Trains,French Villas, and Japanese Gardens

 Back in December, we took Silas to see the model train display at The Blodel Reserve. Not surprisingly, he really really loved it.

He even got to talk to the conductor and help fix a problem with one of the trains.

The houses were incredible pieces of handicraft in and of themselves, though they couldn't hold a candle to the trains, in Silas' eyes.

We walked back from the train exhibit at the big house via the Japanese Garden.

Drew explained to Silas how they rake the Zen garden.

Blodel is always beautiful, year round.

Snowy days 2012

Don't you love snow days? In the Pacific Northwest, land of mild rainy winters, snow is a rarity, and snow that accumulates rather than melting when it hits the ground is usually a once a winter event, if it happens at all. So when it snows this much, no one goes anywhere.  The schools, the county, everything just shuts down.  I, for one, love it. Those of you from the snowier realms may scoff at us as we hunker down and cancel school for the amount of snow you see above.  In Wisconsin, this would be an average snowfall and life would continue as usual.  But this isn't Wisconsin, and trust me, all it takes is one winter in the Pacific Northwest to change your tune.  There are three factors at work, the way I see it:

 1. Snow happens so rarely, there aren't enough plows to handle clearing all of the roads.  The bulk of the snowfall happened early this morning, and our road still hasn't been plowed, despite the fact that we live a block away from an elementary school (the school driveway hasn't been touched either). For the most part, we all just wait for the snow to melt.  Some roads do get plowed, and some do get sanded/salted, but back roads, most neighborhoods? Forget about it.

2. We have hills. Lots and lots of hills. I took my main route home from work last winter up Lincoln hill on a snowy day, and I thought I was going to die. There were cars spun out into ditches all around me.  I remember lots of ice in Wisconsin, and sliding on said ice, but I didn't have to face elevation gains and dips anywhere near the magnitude we have here.  It makes winter driving about 10 times as dangerous (and then imagine those icy hilly roads without salt or snow plows).

3. Drivers are snow-challenged.  When you live someplace with the chance of snow 8 months out of the year, you learn how to drive in it.  When you live someplace with snow maybe once a year, eh, not so much.  I'm even afraid I've lost my winter driving edge, having now lived here for 8 + years.

 So there you have it.  We were all home today, and it looks like there won't be work or school for us tomorrow either. You will get no complaints from me.  Silas is happy.  We took him sledding today and he was scared and thrilled simultaneously.

Something even rarer than snow, icicles:

Christmas 2011

I think it's safe to say that Silas was more excited for this Christmas than every before. He's at that golden age when the sweet anticipation of Santa's arrival is at it's purest.

Silas left out the obligatory plate of cookies, which was soon joined by a steaming cup of coffee (gotta keep Santa awake while he assembles that puppet theater).

Surprisingly, the first thing Silas noticed was not the ginormous quilt-wrapped present behind him, but the shop vac Santa graciously bestowed upon his mom and dad (thanks Santa! You are so practical).

The coveted orange. He asked for one every year.  Not like we don't eat oranges pretty much every day this time of year, but I guess there's just something special about the ones Santa grows up in the North Pole. Santa also fills our stockings with nuts.  He is very traditional in that way :)

Santa also hides things in the tree each year for Silas to find.  How fun is that?

Finding the treasures in his stocking next to the warm glow of the pellet stove.

Hooray for puppets and puppet theaters!

This kid is a performer at heart.  Our goal with this year's gift giving was to acknowledge and nurture this side of him.  We have already seen a number of shows and can't wait for what this creative kid comes up with next.  Thank you to everyone who contributed to Silas' puppet Christmas.  You may just be witnessing the emergence of the next Jim Henson.

We spent both Christmas eve and Christmas afternoon with Patrick.  Patrick and Silas even hung out for a while so that Drew and I could go to a Christmas day Yoga class (thanks Patrick!).

Later that day, at Patrick's, Grandma and Papa got to watch Silas open their gifts.

Happy New Year to all and to all a good 2012!

Xmas card rejects

 Here are a couple of pics that didn't make the holiday card cut, but for various reasons, were funny enough to post.  The top picture is the one we almost chose.

Silas really wanted Olive to be included, but it turns out Olive doesn't care about posing for pictures.  I like this shot of the three of us, if not for the 4-eyed mutant cat.

Mustaches are in vogue.  But the candy cane stache didn't quite work the way he wanted it to.  Guess I wasn't a fan of it either.

We were all pretty sick during this photo shoot, Silas especially. I think we limited the photo shoot to 5 minutes and then went with whatever came out the best. So, this was the Christmas 2011 family photo, such as it is.

Happy Christmas to you all!

Letter to Santa, 2011

This Monday, we mailed off Silas' letter to Santa.  Poulsbo has a special mailbox set up just for letters designated for the North Pole.

"Yep, that's how they get there" he said as he dropped his letter in.  It must have gotten there fast, because we already got Santa's reply in Wednesday's mail.

The letter: Silas insisted on addressing it to both Santa and Mrs. Claus.  "That's how you know you'll get what you want" he told me, "if you let Mrs. Claus know. She'll tell Santa to get on it."

Transcription:

Dear Santa and Mrs. Claus,

Merry Christmas!
I want a puppet theater and some Backyardigans costumes.
I have snowflakes on my windows.  My mommy and me made them.  I have three Santa statues on the piano.

I would like an orange in my stocking.  Penguin, my stuffed animal, wants a Spider-man mask and an orange in his stocking that he can look at and study, because he's never seen and orange before.  That will be his lucky day.

My friend Orangutan wants a guitar that he can share with me.  Also an orange.

Love,

Silas

Deck the halls with balls of jelly!

You gotta love how kids re-write lyrics...

Our cozy home is in fact all decked out for the holidays.  This year's tree:

24 felted trees, three Santas, and one gingerbread house atop the piano:

My 2011 Christmas decoration additions: knitted lights and strategically placed mistletoe:

Another view of the piano. A crochet's knight guards the gingerbread house. Each day in December leading up to Christmas, Silas finds a different handmade puppet (including the knight) under that day's tree. Only three more trees to go!

Community Christmas Performance

 

 Silas got to participate in a small community Christmas performance on the 10th.  .

In the morning, the kids made snowflakes and paper chains to decorate the old school house, which is now the community center.

Rehearsal:

Performance time: Patrick came to watch!

Jingle Bells:


Who's that?


I thought for sure he would think this Santa was totally bogus, but nope.  All he cared about was that Santa had a present with his name on it.  And, it was a Wizard of Oz pop-up book, no less.  How did Santa know that we'd gone to see the Kitsap Children's Musical Theater performance of Wizard of Oz that very afternoon!  Wow!

Dorothy meets Glinda the Good and the Munchkins.  

Silas, fresh from the critical acclaim he received as "boy who brings Christmas cards to girl sitting in chair" in the community Christmas performance tells us that he does want to be in a KCMT production once he's old enough.  And when they do Wizard of Oz again, he's going to be the Tin Woodman.  I can see it :)

Santa...or just Some Guy

You may recall from last year's Santa disaster that Silas has been more than a little hesitant to get anywhere near the big guy.

Clearly, as is evidenced by these pictures, he's over it. Not only did he sit on Santa's lap, but he talked his ear off as well.

These pictures were taken at Silas' preschool holiday party last Friday.  The kids were beyond excited to see Santa show up, and I think Silas got caught up enough in the moment that he let go of his fears.  While we were in line, he kept saying things like "Is that a real Santa or just some guy? I think it's just some guy.  If he was Santa, why wouldn't he just send his elves to do this?"  He kept going on about it until I finally said "Oh, just go with it Silas."  On the way home, I asked what his take was on this Santa. Real, or not real. "Not real," he replied.  "I knew because of his hat.  That's not the real Santa's hat."

 By the next morning, however, he was singing a different tune:  "He's one of the real Santa's."  Apparently, and quite logically, Silas has decided there are many.

Looks like he might be a Santa-in-training himself!

PDX

 The weekend after Thanksgiving, we headed to Portland. The main reason for our trip was to check out the art show Drew had a piece in at 23 Sandy Gallery.

 Silas interacted with the art...

 ...and became art.

 A trip to Portland would not be complete without visiting Bob's Red Mill (awesome awesome awesome). We saw Bob himself, sitting outside by this water wheel.

And we ended our trip at Powell's Books. In my family, one does not go to Portland without going to Powell's. It simply isn't done.

Long day, lots of driving, but the kiddo held up well, and I'm glad we went.

Thanksgiving 2011

Some pics from Thanksgiving...We had Thanksgiving brunch with Sarah and friends.

 Plenty of music-making opportunities there...

Back at home, briefly, Silas and I pose in front of his great-grandmother's piano, the newest addition to our household, and one for which we are very thankful (thanks Grandma G, for shipping it all the way out to us!).

Silas made this "control panel" with Sarah and he was most insistent on showing it off:

We then headed over to Seattle for Thanksgiving dinner.  Long day, filled with friends and food. :)