Good 'Ole Singer

Leila had her first official introduction to sewing on the machine over Thanksgiving break. She was interested in watching me that afternoon, so I suggested she piece together a blanket for her dolls. She had the BEST time searching through my fabric scraps, deciding which order to lay the pieces, measuring and cutting the fabric! I was taken back to remembering times with my Grammy when I was allowed to do just the same thing on the exact same machine! It was a lovely day! 

 Her blanket! She promptly wrapped it up and put it under the tree. She was tickled that her gift to her babies was the first gift under our tree. 

Oh, Christmas Tree!

 One of our favorite events of the holiday season is choosing our Christmas tree. We are a real tree family, so we get to traipse around the tree farm in search of the perfect tree! We had to bundle up before heading to the tree farm this year. It was cold! We tried a new type of tree this year, a Nordmann. It was fantastic and probably the healthiest tree we have had over our fifteen Christmases together. We will definitely be seeking out a Norman next December. We were so eager to get our tree this year that when we arrived at the tree farm, the sign said "Open" but there wasn't a single car in the lot and the owner was still inside his house. We went through a nearby Starbucks and when we came back, he was ready to officially start the day. 

Thanksgiving Weekend

 We started decorating for Christmas as soon as Thanksgiving was in the books this year! It was a chilly weekend, but dry, so putting up our outside lights was not challenging. Leila helped quite a bit this year. We replaced our old rainbow colored light strands with red, green and white strands this year. We loved the change! 

 It has been a few years since we put lights up at the top of our driveway. We went back to that this year and all agreed it really makes it welcoming when you pull into the drive. 

Rudolph

Oh, Rudolph! What a weird cat. He loves to pull our bathroom towels off the rack. Almost daily we find a towel on the floor when we get home from work, but finding him wrapped inside of it is a new thing. 

Snow!

We had some super wet snowflakes begin falling one Monday morning before school started. The bell was slated to ring in about two minutes when the flakes really started coming down! Leila and I ran outside our classroom for a quick couple of minutes of standing in the beautiful snow. Sadly, it didn't accumulate and by the first recess, it was only rain. 

Awards Assembly

Leila was given a WOW (Wolf of Wonder) Award in November. She was recognized by her teacher for being kind to others. In addition to that honor, she also received a participation award ribbon for her Reflections Art Program piece. Her artwork won first place in the Visual Arts category for the primary grades! Now her art moves on the district level and will be judged in January. We are so proud of our girl! 

A Weekend In Seattle

We celebrated Gramma and Papa's birthdays in style this year! Instead of having a big, fancy party for Gramma's 60th birthday, we  opted for a fancy dinner at the Space Needle with just the family! It was so special! Dining at the Space Needle was a first for Leila. I have only eaten there once and it was a long, long time ago. It was a very rainy night, but we could still see quite a lot of the city and of course the novelty of eating in a restaurant that was rotating was pretty cool! 

Happy birthday to both of you!

We had to check out the observation deck...even if it was dark, rainy and cold!

The three of us already had tickets to see Seattle Children's Theatre's production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang the following morning, so rather than drive homely to turn around the next morning to trek back to Seattle, we opted for a hotel room. What a fun night! We splurged and stayed at the Westin (Chris and I stayed here the first night of our honeymoon before continuing to Canada). Leila LOVED hotel life in the big city! She had to hang up her clothes all by herself. 

Sunday morning Chris walked across the street and brought Starbucks back for his girls. 

What a change in the weather from the previous night!