The Many Stages of Christmas

Christmas was a multi-day event for us again this year. It's nice because we can have some ample time at each stop to spend time with everyone and truly be relaxed! Our Christmas started on Saturday the 22nd with the Martinson family. We all gathered in North Bend for brunch. We had a very nice day full of good fun, laughter, relaxation and delicious food. Alistair was asleep in the car when we got there and when we brought him in, he was being shy until he saw Natalie. He LOVES Natalie. He hopped off my lap and went to her on the couch...we didn't see much of him the remainder of the day besides needing some items like diapers and food.
Alistair has figured out how cameras have worked, kind of. He thinks you put it right up to your face. He "took" many photos of himself with my parents camera.
Carrie got a new book for Christmas and wanted her grandma to read it to her. Alistair wanted in on the action too!

We did our Christmas on Christmas Eve morning. Alistair's big present was this rocking puppy. Our friends have a rocking horse for thier son and Alistair spent almost the entire time we were at their house on the horse, so we figured he would enjoy his own. It's nice because he can get himself on it, no parents required! He know exactly what to do when he saw it! (: We then headed down to my parent's house for Christmas Eve with my mom's family. We had a delicious dinner and nice time together despite the fact that Grandma couldn't make it due to being sick!

We spent the night and woke up Christmas morning on Fox Island. My brother, Michelle and Natalie came out around 11 or so and we had a fun time opening stockings and gifts and then just hung out for a bit and played with our new toys.

Natalie and Uncle Seth tearing into their stockings

Alistair has his stocking and is posing with his cheesy grin in tact.

Christmas afternoon we headed down to Olympia to have Christmas dinner with the Hennesseys. We had standing pork roast with stuffing and some other delicious side dishes. Alistair got a cool new horse to ride on, although he won't truly be big enough for it for a while. Probably a good thing because right now he is very unsure of the horse and would rather not be on it! Part of that may stem from the fact that he was very tired and had had it for the day!

To go with his horse, Alistair got a genuine cowboy hat. He looks pretty good!

Hi Ho Silver Away!!!

Snow Shoeing Near Iron Goat Trail

This past Saturday we headed up Stevens Pass with our friend Brian to go snow shoeing. We have been meaning to go and for whatever reason it just hasn't worked out in the past. So we made time to do it this weekend and it was a lot of fun! Where we ended up, there really wasn't a need for snow shoes (ie the snow was not more than mid shin deep or so), but it was still good to try them out and get the hang of it for future outings! We drove all the way to the summit and read about the trails we could go on. Unfortunately for the majority of what we would have done, we would have been walking along the ski runs and we wouldn't be able to let Sadie off leash for fear of causing ski accidents! So we headed back down to the turn off for Iron Goat trail and hiked the road that goes to the Forest Service road for Iron Goat. There was plenty of snow and it snowed the entire time we were out! Everyone had fun...except on the way back. We let Alistair out of the backpack at our turn around point to play in the snow a little. He cried all the way back, at first because he didn't want to get back in the pack and then probably because he got cold. Sadie seemed to be having the most fun...she LOVES the snow! All in all it was a fun day and we are talking about going again in January. Maybe next time Alistair can stay with someone insead.

I am ready to go, stuffed in this thing. Hmmmm...maybe if I learned to walk I wouldn't have to ride in this get-up!
The novice snoe shoe family.
Brian, our guide for the day
If you can click on this photo and see it bigger, you will see that Alistair is giving his trademark grin for the camera!
Look, I can even stand in the snow by myself! I am getting the hang of this balance thing!

Merry Christmas!

O Christmas Tree

This past weekend we headed out for our annual trek to hunt for the perfect Christmas tree. This year took us to Eatonville to Cox's Tree Farm. There were 12 of us and we all found our trees within 25 minutes of our arrivals! They had a great selection and decent prices. Afterward we headed to Frontier Park in Graham for a lunchtime picnic of hot soup and snacky stuff. It was a gorgeous day and being in the sun made it a little less cold out!

The next morning we set out to decorate the tree. Seth and Alistair worked on the tree lights to give me a year off (it's usually my job). They did a great job and Alistair was very helpful!

The finished product

In an unrelated bit, Alistair is inching closer to walking. He is now standing without holding anything. He will either hold something to get his balance and then let go and stand there for a minute or so while he lectures us or tells a story and then he will sometimes fall back on his butt and do it again. Sometimes when he falls, he will just stand up from the floor. He did take a couple of side steps yesterday to get to his mail cart. He is so close!!!

Our Little Comedian

Alistair let his humor shine through tonight (and desire for a bath)! He decided to perch pieces of his fruit cocktail on his head and wipe his juicy hands through his hair. He was quite the sight and the bathwater had little hints of dinner floating on the suface!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

This weekend we started to deck the halls. Last weekend we got the outside of the house decorated, but this weekend we did preliminary Christmas decorating to get ready for our tree to arrive next weekend. Along with decorating, we also did some Spring Cleaning (or would that be Fall Cleaning). Alistair was quite the help, when he wasn't napping!

We also had our first and probably not last snowfall of the season. They predicted snow earlier in the week and we were all skeptical it would happen. It started falling around 1pm yesterday and before we knew it, we couldn't see the ground anymore...

By the time we went to bed, the snow had piled up about 3 1/2" on the table on the deck! We woke up to slushy snow this morning and it snowed for an hour or two, but then it warmed up, rained and now everything is soaking and over flowing.
This is one of Alistair's favorite look-outs. It is just his height and it has a handy ledge to hang on to. He puts his forehead on the glass to look out and Sadie puts her nose on it when she is standing there...so this glass gets just a tad dirty! Right now Alistair stands there and waves to Frosty on the porch.