Christmas adventures!

Oh my gosh, it's been forever.  Let's start with two Thursdays ago...

Since Fiona's first cold had blossomed into a week of fevers and a nasty cough, we figured we should look her over before heading off for a week on first a little island and then a remote valley without cell service.  Her ears and chest checked out and, like usual, she was a trooper about the whole thing and, a little bit of radiation later, we headed up to Lopez for family (pre-)Christmas.

We had a little wait at the ferry terminal in Anacortes.  

Friday morning we woke up to an island covered in perfect snowball snow and drove down to Mike and Tess' wedding church to take in the beauty and bask in thoughts of their love.  

Most of our visit we simply spent cozied up with Grampop Dennis, GramMeg, Tess, and Mike, sitting in front of the fire, chewing on Uncle Casey's old teething ring, and getting our holiday on!

We even had cocktail hour in the soon-to-be-inhabited rammed earth house where Fiona tried out the lovely kitchen drawers.  

After a terribly long drive from Lopez, across on the ferry to Anacortes, and then down to Seattle, east on 90, and north on 97/153/20, we arrived in the dark at the Cedar Creek Cabin in Mazama and it was fabulous.  KP and Tobias had dinner ready and Haven was immediately an object of Fiona's fascination.

The Methow Valley has 200 kilometers (what?!) of cross-country ski trails connecting town to town.  After a reasonably bad sleep (darn) we all tried out our skis and baby-carrying apparati.  Fiona reminded me of Amanda Pig all bundled up and WAITING FOREVER to play outside as we readied ourselves.  We tried to time our outings each day so that the girls would fall asleep for a portion of the ski.  It mostly worked.  

Checking out the skiable and empty roads all around the neighborhood.  

There was a lot of this face wiggling up from the carrier.  

We caught the game at the Old Schoolhouse Brewery in Winthrop.  Bummer about the outcome but there's still tomorrow!

That night Elliott's sniffles blossomed into sinus nastiness so he stayed home Monday and cooked up a storm.  I must say, that's not what I would have done, given the sizeable movie collection, but I'm grateful for the vegetarian lasagna and baba ganoush that resulted from our differences.  

Monday's ski was all smiles...

...until the blizzard hit with half an hour left.  I did NOT feel like a good parent as Fiona screamed until she conked out with her head buried in my pounding chest only to wake as I fell trying to ski-sprint through the woods.  Jeez.  The up-side was that it was GORGEOUS and totally silent (except for the screaming infant) in the woods.  

KP warmed her up in front of the fire.

And she forgot her troubles.  

And then Tuesday was beautiful!

Each day we would stop for snack time at Cow Beach warming hut.

It made a nice changing station too.  

Christmas Eve I got a mild case of the Christmas-ain't-like-it-was-when-I-was-8 blues and started bemoaning our lack of Christmas tree.  

Solution #1: We decided to make a gingerbread house from scratch that would double as a prototype for the home we would build together over the next several years in the Methow.  

Solution #2: Elliott led me and KP out the back door with our eyes closed and when we opened them we saw that he and Tobias had strung Christmas lights on a sweet pine tree in the back yard.

So, all was right with the world and Tobias started preparing the dough for Christmas' contracting job.  Here he is waiting for the darn molasses to pour.  

Post-nap cuties.  

"This is for me, right?"

MERRY CHRISTMAS!  Thanks, Grammy!

Christmas hut snack with Pop.  

It's not snowing!  Yippee!  That's Haven back there in the Chariot.  

This is what we looked like a lot.

Methow-style house with ADU, wood pile, and hot tub full of sour patch kids under the Christmas tree.  We're so proud.  Can't wait to break ground on the real thing. 

Christmas double chin.  That wine bottle was our rolling pin.  

Wait, Pop, did you just say there are TWELVE days of Christmas?!

Grandpas and parties and colds: oh my!

Love that Grandpa Rick!  So great to have a visit with my dad this week.  

We had a fun impromptu happy hour at the Pub at Third Place  with Duncan, Stephanie, and Desmond.  Great place for a 4:30 beer, sliders, and pureed peas in a bag (BYOPs).  

Fiona went THREE TIMES to the YMCA Kids Corner this week and met a whole bunch of nice people.  The first day we were there she ended up hanging out with Everett (Katy and Zach's little one) and the teachers said "she was pawing him the whole time".  He's cute.  What can I say?  I'm all for it. 

"He's behind the towel.  He does this all the time." 

Friday night we had a shin-dig and Elliott glazed up a ham from Bill the Butcher, thanks to Duncan.  The vermouth was for the Mother's Ruin punch.  Worked for me!  

Yo.  Happy Holidays. 

Saturday morning we were all a little slow but Fiona was the only one who was actually sick.  Maybe the finally picked up a respiratory bug from the YMCA.  It was great that she waited until she was almost 7 months to challenge those itty bitty bronchioles.  She had a hard time napping and only wanted to breastfeed --hardly any solids yesterday-- but she was a total trooper.  

A noisy trooper.  This is from this morning when she sounded better after a 14-hour sleep with a single feed in the middle!

We managed to leave the house for the first time in 2 days and went for a walk to Volunteer Park.  

We ran into a sweet crew at the Hopvine on the way home.  We're gonna miss these guys.  

We survived 36 hours without a grandparent. Phew!

But we're pretty relieved that my dad made it through the Philly airport snow just a day late.

He's funny.

Check out these stripy berry booties from Aunty Koral!  I keep trying to put her feet in things with a little traction.  She's occasionally getting the idea that it would be fun to move but when she's on her belly her head tips her forward and her toes end up in the air.  There's no hurry.  How much will we need to baby-proof the Seattle house...?

These blocks are great.  She's an excellent tower knocker-downer.

So snuggly.

xoxo

See you soon, Grammy!

Big changes are afoot here on Union St.  Grammy is RIGHT NOW packing up her computer and heading east bound for her dog in Wisconsin at Aunt Diane and Uncle Henry's house and then home, in Ithaca, NY.  We'll see her in a month and a half when we move but this is going to be a huge change not seeing her most days.  

Fiona has been such an immensely lucky kiddo to have in-house Grammy daycare this whole time I've been back at work.  Now that fellowship is over I'm working quite sporadically throughout December and January, filling in a few shifts at some community health centers (locums work), so we won't need childcare until NY.  

This little red hat was Elliott's.  If it's possible, I think it accentuates her cheeks.  

OK, guys, let's try this is F.  

Wrestling with Uncle Matt under the tree.

Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-laaaa.

Grammy broke out the snowsuit for a walk.  Notice her feet have room to grow. 

Coziest stroller ride. 

We all got sick this week, well not Fiona or Jen.  On Friday I was NOT in a gastrointestinal spot that supported my love of oysters.   But Elliott and my mom were so they headed up to Westward for a few dozen and a beer.  

Rather chilly and happy. 

My ever-thoughtful father sent me an article on the history of the spork which I read outloud to Elliott as fast as I could, hoping to finish it before the article was destroyed.  

Sunday we were all finally feeling good and we all slept in. 

A hearty breakfast of carrot, cereal, and milk was well-attended with applause for open-mouthed spoon diving.  Breakfast is a vigorous meal.  

Well, we're really sad to see Grammy go.  In happy news, my dad is flying out TODAY to spend a week with us.  It's gonna be 40 and rainy all week so we should have a lot of good time to talk and watch Fiona eat...