Baking and Decorating

 At our house Christmas season means A LOT of baking and a little bit of decorating.   The kids help for the first 15-20 minutes of each activity and then typically move on to something a bit more exciting. 
To the left, Josie is posing (crazily) next to an ornament that Grandma made probably 35 years ago.  I have mostly Grandma hand me down ornaments on our tree along with the yearly birthday ornament gift that she always bought all 4 of us November birthday kids.  Our tree would be pretty bare without you, Grandma.  Thank you for helping us decorate our tree each year :)

 Cookie making sometimes keep their attention long enough for one batch to make it out of the oven.  Normally, just long enough for something good, like M&M's to make it into the dough and then they just want to eat it.  Tis the Season, I suppose.

Benjamin loves to cook and touch and feel the dough and other ingredients.  I have to say that while they are focused they are actually really big helpers.

 This year we made M&M Monster cookies, lime shortbread, candy cane cookies and finished up the baking season with the traditional gingerbread.  YUMMY!!

The Nutcracker

A few weeks before Christmas we got all dressed up and headed downtown to see The Pacific Northwest Ballet's performance of The Nutcracker. This was our second year doing it and neither Marty nor I understood the story line any better this year than we did last.  I guess that makes us very uncultured.  It doesn't really matter if you are able to follow along or not the sets, scenes, dances and costumes are enough to keep you thoroughly entertained.  Notice the nicely decorated Christmas tree in the background.  It looked even better in the house than it did in the yard!!
A few photos before the show.  Josie takes the "No Flash Photography" announcements VERY seriously! 

 When we got home, Josie took out her art supplies and drew several scenes from the play.  This one really did a good job of depicting the costumes in one scene with the girls in patchwork outfits and the guy with crazy lion like hair.

The Tree

We've had a strange growth growing from our bushes in the front yard for the past couple of years.  We kept meaning to cut it out so that it doesn't destroy the original bush/tree but the longer we left it there the more it looked like a Christmas tree.  This year we cut it down and I have to say it was the best Christmas tree we have ever had.  It certainly couldn't have been fresher - straight from the front yard and into the living room in 6 simple steps.  

Here is the process.  

1) Marty sizes up the growth/tree. 

 2) Josie does a great job steadying the ladder

 3) Just as Marty thinks that this might have been a lame idea, his friend, Michael, shows up and takes a turn with the saw.

 4) Then as they push it through it gets stuck up high (the yard side gets you much closer to the tree than does the street side)

 5) Get the shovel out to help reach it and knock it down.

 6) Voila!  The Official Riemer 2012 Christmas Tree.

West Seattle Tree Lighting

Every year since Josie has been around Marty has been asked to help light the West Seattle Christmas tree. 

Notoriously and without fail, the day of the tree lighting we have horrible weather.  There has been snow, hail, freezing rain.  I'm not exaggerating.  And every year we debate (read, "fight")about weather or not to walk up or to drive. We walk almost everywhere and most times during the year if we were to travel the 1.5 miles to the junction we would walk but when the weather is so crappy it is hard for me to bundle us all up and freeze through the walk up, the hour long tree lighting ceremony and then walk home.  Can you tell which one of us wants to walk and which one of us wants to drive?? Well this year we were running late and so we had no choice but to drive.  Of course the weather was unseasonably balmy.  See the photos below with the kids in only long sleeved shirts because their coats were too warm.  Whether we had walked or driven we were all pleased with the nice weather. 

The kids always think it is cool to get up on stage with daddy.  

 And afterward some crazy family photos in front of the lit tree. We were trying to get a photo for our Christmas cards but Josie was in a "be crazy for the camera" mood and Benjamin had difficulty actually looking AT the camera.

Even Franziska and her friend Daniela came out for the tree lighting. 

Thanksgiving 2012

Seriously, the very best meal of the entire year is at Thanksgiving up at Liz's house.  Not only do I not have to lift a finger but the meal is DELICIOUS and beautifully presented.  I look forward to it every year.  Here is the only photo from the day.  If you look closely you can see at least a part of everyone's head except for Oma... I think she was just behind Stephanie. 
Thanks again, Liz and Ed!!!

Going Crazy

Josie and Benjamin discovered that if you hit the empty 5 gallon jug with a plastic bat it bounces around.  Just one of the many crazy scenes you might find at our house at any given moment.

ART

We used our final art coupon and both kids had a ball painting in their paint room.  The photos are dark but one of the rooms in their studio is covered with paint.  The kids could paint on paper or right on the walls. A great place to let their creative juices flow and not have to worry about clean up. 

 After the paint room they worked on individual projects.  I'm thinking about just taking Benjamin back.  With the amount of glue he uses it will be about the same to buy all that glue as the price of admission.  Check out that steady stream of glue coming out of the bottle.