Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Here are the highlights.

Our festivities started with Lincoln’s Preschool Christmas Program. His school does a great job picking wonderful songs for the children to sing and starts working on this program in October. It was a real treat.

We wrote letters to Santa. Lincoln’s says, “Dear Santa: trains, helmet, bike, transformers. Lincoln.” Of course there are very detailed drawings, as well.

We also met the big guy at the National Christmas Tree again this year. Conan talked about Santa fondly throughout December, but when push came to shove, he just wasn’t willing to sit on Santa’s lap. Maybe next year.

We went to see the wonderful display of lights at the temple.

And had a gingerbread house decorating play date.

This one isn’t really Christmas related, but it was a big moment for us. Lincoln and I had been working on the reading lessons from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons since about May. At times it was slow going, but with a little coercing and the promise of a big prize we made it through.

Lincoln was a sheep in our Nativity at Church.

We receive two (different) return letters from Santa just before Christmas.

Christmas Eve the boys opened their Christmas jammies and looked darling in them, of course.

I always struggle taking pictures on Christmas morning, but we all had a great time. Conan hopped right on his new bike and rode it into the dining room without looking at his other presents. In fact, Conan took so many play breaks between gift that Lincoln (who definitely had more gifts under the tree) began to wonder why he was out of presents while Conan still had a pile.

It is so fun to have two wonderful little boys at Christmastime. To see their wonder and excitement is really a joy and makes me excited for next year already.

Thanksgiving

It’s been two months since Thanksgiving, but I feel like I have to post these pictures before I post newer ones.

We had a full house for Thanksgiving! We were so excited that we finally have room for guests (and even a bed specifically for them)! Jonathan’s brother and his family drove down from Michigan and his parents flew in from Arizona.

Before the senior Joneses arrived we took a quick trip into DC to see the Natural History Museum. My kids always love the fish tank there.

Jonathan’s dad was nice enough to cut Lincoln’s hair hours after they arrived. We’re pretty classy with the Wegmans bag turned poncho.

My sister-in-law Brittney and I spent hours in the kitchen cooking our big meal. Brittney was nice enough to do whatever I asked, including building this turkey out of vegetables that I saw on Pinterest and had to replicate.

It’s always so fun to have family around and my kids loved having lots of time to play with their cousins and grandparents.

While they were here, my father-in-law worked tirelessly on a project for me. Our house doesn’t have an entry closet, so he was nice enough to build me this “drop zone”. I haven’t gotten baskets for the cubbies at the top yet, but it has been so wonderful having a place to put coats and shoes!

We were sad when everyone had to leave. It’s fun having visitors!

Washington State, 2013

We just returned from an action packed week in Washington. It had been almost three years since we’d been there and some family members hadn’t met Conan yet, so we decided it was high time to make the trek back west. We packed a lot into our six day trip.

We left DC early the day after Halloween and made it to Seattle by 11 am west coast time. We collected our luggage and rental car and drove to the University of Washington to meet Kariah, Jeremiah, and Savannah. They were nice enough to take some family photos of us at UW and have us over for dinner. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get a very good picture of Lincoln and Conan with Savannah.

We spent the night at an old friend’s house (more on them later) and enjoyed a delightful breakfast of the finest donuts Tacoma has to offer before we headed to the Eastern side of the state to meet up with the good ol’ Davidsons. We, of course, had to stop at the first Zips we came to for lunch.

When we pulled up in front of my Dad’s house we were immediately greeted by my sweet niece and nephew, who were a huge help with the littler kids while we were there. Conan is still asking me about “Aba”. “Where Aba?” “Aba house?”

The two four year olds had a lot of fun together.

Our kids never fully adjusted to West Coast time, and we had daylight savings time to deal with while we were there too. As a result, we went swimming in our hotel pool at 6:30 am one morning.

We were all delighted to have breakfast with my two best high school friends, except Conan, who was a mixture of excited and exhausted.

More fun with family.

We’re all together so rarely that we had to take a bunch of pictures.

Grandpa was kind enough to take us to the train yard where he works so that the boys could check out the real life trains. Conan fell asleep in the car, which is too bad. I think he really would have enjoyed that.

When he woke up he wasn’t too excited about getting his picture taken with Grandpa.

On our way out of town, despite the frigid temperatures, we stopped at River Front Park. We didn’t stay too long because it was freezing, but there was a lot of beautiful foliage and plenty of ducks and geese.

We then drove back to Seattle and had dinner with my cousin and her delightful family. I wish we got to see each other more often.

We had one day to do some site seeing in Seattle and our hosts, the Crossens, were nice enough to take us around. Jonathan and I had never actually been to the top of the Space Needle, so that was our first stop.

When we were in the early stages of planning this trip Lincoln and I were having an unrelated discussion on the merits of monorails when I suddenly remembered that there was one in Seattle. It immediately jumped to the top of our to-do list and the boys were extra excited that they got to ride in the front, next to the driver, on our trip to Pike Place Market.

On our last day in Washington we were able to visit the cemetery where my grandparents are interned and have lunch with my Aunt.

We were also able to squeeze in one last friend visit for dinner. I hadn’t seen my friend, Nathaniel, in 7 years, so it was a special treat to spend some time with him and his lovely family.

Whew! And then we flew home at 6 am the following day. It was a busy trip and a bit overdue. I’m so happy that we got to see so many people and visit the place where I grew up. I feel like the longer I’m away from Washington, the more I can appreciate its charm. Hopefully it won’t be three years before we visit again!