We had more Christmas visitors than we expected. There was a family of dear nibbling on our bushes and having fun in the front yard.
The kids were really excited to open these very lovely presents from Auntie Perry.
Uncle Matt & Aunt Paige did a great job finding gifts the kids were excited to play with right away.
Our big presents to the kids this year were swim parkas with their names on them.
And a bean bag chair for Reed that he is now dragging all around the house with him.
Merry Christmas!
We had the house all ready for my mom's family to come for our Christmas celebration.
Eben's gifts to me/us included these amazingly well framed and hung charts of Vancouver Island, the San Juans, and Puget Sound. They look incredible in the living room, tied in with the blue wall and buffet. We've always wanted charts to display and Eben put in a ton of time and effort into getting these just right.
The family:
A Christmas recital:
We celebrated Peter's 70th Birthday, too.
And were joined by Pete, Jennie, their kids, and his parents Arlin & Chrys for dessert and dominos at the end of the night. What a fun way to cap off the perfect Christmas!
Charlotte and Reed have joined Nana at church a few Sundays in Advent. They were eager to be part of the Christmas Eve Pageant at Nana's Church. Granddaddy Herbert joined us for the special occasion.
Charlotte almost floated down the aisle as an angel (peeking out on the right side). Reed and the other two shepherds did a fantastic job of wrangling the lone sheep down the aisle (the other sheep had to pull out at the last minute due to a bloody nose). I think they enjoyed being a part of it and understanding more about the birth of Jesus and this part of Christmas.
Afterwards, we had Granddaddy over for Christmas Eve dinner and presents. It was a lovely evening together and he did a great job selecting presents for the kids. I liked watching him engaged with Edison in an hour-long chess match while I cooked dinner.
After all the hustle and bustle, the presents were under the tree and we saw that Santa had filled the stockings that night. Calm and light.
This weekend, we had our first ski and snow weekend at the cabin and celebrated Winter Solstice and the coming of longer days ahead. We were joined by Meg & Chris at the cabin and it was the perfect way to start winter vacation!
We went skiing Saturday and ran into Amy, Jenabel, and Jasper at Stevens...
And had them over for dinner Saturday night. Eight kids (!) around the table and playing on the sledding hill. What fun!
Cabin life - puzzles in front of the woodstove are the best!
On Sunday we met up with Trent, Rachelle, Kylee & Keira on the mountain and it was a terrific, soft, powder day! Charlotte loved playing tour guide for her bestie Keira and Kylee while Edison enjoyed some time skiing in the trees with Trent & Eben.
We kicked off December by setting up the tree. Charlotte took the lead and Reed was her assistant. The decorations mostly ended up in the middle of the tree, but I moved them for better coverage later. I was so impressed that they hung up every ornament! We got a special present under the tree on the first night: Winnie!
Charlotte and Edison had a weekend swim meet at the start of the month. It was a pentathlon set up where each swimmer does five races and tries to get the lowest time. They both did great and had fun with their fellow swimmers - even if the only deck space was under the bleachers.
Eben and I went to the Seahawks - 49ers game the next day. Thanks to my mom for watching the kiddos. It was fun to see the Seahawks win one!
Eevi (Maija's daughter) and Reed are just a couple months apart - it was fun seeing them together at the Shorecrest Social Studies Christmas party. Marcy graciously hosted AND got presents for all the kids.
Edison was happy to have a couple boys his age to hang with.
The highlight was the white elephant game. Kristi got this awesome plaid kilt & tam set.
Meanwhile... out at the cabin that weekend Reed dove onto the sofa, missed the soft part, and rammed his head into a window sill - splitting open his skin enough to need stitches. Eben went into emergency action mode and drove him down to Leavenworth - the ER in Leavenworth is highly recommended - though we hope you never have to go! First Phillips kid with an ER trip and stitches (5). It is healing up okay and the stitches are out now.
Reed's kindergarten put on a festive winter concert - with a Hawaiian theme - this year. Reed got into it and knew most of the words and looked like he was having fun. Bonus!
We went to Seattle Children's Theater for our winter show - Velveteen Rabbit. It was a cool adaptation and we enjoyed it (and playing at Seattle Center) a lot!
Reed's class hosted a special breakfast for families this week and I got to open his present there. It was a gingerbread man ornament that he had sewn and then glued a picture of his face on it. So awesome!
And my book club had our annual ornament exchange party in lieu of reading a book in December. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time! What fun!
