Christmas Day

After our leisurely morning of stockings and gifts, David went out back to create.....

This is Mufasa, next to the dragon-sea creature-dinosaur baby creation that David sculpted!

Pickards arrived around 2pm, and we got into the next round of gifts pretty quickly. Jan, Ryker and Darlene

Jzo & Madi

Marina, Delaney, Kevin & Kendyll

Marina, Delaney & Kendyll

This is the finished painting I did for the Pickard family... "d" for Darlene & Delaney, "k" for Kevin & Kendyll and "m" for Madison!

Later, while most of the kids hit the snow for dark-sledding... some of us got into the newest version of Guitar Hero - World Tour Band... this is Dar singing and Jan playing bass, I think Kendyll might have been playing the other guitar too!

Mufasa can sleep thru anything!
Ryker & Tina - yes, he's growing!
Warming up before dinner.

Great Cousin Friends!

and "sister friends"....

Kevin & Darlene

All the kids say THANK YOU everyone!!!

and David & I feel very blessed! xoxoxo

Merry Christmas Everyone!

It's a "White Christmas" this year for sure! A couple shots in this collage are from Christmas eve/day... and it's still coming down today - Christmas! We're very blessed, we have a great family, and lots of loving friends! This afternoon the Pickards are coming down from Marysville to celebrate the day with us. I think the kids might sled - the adults will eat, drink & be merrry... hope that's similar to your plan too! Cheers!

4th day of SNOW!

THREE Snow Days!

Take your already generous 2 week Winter Break vacation, add THREE "snow days" to kick it off and what have you got? Some happy kids! Here's Marina & Jordan heading out for some more neighborhood/golf course sledding (stay off the greens!). Sunshine all day didn't do much to melt away our snow, and the cold temps returned for the night.

Now it's Saturday, and they are predicting another major storm will hit tonight. High wind warnings, and another system coming in from the Pacific might collide and drop another 4-8" of snow tonight. I'll keep you posted! Now, I'm off to work on my sister's belated birthday gift/upcoming Christmas gift. David went to donate a bunch of our old coats to a charity, and to buy candles & batteries at the hardware store. 2 years ago we lost power for 3 days, so we have to be prepared.

A "REAL" Snow Day!

Once again, I got up at 5:30 to check the report on the computer re: school closures and sure enough... it again reported our district (and most others in the state) closed. We still had just a light dusting of snow, but two hours later when we woke up to enjoy a lazy Thursday morning at home, we had about an inch. It has proceeded to snow most of the day - light snow, with periods of heavier snow. Temps are currently at 27 degrees and falling. They have already posted "no school" again for Friday - so the kids got an extra 3 days to start off the winter break.

Back patio...

Mufasa resting after his mid morning walk. He LOVES snow!

Moka thinks it's fun to sniff and run around in, but then it makes her crazy to have balls of snow stuck to her legs and underbelly - so she's been in the warm shower and will refrain from romping in it for a while. Biscuit gets cold, but she likes it too, and she comes in clean. Our hardwood floors appreciate Biscuit.

... taken from inside the garage... I have not left the house all day! Tomorrow I'll probably have to venture to the grocery store. Plus we have a party to attend Friday night - it's w/in walking distance, but I hope to be a bit dressier than snow-clothes!

Snow Day????

What a rip off!

We've had below freezing (teens & 20's) temps for days and the prediction for today (Wed.) was we'd wake to a winter wonderland, possibly up to 8" of snow and lasting cold temps, so it would likely stick around a while.....

This photo is from 7:45 a.m.

The white specs on the ground are residual from the 1" of snow from Saturday night.

How are the kids who's schools are CANCELLED going to play in that?

Deck the Halls

My Great-Grandmother, "Dee-Dee" made this in 1971.

I've hung it in the hallway that joins the great-room, so I can see it often. One year I considered keeping it up all year -it's so sparkly and fun!

Let the Decorating Begin!

Imagining the 'charlie-brown' tree we would likely end up with when tree shopping - I was thrilled to discover that David "groomed" the back yard and this tree is a result of that. Yes - FREE, cut from our own yard! It's different, but I love it!
While digging for decorations, we unearthed a "pet costume" and Marina made both little dogs model it - Biscuit was too shy to appear here on the blog in that get-up, but we made Moka endure the photo shoot.
Friday night we had these 7 girls prep for the "White Knights" dance... pizza, glitter & giggles, then David & I loaded two cars and drove them to the school.
Tess, Stephanie, Maddy, Sam, Casey, Lauren & Marina

Holiday Greetings!

coming soon to your mail or inbox

Happy Birthday to ME!

It's a long, funny story (having to do with pj's and strange phone calls...) but, I'd had my eye on this awesome silver and Aquamarine ring at my local jewelers and the sneaky Allison got my sister and the others involved in surprising me with it.

HUGE thank you to all my wonderful friends (that includes you, Darlene!) for thinking of me!

My Dad & Jmom gifted me with this cookbook which my friend Kari had raved about, and I'm a big fan of the Barefoot Contessa - Ina Garten, so I am thrilled to have this book in my collection. I've already made 2 delicious recipes out of it!

My dear friend Vickie presented me with these cute mini roses during a small lunch gathering we squeezed into the busy week on Monday. Vickie, too bad you missed the waiter doing his "dance" for me... pretty funny!

My Girls...

Moka, Marina & Biscuit all wishing me a "happy day" this morning before school!

Thank you everyone!

xoxo

We are THANKFUL!

David & I on Thanksgiving Day.

We went to Las Vegas for a 5 day holiday/soccer tournament combined event.

We stayed at my in-laws' house where they graciously squeezed not only the 5 of us in, but 4 people from David's sister's family stayed a few nights too!

Tina, Marina (14), Stephanie (24) & Debbie

Debbie is David's sister, Stephanie is her daughter. They live in Southern California a 3-4 hour drive from Vegas. This is the night my Mom & Grandma Harvey invited us to all go on a girl's night out to see "Phantom of the Opera" at the Venetian. It was amazing!

(I'll post a 4 generation photo soon, mine didn't turn out well lit, so one from another camera is on the way!)

"Blue Man Group"

(see the one on the right?)

Another night, we dashed from the soccer fields to make it to the 7pm show of the Blue Man Group which was a special treat gifted to us by the Oldenburgs (Dick & Miriam).

It was a fun show, and the kids really liked it!

Thanksgiving a.m. we headed over to "Red Rock National Park", which is only about 15 minutes from the Oldenburgs' house. It was chilly, cloudy and misting a light rain, but we were determined.

That's Debbie, Peter, Marina, Dick & Stephanie in the front row; Me, Jordan, David & Ryker in the back.

Look at Pete using his brute strength to clear a path among the rocks for us! Way up on the far mountain of rock formations - Jordan & Ryker.

My Mom & Grandma Harvey "GG" arrived shortly after we got back from our hike. We all enjoyed some games and relaxing while the feast was prepared. Chinese checkers was a big hit this weekend. That's the board David grew up with. Notice Jzo and Marina in the background with their Aunt Debbie, playing "pounce" - a multiplayer solitaire game. "GG" taught us that game when my sister Darlene and I were kids.

Stephanie's boyfriend, Mark, is a professional motorcross rider/guy (what are they called?). He is sponsored partially by "Monster" energy drinks (which if you've followed my blog for a couple years, you'd remember David is addicted to them) so they surprised David with a late birthday gift of a hat and really nice sweatjacket. Mark was a trooper with our crazy family - they've been dating going on 3 years and he fits right in.

David and the kids ventured into the spa that night. The rain clouds passed that evening and you can see the lights of "the strip" in the view. (about 20 minutes away) Las Vegas got record breaking rain that day... a whopping .17" - they thanked us for that. Let's just say we were happy the sun came out the rest of the days.

This is just to prove we really DID start this whole trip because Jzo's team was playing in the Las Vegas Turkey Shoot tournament. They made it to the Semi-Finals, but had a crazy last game and didn't make the finals. It was fun anyway. That's Jordan sitting and yawning... maybe he had too much turkey the day before?

Marina had fun with a couple other sisters, Hannah & Katie who are 4th graders, were pretty happy the older 9th grader was so friendly toward them.

Marina & Stephanie salute you along with Captain Grandpa Oldenburg (yes, he was a Captain in the Navy!)

Thank you to Dad O. and Miriam for having us all those days, all the delicious food and letting us use their car, etc., etc. It was a really fun Thanksgiving!