Solstice and Chirstmas

Okay so I have started this post about 5 times.. but never got that far.  This time I WILL finish it.  So solstice as great again this year.  The night before we had a nice dinner with a yule log cake for desert.

The kids both got to open one gift (the one from each other)  Aiden looked at the Woody doll that Natalie picked out for him and got the most disappointed look on his face and said "why did you get me this? I didn't want this... I wanted a Buzz with wings that came out"  And thus began the season of getting and the first of many talks about being thankful for what you get and that if you don't want it I'm sure someone else does.

When it got dark we lit off fire works in the street then watched a movie

 We stayed up late waiting for the eclipse... the kids actually made it until it was fully covered... then they both fell asleep outside wrapped up in blankets.

 

 

Watching the moon..Natalie kept saying "bye moon, bye bye... PEEK"

Opening presents... Natalie's something to wear

Her something she wants... BONGOS from Daddy!

On our walk on Solstice afternoon..., Natalie is such a HAM

Aiden's something to wear, a bit big but I got a good deal!

And then on the 22nd we headed up to Portland for Christmas... with tree decorating...

 

Cookie making with Nonnie..

  The Grotto Festival of Lights... Interesting but not worth the money.  Jesus wouldn't want us to spend that much money to see that little... but now we've done it.

And we got to go with Auntie Jessica (who we haven't seen since before Natalie was born) We had a great time together making fun of the whole racket!

And then it was Christmas Eve.... and Uncle Ryan and Shanda came up... The kids got matching PJ's as always

Aiden was so happy to have Uncle Ryan and Shanda there, and he really seemed to get into the Santa thing this year...

This is Natalie's version of Aiden's squint look.

The kid stockings were OVER FLOWING... what lucky kids!

Just before bed... almost time to open a present...

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they both got a magnetic story board, Aiden got Pirates and Natalie got a fairy tree house

then we put out cookies for Santa and apples for the reindeer, next to the tree so he wouldn't miss it and off to bed with the kids.  We had to all promise Aiden that if we heard something in the living we would come and wake him up so he could talk to Santa.  He just wanted to talk to him.

 Santa came!! and brought the cash register that Aiden had asked for in his letter to Santa (just by the hair on Santa's chinny chin chin... it showed up at 4 on Christmas Eve)

 He brought something else too, because we had to have a plan B

Amazingly with the tree surrounded by gifts they were happy with these two things and their stockings!

then we made the mistake of letting Aiden open Uncle Ryan's gift of Lego's... then nothing else mattered.

so we actually opened gifts in a few shifts allowing them to play with what they had, and they were fine with it.

Natalie all dressed up for the day

Uncle Ryan as a doctor (or priest)

Uncle Ryan won the prize of the best gifts... a baby for Natalie.

Mee-meeing Lollie

Lego's with Uncle Ryan

Blanket houses just for fun!

Cousins!

Like Aiden's look?  Family dinner!  All in all we had a great time with everyone, we LOVED the time we had with everyone but it's nice to be home. There... I got it done and I only wanted to quit Blogger about 5 times.  (and then there was the time Loren closed the tab when I was up-loading the pictures) yeah...

Want to see more pictures?  Here is a LINK to the whole album!  Enjoy!

Happy New Year, may this be the year of many posts!!

So I've been rather busy and also my new computer only shows me a stock image when I try to add pictures to blogger instead of a thumbnail so I would have to guess. So I kept putting off adding pictures thinking I would get on the 'big puter' and do it real quick, tomorrow. Well tomorrow has come and gone and a week or two have also. So, let's talk about Solstice. Here are a few pictures from that day. Aiden opening a book, Natalie playing with the ribbons (why buy gifts when you can give them ribbon?) and some pictures from our walk. It was a beautiful day and then we had a nice dinner of "roast beast", potatoes, sparkling cranberry juice and gravy. Next day we headed to Portland for a almost week of Nonnies house.

Happy Solstice!!

Today we celebrated Solstice.  It was wonderful.  We had just a few gifts each, Loren bought the kids both bikes, I got them socks and books.  We had a nice brunch  and went for a walk to the park (Aiden rode his bike, he's still getting it down and really just walked with the bike between his legs).  I can't wait to do it again next year.  Last night we lit off fireworks to kind of symbolize the return of light.  I found an old light stick and Aiden ran around like a chicken with his head cut off with it.  The simple things in life.  We had Aiden's bike covered with a blanket this morning and he has been asking for a bike so he figured out that he was getting one, as you can see...

Natalie couldn't have cared less, she was happy to play with the ribbon and try to play with Aiden's spokes.  She does like her trike though.  She's not quite tall enough for it but it wont be long.  I am really happy with the bikes we found for the kids.  We will get alot of miles out of both of them. 
The kids and I are off to Portland for Christmas week.  We hope you all have a very merry holiday season.  Welcome winter and thank you for your return sun.  I can't wait for warm days in the yard and summer days working in the garden.  Happy happy and lots of Love from us!!