and a queen or princess of some sort? I think the boat ride was the best part, though the kids really did sound like they had fun hearing the stories and meeting the characters on the boat ride. Milo wouldn’t sit on the cinnamon bear’s lap so he made Nicki hold him and Nicki had to sit on his (it’s?) lap. We got a picture, it’s funny.

Here’s one of the kids with Grandma Jackie, down on the waterfront waiting for the boat.

Some pictures from Christmas day – Milo with his nutcracker present.

Anna with her Grandpa G, eating a candy cane she got in her stocking.

Playing dominoes while the kids napped.

I made stuff out of cardboard for the kids this year. It’s an inspiring medium to work with. I made these little puppets and a carrying case for Anna… I totally stole the idea from some blog which I found on a google search for “cardboard puppets”, which I would love to give credit to right now, but I can’t seem to locate the link now. Anyway, these were really fun to make. I put magnets in the hands so they can hold onto stuff.

I made Milo this little amp, to go with the cardboard guitar I made him for his birthday. He likes it, but I may have made it too realistic because he was disappointed at first that it didn’t really work.

So now here we are, the grandparents have gone and we have the house back to ourselves. It’s gotten rainy and a bit stir crazy, but we are looking forward to the short week and a weekend gathering with friends and celebrating the end of this year and the beginning of the next.
So long for now.