Christmas Eve

Just realized that I forgot to add in a posting for Christmas eve. The 24th was a great day. We got up a little later than usual, got some coffee and "hung out" for bit. Then it was off for some last minute "things." Maddie and I headed downtown while Steph and KK went to the Grocery Store. We were out the door by 4:30 for 5 o'clock church. After Church we made the annual visit to Grandma Carmen's on the beach. We had just about everyone there with the exception of Pat and Shelly...Uncle Pat had come down with something during the day. Merry Christmas guys...missed seeing you!

One really cool tradition that we started after my Grandpa passed away was to adopt a family through the church and make their Christmas a little brighter. This year we had a family who had just recently moved to the areas, and the father lost his job. To make things even more tough, the dad recently experienced a heart attack.....even more tough was the fact that during treatment the dad was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Pretty ironic that this family with their challenges would be put in front of us...look at what our family has experienced this year with Amy and Uncle David. It is such a great feeling to put our energy into this and to make Christmas a little brighter for another family.



Well, here are some pics from the festivities. Again, Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. Today we woke up around 7:00 and headed out in the living room to see what Santa left. Kenzie scored with a new Pink Kitchen set...Maddie went high tech with an iMac (daddy likes this one too!) Here are a couple pics...The first of KK with her Kitchen Set...The second a retro picture of Maddie using the "effects" feature of the PhotoBooth application on the iMac.

They of course "love" playing with each others gifts. The Channers and Perrys then headed over around 9:30 for breakfast. We exchanged a number of great gifts and had a great AM watching the kids tear into their things. Around Noon, we noticed that some strange white stuff started to fall from the sky...yes, a white christmas. Now, it hasn't stuck to anything, but it was coming down pretty hard. Here is a picture to prove it.

We will post some more pics of all the festivities later. We are off to Nana and Papa J's for dinner. Again, Merry Christmas!!

Santa Visit

Today was our annual santa visit. We got in line at 8:30am (they open at 9) and waited for nearly 3 hrs! The kids were great. Baby Haas did awesome....it wasnt until the 10th picture that he started to cry. Maddie was all smiles with Santa. KK...well...she was fine telling santa what she wanted, but didnt want anything to do with sitting on his lap. She decided to sit on the rocking horse. After Santa Pics, we headed to Tulio's for brunch. It was a great day...a little wet with the rain, but a fun time. Here are some pics.

The Performers

Had a little fun with the Xbox tonight...Might have some future teen pop stars :-)

Let the festivites begin

Today marked the start to all the Christmas festivities. We headed over to Mom and Dad J for a Christmas Brunch. Grandma and Ray, Grandpa and Barbara, us and Mom and Dad J were there. We had a great time. Afterward, we came home and rested up a bit then had Ryan, Stacey, Haas and Mom and Dad C over for dinner. It was fun to see "baby" Haas...now 7 months...play with his cousins. The girls love him!

Here are some Pics! Tomorrow, it is off to Nordstroms for Santa Pics and brunch downtown. We will get a post up tomorrow night as well.

The Stretch Run

We are officially in the stretch run of the Holiday season. We have had a variety of Holiday parties, family gatherings, christmas performances, etc.

This coming week marks the arrival of Ryan, Stacey and baby Haas. Maddie and KK are already taking about reading stories, and sharing toys with Haas.

Sunday we will mark Steph's 34th visit to see Santa (minus one year - but I guess we dont ever talk about that) We have Maddie and KK's pictures out and it is cool to see how they have changed over the years. We think that KK will be ok with Santa this year...we shall see. Kenzie's wish list is comprised of "a dolly and a chocolate bar" while Maddie would like "anything Hannah Montana."

Anyway, that is it for now. Hope everyone else is enjoying this busy time of year. We will have some more Holiday posts in the coming days.

Nice Lights Clark!

The weekend we finally got out lights up. There hasnt been a free weekend since Thankgiving, so this was really our first change. We switched it up a bit with red and white lights along the gutters, then our traditional white lights in garland. Anyway, here is a pic to share. Also, we finally got hooked in "Elf" dance. Click Here to see our family "elfed"!

Holiday Lights

No, this isn't the jensen house. This is a picture of the famous
Menashe family house on beach drive. This was our first drive by this
season...but probably not our last.

Downtown Weekend

This past weekend the whole family made the long 15 min trip to downtown Seattle. Every year we have made it our tradition to stay at the Seattle Downtown Sheraton for fun downtown weekend. This year was extra cool for a few reasons. First, the big renovation at the hotel was complete and we got to stay in the "new tower." So brand new room, 32 LCD Digital TV, etc. Second, it was our first time with snow downtown. As you may have heard, it has been a bit wet here in Sea-town. This all started on Saturday with a bunch of snow. It didn't really stick downtown, but boy was it coming down. Unfortunately, it disrupted things enough that a number of things closed early or didn't run at all. For example, our annual carriage ride...didn't happen because there were no horses out. Oh well, we still had a great time. I think the kids just love hanging out in the room, playing store, pretending to call nanas and papas, etc.

One cool thing that the Sheraton has is "Gingerbread Lane"...This is a set of extravagant gingerbread houses that are very very impressive. I took a picture of each of these for you to look at. These are totally real, and 100% made out of candy. Pretty cool!