Miles' Birthday.

Miles turned 11 on Sunday, or as he calls it "double-digits double-digits." Since Nick is in Florida, we celebrated on Friday with dinner at Beppo. He got---a camera!! He had figured out how to work all the special features on it before we even left the restaurant. Here are some of the photos from the first day:


Why does that glass look so gross in the negative image? I don't want to think about it....



I predict there will be a lot of photos of Caroline and the cats. He figured out this "frame effect" function.
He's having a lot of fun with it.
On his real birthday, he went to the Opera with his friend Max, and saw Pagliacci. He loved it and said it was the best opera he ever saw. Then they came over and we rolled up a bunch of sushi. He had a great day.

Happy New Year!!

On New Year's Day. We decided to go up to Snoqualmie Pass and go for a walk in the snow. We usually go up in mid-Feb when the temp is right around 32. This day it was in the mid-20's and the snow was so fine. There were no snowballs to be made, as much as this family likes to throw them at each other.

It sure was pretty.
And SUPER windy.

After the walk, we decided to go sledding so we pulled off where we saw others sledding, Nick parked in a snowbank, the kids saucer-ed down the hill for a while in the 30 mph wind, brrr, until the sun went down, the wind picked up, and we could not get the car out of the snowbank, and a guy in a massive truck with a chain in the back happened along and pulled us out, whew! Fun day.

Random Holiday Photos

OK, there were things we did, and I didn't have enough photos or time to do a whole blog entry. So here are some random photos to enjoy.

Back in November, the kids did not one, but TWO Santa Lucia events. Here we are, with the Drivers and the band, at the Nordic Heritage House. Rosie has the candles on her head, Will, Miles, Lilly and Caroline follow her in the procession, as the band plays "Santa Lucia" for all the folks from the Old Country here in the heart of Ballard. We ate plenty of aebelskiver, Nick had some Glogg, and the kids made some excellent crafts. We love YuleFest.

Then, after the procession, the best part is handing out the cookies. Here are Caroline Lilly and Rose, waiting for the right time.
Next, Kristina and Jeremy turned 40, and had a joint birthday party with Beth, who may be, ahem, older than 40. The party was at the Hales Brewery, much fun. Here are all the ladies.
That's Peggy (Chick P) Amelia (HotGirl) Kristina (Dr Direction) Geni (Toughie) Me (Zippo) and Beth (The Crusher) (Parentheses are our Crafting Super Hero Names.)
Next up was Shoshana's hideous Christmas sweater party. Almost as impressive as the sweaters she provided for people who showed up looking normal, is that she cooked 40 pounds of brisket for this party, which her dad spent 1.5 hours cutting up. Here are some snaps. That is me in the hideous lime green sweater with the appliqued Santa heads, holding the timer in my hand, I am in charge of the timer for the Wicked Fast Gift Exchange. Rick loaned me his Excellent Coordinating Scarf that came ATTACHED to his Women's sweater from Sears.
Here is a nice shot. Kristina couldn't find a sweater left in any thrift store in town, and went to TJ Maxx and found this fetching tree skirt which makes an excellent cape. That's Rick in the middle, too bad you cannot see how excellent his sweater is. Nick looks good in his red sweater, with a good view of the crocheted snowflakes I made for it, but you cannot see the huge Xmas tree with FLASHING LIGHTS that I made for the back. It was a thing of beauty, take my word for it. I like Lilly rearranging the beer bottles in the foreground.
Miles and Rose at about midnight as we are leaving. I do not know what is going on here, but I plan to torment them with this photo later when they get married or go to the prom or something.
Miles, in his usual Christmas position:

Gloria loves to play with Legos. She skitters them up and down the hallway all day (and night), so when Miles busted out this Bionicle to work on, she sat next to him and watched the whole time. He thought it was so cute that she wanted to watch him play Legos.
Cousins, Christmas, and Chocolate Fondue. And that is all I have to say about that!

Merry Christmas and Happy Boxing Day!

We had a great Christmas, and unbelievably, everything got done. With the kids in school up until the 21st, there was not much down time before Christmas, but now we have a week and a half to loaf around and play with our new toys, read our new books and sit around in our new PJs.

On Christmas eve, we went up to Nick's mom's house for dinner. My parents were with us, and they came up, too, and Jeff and Rebecca showed up to exchange gifts. Caroline and Grandma played the piano, and sang Christmas carols:
Miles and I played cribbage. I won the first game, and then got skunked in the second, he had Grandpa coaching him, and we are teaching him all the rhymes and sayings. I said a lot of "15-2, 15-4, and the rest won't score..."
Dinner was delicious ham and white bean soup, salad and bread, with cookies for dessert. I never got pictures of my cookie exchange, so here is a good shot of the bounty.

We got home late-ish, finished up the wrapping and the what-have-you, warned the children not to wake us up until 8, and headed to bed so Santa could come. I heard the kids up opening their stockings at 730ish, and at 8 on the dot, they came to tell us it was time to get up. I got breakfast in the oven, and we opened some gifts, took a break to eat, and then opened some more. We stayed in jammies for most of the day, then Mom and Dad came over for dinner. We played games and ate yummy cheese, then dinner was the traditional cioppino, sourdough and salad.
Dad brought some really special pinots, that we heartily enjoyed. Email me for the cioppino recipe, it is the one my mom has been making for many years, it is fantastic.

Merry Christmas!!

'Tis the Season...

...for holiday music concerts. Here is a sample of Miles' band concert.


Well, hey, not bad for a bunch of ten year olds. Miles plays alto sax, and he takes it pretty seriously. Since you cannot see him in the clip, here is a still photo.


That was last Wednesday. Next, on Friday, we had Caroline's piano recital. She played two pieces, and did a great job. Here is "The Wild Horseman" by Schumann.




Here's Caroline in her still photo, too.


Nicely done, kids.

We got Elf-ed.

Well, Merry Christmas!


Click here.

Links...

May I direct your attention to the right side of the page, where I have favorite blogs and websites..... I have added two new blogs that are very good reading. One is my friend Sally, who is the mother of Miles' best friend, Tai. We visited them in Paris, as they are lucky enough to move there for this year. I love to read it for the descriptions of the food they are eating. Oh, and also to hear about their adventures, what a great time they are having.

Another is my friend Eric's blog. We went to San Marin HS together in Novato. We graduated in different years, and I went to his Senior Prom with him. He is a great writer and very funny, it is some good reading.

As always I have the link to my friend Katie's blog as well. She is like a combo of the other two. She moved to Amsterdam a year and a half ago, and started writing this blog to keep track of all the wonderful cheese she was eating. It has turned into more of a diary, and she is also very funny, and it makes for some excellent reading material.

I HIGHLY recommend checking the link to Miles's website. He has made some improvements to the design, finally, and posted his two video games that he spent the better part of a couple of Saturdays making...they are a little challenging, so be patient, and get the hang of them.

Enjoy!