more Christmas

more holiday loveliness, from my mom's camera.

some Christmas

Well since someone and his molar got me up at QUARTER TO FIVE this morning, here are some pictures of our Chicago Christmas.

hey chicago...

We can't wait to see you!

Baby Power!

Ain't no power like the power of the babies cause the power of the babies don't stop!

Going to the Nutcracker

made with love

Now that November and National Novel Writing Month is done (whew!) we can settle into crafting of another kind. I made my first successful from-scratch bread! We received a great package from Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Bill which included a fun "sewing" project that Unity loved doing and a special blanket that Grandma made for Unity. The kids had a tea party picnic on it, wearing their new Grandma-made hats. And we received many varieties of Avram's garlic and Unity helped Chris get it ready for planting. The garlic is from all over the world, even North Korea (!). It's a little late in the season to be planting but the ground is not frozen so we're hoping all's well.

Thanksgiving and Tree

We had Thanksgiving at Hilary and Dan and Felix's house again. We had so much amazing food and Felix's cousins, Cassandra and Natasha were there so the kids had their own table this year. We have so much to be thankful for this year so it was great to celebrate that. Today, I busted out the Christmas decorations (and music) and we set up the tree. It's such an amazing experience for me, to have Unity help me put on the ornaments; the Czech beadwork ornaments that were made by my Great Grandma May, the embroidered yarn ornaments that were made by my Great Grandma Avril, the felt and ceramic ornaments that were made by my Grandma Rene and the painted dough ornaments that were made by my mom the first year she was married, plus all the wonderful ornaments that friends and relatives have given us over the years. I feel so connected by all this love.

snow my goodness!

It's true, Seattle has had a bout of snow. Given that we have no real snow infrastructure a few inches of snow tends to pretty much shut down the city. Unity's school was canceled and Chris worked from home all week. But- the upside of closed hilly streets is street sledding and we took great advantage of it.