December Fun

 December was a blast! Here is a quick recap of all our fun! :)

(12/1) Our Elf on the Shelf (Pantala) returned the day after Thanksgiving. On December 1st, he brought the girls a new Star Wars Lego advent calendar. A fun way to count down to Christmas! 

(12/2) Maddy earned a very special award this month. Only 4 kids per class earn an award during the celebration. Maddy earned an award for "Being responsible and a hard working in reading and math." Horray Maddy!!

(12/2-3) We had a very special visit from Aunt Debbie, Uncle Tim and Travis! They visited Sam up in Seattle and made the trek down to Portland for a quick visit!! I left the house to go pick up the pizza and came home to this ... a VERY intense game of Monopoly. It was hysterical and went into the late hours of the night! :)

The next morning the girls woke up and made a craft that Katie sent us - Christmas Llamas!! They were so cute!!

Travis, Sam and their little babies. 

Well - it was a VERY special visit because the SUN came out! The actual SUN!! We had to celebrate so we went for a long walk along the river. It was incredible to see that yellow thing in the sky again! :)

We paused at the playground for a little bit and Aunt Debbie had a great time! LOL!

(12/8) Almost as surprising as actual sun sightings in the winter is actual snow coming from the sky! That's right on - we got snow!! The girls had a snow day at school (and Sam was in town!) so it was time for fun!! The girls put on their new ski stuff (way over dressed for the level of snow - but why not!) and went out to play in it all.

After playing outside for a bit, we came inside to make some gingerbread cookies!

The next day was another snow day but there wasn't much snow on the ground so I took Nick up to the hospital so I could keep my car. I snapped this shot of the bushes covered in ice! It is a lot colder up on the hill for sure!! Eeek!

(12/10) That Saturday, Evelyn's school had their annual Christmas Pageant. I will get the videos of her singing put together and uploaded soon. She was super excited to get dressed up and fancy (it is her favorite thing these days!). 

So ... it happened again ... more snow. This time it was quite a bit of snow. It started on Wednesday afternoon and by that night people were abandoning their cars on the side of the road! It was crazy! I was able to pick our girls up early from school and we were lucky that Nick could leave work early too. Some of the nurses and doctors didn't get home until midnight or later after 6 hours on busses. The roads were an absolute mess! Max sat and watched the snow come down (she literally sat like this for a solid 5 min just watching).

Thursday and Friday were two more snow days off school and started winter break early! It was nutty. So we decided to bust out the snow gear and go sledding at the middle school. It was a lot of fun! (for those used to snow - yes - that is grass you can see - this would not be good sledding snow anywhere else but here in Portland - if it sticks - even a little - it is good enough!!)

Nick planned a special date night for the two of us. Eventually I worked out what our date was going to be and informed him that he chose the wrong Hamilton girl to go with so Maddy was excited to step in! They went out for a fancy dinner and a movie in their matching Star Wars sweaters. They both LOVED Rogue One and Maddy was super excited to see it on opening night.

Friday morning it was time for more fun in the snow. The girls were out in the yard for hours playing house and painting the snow blue.

ZsaZsa arrived the night of the 19th to help us celebrate Christmas!! The next morning, our elf finally brought our magic seeds! Every year we get different seeds that grow into some amazingly delicious plant! 

The girls planted the seeds and covered them in dirt ....

And they grew into peanut butter trees!!! Yum!!!!

(12/22) Later that week, we got all dressed up and went to the Nutcracker with our friends! It was a lot of fun and Evelyn's first ballet. 

It was finally Christmas Eve. We had homemade chicken pot pie (a new family favorite!!) and toasted. The girls were excited to have fancy glasses for their "wine." They both got the giggles as I brought them out. 

We popped some Christmas Crackers and told our jokes and wore our colorful crowns. It was a fun dinner! That night, the girls got to open their gifts from ZsaZsa had a slumber party in the basement with ZsaZsa as they waited for Santa to come! Merry Christmas (eve)!

The next morning it was Christmas! 

Maddy and Moana did very well and got some amazing presents. Thank you to everyone! They are very lucky girls!!

After being inside for a few days, it dried up enough to go to the park. 

Merry Christmas from Portland!!

ZsaZsa hopped on a late night flight that night and headed home to Dallas. Thanks for visiting ZsaZsa!!!

(12/26) The next day, we loaded up our stuff and headed out to the ski fields up on Mt. Hood. It was a beautiful morning driving out.

Both girls went to ski school that day and had a great time. E wasn't sure she liked it at first but once she got her attitude right, she was off and going. She can't wait to go back again and try snowboarding! 

Maddy loves going to camps so ski school was perfect for her! She made lots of new friends and by the end of the day she was skiing down a small hill. She can't wait to try snowboarding next time! Way to go Maddy!!

Nick and I had the whole day to ourselves. We had a wonderful time skiing together (there was a bit of a re-learning curve for me after 20 years!!!) but by the end we decided we were totally ready to go right to the top! Well ... we didn't realize it was going to be so windy and icy ... and really scary!! We made it down in one piece - all the while being passed by children. Oh well! It was a great day together and we can't wait to go back again!

(12/27) Winter break continued for the girls so they started playing with all their loot! They had so much fun together. Maddy turned Evelyn into a princess. 

That afternoon we decided that if we can ski then we can skate too! We went skating with some friends and had a great time. By the end both girls were skating so well!!

(Maddy wouldn't let me take her picture so this is as good as I could do - I have a video of her skating that I will upload too)

(12/30) The girls came in one morning and told me that they would be building themselves a home in our front yard section. They measured my bathroom for some reason and then headed outside. They plan to build it out of sticks from our yard. It sounds very environmentally friendly.

On New Years Eve, we went over to a friends house and had an incredible time. I have to say that we have found an amazing group of friends and could not be luckier. It is our Portland family and they are each absolutely amazing!! 

The kids managed to stay up late and see in the new year with everyone!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!