celebrating friendship

One of the best gifts of the holiday season is the opportunity to get together with friends and celebrate. It's always nice when friends come home for Christmas and we manage to get together. I feel so blessed to have such amazing women in my life...and that we make it a point to get together on a regular basis.

The Portland girls at our annual holiday brunch/book exchange/charity giving party. It's a great excuse to get together, eat too much food, support a good cause and kick off the holiday season. Carrie, Lisa, Shanda, Kirstin & Lilly, me, Cheri and Lindsay.

All dolled up at Kirstin and Tim's Christmas party. Cheri, Carrie, me, Lisa, Shanda, Kirstin and Lindsay.

Care, Kirst and I at the end of the night. I'm happy to say that we closed down the party (which is practically unheard of these days!) It was such a fun night.

Our annual Linfield girls get together. Carrie, Sarah & Julia, Andrea & Brock, Alex, me, Emi, Ian, Ali and Melissa & Luke. We have managed to have 11 kids between us in the 9.5 years since college, so our group continues to grow! It was such a fun afternoon. Love these girls!

Some of my oldest and dearest friends - Jenny, me, Jackie and Julie.

Even though our lives have taken us on very different paths, we can still talk for hours and really enjoy one another. Some of the greatest friends ever!

Chef Carter

Carter loves to help in the kitchen, and he especially loves to bake. My mom and I make Christmas spritz cookies each year and of course Carter had to get in on the action. He had a hand in all parts of the preparation (measuring, dumping, etc.), pressing and decorating. He was very proud of the finished product!

A little flour mishap

Not one to be left out, Kennedy wanted to "help" too. Unfortunately for us, her idea of helping is anything but helpful! Nana had her hands full just trying to keep Kennedy from dumping out the entire bowl's contents!

a night at the ballet

For part of my mom and mother-in-law's Christmas gifts, Stacy, Val and I arranged for a night out to see the Nutcracker. It was a beautiful performance, although much different from years past. The set design was gorgeous and the dancers were wonderful. And I think it put us all in the Christmas spirit. My mom and I got downtown a little early so we were able to swing by Carafe (a great French bistro) and enjoy a little vino before the show. I wish I would have thought to take a picture off the five of us after the show.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

More holiday fun

I'm a bit behind in documenting our December, but I'll do my best to catch up before Christmas...otherwise, it might just be a lost cause. We've had such a fun month - doing lots of festive things to celebrate the joy of Christmas. Here are a few pictures of the fun we've been having:

Kennedy got in on the action of constructing our gingerbread house this year. She was all about helping until we told her she couldn't eat ALL of the candy. We ended up putting the finishing touches on after she went to bed.

Carter was so proud of the finished product. He had been looking forward to making another gingerbread house since we completed last years, I think. He still enjoyed eating lots of candy, but more ended up on the house as decoration this time around.

A few snapshots from our visit with Santa downtown. Carter was so good and really enjoyed the experience.

Too cute. My little munchkins trying to get a peek

Kennedy was much more fond of the reindeer than of Santa.

Unfortunately, I didn't really get any good shots of Carter's preschool program. My camera is old and awful and the lighting didn't help matters. (Hoping to get some good pics from my friend, Sarah, who's daughter is in class with Carter. hint hint :) All I can say is that seeing three and four year olds perform Christmas carols is quite possibly one of the sweetest things on earth. Hilarious, too. You could easily pick out the future performers and hams of the bunch. Carter didn't sing much but he did do the hand motions. When I asked him why he hadn't sang much of the songs, he replied "the girls next to me were shouting and it was bothering me." Hmm. Don't think he wanted to share the stage!

Miss K with our tree.

Carter posing with the Happy Birthday Jesus crown that he made at school. It's funny how sometimes they love having their pictures taken and then at other times I can't buy a smile!

Baking sugar cookies with Grandma. Thankfully they made and decorated the 2 dozen cookies he needed for his school program. Thank you, Grandma!

Funny times in the kitchen!

We were fortunate to bump into another Santa at our local QFC. Guess he's the hidden gem of Camas. They had a nice little set-up - cookie decorating, hot chocolate from Starbucks and a wonderful Santa and Mrs. Claus. Carter loved seeing the big guy again, but Kennedy was fully freaked out. T-R-A-U-M-A-T-I-Z-E-D! She went ballistic as soon as she saw the red suit, screaming in fear and digging her little fingers into my shoulder. Poor girl. Hope she forgets by next year.

My neighbor was there, as well, and snapped a few pics of Carter. Such a cutie.

Annual visit with Santa

One out of two ain't bad, right? I'm just hoping our little visit with St. Nick doesn't lead to a permanent fear of old men with white beards for Kennedy. She was NOT a happy camper. Traumatized would be a better description, I'm afraid. Carter was all business and was intent on getting to Santa so that his wishes could be heard, properly cataloged and then delivered on Christmas Eve. He was even gracious enough to tell Santa what Kennedy wanted, too.
We love the downtown Santa (at Macy's Santaland) and made sure we got there early on Saturday morning. Carter honestly believes that we visited the North Pole, even though we've tried to explain that Santa just visits us here in Portland. As we were driving home from Hillsboro last night, he points out the window, towards downtown and says "look Mom, there's the North Pole." We'll have to work on our geography, son. Ho ho ho!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS! And oh how we love Christmas. We got right into the spirit of the holidays the weekend after Thanksgiving. Kyle put up the outdoor lights, we got a tree and decorated it, the stockings were hung and we are now exclusively listening to Christmas music. It's glorious! Carter, especially, is enjoying all the festivities and is SO excited about the tree.

Helping Daddy string the lights on the tree. Every year we have to head out to the store and buy more - we love our lights!

Getting in on the action and trying to help as much as possible.

Our happy, holiday girl

We braved the cold and headed to the zoo earlier in the week. This was our first year taking the kids and they both seemed to really enjoy it. There were more lights than I remembered and it was a fantastic way to get into the Christmas spirit.

The kids and me, trying desperately to get a picture with both of them looking at the camera.

Kennedy was all about running and exploring everything. She didn't want to be strapped into the stroller or held, just wanted to look at everything.

We were so lucky that Auntie Val could come with us on such short notice. We had so much fun exploring the zoo and all the beautiful lights with her. Thank you Auntie!