Christmas, Holiday Activities, and NYE wrap-up

Well, 2019 is officially here and we are back to real life.... real busy life... real busy, chaotic-at-times life!

Leading up to Christmas was (needless to say), also busy, but in a different way. The pace was less frenetic and rushed than it is when real life is in place. We got to sleep in (most days) and set a schedule that fit our hopes and dreams... ok, enough waxing poetic!

Per our typical "gearing up for Christmas" activities, we decorated a gingerbread house, baked more cookies and treats and a small country could eat in a month, wrapped presents, made treats for the kids' classroom parties (see oranges below), and listened to so many Christmas carols that they played on a loop in our dreams!

Right before they started Christmas break, the kids participated in their school's annual Advent/Christmas concert. They did a great job and sang their little hearts out. Conor had the added bonus of playing the xylophone during his class' performance and proved to be quite the xylophone player ... xylyphoner? xylophonist??  Annika even wound up with a surprise solo performance during the band's portion due to the other flutist being sick that night. It is one thing to get up in front of the entire school and parents with your class to sing a song, but it is a whole other thing to get up in front of that huge group and play something by yourself. Huge props to her for that! (Side note: It didn't even phase her ... she has nerves of steel!)

On Christmas Eve, the kids (once again) found themselves in front of a very large crowd. Conor portrayed Caesar Augustus in the parish's nativity play and Annika was an altar server for Christmas Eve mass. The church was packed to the gills, but (once again, again) the kids were amazingly composed and did a great job at their respective tasks.. 

After church, we came home to a lovely dinner that Eric made (thanks, hon!!) and had ready for us as we walked through the door. Our family tradition for Christmas Eve dinner is to have breakfast for dinner? Why? Because it is easy and there's very little clean up!! Duh!

We made sure to put out cookies and milk for Santa, read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" together (another family tradition), and made our way to bed ... very much excited for the next morning to arrive. 

Needless to say, Christmas morning was a bit chaotic, but in a good way. The kids were brimming with excitement, and Eric and I weren't far behind. We were all spoiled by the generosity of others and are deeply touched by the thought put into our gifts. Around noon, Eric's folks came down from Whidbey and joined us for Christmas, Phase 2, which included more presents, playing dice and card games, and a lovely family dinner.

Conor was VERY excited about Santa bringing him signed copies of one of his favorite book series.

Pokemon shirt for the win

Eric amongst the Christmas chaos

Annika was thrilled to receive another book in one of her favorite series, too!

Eric opening a present from Santa

Yup! She's excited!

Pretty sure the hit of the day was the Nintendo Switch we gave to them as a combo gift

Annika opening her gifts from Bestemore and Bestefar

On New Year's Eve day, the kids and I headed to Snoqualmie for our annual day o' tubing. Unfortunately, Eric got hit with a stomach bug and wasn't able to join us. We missed him greatly and wished he could have been there to enjoy the snow with us! The sky was blue, the snow was perfect, and the temp was cold without being frigid. Aside from Eric not being there, it was an ideal day on the mountain. (Although, I'm pretty sure the kids considered calling CPS when I suggested we hoof it up the hill instead of taking the magic carpet every time!)

Last year, Annika was the only one of us to stay up until midnight and rang in the new year with her stuffed animals all wearing homemade party hats. The idea of her having to do that again this year basically guilted us into powering through until midnight and staying up with her. Conor opted to go to bed around 9 with the request that we wake him up 15 minutes before midnight. Clad in our jammies and party hats, we rung in the new year together at home and watched the Space Needle fireworks display on TV. By 12:01, we were all heading to bed longing for sleep. 

Eric had to go back to work on Jan 2, so the kids and I had a few days to fill on our own. We made a trip down to Tacoma to visit our dear Fr. Fred and swing by Johnson's Candy ... because we apparently didn't have enough sweets from Christmas! We had a marvelous time chatting with Fred, who very kindly fed us a lunch of waffles and peanut butter! We also made a trip up to Whidbey to spend the day with Eric's parents. The kids played outside between rain squalls while Eric's mom and I sewed fabric card holders. Eric's dad even made me an AMAZING growler holder.

Of course,we had to put them to use after making them!

Seriously!! How cool is this thing????

On the day between our out-of-city trips, the kids and I hunkered down at home and caught our collective breath. To ensure their brains didn't melt too much over the break, I challenged them with a few STEM projects and they had a blast! First, I handed them marshmallows, spaghetti, 3 feet of yarn, and 3 feet of tape and then challenged them to make marshmallow structures with the provided supplies. Then, they were challenged to create structures (using supplies of their choosing) that would protect a dropped egg. Impressively, both kids' eggs survived the drop... of course, Annika made a "champion" sash for her egg and now we aren't allowed to eat it! :D

Our final holiday celebration was going to the holiday lights display at Woodland Park Zoo. Each year, there are more things to see, and we often find ourselves playing "I spy" with the new additions. The lights were lovely (no surprise) but the big hit for us was the shadow wall that we discovered this year. Basically, there was a wall that was painted with glow in the dark paint that we stood against (facing the wall) and then a staff member would flash a REALLY bright light toward us. When we moved away from the wall,we could see our silhouettes left (temporarily) behind. So stinking neat!

From our family to yours, we hope you have a peaceful and fun-filled 2019!!

Zoo Lights

Last night, we bundled ourselves up like Nanook of the North and headed to Zoo Lights at Woodland Park Zoo. The timing couldn't have been more perfect ... we avoided rain. Need I say more?

Eric's best friend (Dave) and his daughter (Anne) joined us at the zoo, which made the outing extra fun. The kids had so much fun chasing each other, holding hands, and showing each other the neat things they saw.

We had no idea what to expect from the lights display and were thrilled by all that we saw. As soon as we entered the gates, we were greeted with falling snow thanks to the little snow machine the zoo mounted on the top of the gate. The kids had so much fun trying to catch the falling flakes. Talk about a festive and wintry way to start the zoo lights adventure!

As for the lights, the people who designed the display were very clever and creative, to say the least. We saw only a handful of animals because most areas of the zoo were off-limits during the zoo lights hours, but that was a-ok, considering how much we did see.

At one point, we came across a person dressed in a penguin suit. Anne was all about sitting with the penguin, smiling with the penguin, and dancing with the penguin. Our kids were sold on the idea until it was time to actually interact with the penguin; then they were more than happy to let Anne be in the spotlight while our kids watched from a safe distance.

Part-way through the evening, we found ourselves at the zoo's old-time carousel and OF COURSE the kids had to go for a ride. We picked out our horses and heard a chorus of Anne shouting "GO! GO! GO!" while Annika yelled "Let's GET GOING!" Once everyone was in place, away we went. Conor was less than thrilled with the idea once we were moving, but did OK.

After riding the carousel, we visited the reindeer and the remaining lights (which included a flying eagle).

By the time we wrapped up our adventure, we were all rather cold and quite tired, but it was well worth it to spend an evening taking in an impressive light display with good friends.

Catching snowflakes

This is the first display we saw .... the animal cutouts were pretty impressive

Pretty trees

This is a tree kangaroo... none of us had ever heard of this animal before;
it was happily playing with a cardboard box up in its tree

This little tree frog was on display in the the one building we went into. So cute!
(Pardon the fuzziness ... my lens fogged up going from  the from frigidly cold outside to the humid reptile building)

Light tiger
(My lens was still foggy from the temperature change... sorry!)

Eric and Dave ... two great dads!
If you look closely, you can see that Anne and Annika (on the guys' shoulders) are holding hands

Adventurous Anne and the penguin

The three amigos

Giraffe at the watering hole

Hippo at the watering hole

Conor waiting for the carousel to start

Anne yelling "GO! GO! GO!" at the carousel operator

Anne and Dave on the carousel
(This picture is actually their reflections in the mirror that is in the center of the carousel)

Conor and me on the carousel

Yes! There were reindeer for us to see. Hurray!

Zoo Lights + Moon Light