so crafty!

For Christmas this year I felt like Charli and I could really do some projects together, so I went a little nuts and made an advent calendar for her (based on this blog post) with a different activity for each day. I'm not really very crafty, but it turned out so cute and I had fun doing it (and stressed out about it, too. This advent calendar was way more stressful than my job). Here are some of the things we did!

the advent calendar itself

We made hot chocolate with these fancy chocolate sticks I found. You are supposed to swirl them in hot milk or water, and they melt and make hot chocolate! Well, that DID happen, but it took a while and in the end it just devolved into being a chocolate lollipop (which might even be better)

We painted nails, and established that I own enough nail polish to throw out a few bottles that had completely dried up into uselessness, and yet still have more than enough to paint every single fingernail and toenail a different color.

We made banana bread! This is a yearly thing, and really it's a big girl thing as opposed to a little girl thing, but Charli did help out at the beginning, and she's getting very good at cracking eggs!

We made these super cute paper ornaments! We put six or seven onto each long string of fishing line and hung them in our windows, and they look so nice! We also made snowflakes and paper chains. So fun!

happy days are here again!

The family all came here for Christmas again, since Mom and Dad were flew back into SF after their trip to Thailand anyway, so only Kim and Brent had to travel. As usual, everything was lovely and we had lots and lots of food, and presents, too! Here are a pile of pictures and a video for you to enjoy!

Buster helps decorate the tree

Daisy and Jim visit from Hong Kong

Buster enjoys his present from Nina, both wrapped and unwrapped

they love Nina

opening presents from Kelly on Christmas Eve

Hooray! Hat, jammies and hat, both jammies!

the tree, some presents, and a random balloon

traditional breakfast

this gift was the cause of much contention (on my part)

some particularly favorite presents

mad scientist carefully measuring sour beer

brush paintings from China

what kind of holiday would it be without visits from more family?

Charli decorates both of us

Buster discovers a fondness for rice, ribs, and fruit punch

Sam makes New Year's Day breakfast, including love toast!

obligatory family photos - happy + pirates

And last but not least, on New Year's Eve we found out that Charli loves Rock Band!

let them know it's christmas time again

Merry Christmas everyone! We hope you are having a wonderful wonderful time, and we wish you could all be here with us, so that you could have a mustache, too! Yes, we all got mustaches in our stockings. Charli really didn't like them - she refused to wear hers, and kept telling everyone else to "take it off! take it off!" I guess they freaked her out a little bit. It was OK for us to stick them on our bags, though.

For some reason, I hardly took any pictures this Christmas. I know, what's the world coming to, right? Seriously, I think I took less than 10 pictures all day long. Fortunately, Mom took some, and a bunch of videos, too - although the one featured in this post is by Brian.


Charli inspects a present on Christmas morning










Brian gets a well wrapped gift











Charli gets a purse full of interesting things (in the hopes that she will stop going through everyone else's purses)




But apparently the best gift was...

the eve of santa's birthday

According to the card Ceci sent us, anyway. :)

Our Christmas Eve has been quite lovely, thanks to the snow everywhere! I love a white Christmas!

As has become a new tradition (is there such a thing?), we had our homemade eggnog, which we start making sometime around Thanksgiving and stick in a dark cupboard for a month. All the alcohol prevents the eggs from rotting and poisoning us, or, um, something like that. In any case, once you get past the fear, the eggnog is truly delicious. Anyone who wants to take the risk with us should show up late afternoon on Christmas Eve. Charli couldn't have any, of course, so she had to make do with spaghetti and a noisy card about how great eggnog is.

Sometime after that, we had some exciting Christmas Eve present opening and jammie wearing! Thanks, Auntie Kelly!

to soothe the raging mob...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! Sorry it's been so long since we posted (and glad to know you missed us). Things have been so swamped with all my family out and all of the eating we have to do. Of course, this means I have a lot of pictures accumulated...





We tried to let Charli help us decorate the tree. This involved some broken bulbs, but now we know better.





Charli opened up a gift on Christmas eve by special request. We think she likes it.










Charli on Christmas morning.











Charli's first real step! Also, a quality video from the day after Christmas!












Charli had fun opening a present on Christmas morning, but after that she kind of lost interest.









Once the toys are open, though, she likes them a lot!











Brian receives the present that wins the creative wrapping prize. Creativity courtesy of Brent!









Our favorite present.








Playing with Christmas gifts.







Here's the whole gang. Even though we managed to find beds for everyone, somehow there always seems to be someone sleeping on the couch... (and I do mean ALWAYS. At any given hour you could come in the door, and someone would be sleeping on the couch.)

Signing off - see you next year!