true love

Every year, Steve packs up and puts away the Christmas decorations.  It's my favorite present.

christmas...

 lights

  

traditions

  

nativity

  

presents

snow

 joy

with grandpa

 Drew liked hanging with grandpa--awake or asleep.

birthday burgers

For Steve's birthday, I thought it'd be fun to eat out at a place we've never been to.  That's so not like us.  I wanted to take him somewhere fancy and expensive, to really surprise him.  That is so not like us, either.  I started searching online for fancy restaurants in Seattle.  After not recognizing most of the stuff on the menus and realizing I was too late to make any reservations, I noticed a link for Seattle's top 25 burgers.  Now this was sounding more like us.  Then I noticed a link for the best and cheapest burgers around.  This was definitely us!!  With a little more research, I decided to take Steve to Dick's Drive-In for some of the best and cheapest hamburgers! 

There are a few locations throughout the city, but we went to the one in Queen Anne because it opened in 1974, our birth year.  We ate burgers, fries, shakes, and a soda for just about $12.  And it was good.  Happy birthday to Steve and the Queen Anne Dick's.  Both 38.

homophones

"I know why you say Merry Christmas--'cause Jesus's mom was named Mary.  Get it?  Maaaary?"

cute drew

opposites

 Drew's been learning to do this

 while Ali loves to practice this.

toys

We have lots of baby toys--old and newer, hipper ones.  Drew kind-of likes them.  But what he really likes are iphones, remote controls, vents, door stoppers, spoons and most recently--the car seat buckle.  And sometimes he just likes to explore plain old empty spaces.

patch

Emmy woke up yesterday morning crying because her eye hurt so much.  Poor little thing.  We took her in to Bellevue to see the doctor.  After some special drops and a cool light, we could all see the scratch right in the middle of her eye (corneal abrasion).  The doctor gave us some antibiotic drops and an eye patch (saying most kids won't even wear it) and sent us on our way.  Well Emmy was super excited about her patch!  I think it made her eye feel so much better, but she also thought the patch was just really cool.  After a follow-up appointment today, we are grateful to know her eye has completely healed!!

minutes

Ali has to keep a reading log and hand it in every Friday.  She keeps track of her minutes read very meticulously.  They are required to read at least 60 minutes every week.  Unfortunately Ali only read 58 minutes her first week.

She has started to read more and more, but still keeps track of her minutes very carefully.

I love it.  She sets the timer for very specific amounts of time--23 minutes, 16 minutes, 26 minutes.  The hard part is adding it all up at the end!

more on max

I love having an Elf on the Shelf!  Luckily Santa sent us an elf who is nice and calm and very well-behaved.  He doesn't T.P. our Christmas tree or make messes. In fact, he mostly just sits in places where he can see us really well and quietly does his job (i.e. take notes on our behavior).

However, the other day Max surprised us all!  He somehow found out that Barbie's arm got broken.  Max took her to the North Pole and came back with her arm all casted up!  He also had a letter from Santa Claus!  Barbie's cast was even signed by Dasher (the fastest reindeer) with instructions to remove the cast in 3 days.

Wow.  Thanks, Max.  We know you are very dutiful and just mind your own business, but you may just surprise us again!

christmas crafternoon

Ali had an afternoon of Christmas crafting with friends--a crafternoon.

The girls made sock snowpeople,

mixed together reindeer food,

made paper ornaments,

ate Christmas treats,

and exchanged presents.

It was hours of laughs and crafts!

brothers

2 lucky boys

the bright side

Ali's perspective:

I like it.

Godo-bye Movember.

allergies

Because of Jake's recent ear infections and previous allergies, we had him tested to see exactly what makes him so miserable.  Turns out he is allergic to:

• cats
• dogs
• trees
• grass
• dust

So basically he's allergic to something from mid-January to November.

We are going to start shot treatments which will take about 5-6 years--just in time to send him off on his mission.

 Before the test

 and after

As we told him, it's a bummer, but it's better than being allergic to foods which is not treatable.  So although he's blowing his nose and popping his ears, he can enjoy some peanut butter and milk!