Guest Room/ Flora Bowley Art

Zig discovered this artist when he was visiting a gallery in Seattle. I looked up her work and wrote down a dozen pieces from her online gallery that I loved. We had some of our favorites brought to the house and this one below was an instant and very mutual, "Yes!" We had two other smaller pieces commissioned for the opposite wall in the room. They arrived last week and we loved them as well. It's amazing how much the right piece of art can energize a space. I'm not sure what I'll end up doing for bedding or for a window covering, but I wanted to show Mom the two smaller pieces from Flora. I kind of want this to be my room now :) What do you think?

Skate Park

We couldn't spend such a beautiful day inside so after the gifts, we took the kids to a park. We were the only ones at the park so Zig, Rollin, Sela, Nina had full run of the skate park area. They had a blast riding bikes, scooters, and skateboards. Evan and I enjoyed getting our Vitamin D and making faces at each other and snacking. Our next door neighbors brought over the most delicious homemade cinnamon rolls just as we were unwrapping gifts in the morning so we took them to the park with us for a mid-morning snack. We didn't do any cleaning up on Christmas, but early Saturday morning we got after it. And boy did it feel good. I went on a cleaning/organizing rampage and seriously, I felt joy. Merry Christmas to me.

Top Ten Gifts of 2009

10. SUN! An absolutely gorgeous Christmas Day, or week, for that matter. Cold and sunny. Heaven.




9. Handmade Glass Fused Coaster (Sela). love, love, love it!

8. Silk painted scarf (made by Nina), earrings (Sela). I am such a lucky girl!

7. The most adorable cards. So many little notes for the special day!

Sela carved her own stamp and then block printed a set of stationery for Zig!

And a handmade set of doggy cards by Sela for Nina.

6. An assortment of treasures from miss nina. Thanks goodness she saves all her broken jewelery throughout the year!! You never know when you might need it!

5. Celery. Even Spotty felt the love.

4. Nina Specials! A "new" cd for Zig. And a "new" sweater for Mom courtesy of her own closet. Nina, you are the queen of resourceful gift giving. We love it!


4. Dinosaurs!The easiest child to shop for. A guaranteed hit is anything dino!

3. Pink barbie laptop from Mom. The look says it all.


2. Homemade treats for Kona. Do we have the best neighbors or what?! Thanks, Ospinas!

1. Drumroll please. A DINO LOVEY! Made by Sela! It just doesn't get much better than this!


Merry Christmas Everyone!

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve, we took it fairly easy. I made a simple dinner of foods from Jesus' time. Lentil soup, hummus, flat bread, and white fish. I actually made Sole Meunière, I couldn't resist. I know it's French, but it's a simple fish recipe so it worked. We read the story of Christ's birth from the scriptures while we finished our meal. We sang Christmas songs. And the kids unwrapped their new books. Each year I get them a book that has something to do with Christmas. Zig and I kept teasing the kids by pretend kissing. They think it's so sick which totally cracks us up. After we put away the dinner dishes, Zig and I read the books to the kids and then tucked them in. Mrs. Claus got to work and Mr. Claus fell asleep on the couch. At 2am, I called it day.

Seattle Symphony

Monday night we went to the Seattle Symphony to see A Festival of Lessons and Carols. The story of Christ's birth was told through readings of scripture, performances by the symphony, the Northwest Boy choir, and a small girl choir called Vocal Point. The Boy choir was amazing. When the younger boys in the choir sang, they sounded like angels. After each number by the choir, the audience joined the choir in singing traditional Christmas songs. I loved it and it was a wonderful way to really feel the Spirit of the season.

The Nutcracker Adventure

And yes, it was quite an adventure. The performance was absolutely beautiful. The Maurice Sendak sets were amazing. Sela was totally into it. I glanced over at her a couple of times and her jaw was practically on the floor. There are parts of this Nutcracker that are mesmerizing. We had great seats and after intermission, we moved in even closer. Nina enjoyed putting her fancy pink dress on, her favorite little black shoes, and some of my lip gloss. She was super stoked to see the jewels on my shirt. I actually wore it with her in mind. She enjoyed some parts of the ballet, especially the ones with young Clara, but truth be told, the highlight for her was hot chocolate at intermission, and picking out a sparkly ornament afterward. Or judging by her giggles, it was the poetry contest we had in the car while waiting till near midnight in an empty parking structure for Zig to come and pick us up.

At the last minute I decided to take Zig's car because I was running a little bit behind and I didn't want to move the car seats for the boys from my car to his (they were also going on an outing). Anyway, after the ballet, we were in a bit of a hurry to get home because Zig and I were going to a Christmas gathering next door at our neighbors' house. The girls and I were in the long line of traffic leaving the Ballet and then trouble, I could not get the car into gear. It was very stressful because people started honking at me, I was backing up traffic, Zig was away from his phone, and I was totally baffled at what was wrong.

Finally, some very nice guy came over and tried to help us. This would have happened in five seconds in Texas, but we're in Seattle and men aren't quite so gentlemanly here. Anyway, he got into the driver's seat and couldn't get it in gear either. He said the clutch band was likely gone and there was no way we could drive out. He pushed the car out of the line of cars and into a parking stall. So long story short, I had to call our babysitter to go to the house to tell Zig to answer his phone. She stayed with the boys and Zig came to get us. Of course, he hopped right into his car and it started right up and he reversed right out of the spot. Apparently there is a trick when the clutch gets stuck. Would have been nice to have that tidbit of info and I will never again take his car into Seattle. Never.

We missed our party, but we had fun while we were waiting for Zig. We tried out some ballet moves in the parking garage, wrote Christmas poems and silly poems, and ballet poems in the car to keep our minds off the fact that we were alone in a parking garage in downtown Seattle at midnight. And the girls just totally cracked themselves up writing a poem all about a word that rhymes with "art." They were laughing so hard their bodies were shaking. What in the world is so funny about that word?

Despite the car issue, it was a very memorable and fun night. Next year we'll be back for sure, but I will be driving my own car!












































We aren't poets and we know it. (But we still try!)

Sela's Poem:
Here comes Christmas
Here comes Cheer
Here comes Laughter
To last the Whole Year!

Mine:
Hop into the car
And away we go
The Nutcracker is
The most fabulous show!

Nina's poem
Christmas trees are in my heart
Hanging ornaments is where we start
Opening presents is my favorite part!
(it's all down hill from here...use your imagination)

Combined Effort:
Dancing across the lobby we go
Talking about our favorite parts of the show
Stopping for ornaments and a few photos
Sela wants a t-shirt
Mom says no
Back to the car the three of us head home
Jolly and laughing until the car no go
Horns start going beep beep beep
Mom in a panic, this sure stinks!
Traffic backed up
Mom wondering why
she brought dad's car
I think she might cry.
Nice guy comes and tries to help
Pushes us off and wishes us well
Urgent calls to Zig
No answer there
We're in trouble down here
We've had quite a scare.
Finally he comes
He fixes things fast
We hop in Mom's car
We still had a blast
An adventure for sure
And a bit of a fright
But all in all
A super fun night!

(We jotted these down on some old receipts in Zig's car. See, I told you we waited a LONG time!)

Advent Day 8: Snow Globes

We made snow globes. Yes we did. But someone forgot to buy the right kind of glitter. The white kind that resembles snow. Details, details. So we have pink snow falling on the dinosaur and deer. Thankfully we can change the glitter and water when we get the white stuff, but nobody seemed to mind.

To make these you just epoxy the small little figurines to a jar lid. Let it dry. Add distilled water with a drop of glycerin, and screw the lid on. The kids totally LOVED making these.

Ginger + Dark Chocolate

Need I say more?

I've been thinking about these cookies since they were posted on 101 Cookbooks. The stars aligned this evening and Nina, Rollin, & Evan were in bed by 7:30. While I listened to Sela's poems about horses, lemonade, and pop, I whipped these yummy little suckers up. And yes, they were GOOD!

Advent Day 6: Ornaments

Receiving a special ornament that highlights an interest, accomplishment, or hobby from the past year is a favorite advent activity for the kids. One might wonder what could possibly go wrong when all involved in this activity is opening a small,highly anticipated gift. Plenty, apparently.

I don't have time to write about ALL the dramatics that occurred, but suffice it to say this evening ended in tears, actually complete hysterics would be a better term.

Each of the kids loved their ornaments. I had a hard time finding a cross country ornament for Sela, so hers was pretty simple, but she thought it was wonderful. I searched all over the internet to find Rollin a little yellow bike ornament since he taught himself to ride without training wheels at the beginning of the summer. And he, too, was thrilled. Nina's tennis ball is pink with real Swarovski crystals..perfectly Nina. I'm still searching for Evan's.

After enjoying his ornament for a good thirty seconds, Rollin decided to do a stunt with his bike and threw it on the floor. Never mind I told him it was breakable several times. Upon realizing that his biker was no longer attached to the bike, and the bike seat was across the room, he started to sob. It was actually pretty sad because he had been SO excited for his little yellow bike. Then I saw a tiny wrapped object near the box his ornament had come in and for a moment I thought it might be a tiny trinket they sent with the bike that would cheer Rollin up. So I opened it. Just as I was pulling the tissue back, I saw Nina fall to the floor and then the wailing began. I soon discovered that this was a present she had wrapped up for someone and put under the tree. Nina takes gifts and surprises very seriously. And things just spiraled downward from there. I was upset with Rollin not listening. Sela was upset Rollin "ruined the night." Nina was upset I opened her special surprise. Nina was upset at Sela for saying it was lame to wrap up gifts that already belong to the person the gift is intended for. And Evan was upset at all the noise. There was no love at home ;)

I tried to salvage the night by reading a Christmas story and hanging the bike-less biker from the tree. These things don't always go as planned, but I think in years to come we can look at the crazy guy with no bike and remember Rollin and all his exuberance.