Christmas.

I LOVE Christmas. I love the family get togethers, the food. OKAY, I like the gifts too!

Today we had Christmas #1 at my dad's. How special to get to share a Christmas with my Grandma. We didn't grow up getting that, because she was always in California. I imagine it was slightly harder than most, as this was our first Christmas without Grandpa. Both Grandpa's for that matter. Even with that in mind, I am so grateful for the family I was given. I truly think they are the best. All of them. We have a great time together.

Tomorrow will be Christmases #2 and #3. And technically, it will only be Christmas Eve. I can't wait to wake up on Christmas day and have no plans. We will be home in jammies playing with new toys if anyone needs us! :)

Merry Christmas Eve, eve. That's today...

Happy Birthday to ..... ME!

YAY -- well, I just celebrated my birthday weekend, technically, I am not older until tomorrow, but the spoiling began this weekend. I am a lucky girl!

For the weekend, we started by getting out of town. We went up to Washington and stayed with some very dear friends. Thank you to Adam, Mandi, Cooper and Cloey for sharing your beautiful house with us, it is always so comfortable and pleasant. The boys sent us on a little shopping spree on Saturday, Travis sent me to buy myself some gifts, while they watched the kiddos for the day. That is the best gift ever because usually, there is always guilt that comes with spoiling myself. This time I shed all guilt and got myself some new shoes and clothes. Downtown Portland shopping is hard to beat! When we were done, we went back to the house, sent the kids to Grammy's house and went to dinner! We ate at:

Yum.

It was delicious. We had great food and great company. (recommendation is to go during happy hour and order this:)

delicious.
I don't think these little potstickers can be beat, they were SO good!

We lounged around, watched movies, ate popcorn and cookies for breakfast. It was great. On our way home, we decided to stop and eat at cascade station, which then led us to Marshall's, Ross, and a successful trip to Ikea. Afterwards, we headed to Abby's Pizza to pick up dinner to go and stopped and shared it with Travis' mom. It was a great finale to a great weekend.

Yeah, I feel pretty lucky.

the weekend

Here we are again, at another weekend! YAY. Seems like we have been laying low lately, we used to go, go, go, but lately, we have spent some days home. It is a nice change. This weekend here is the agenda:

Last night: dinner with friends. I made salt dough ornaments and the girls (Sophia and her friend) painted them. Can't wait to tie ribbons on them and finalize them, hope to get some photos soon as well.

Today: going to a weaving (baskets) workshop, I am taking Sophia and hopefully she can get that under her belt, it is a hard concept, but part of her heritage and history, so important! We may only be there for about an hour, but should be a good social and crafty time.
Later, we will head to Willamina for the COLD and short, kind of tacky, light parade & hot cocoa. Funny thing is that we go every year, even though it is a bunch of monster trucks and log trucks with just a few lights -- only lasts about 10 minutes. It's fun.

Tomorrow: nothing. So far, I got nothing. WHAT am I going to do tomorrow???

I LOVE winter weekends with no plans :)

Enjoy yours!