It's too quiet

No babies-they are home sick with the croup and their folks (I know you love that word Em), no Rielee or Parker or Macee-they went to Sun River, no Auna, Will or Emmy-don't know where they are at, no James either, no kids around, just us. It's way too quiet. I've been cleaning out closets and cleaned up the shop, Steve has been working on the lawn mower and is organizing his screw collection, a wild and crazy New Year's Eve!

Chipmunk movie

Steve went to Astoria today to watch the girls play basketball, and I stayed home with Rielee and Parker. We decided we would go to see the matinee of the Chipmunk movie, James was still at his Papa's, so we invited him, too. We had to wait in a long line, and then Laury showed up with Auna and Gracie, so Laury waited in line and I went inside with the kids. The theatre was very full by the time we got in, and there was nowhere for us all to sit together, so Parker and James found a place in the back, while Laury and I and the girls were in the 3rd row. It took awhile, but my eyes finally adjusted to sitting that close...it is a very cute movie, we all enjoyed it. 14 thumbs up!

Snowball fight!

I took Macee, Parker, and James with me to Will's basketball game tonight. As we are sitting there, James says "snowball fight in your yard tonight, Aunt?" I looked at him and said nothing...he says"we'll take that as a 'Yes'", he and Parker laugh. Towards the end of the game, I hear the same question, say nothing, and hear "We'll take that as a 'Yes'"... (I know I am messing up the punctuation here, but you get the idea.)

So they end up riding home with Steve, and I no more get in the door and they are outside on the porch, waiting for me, at first I said no, and in the first picture they are calling the Dolan's, inviting them over, James has the phone inside his hat. I couldn't resist the temptation to join in the fun, though, and we ended up having a great time. Dave came over with Auna and cousin Gracie. Alan came out and took pictures, Laury and Max showed up, too. Max ate a few snowballs. It was perfect snow, packed into snowballs easily. I love that Parker and James, they are such fun guys when they aren't being ornery little turkeys! Or making giant snowballs and throwing them at old Grandmas...

Rielee's Bed Head

Rielee came in the house this morning and I just started to crack up. She had the worst or would it be "best" case of bed head I've ever seen! Our cute little girl was transformed into a wild child...and she did not want me taking her picture either. (Des said she went to bed with her hair wet which explains this very strange "do")

We were going to the girl's basketball game a little later and of course, she wanted to fix her own hair. She is very particular about how it is styled, and she has learned how to put a pony in by herself. She is very proud at how long her hair has grown, if she tilts her head way way back it will touch her back. She also likes to comb Grandma's hair, and I've had to walk around the house with some peculiar looking "dos" when she is done with me.

Unfortunately, the girls lost their game to Toutle today. Darn.

Parker showed up last night at 9:00 to spend the night with me, said things were boring at home...like there is something exciting going on at our house?? We stayed up and watched "Dumb and Dumber", opened one of the bottles of Sparkling Cider we had for New Year's, and drank some with our popcorn, then went to bed about 10:00. He slept in until 10:00 this morning. I was very tired when I got up at 7, after a night of listening to him snore.

Christmas Day

Our Christmas morning started bright and early, Gabe and Des and the kids were here at 7:30 for breakfast. For the last few years, I've made biscuits and gravy, eggs and bacon. This year was a rushed meal, since Rielee couldn't wait to

get to the stockings. The kids seemed to love all of their gifts. We got Rielee a scooter and all the pads to go along with it, and her Barbie can ride in front. "Suicide Barbie" is what it looked like to everyone. Rielee tried riding Auna's scooter last summer and did pretty well, I think she can learn to ride it, but I was taking some flack as her parents are skeptical.

Parker got a remote control truck, he had it up and running in just a few minutes. I made Macee a shadow box with pictures of the State Volleyball Tourney and her sportmanship medal in it, she really liked it, and then she fell asleep shortly after the gifts were opened, just like she did last year. She has those little siblings waking her up early though, 6:00 a.m. this year.

We'll have Christmas with Charb, Kelly, and the kids this afternoon, so there is more fun to come.

Charb, Kelly and the kids finally made it up to CR about 6:00 p.m. We opened gifts fairly quickly since they still had to go over to Gabe and Des's to open gifts with Dan. They stayed over there for a little while, then came back here and we fed the babies before they left. It was an abbreviated visit, and they vowed to do it differently next year. Kelly has a large extended family so they had a lot of visiting to do in Vancouver today. But we were happy to be able to see Luke and Lexi, even if it was just a short visit.

Christmas Eve

Another wonderful Christmas Eve with the family. I came home with about 80 random goofy pictures on my camera, having made the mistake of giving it to Emmy for awhile. Amazing how long the kids can entertain themselves with a camera...they just laugh and laugh at how funny they look.

Christmas at Jill's

Sunday we went to Kingston to have Christmas with Jill, Ashli and great-grandson Hayden. Unfortunately, Jineen and Kyle had to work so they couldn't be there, but we did go to Starbucks to say hi to Jineen before we left town. (Von also was among the missing, at 21, who knows where he was I guess he had more important things to do.) We were surprised how much Ashli, 12 and in 8th grade now, has matured and is becoming a lovely young lady. She is doing really well in school and even had an article she wrote about the Kingston Inn published in the local paper. Hayden is 3 and all boy, always in motion. Jill is doing great, she is staying slim and healthy, I thought we took a lot of vitamins, but she has us beat by a long shot. Steve was busy while we were there making plans to go back in the summer and put a new roof on her house.
We had a really nice visit with them, and as we were leaving, I happened to admire a picture Jill had on her wall. She told us about Clear Creek Nursery in Poulsbo, said it was her favorite,
so we decided to stop there on the way back. It was perfect timing, as they had all their Christmas decorations 50% off, I shopped and checked out once, went to the car, and decided to go back in for more. They had some unique things, and even had two real reindeer outside. Of course, my camera battery died when we went to take a picture of them for Rielee.