¡ Cómo el Grinch robó la Navidad !

This is corny (I know) but you got to take what you can get...

12 Secret Santa(s)

This year is the 1st year our family has ever received the 12 days of Christmas from a Secret Santa. The family that put it together was very good at dropping things too because even though both Mommy and I saw a fleeting glimpse of the suspect we couldn't positively ID them. We even had plans of catching them the last night and laid out Thank-you notes for them to take but we missed them and they didn't take our notes! The only forensics evidence that remains is a single blond hair that was in the tape of one of the packages...Hmmmm...

On Christmas Eve the kids also each received some fairly substantial gifts on the porch from an undisclosed giver. We suspect Dawn and Brian next door but they have not been brought in for questioning. Individually labeled for each child with correct spelling...We are baffled at the kindness as much as the identity.    

11 days off of school

The kids have been able to do a couple of fun things this break including going to the Rosengren's for a day of playing with the kids. While there Zachery made Mommy a ring stand on the lathe with Rex and they really did a good job on the gift. Thanks Rex!

10 am Church

1 hour of Church...If ever there were and questions of the modern day miracles the 1 hour of meetings on Christmas Sunday should quell all those doubts. Seriously though our congregation really makes us feel at home and our rural ward Christmas program was perfect.   

9 people singing 

Carolers came to the door one night...It would not have been so bad if we had not been invited to come along earlier in the week and turned down the offer. While they were here I had to sing back at them because I can't just stand there and smile. I don't do gracious....

8 Snoopy plates

We received numerous mailed packages and cards and failed entirely in sending a single one out ourselves. Snoopy plates were in Cousin Sara's and they have been used extensively. They may even survive for another year if we put them away soon. We had intentions of sending packages out to family ans some friends but reality soon melted those fragile crystallizing ideas and let them fall to the earth and splatter on the exhaust port of the nuclear powered "bullet train of time" to be instantaneously evaporated. Perhaps they can condense again soon under better atmospheric conditions... 

7 people laughing

I need to get the video from Aunt S of one of the few times every person in the house was laughing. It has not happened often in the past week but it was not my imagination, they were all briefly happy once upon a time and there may come days I need that video as a reminder.

The theme for gifts this year was "Homemade" and I can honestly say it was the best part of the season. One of the gifts was a very rudimentary marionette I built for Aunt S. The video was when we were just figuring out how to make "George" (what I think Aunt S named it) move around. (send it this way Aunt S...)   

I think we will be making more of Georges soon. 

6 Foose ball players

The most used gift so far was the one Marshall built for Zachery. This one weighs a whole lot less and goes in the top of the closet easier than it's larger cousins but works perfectly well enough to cause as many arguments as a more expensive version could have.

5 Bags of Corn! 

White Chocolate Peppermint Popcorn...I picked them up in the reduced price bin at Fred-Myers after Thanksgiving thinking they would fill out stockings well...I didn't expect them to be so good or I would have purchased 4 more for myself. 

4 kid made gifts.

Marshall made the foose-ball table for Zachery

Zachery made a coloring book for Millie

Madison made a Scarf, origami puppets, and a Christmas book for Marshall

Millie made a snow-globe for Madison.

Mommy mads a plush porpoise we named Aldolf Fin for Madison.  

Mommy made this gift for Madison and I think she did a great job but it was more difficult than it looks and she was really ready to be done when she finished. She didn't have the eye material Christmas eve so this little mine sweeper is running on sonar alone until we run to the store.

3 days of snow

This was the 1st time we had snow stick around over Christmas. Not enough to really do anything with but it was white and pretty for a little while.

2 blinding lights.

Thanks Dad. In classic holiday fashion the "he will burn his retina out" warning was dismissed and Dad still sent the red rider of flashlights. It has been a day since and I still think I see the ghost image from the that bulb. Sweet!

And a post here to finish out the year...

I got a little lazy with this thing and so this is really my gift to myself. You see, I let all you people think I do this for your benefit but really I am doing this more for me than you because it is probably the only way I will ever remember all the cool stuff that happens.... 

So Christmas is over and we are cleaning up the mess now and wishing we didn't accept invitations to leave the house for the next week (we are home bodies around here). I always have thoughts each year after Christmas about what I could have done better but food is never connected to any of those regrets. We eat good around here. Mommy likes themed dinners and I am never opposed to them because it always means good food. This year we did a Grinchy Feast that included Roast Beast sandwiched, Who Hash and Who Pudding and Grinch Grog. For Christmas dinner we did  Feliz Navidad Street Tacos and pina coladas (Thanks Aunt S).

To everyone we never send cards too we do want you to know we love you! ...well most of you anyways...some of you are weird even by our standards...come to think of it maybe that is why we love you...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

photos

Aficionados

Daddy brings home scrap paper to recycle into art projects and so we sometimes get literally hundreds of pieces of art each week...Zachery and Madison filmed the creation of one of the masterpieces and so it was captured on multiple media this time. Enjoy.

  
We had soup made tonight from the Halloween pumpkins...we learned that you can microwave half a pumpkin at a tum and process them very easily that way.

Other things this week. We watched "The Goonies" on VidAngel, played "13 Dead End Drive" with the kids and did welding on the trailer with the scouts. Good week overall.
 

Business as unusual...

We had to stage this photo tonight because we didn't take photos Halloween night...The kids didn't mind because it gave them an excuse to get into their costumes and candy again...

Marshall wanted to be sure to explain that he had shorts on under his toga.

One of our Halloween festivities consisted of a visit to the Rosengren family in Renton. There we had a fun party and a date night out to some excellent Chinese food. There are very few reasons to venture back into the big city these days but their family is still a very good excuse. Thanks again guys.

We went mushroom picking Friday night and found a few chanterelles. Daddy found the first 2 but Mommy found far more than Daddy in the end. I am looking forward to seeing how the freeze-dryer preserves them in the future.

Speaking of freeze-dryer...

Saturday I voted for Mommy to be president...I couldn't bring myself to cast my vote for anyone else...
I bet most people would agree with my judgment but I am not talking the US presidency (although she would probably make more sense than the popular options presented by the media...)

We are starting a freeze drying service and Mommy is named on the paperwork as the proprietor/owner of the business. This idea should be fun to play with and see where it goes but it probably won't make anyone rich. It should justify a new toy for Daddy and we have some friends and neighbors that are interested in using the service so I guess we will see where it takes us.

Wish us luck!

Crimes caught on film

Loitering

All these pictures came off of Aunt S. phone...I can't recommend any of them as suitable for framing but the people in them are very suitable for framing...I just can figure out a fitting crime fitting for some of them...

Clearly under the influence of something or other...

Impersonating a duck...that is a crime in my book...

That bag can't be his...It doesn't match his shoes...

Cute enough to kill...very dangerous...

cruelty to animal obviously

Angry Family Photo

 Ever taken a hike with your family and wanted nothing better than a bear lumber out on the trail and attack a few of choice members?...Shame on you if this has ever been the case. That would never be the case with our family. We cherish every moment with each other so much that the wish to have harm befall another loved one is unthinkable. No mater what Aunt S claims we had a picturesque hike the other night up at Spada Lake and any moodiness or foul-spiritedness from anyone must have been a figment of her imagination...Funny Aunt S.

Marshall's "good" side...

 We will need to go back up to the lake when we have more time. It is starting to get dark quick now-a-days. 

Don't Swat!

Two seemingly unrelated stories became the testimony I shared from the pulpit today. I don't do it very often but a kid with a funny looking face asked me "Why don't you [meaning me] ever go up there?".... so I got up.

Yesterday while Mommy was in town school shopping Zachery and I were harvesting a little honey from the bees. We had finished up working on the hive and neither of us had gear on anymore and there was a a few of "the girls" (a nick name for the bees) still making some air-traffic around us. This is not uncommon and so when one landed on Zachery's several times he was nervous. Like on so many occasions previously I had to strongly reminded him of the 1st rule in bee handling...Don't swat...I brushed one bee carefully away barehanded and she took flight. Only moments later I found out she once more touch down on his face...Zachery reacted without thinking (as most of us do in that kind of situation) and had the swollen nose to prove it in the morning.

His disregarding my "commandment" cause a bit of pain.

Later yesterday night I was in my own world getting tangled in the inter-web doing some serious "recliner research". There was a bunch of little girls (actual little girls this time) buzzing around the living room and moments later the laptop was ripped from my lap and Millie and the poor PC tumbled to the ground as a power cord tripwire casualties. Daddy reacted instantaneously without thinking. A ferocious Daddy monster arose from the chair and the next few minutes will be remembered by 5 crying children, one of which peed on the carpet out of fear (yeah that didn't help much). A bit of venom was injected and a painful evening had to be experienced for a while...

Strangely enough when Daddy originally sat down with the intent of preparing a lesson for Sunday about controlling ones tongue and temper. It was not until later that lesson was returned to and the irony of the situation revealed it's self at how it is so much easier to say "don't swat" or "don't react that way" then to actually do it in the moment that it is required.

Where is the summer going?

We have been busy...Blogging has taken the back burner...If we are not running around crazy then we are zonked out...Example:

Let's just catch you up...

The family has been outside a good part of the last 2 months.
Mommy has been hiking with the kids about every Wednesday she can with some other church families. Mommy and I do a bit of hiking too on date night.

We had a family stay cation last week. Did some fun things locally and slept in our own beds (or sleeping bags) every night. It was very nice.

We went to a company picnic with wood fired pizza Friday afternoon (that pizza setup made me want to build my own outdoor oven again). The kids played with bubbles guns, got balloon sculptures, danced to the DJ music, and squirted water guns with other coworkers kids until it was time to get out of the heat and head to the Children's Museum...

Madison and Zachery liked the Construction Zone..

Marshall likes the outdoor dino dig.

Millie and Eleanor liked the water works Zachery motion capture room (he felt like a ninja). All the kids liked the rooftop jungle gym. They had trains, a theater with puppets, a tree house, an airplane, vet center, glow room...the list goes on and on...The last room we went to was a reading room and everyone was tired enough to sit and listen to Mommy read a story.

On vacation week we also went to Wild Waves with Aunt Stephanie. We did the water park in the morning and the roller coasters in the afternoon.

 While eating dinner at Burger King Aunt Stephanie asked about each of our favorite rides:

Eleanor loved the Frog Hopper.
Millie liked the Wave pool.
Madison liked the Kid Coaster
Zachery liked the Wild Thing
Marshall liked the TimberAxe.
Mommy like the Disk-it
Daddy liked the Froghopper
Stephanie liked the water slides..

Eleanor had a birthday. She loved the cabbage patch baby but the cake and the cards with the cold hard cold hard cash seemed to get the better reactions.

Mommy did an excellent job on the pistachio ice-cream cake and learned how to make pretty 2 color icing flowers. Good Job Mommy!

During stay-cation we also went to this lake ...

We didn't get there the same way as this guy but he did inspire us to go check it out. After seeing the base jump from a YouTube video we decided to take a hike out there. It was just 30 miles from our house... 

 At the trail head...

We dubbed Millie as Millie-Goat because she liked to lead the pack and Eleanor holds the now famous title of "The Candy-Girl" (Aunt S. thought that was her title alone but it can't be any longer)

I will need to weigh these guys down more in the future I think...

It was only 2.2 miles back to the lake from the parking lot but we did not see a single other person camping overnight (mid-week is the way to go around here). The mountain was impressive even from the bottom and it goes straight up from the lake at it's base. During the night we heard a little rock side fall into the lake and I was glad we were on the opposite side.

 Zachery tried as long as it was light to catch a fish and was pretty disappointed that nothing took his bait.

It was a good 1st backpacking trip and we learned a few things...Mommy want a better sleeping pad! Daddy needs to take the boys fishing for real...We ate pizza when we got back into Sultan the next day and like so many of my past backpacking trips the food always seems to tastes better after a hike.

We did lots of other things that stay-cation week too: Marshall and Zachery wanted to go shooting archery and so we constructed a life sized styrofoam Minecraft "creeper" and shot arrows into him (Marshall learned it is harder to retrieve arrows in real life than int a computer game). We also went to the Community Aquatic Center and played on the lazy river and watched people biff it on the surfing machine (next time Daddy is going to ride it)...

The moral to most of the stay-cation was that there is a lot of things to do around here...I also think that it is dawning on me that things are a bit different as a Dad now...Base jumping and the Fastest Roller coasters are not what I seek anymore...Sitting at the campfire at the base of a mountain watching Zachery try to catch a fish and going up next to the girls in the Frog Hopper were a different kind of adventure now.