December Fun

The twins helped me set up all my nativities for Christmas.  I love opening the boxes each year and seeing all my nativities.

Hyrum helping to untangle our Christmas star to decorate our window

Hyrum and I went to the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas concert.  It was really good but the only downside was that it sounded exactly like the Christmas album and not much like a live show.  I still thought it was fun to see the performance bu they really do have it quite polished to sound just like the recording.

I got together one evening with some friends to discuss the book "Little Women" and then we watched the movie starring Katherine Hepburn.  It was a fun evening with good friends:)

Hyrum and I went to the Gospel Christmas concert in Portland.  The symphony plays and the choir sings some fun gospel music. 

Decorating the tree

Our festive tree all ready for Christmas

The boys all decorated a Gingerbread house kit.  They had fun at first but after about 30 minutes everyone was done...still think it was a fun Family Night activity:)

I went to see the movie "Cats" on opening night...turns out I was the only person in all of Hillsboro that was excited to see this movie!  I thought it was great.  I loved the songs and thought all the characters did a great job!

Hyrum and I took the kids to see "Cirque Nutcracker" at the Oregon Symphony.  The symphony played all the music from the Nutcracker ballet but instead of seeing the ballet there were acrobatic performers on stage performing all sorts of amazing balancing acts.  It was pretty cool to see but I must admit my palms were sweating when the people were swinging on a trapeze 40 feet off the ground with only a  hard stage under them!

The kids during intermission for "Cirque Nutcracker"  I think they all enjoyed it way more then they would have liked the ballet:)

Family photo on Christmas Sunday

We took the family to see Zoo Lights at the Portland Zoo.  Julian loves penguins so we had to get a photo with this cute guy!

Oma came with us to Zoo Lights.  It was a good night, not too cold or rainy.

Daddy and Julian at Zoo Lights.

Like everyone else in America these days we buy all our Christmas gifts online so when we go to wrap gifts to put under the tree we ended up with this giant tower of boxes!  I told Hyrum next year I'm just putting the boxes under the tree...none of this wrapping gifts nonsense!

Having fun with our Doxey cousins on Christmas Eve.  We always have Chinese food and then we play games and open "grab bags"  It's super nice to have family close by to do fun things with!

Santa came on Christmas Eve and left lots of gifts!

Merry Christmas morning breakfast with Uncle Jason and Oma.

Delicious German stollen and fruit cake...yummy!

Peter is ready to open the gifts!

Our Christmas Day feast with the Doxey cousins and Oma

Annual raw egg toss after Christmas dinner.

We went for a little hike in Washington Park to the "witches cabin"  

Julian and his friend Jacob peeking out of the witches cabin

Hyrum took the twins skiing.  He says it was beautiful up on Mt. Hood because you were high enough to be above the clouds

While Hyrum was skiing I went for a hike up Saddle Mountain with Oma, Katrina, Andrea and Craig.  We also got a fantastic view from the top with all the low lying clouds floating beneath us

A walk in the clouds!

I like this photo because you can see the top of Saddle Mountain in the background...that point is where the hike ends.

We stopped at Camp 18 after our hike for some yummy food.  I tried to convince Craig there was no way he needed to order his own cinnamon roll, that they were huge...but did he listen to me?  Nope!  He said it was delicious!

Hyrum and I took Oma to the Symphony for a great concert of classical Viennese waltzes.  It was a fantastic show!

Julian on December 2019...ringing in the New Year with some fireworks!  We had a pretty quiet night at home.  We usually spend the evening at the Doxey's for New Years Eve but this year they were in Seattle for a wedding so we just hung out at home.  Emerson and I watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy and we had a great time at home.  Happy New Year!!!