Happy New Years Eve!

This year we were home celebrating with New York, Despicable Me, and Popcorn.  And it was great.  And now I want some minions.

Surprise! You Have Snow!

Didn't expect to wake up to this...

What's With These Winking Gingerbread Men?

A funny thing happened this year.  Both Grandma's gave Baby Bubba a winking gingerbread man.  Nana's came in the form of a winking gingerbread man humpleman ornament and Oma's came in the form of the Gingerbread Baby book.  The funny part is they look like him and his famous wink...  ;)

We Hit the Slopes - Then They Hit Back

 What a bloody day it was...

We got a new inner-tube and decided with all the snow coming in we should head to the pass and try it out.  It was fun too, lots of fun even.  Bubba could ride by himself without any worry of him flipping out.  Or so we thought...

See how happy?

Somewhere along the way though, Dada starting spinning Bubba when he was in the tube and then would send him spinning down the slope.  Maybe on the 4th or 5th round of this spinning there was a slip, a thud, a face plant, a flip, a scream, a bloody nose, tears, a bloody lip, snot, and more tears.

It took a bit but we got him calmed down and things were all fun and games again.  Even more spinning and slinging (sans falling out).  Then we moved on to a snowball fight.  I hit Dada, Dada hit Bubba, Bubba hit me, I hit Bubba... in the face... and split his lip... in a different place than before... and he cried.  More screams, tears, blood, snot, tears.  What a mess.  And it was one of those random events, I just lobbed it underhanded from 4 feet away but he stood up, turned into it and it just somehow split his poor little lip. 

Pretty soon after that we called it a day.  No telling what we would manage to do next if we left it to chance.  Of course, more tears because he wasn't done playing in the snow.  This child of mine, what will I do with him???

Today's Deal ~ Musikgarten Classes!

How fun is this?  Musikgarten classes for our beboppin' Bubba!  We got this deal through Groupon and it was $17 for three classes, something like a 72% discount.  This won't be his first round of music classes and it won't be his last.

This was backposted due to Christmas chaos!

Christmas at Nana & Papa's

Aren't these just the cutest cousins?

After our morning Christmas at home we headed to our final Christmas celebration at Nana & Papa's house.  The kids get their own table that Nana sets with pretty table cloth, dishes, glasses, and mini poppers.  We had a great time there, a little chaotic, but what else would you want with three kids, seven adults, one cat, and presents?  I wouldn't have it any other way!

Christmas Morning

We had a fun morning.  For some reason I woke up early so I decided to run out and get things set up.  Tree lights on, fire started, coffee made, cats fed, made sure Santa ate some of his cookies, Christmas music turned on, teeth brushed, makeup removed from eyes and reapplied, ummmmm, heaters turned on, milk ready for Bubba, ummmmm, fish fed, ummmmm, what else, what else????  Nothing.  That took all of 4.75 minutes and I was ready to get Christmas started.  It was only 6:56 and I wanted everyone else up.  Apparently my phone read my mind because after another 3.25 minutes the alarm set to Rooster on the loudest volume possible went mad.  And I let it.  Until it turned itself off and.... nothing.  Neither of the boys got up.  So I pulled out the big guns, went into Bubba's room and all but yelled 'SANTA CAME!!!  SANTA WAS HERE!!!  Let's go see what he left you!!!'  I probably sounded like Buddy the Elf but who cares?  I wanted them up!  That worked.  Bubba shot out of bed completely disoriented with one goal in mind - get out of his room and to the tree.  He only hit one door frame on the way and by the time he got to the living room he was wide awake.  Dada came out too, not to miss the fun, and then it all started.  SO MUCH FUN!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Oma's annual Christmas Eve supper and gift exchange. 

The kid made out like a bandit, once again.

We really are lucky.

Merry Christmas to all ~ and to all a good night!

Christmas in the City

 We headed into the city to ride the carousel and see to what festivities we could find.  First we hit up a toy store while we waited for everyone to get there...  The hats were a big hit...

Then we headed to the carousel... Lots of fun to be had there...

And to finish it off we indulged in some Dilettante hot chocolate.  Ahhhhh....

Then it was off to nap time before all of our Christmas Eve celebrations!

Backposted due to Christmas chaos!

Baking with Bubba

Backdated post due to lack of picture taking and delay in getting Bubba to email them to me

until Christmas day when I had to take her memory card and copy them to my laptop.

Our Recycled Christmas Tree - How Green Is That?!?

Does it look a little Charlie Brown?  Maybe.  Did we use the same live tree last year?  Yes.  Was that because we're thrifty?  Yes.  Was that because we're a little lazy? Maybe.  Did it save us money and a trip to the tree lot?  Absolutely! 

The story goes... Last year we decided to buy a living tree in a pot, bring it in for a few days, and then plant it in the yard.  Perfect solution to our ethical dilemma of cutting a tree for a weeks use then tossing it away.  We did great in that we bought the tree, a pretty tree too, brought it in for a few days all decorated and pretty, then took it back to the patio to be planted during the right season.  Well, we missed that season and come summer it was still sitting on the patio in it's pot so we tossed it up in the upper bed until the next planting season.  That season came and went and the poor little tree was still sitting in it's little pot a year later with it's roots grown out the bottom and not in the right spot landscaping-wise and looking a little sad.  So come tree time we had a brilliant idea!  Since we don't ever have a tree up more than two weeks before Christmas and it was a week before Christmas (yeah, we missed that too) we decided to bring the little tree back in for a Christmas encore.  The only difference was this year it had to be cut.  At least we got to have a live tree for two years and it was two for the price of one.  Or two years for the price of one tree. 

Unfortunately we don't have a picture of it from last year but we do have this.  A picture of it's pot it's been living in since last Christmas. 

Merry Christmas little tree - you have served us well and we will miss you come next year.

France, Denmark, Russia, Australia, UK, Slovania, Malaysia - OH MY!

Well, after getting a good Cyber-scare from Nana (she is only looking out for us) about identity theft and the such from blogging, I have decided to remove all names from here.  People that should be reading this know who we are, and those that don't are free to ask.

Our alter egos are fairly straight forward ~ Mama, Dada, Nana, and so forth.  What I feel I must explain is the constant use of the nickname Bubba.  The story goes... when I was pregnant I craved all things vinegar.  Pickled beets, salt and vinegar chips, pickles, bread dipped in balsamic vinegar, it goes on.  Another item I craved was Flaming Hot Cheetos.  That's right, I just put that in print.  So one day my sister joked that with my vinegar and Cheetos cravings I was going to birth a redneck and she was going to call him Bubba.  I did, and she did.  The name stuck.

The story doesn't end there though.  Dada and I took a long weekend trip and Baby Bubba stayed with my sister.  He was only 20 months old and hadn't started calling my sister or her husband anything yet and by the end of that weekend my sister was also Bubba and my brother in law was Dada.  The 2nd Dada was quickly dropped in favor of Noc but Bubba stuck.  Now we have two Bubba's, Bubba and well, Bubba.

Now that we've cleared that up, I feel I should explain the title of this post.  After talking to Nana, I discovered I could check the stats of who's checking out this little blog'o'mine by country and I was really surprised to see how many hits I've had from all of these countries!  Add to that Germany and Canada but those I suspect are friends and family.  It made me worry about my baby's safety and I would never want his identity stolen or any such nonsense so from here on out, we shall remain nameless.  Or at least nicknamed.

Annual Cookie Baking with Oma

This evening was our annual cookie bake with Oma.  Baby Bubba is big enough to really help with a lot of the decorating and he was pretty serious about it.  Pretty serious about covering the entire surface of the cookie with sprinkles that is.

Oma was good enough to help some of the rogue sprinkles find their way back onto a cookie and Baby Bubba and Dada were good about making sure any broken cookies didn't make it into the tin.

We also learned that you should never put 1 single Red Hot for the reindeer's nose unless you want it to look like it had been shot in the head.   Same goes for the snowman, the angel, or anything else with a face.  Oh, and never let Dada be in charge of placement of the Red Hots either, it just wasn't appropriate and I'm pretty sure Oma's neighbors would raise an eyebrow if they received one of those cookies.  'Nuf said.

Christmas Lights at (not so) Warm Beach

On this cold cold night we headed up to The Christmas Lights at Warm Beach.  It was so pretty up there and really busy since it was the last weekend night before Christmas, a dry night, and the night before most kids start their Christmas break.  We did get to do most of the activities but a few were passed up due to really long lines.  We did all the important things though ~ pony rides, hot chocolate, looking at lights, giggling, donuts, and watching the little Polar Express train ride the tracks (2 times even!).

We Won! We Won!

I entered a drawing through Parent Map and won a family 4 pack of tickets to Anne of Green Gables at the Village Theater.  Growing up, we watched the series on channel 9 so many times.  I have such fond memories of it and watching it in the living room of our Ballard house.

If you never saw our house it was built some time around 1908 or 1912 and there were white French doors that led into the living room and pocket doors on either side of the dining room.  A butlers pantry was walled in but it was a very formal house with closets big enough to be additional bedrooms off the bedrooms.  The memories of the show are so intertwined with my memories of the house which makes it all the more exciting to see the play.  Takes me back to a time and place that will never be again.

So to celebrate, I'm taking my Mom, sister and oldest niece with me.  Should be a great girls day out.

Happy Birthday Nana!!!

And Today He Learned to Whistle

Somehow, somewhere in Trader Joe's tonight, Baby Bubba learned to whistle. He was so so so proud of himself and I'm a bit surprised he didn't make himself pass out repeating his new trick the entire ride home.

Tea Time with a Swan

While Allen was hanging with Oma, going to the library for story time and doing their normal things on his day with her, I got to meet a friend for tea and a movie. She took me to Teahouse Kuan Yin to try little pots of their loose leaf teas. I'm not a connoisseur but I do like tea and I loved the teahouse. I can't remember the name of the tea I had but give me a tiny pot, a tiny cup, a tiny saucer, and a tiny pot of cream and there's a really good chance I'm going to be happy. I do remember the shortbread we had though, lemon ginger and then lavender. I wouldn't have guessed that I would like lavender shortbread but I was pleasantly surprised. And it was a tiny square! OK not really tiny but it was little, it was shortbread after all.

After that we headed over to the Guild 45 Theater. It was built in the 1920's and you would never question it. From the exterior ticket window, to the silver doors, to the single person staircase going upstairs to boarded over viewing windows of the stage. This was my first visit to the old theater that I know of (who knows if I went there as a child, there weren't any megaplex theaters back then and I have merged memories of several of the old single screen theaters in the area) and it was quite a treat indeed... And the movie we saw, well, you have to see it for yourself to be able to describe it.

Black Swan. A dark ballerina thriller movie. Really, if you see it you'll agree even though it seems ridiculous. It was an excellent movie though, definitely worth seeing.

Official Black Swan Movie Poster

What a fun day! And now that I've raised my culture meter it's time to relax with some Pirate's Booty and eggnog. I strive for balance, can you tell?

Obee Kabee Bill

It's been a long time since I've seen this and once TRON was done I needed something I could follow better. And since this was my pick that was overruled, I decided I would watch it anyway. I laughed so hard I cried, in several of the skits. I made Dada come in the room and he laughed out loud. I forgot how funny this was!

And it's clean humor to boot. If you're looking for something to make you laugh I suggest watching this again. Now that Allen is here it is all that funnier!

"Dad is great! Give us the chocolate cake!"

Now seriously, go watch it. You'll laugh whether you want to or not.

Image found here

Talk About the Highlight of His Night!

In the mail tonight Baby Bubba received a Welcome Issue of a gift subscription to Highlights High Five magazine for preschoolers. I used to love the Highlights magazine. So for bedtime reading we went through about half of it. He was so so so excited and the little bugger found several of the hidden pictures before me. I'll have to practise while he's sleeping.

And Tonight... We Watch TRON

It was a toss up between this and Bill Cosby, Himself. Guess who made the choice?

Official TRON movie poster

What a Weekend!

It all started Friday morning... tea at the Governor's Mansion...

My Mom took my sister and I to the Capitol to have tea at the Governor's Mansion. It was so pretty down there, and had I known it was the right after Cabella's on the freeway we may have gone there sooner! The mansion was lovely and the tea (or champagne and coffee if I'm going to be honest) were very nice as well. My sister sat in the Governor's chair in the dining room as we sipped our coffee from the official Governor's tea set and watched her husband mingle in the living room. A very nice day with my Mom and Sister indeed.

As soon as we got back to Seattle we all parted ways off to the next big adventures. Baby Bubba was staying with Nana and Papa for the night while Dada and I headed back into the city to see The Black Nativity...

Original image found here

This was it's first year in the Moore and we heard it was because the audience had grown so much. Too bad the stage seemed too small now, it just wasn't as good as I remembered it from the Intiman. The singing however was as good as always.

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Saturday was the book club family social here so we hopped up and got to work getting ready. When Nana & Papa dropped the Bubs off we put them to work for a little while he napped. He'd already had a big day at the Seattle Center Winterfest checking out all of the fun stuff down there and had opened a few early Christmas presents, lucky guy!

The party started at 3:30 and we had a houseful of people for a few hours while the kids and husbands got to mingle with all of the ladies a bit. We were done by 6:30 just in time for Baby Bubba's bedtime and for everyone to head to the next holiday event. It's a good thing because we were exhausted!

Can you guess what this was?

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Today was a day to relax and recoup and decorate and finish the Christmas cards and get Nemo Too a new tank (part of the party prep included a broken fish bowl) and eat leftovers and watch Christmas shows and make a gingerbread house. Baby Bubba was almost to the letter on decorating it just like the picture on the box. Too bad we didn't get all of the same candy they used in the picture, but he got over it when we explained that we got better candy.

All in all it was a great weekend and now we can truly relax, for an hour at least. :)

Time for some red noses and reindeer games

We had an impromptu session of reindeer games today with Mai Mai and Big Bubba. We got an early call asking if we wanted to play and we gave them a big ol' YES! So Big Bubba in all of her crafty-ness made the wee ones some reindeer antlers and red noses. She was even patient enough to try and corral these mystical mammals for a photo shoot and you can see how that went. The last shot was the good one and that's all that matters.

The 9 Mile Conversation

Wanna know the best part about good conversation with good friends? Being able to walk 9 miles with them and not even realize it.

That's right, I walked 9 miles today. I met a friend at 10:30 this morning to check out a (new to me) trail and we didn't get back to our meeting spot until 3:00 in the afternoon. There was a stop in the middle for lunch but when I drove our path back it was 4.5 miles one way!

If only workouts could always be that easy!

Snowshoe Time!

Snow! Glorious Snow!

Today we headed up to the pass to find some snow. And did we ever! We had a new set of snowshoes and poles for the Bubs for Christmas but since the snow came early this year we took them out for their maiden voyage. We headed down the cross country path and he didn't need any transition time. He is a natural and he loved them! I mean really loved them, even asked to put them back on instead of sledding down the hill.

Then to put the cherry on top of an already great time there were 3 different igloos for him to play in. Talk about one happy kid!

We put the 'park' in 'parking lots'

On our way up to the mountain today Dada needed to run into Costco to pick up a couple of things we weren't to see. So instead of us hanging out in Costco and trying to avoid each other he dropped us at a 'park' across the street and drove off. Too bad this 'park' was a parking lot with a walking trail running behind it. Luckily we're crafty enough to have spent 40 minutes entertaining ourselves in a big empty parking lot. Turns out there was a lot to do, so much that we didn't even notice when Dada came back for us because we were busy racing along the white lines. We put the 'park' in 'parking lot'.

First handcrafted Starbucks

Baby Bubba got his first handcrafted Starbucks drink today. Now he's had cold milk, boxed milk, and plain steamed milk from there (and there's no telling what he's had with Nana or Oma) but today.... today he got his first hot cocoa. He seemed pretty pleased with it and himself, drinking it out of a 'grown up' cup.

And they pretend they don't like each other - pfffft

Christmas chain time!

Today we assembled our Christmas chain. We are a day or two late but at this age he doesn't know the difference. I'm just pleased we got it done at all. This is fancy for us, normally it's just the paper but this year we downloaded pretty numbers from The Crafting Chicks and the Bubs glued them on to the rings. Some at least, his attention span is much shorter than the chain. The fun part was he got the whole counting part and he picked out all of the correct numbers for me. So, we'll call it today's number lesson.

Now.... let the countdown to Christmas begin!

Christmas Ship Parade!

Kicking off the Christmas Ship Parade at the 'opening ceremonies'. Not so sure about the ceremonial part but they're pretty nonetheless.

The Grinch, Shrek, & Nemo

Tonight was an exciting night in so many ways!

First, The Grench Who Stole Christmas came on TV. Even though we have it here on DVD there is just something about watching it when we know everyone else is that makes it feel more festive.

Next, Shrek the Halls came on right after the Grench! We haven't seen it before so it was great!

Last exciting thing of the evening was our beta, Nemo, bit me. That's right. He jumped out of his water when I was feeding him and bit my fingernail. I'm not so sure how I feel about him anymore, not so sure if I like having a fish in the house that's OK with biting me. We'll see how I feel about it tomorrow... or maybe I'll just leave his cover off and let the cats fight over him.

Christmas cards are here!!!

I know I sound like a commercial but what can I say? I love Shutterfly!!!

Blowing insulation ~ DIY style

Well, here we are. This is us (me in the top picture and Dada in the bottom picture up in the attic) and this is what we do.

Today we rented an insulation blower and blew 4 blocks of insulation through a hopper and a 50 foot hose. My job on the ground was to bust the blocks apart and get the insulation material into the hopper while Dada was in the attic manning the hose.

It was so dusty and messy and it was cold outside but we're done. Thank goodness. Another DIY project done and a little more money saved.

Where did Ballard go???

Last night was a lot of fun, so much that we didn't get home until 1 in the morning and that's late nowadays.

We had really good food at a place called Thaiku and the Clumsy Lovers drew a great crowd! The only problem was that everywhere we turned on Ballard Ave. it was all upscale boutiques, restaurants, and salons. When did this happen? It used to be that you would leave the Tractor and keep a watchful eye on the alleys and dark corners but now it's just hordes of yuppies.

Ah well, guess that's what comes with getting old. At least we fit in with the yuppies, more so than the people we would have met down there in the 90's.

Double Date Night!!!

Tonight Nana & Papa are coming to hang with the kid while Dada & I get to go out with some friends. On the agenda is supper in my old stomping grounds followed by a show at the good old Tractor Tavern. We're going to see The Clumsy Lovers and to really date myself, I first saw them in the same place some time around 1998 or 1999. Time sure flies!

An afternoon with Peter Pan

It's been so much fun introducing baby Bubba to all of the classic Disney films I grew up with. For several months now he's talked of Tinker Bell after reading a story about her in one of his books. We finally got the DVD from Netflix yesterday and we sat down to watch it today.

He was so cute about it all. When Tinker Bell made her first appearance he got all excited, when Captain Hook showed up he couldn't stop talking about him, and to put the cherry on top, the dogs name was Nana. He asked me, 'what's the dogs name?' and when I confirmed what he thought he had heard he giggled and said 'that's silly' with a big old Bubba grin.

Black Friday and Date Night!

Huh, since the Christmas shopping is almost done and has been for over a week now, and Ken had to work for the first time in years and years, and because Oma slept over last night, I only did 1 tiny Amazon order today.

I actually sent Baby Bubba home with Oma for the afternoon and we're planning a date night to see Burlesque before we pick him up.

Sounds good to me, in fact it's one of the best Black Friday's I've had in years :) Now it's time for a nap.

A Day to Give Thanks

We had the calmest Thanksgiving we've had in years. I think the fact that we were snowed in for the last several days had a lot to do with it, we had plenty of prep time which was great!

We watched most of the parade and then the dog show which is such a great way to do it in my opinion. Bubba was totally into the parade this year, and the Hello Kitty balloon was the one he talked about all afternoon and into the evening.

We had great food, played great games, and just had a really nice holiday. So nice in fact, we didn't take hardly any pictures at all. That part was sad, but we did get a few... all 4 up above in fact. No one would even know that Auntie and Uncle came or that Dada and I were there either. I guess we'll just have to trust our memories that we were in attendance.