Advent a Success

I just wanted to report on how much of a huge success the Advent Calendar has been. Max has gotten some excellent goodies and with the exception of the couple of books I foolishly threw in, he has loved all of them. Especially the school bus!

He got the school bus on day #5 and has taken it to bed with him for both his nap time and bedtime. He whines saying,  "school bus," if you forget to bring it upstairs for bedtime.

We have already had a bus crisis. He takes it everywhere and on Thursday he took it to the swimming pool with him. He promptly put it safely in a locker and mommy forgot to get it out after swimming. That night was a little challenging without it and Terry did great, soothing him to sleep. I went out early the next morning and got another one.

Ahhhh, lifes lessons! What is another $5 when it makes your son happy??

Oh Tannenbaum!

This past Monday, we went on our annual hike into the wilderness to find the perfect Christmas Tree! It was a miserable day here at home but when we got up to the Christmas Tree picking area it was glorious.

Due to state budget cuts they were unable to plow the roads. So we managed to make it up about 9/10 of the way to the picking area, where we promptly got stuck. Some very nice guys with only slightly better tires and a lower center of gravity helped us out. We decided to park the Jeep and hike the rest of the way in looking for the best Charlie Brown Tree we could find. 

Max was a trooper. After all the "truck is stuck" drama, it was getting close to his lunch time and ultimately his nap time, by the time we had our tree. We had to hike in about a mile and he spent most of that time on daddys or mommys shoulders. He really enjoyed seeing everything thing and he kept saying, "tree, tree!"

After finding, THE tree we started back down to the Jeep. On the way we found a small hill, just perfect for sliding. First Max and Daddy went. Then Max and Mommy. He had a huge smile each time and laughed the whole way down.

Sorry about the size. In our haste to get to the tree we left the camera in the Jeep.

The Perfect Tree!

Max was really great that afternoon. Such a big boy! We are still in the process of decorating and I will post those pictures soon.

My Handiwork

Some of you may know that I started a gardening business a couple of years ago called Rootopia Designs. I have a couple of clients around town and one that a see fairly regularly. Most of my work is planting custom containers, window boxes and vegetable gardens. I have occasionally done some landscape design, but I really like the small scale stuff and maintenance.

Early in November I scored the smallest job with the biggest potential for a local restaurant in town. There is a really nice steak house in Snoqualmie called, The Woodman Lodge. They have about 10 window boxes surrounding their beautifully restored building. There is one in the very front, at the entrance that gets the most visual traffic. I have been watching the window boxes beat a hasty and sad retreat as the weather has turned frigid. Finally I came to the desicion that I needed to call them and offer my services. The owner, Peter, is a very nice man who acknowledged that he had let the boxes go and just didn't have the time for regular maintenance. 

AH HA!!! Enter Rootopia Designs!

I gave him a few ideas and he jumped at the holiday theme. So I got the job to redo the front entrance window box as a starter.

Sorry the photos are so small I took them with me cell phone.

I planted white blooming Hellebores and a Jean's Dilly Spruce that he is going to put miniature lights in for the holidays. There is also Bergenia, Pinot Gris Heuchera and Pansies to match the color of the building. He was very pleased with how it turned out and when spring rolls around he wants me to continue re-doing the remaining containers and providing regular maintenance.

Not bad for a stay at home mommy!

Advent Calender

Well, I think the advent calender is going to be a huge success, judging by his reactions to the present on the first day.

 Almost...

 ...wait for it...

Train!!!

It is going to be a great holiday this year!

Almost Ready for Christmas

Ordered Christmas cards? Check!

Tree Permit purchased? Check!

Presents purchased? Check!

Well, I am almost ready for Christmas. This year I thought I would try my friend Rachaels idea and make an advent calender for Max. I tweeaked her plan a little and look what happened...

Yes!! I made all of those bags and hand cut out all of the felt numbers. I even made the bows at either end.

Each day of December Max will get a little treat. I will let you know if it lasts or if he just wants to "hold it" all day long. That is his new thing now. If we say no to something, he says okay, hold it??? I think I see some lobbying or lawyering in his future

Almost Christmas Pictures

This past Sunday we went out to get our annual family Christmas pictures. I really like the sound of that, Annual Family Christmas Pictures. I have to say a huge thank you, to my friends at Molbaks for helping out with the camera work.

I thought I would share a few of the Christmas Picture Out-takes.

 Not sure what happened to my sweet little boy in this one!

 This is what you get when you tell Max to look up at the camera.

 Darn those eyelids!

Santa and Max having a bonding, fist bumping moment.

We still haven't yet picked the one for the Christmas card.

All By Myself

Many moons ago, I used to go to the movies by myself all the time. Sometimes 2 or 3 a week. I think that is what living in California does for you. I was always so aware of what was going on in the movie world and I knew lots of actors and hung out with movie industry peeps. I dare not call these people my friends because as of today, I communicate with none of them. That's okay though. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride while it lasted and I have lots of memories to relive in my own mind.

But, I digress...today, for the first time since Max was born I went out, by myself, to the movies. Some of you may be saying, Yippee, and good for you, but it was very hard for me to do it. Yes, I realize Max is 27 months old and that is a long time to wait. I just struggle with the idea of leaving him for something as frivolous as a movie when I already leave him 4 nights a week to go to work.

It was worth it though. I planned my outing for right when he went down for a nap and was home within an hour of him waking up. As I pulled out of the driveway crying, I prepared myself for this...

My good friend Rachael turned me on to this series and all I can say is, Thank You! Before you say anything else, know this, I am not one of those obsessed fans, I just enjoy a good, romantic love story.

So, thank you to Terry for being such a good daddy, pushing me out the door and telling me that everything would be alright for the 2.5 hours I was going to be gone. I sure do love you honey! Not in a blood sucking forever kind of way, but you get the idea. I really had a good time and didn't think about Max for at least 1 hour and 45 minutes. Okay, maybe just a little.