Westport for New Years 2009

Our Christmas gift from Grandpa and Grandma this year was six days at the ocean with our entire Johnson family.  From the 27^th to the new year, we got to kick our feet up and read, play games, play Wii (courtesy of the Schocks), soak in the hot tub and watch movies with Uncle Chris, Auntie Tonya, Marlee, Madison and Emma.  We had a great week being wonderfully unproductive and enjoying our family!  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Hot tubbin'!

Playing a game called Would You Rather. Marlee would rather let us paint a beard and unibrow on her instead of entertaining us with a belly dance.

Kivi and her find on our beach walk.

Christmas Day 2008

Our Christmas morning always starts out with a birthday cake for Jesus. The kids blow out the candles after we sing "Happy Birthday" to Him. This year we actually put the manger scene on the cake with a white chocolate nativity mold - the whole activity of melting chocolate in our microwave killed 2 - yes 2, brand new microwaves. Peter spent Christmas Eve making many trips to Home Depot and installing a total of 3 microwaves!!! Lesson: Don't melt white chocolate in a plastic baggy in the microwave. Turns out we're not the only ones to have had this misfortune. So baby Jesus was put on our cake at a high cost - but hey He paid a way bigger one for us. We think He's worth it.

The next thing we always do is read the Christmas story from the book of Luke.

This year was unique because thanks to all the crazy technology these days we were able to have my family join us from California via the web cam. They turned on theirs, we turned on ours and we just left them on for the morning. Grandma and Grandpa were actually with us in person, so we had both sides of our family this Christmas!

Next, the kids did a little 3 wise men skit - which Kivi through a fit during because she couldn't be the first wiseman, we opened stockings, ate breakfast, Peter made Swiss eggs - yum! and we ate the cake of course, and then we opened presents!

The after present mess.

Later in the afternoon Uncle Chris, Auntie Tonya and the girls joined us for turkey dinner, more presents and games!

Opal's first Christmas! All the kids have posed in this giant stocking I made for their very first Christmas.

All of us in our matching Christmas jammies!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Being Snowed In, Got Us Out

We were snowed in from December 19th - 24th, but we took advantage of the time we had to get out and enjoy the snow!

Our first snow outing of the year was a short 15 minute walk on December 19th. We tried pulling all the kids on one sled, but Opal fell off and Bubba cried, so we found a saucer and stuck Bubba on it, strapped them all in and Peter carried Opal. We just walked up our street, to get the kids used to the sleds.

Mama pulling the sleds.

Dada and his snow baby, Opal.

Jasper and his yellow saucer.

Dada and Eben went for a 5 hour night walk the next day. Eben got some much needed alone time with Dada and got to use his headlight. Double bonus!

On Dec. 21 right after breakfast, we pulled the kids on the sleds on a mile walk to Pierce College and sledded with Grace, Nathaniel and John. Then we walked back to the Schock's house where Shari had home made chili and cornbread waiting for us. We played and hung out until dark watching the snow fall and drinking hot cocoa, and then walked back home again in the much deeper snow. It was the most relaxing winter day!

The view of our yard from our door on Dec. 22nd.

On the morning of the 22nd, we brought the snow in to us. We made snowmen, snowplanes, snow jetskis, and cooked snow on the kitchen table. It kept the kids busy for 2 hours!!! And they didn't get cold. We spent the rest of the evening sledding until bedtime forced us back into the house.

Dada and Opal sledding the next night, Dec. 23rd.

Here's the perfect sledding hill that we found right outside our house:

New December Fun!

These are some things I would love to add to our tradition list. I know we shouldn't have too many or it will get overwhelming, but they're all so much fun!

Peter took Eben, Kivi and I to a local production of The Nutcracker. The kids loved it, but Kivi asked 20 times during the show if she could go dance with the pretty girls. Afterward, we let them dance on the stage. Everyday since she has been practicing twirls, spins and her "a woe bess".

We finally went to a living nativity!! Something I've been wanting to do forever. Grandma and Grandpa told us about the "Journey 2 Bethlehem" in Auburn on Dec. 7, so we went that night. (Good thing too, cause the one we planned on going to in Federal Way was cancelled because of snow.) They only have it for 3 days, so it was quite crowded. We had to wait 3 1/2 hours to go through! The kids did awesome waiting that long and they had videos, singers and instrumentalists while we waited.  Peter was the biggest complainer of the night, but even he was impressed once we went through. We saw everything on our journey - live camels, sheep and donkeys, wise men, prophets, lepers, beggers, Roman soldiers, shepherds, flying angels, and a live baby Jesus. The moment I saw him I started tearing up. It was emotional, and so real. I'm ready to wait 4 hours next year.

Eben getting a real shekel (well, not really, but it looks and feels like it) I spent mine on some wool and unleavened bread at the market. Everyone else kept theirs.

A woman at the market selling olives (so you can see the authenticity of this place).

Eating snow treats with real snow! Just one of the things we did with our abundance of snow this year. Obviously we can't keep this as a permanent addition to our traditions, but if it snows we will.

December Favorites Part 2

On with the traditions!

Christmas calendars - the tasty way to count down to Jesus' birthday! Grandma always gets them for Peter and the kids - a tradition Peter had when he was little.

Making Christmas cookies. This year Peter was super smart and bought us pre-made dough. How ingenious! It saved us tons of time and mess.

"The Anatomy of a Gingerbread Bubba" Starring Kivi

Telling and telling and retelling the nativity story. We have this awesome activity in a box called "What God Wants For Christmas" that we do at least every other day in December. The kids LOVE it. But this day they were acting it out live. Jasper and his 'bubby"were Joseph, Kivi was Mary, Eben was an angel (yes, those are diaper wings, he's very resourceful) and Opie played the part of baby Jesus laying in a laundry basket.

Opening one present on Christmas Eve. It's always our matching Christmas jammies and one year I'm sure they'll figure out that's what it's always going to be, but so far - it's been a surprise every year! This was a tradition passed on from when my mom was little, but I added the Mama and Dada matching jammies to the mix.

December Favorites Part 1

We have a LOT of December traditions! Probably because there are so many fun things to do with kids in December. Here are a couple of our fun traditions that we do every year to get ready for Christmas and celebrate Christ's birth.

Make a Christmas wreath. This year my sister was here and she made us a beautiful one out of the branches we had to cut off the tree.

Decorating the tree! This year we did it as soon as we got home from cutting it down. Eben actually did a really good job of distributing them all over the tree. Jasper and Kivi tried to hang as many ornaments on one branch as they could, until the branch got too heavy and they'd fall off.

The finished product. Our tree. I added ribbon this year, a new twist, but Peter wasn't too crazy about it.

Zoo Lights is so much fun. It's just the right amount of walking and tons of lights to see. This year our friends, the Schocks, who have a zoo pass took us - yippee!

This little thing at the zoo - inside the carousel house is so much fun, until you get sick from spinning, and it's free! I didn't even know it was in there.

Gingerbread houses! Here's Jasper working on he and Grace's house. 

This year we made gingerbread houses at Tiffany N's house with our HFG mommies and kids. It was a lot of fun and we had brunch afterward while the kids watched "The First Noel".  We didn't even have to get our house messy!

This is not really a tradition. It's just our family picture in front of our tree on a Sunday when we were all looking Christmassy.

Christmas Tree Hunting!

We love cutting down our own tree for Christmas, a tradition Peter and I have kept since our first Christmas in our little Pearl Street home. The first two years we went with Peter's brother's family and illegally chopped down a tree in the middle of the wilderness. All seven of us crammed into our small Colt Vista and some how made it back down the mountain with 2 trees on the roof. God taught us a lesson about stealing -  ALL of the needles fell off the tree before Christmas! After that we hacked our trees down honestly. We now pay for them, usually at Hunter's.  

For the past 7 years (excluding 2004 - I had to work) we have rounded up our HFG friends and made a group outing of it. Afterwards, we all go to pizza. What a way to end a great hunt!

Here's our collection of trees we've hunted over the years:

2008

2007

2006

2005

2003

2002

I wish I could find pictures from before 2002, but they weren't digital - so alas, they're lost somewhere.  

Wow - I just realized I've had that white hat for a really long time!