A Christmas Summary

December was a very hectic month for us at the Larsen house.  We all got hit with a bad cold around Thanksgiving that kept us down for the count for a couple of weeks.  Dave and I were also very busy at work so we felt a little crazed as we entered into the holidays.  We didn't get to do everything I would have liked - Dave only got some of the lights hung on the house, we didn't bake a single cookie and we didn't make it to the holiday carousel or zoo lights, but we did manage to decorate a gingerbread house which was a first for both me and Kate.

Our Christmas started off with the delivery of our very own Elf on the Shelf from Santa.  (It actually came from my one and only cousin Eric and his family who live in Ohio and whom we don't get to see often enough - pout, pout, pout).  Kate named our elf Freddy.  Freddy kept watch over Kate and Jack during the day and provided reports back to Santa each night on their behavior.

Apparently he gave Santa a good report and Freddy must have told him that we were headed to Colorado for Christmas, because Santa made an early stop at our house the weekend before to deliver Kate & Jack's gifts.  He brought Kate the Rapunzel Tower she had asked for and Jack received a Cozy Coupe car to ride in.  They were both thrilled!

After opening presents at our house, we headed over to Grandma Cecile's & Poppa Dave's house for an early Christmas celebration with them, Uncle Kevin, Aunt Kari & Uncle Jeff.  We all received many wonderful gifts and had a fun day hanging out with family.

On Christmas Eve, we hopped on an airplane and flew to Colorado.  Both kids did very well on the flight (thank goodness!).  After arriving at Grandma Linda & Poppa Mark's house, we had a delicious dinner and then left milk and cookies out for Santa before heading to bed.

In the morning, we woke up to Christmas celebration #3 with Grandma Linda, Poppa Mark and Uncle Josh!  We opened our stockings and had some breakfast.  Then we headed over to my Great-Aunt Mary's nursing home to open gifts with her.

After a nice visit, we returned back to Grandma & Poppa's house to finish opening our gifts.

So many wonderful things!  The weather in Colorado has been beautiful.  So later in the day, we took a walk outside in the sunshine.

And last of all, we finished out the day with a delicious turkey dinner. Yum!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Visit with Santa

The past two years we have visited Santa down at Kent Station.  They have a great little setup and the Santa is very authentic. But since we moved out of Kent, that was no longer quite as convenient.  This year Santa was visiting the local hardware store down the street from our house so we decided to see him there instead.  I wasn't horribly impressed with him (I'm pretty sure he wasn't the real Santa) but the kids didn't seem to notice.  Kate was very excited to see him and tell him that she wants a Rapunzel Tower for Christmas.  Jack just stared him down the entire time and then frowned for the camera.  But we had no tears!

Family Photos

In the past I have gotten Kate's photos taken each year on or around her birthday and featured this photo in our Christmas cards.  Last year with the birth of Jack, I of course included him in her photo session and got a great shot of the two of them to use on our cards.  Well this year we decided to try a family photo for the first time.  A former coworker of mine, Connie Riggio, left REI about a year ago to pursue her dream of doing photography full-time (http://www.connieriggiophotography.com/).  So I reached out to her to take on the task of our family photos.  So we set the date for mid-November and I just crossed my fingers that the skies would part and we would get a nice day.  I don't know what I was thinking.  It's November in Seattle.  So anyway, we set out on a very drizzly November morning and met Connie and her husband at the Lake Wilderness arboretum near our house.   Despite the yucky weather, and despite Jack being not too keen on getting his picture taken, we had a great time and Connie did an amazing job.  Here are some of our favorites: 

The whole family:

Kate - My Mini-Me:

My little man Jack:

The two kiddos:

Jack discovering a new love for puddles!

And the two of us.  Can you tell I like this guy?

And of course, we used some of these photos for our Christmas cards.  I know I used to handmake our cards, but since the birth of Jack, time just doesn't seem to exist for that anymore!  Luckly my good friend Raeann makes amazing custom cards (www.rositadesigns.com).  Here is what she came up with: