After we got home from California, we spent a week at home. Basically, this week was just unpacking from the 10 days we had been gone, and then preparing for another 10 days of staying down in Graham, WA. It was definitely a lot colder than we had in California, but this didn't deter us from getting out a bit.
We just love our local park, Twin Ponds. We had been told that there was a family of otters there, but we didn't spy them. We did see some lovely Mallards and a Wood Duck though. We even saw a heron diving for food repeatedly which was fun for the kids to try to find where he would pop up next.
The boys are really becoming fond of climbing trees even in their big winter boots!
After church on Sunday, we headed down to Graham, just south of Puyallup. Phil's aunt and uncle were out of town, so we were there just to be near his 93-year old grandmother during Christmas. We stayed at Phil's aunt and uncle's home with his cousin, which was a nice retreat for us. Phil's grandmother amazingly still lives alone in her own house and drives her own car even for short distances. She is an inspiration at 93 years of age!
While we were down there, we got snow! The boys loved it, and they even made a small snowman. The snow only lasted a day, but it was very much enjoyed.
We saw animal tracks...
And did a science experiment to see which snow would melt faster.
Indoors, we made Christmas cookies and iced them. We also did our preschool stuff which helped us keep busy away from home.
On a whim, we decided to go home on Saturday afternoon just before Christmas since we wanted to go to our church on Sunday morning. Also, Buddy was going to turn 5 on Christmas Day, and his big wish was to go to Krispy Kreme for his birthday. He was one happy boy!
We also wanted to make our Gingerbread Train, so we did that while we were at home too. I think it came out pretty well!
One of the reasons we wanted to attend our church that Sunday was for their Christmas program. The boys had been working on Away in the Manger and Twinkle, Twinkle Christmas Star in their Sunday School class, and it seemed sad for them to miss the performance. They did great! (Buddy is in the top left corner, and Button is on the right in the middle row but pretty hard to see).
After church, it was back to Graham. Monday was Christmas Eve so Phil didn't have to work. We headed out to Frontier Park in Graham and walked their trails and meandered through the fair grounds. We even played on the playground in the drizzling rain - and before you think that we were crazy, there were two other families there as well!
We also let them open up one gift on Christmas Eve. They were pretty excited!
Okay, this next picture is just amazing to me. That's Grandma putting together a puzzle map of Asia with my kids. She is their Great-Grandma. She's 93, and she's on the floor playing with my kids. I'm so glad that they could have this time with her.
We began Christmas Day with stockings. Buddy's favorite thing was the box of pencils and the pencil sharpener. He was sharpening pencils all morning! We also put in fruit leather which I'm sure was loved more than candy. I will definitely be making that a tradition.
Then, it was time to read the Christmas story. We read The Nativity which takes the words directly from Matthew and Luke and puts them with gorgeous pictures. I highly recommend this book!
Buddy got some footed PJs. He just loves PJs with feet. It's kind of strange.
He also turned 5. I baked him a chocolate cake with Oreo pudding frosting and crumbled Oreos on top. We had celebrated his birthday earlier when Button turned 3 so the only thing we did was a cake.
I just thought this was cute... Buddy was sad we didn't have any Christmas lights up, so he made his own with Duplo along the base of one of the windows. He's getting very creative.
We had a lovely Christmas there. I'm so terrible about taking pictures of other people besides my own kids, but we had a great time with Grandma and Phil's cousin, Lindsey. It was fun for me to get to know Lindsey more since we pretty much overtook her house for 10 days. Thanks so much, Lindsey, for hosting us!
The boys didn't get their "Gold" present from us until we got home on the 26th. Buddy got a Go-Glider bike. This bike doesn't have any pedals, so it teaches kids to balance. Button has a smaller Skuut bike already that he loves, but Buddy is so tall that he needed one that would fit him. He loves it already.
Button got a big castle that they both have been playing with almost non-stop when they are inside. However, for some reason, I don't have a picture of it - just the box it came in. Can you spy both boys?
Although it's been cold, we've been taking advantage of local parks to ride their bikes in. The boys actually went all the way around Green Lake last Saturday. I was so proud of them.
New Years Eve was Phil and my 8 year anniversary. Some dear friends babysat our boys so that we could go see Les Miserables at the Cinebarre. It was such a fun outing. Here's to another 60+ years together!
And welcome 2013!
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