Merry Christmas Card Readers!

2013 Year in Review!

* Riley turned 12 in February hurling our family into the world of Young Men's & Boy Scouts! Riley prepared himself well and received the Priesthood too. He enjoyed Boy Scout Camp this summer and completed both the 15 mile mountain bike Flume Trail up at Lake Tahoe, and the 25 mile Verdi Loop road ride! He is my awesome helper!

*April took Mom to HAWAII!!! For an early 15th anniversary celebration Grandpa M. braved our crazy crew & Dan bought an airline ticket for me so I flew over and met him (he was there on a charter). 4 blissful days on Kona with my lover!  

* In May we took a "Family Vacation"!! With Dan!!! We meandered down to San Diego to our favorite beach house aka: Grandpa's house!! A week laying on the beach, playing with cousins, and wearing sandals in May was awesome! We also had some great adventures in our adventure-mobile along the way, Tufas at Mono Lake, hiking inside Panum Crater a rhyolitic plug-dome, Manzanar National Historic Visitor's Center, and Fossil-falls lava tubes to name a couple!

* Sweet Leili turned 4 in June! How did that happen!! Again she got two birthdays as Dan was away for her actual birthday. But she is not complaining!! She got a two wheeler and was off on two wheels not to long after that!

* July brought an AWESOME family reunion in Provo Canyon, my Grandma J.'s favorite place to take all of her grandkids! Then down to our favorite 4th of July spot! Grandma's house!

On the way home we stopped at Great Basin National Park and got to explore the Lehman Caves and see petroglyphics & pictograms.

Danna's birthday in July brought PRE-APPROVAL for purchasing a home!

*Ok are you paying attention...the end of July brought our pre-approval letter and for Dan's birthday at the end of August we moved into our NEW HOUSE!! Can you say whirl wind!! We bought a great 1960 ranch on a 1/2 acre in the most AMAZING neighborhood! We have seen deer, quail, mountain lion tracks in our front yard, bear scat in our back yard (they caught one a street over in Nov.)! We are close to the river and close to a county open space. Dan left 4 days after we moved in and was gone for a month jaunting around NYC and London!

* October brought us Miss Fern's 8th birthday! She choose to be baptized on her birthday and dad flew in just in the nick of time to get to the church! Fern has been taking a sewing class and has been knitting up a storm!

* Super Man Jake turned 10 at the beginning of November!! I got to take he and three other friends on a birthday hike, it was awesome, they were goofy, and I survived! Success!! Jake has turned into a reading machine, he has 6 books going currently!!!

*In november we also welcomed two new kittens into our family! They are so sweet and wonderful! Rose is content to cuddle and let Leili carry her around (we also have to be careful as she is a garbage disposal and will eat anything)! Bryony is sassy and fun to play with (she just chews everything, including chewing an ear bud off of Dan's set)! Petunia and Zinnia are tolerating the new youth, the bunnies Daisy and Dandelion don't really care as long as they get fed and get new hay.

We wish you all our love and good wishes and we hope you enjoy love, light, & simplicity this Christmas Season!
XO

Not a creature was stirring...

...except the bunnies and kitties...

We braved the snow last week and drove up into the mountains to cut down our own tree, it was a magical time to stand in the woods with my family and listen to the silence. My house is not often silent, even when the kids are in bed there are the cats scurrying around and the train. At night it is quiet enough to hear the train. 

I love to look at the tree all lit up in a darkened house with my kids all in bed. Things are so busy around here that somedays I never look at the tree during the day! But at night I take a breath. Find my center. 

I hope you are finding a couple breaths during this Christmas season. 

XO

Yarn Along

Joining Ginny again for her Yarn Along!!

Right now I'm reading, "My Life in Paris" by Julia Child and I'm knitting this cute slouchy hat for Fern in Cascade 220 Heathers color #9453. Shhh, don't tell her!!

XO

Nativities

Such a pause...sadly that is what happens when your computer implodes and saving up for another takes time. The last few post I did off my phone but lets just say posting anything with more words than a text is cumbersome at best and down right frustrating at times. But today my lover left his computer at home and I've finally memorized the password! Yippie!

Today is just a short post, I'm gearing up for our Christmas card post so stay tuned!

I love nativities, between the many of them and the many nutcrackers I have collected over the years you can imagine just how my house is decorated. Most of my nativities have a special memory or story, this one is my favorite. It is a ceramic one from Olivera Street in downtown LA. My mom bought it for me in 2002 when i spotted it in the window of one of the little shops.

Another favorite nativity, completely opposite. This one is plastic, little people that I mail ordered in 2001 for Riley's first Christmas. It is one of my favorites because I love to see the kids all get excited and how they change the positions of all the characters. Riley was always insistent with how it should look, I would put it away at night set up much like my set is at the top and then in the morning he would fix it so that everyone was facing in looking at the baby Jesus. Riley taught Jake and Fern well, that is how it looked for years. But Leili has different ideas and it is always changing. This is how I found it today, a little old school little people and animals from our castle joining the mix!

Tomorrow will be the 120th anniversary of the Nutcracker Ballet first performance in St. Petersburg Russia for the Czar Nickolas on December 18, 1892. As I type this the beautiful strains of Tchaikovsky's ballet are wafting in from the other room, thankfully my kids love it too! Today we took Leili to her first performance of the Nutcracker, or to me more precise the Peanutcracker! The local ballet company does midday performances for school kids, it is condensed, and narrated. Leili was riveted and watched the whole hour long performance and has since told me she wanted to jump on the stage and dance! Last year we went to the full length ballet but left Leili with friends so we were all excited to get to include her this year. Maybe by next year she will be able to sit through the full version! I can hope!