Thanks Jack & Kaylie!!

Nana & Papa brought me the Christmas gifts today and I LOVE THEM! The Elmo outfit, the microphone and the piano is the best!!! Mommy & Daddy love them too, especially the ones that play music!!!

Love you guys!

Sleeping Beauty...

Charlotte's new favorite movie (or at least this week)!

Thank you Uncle Chris, Aunt Linda and kiddos for Charlotte's Christmas present. We received it last night, via UPS, which is pretty good. I know quite a few folks that are still waiting for their Christmas boxes to arrive due to the weather the last couple of weeks.

Why I smiled today...Charlotte got to spend a couple of hours with Nana Green and the puppies. She even helped Nana go shopping at the pet store and helped Nana carry out their purchases. Thanks mom for watching her for a few hours today!

Merry Smithmas...

Merry Smithmas -- from the Smith & Goodwin families of Missouri (my mom's younger brother & sister and their families).... Here's to you guys, looks like you had a wonderful Christmas!

Day after Christmas...

Why I smiled today...Spent a fun day with Victor & Charlie. We ventured out to Washington Square (not my smartest idea), but found a couple of really great deals at 50 & 70 percent off.

Play-Doh time...

What's cookin' in Charlie Cina's kitchen???

Only took Victor and Charlie about 30 minutes to put her new kitchen together!

Papa Cina, Charlie is busy making you some pancakes for dinner!!!

Merry Christmas 2008!!!

Why I smiled today...We managed to make it up to my parent's home today. We had to park in their neighbor's driveway and hike thru 16" deep snow around her house and over grown Christmas trees, but we made it.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families and friends.

Christmas morning at our house...

Twister anyone???

After dinner tonight, we played a few games. Twister was first on the list. Charlie & Tyler had a great time...the rest of us (the adults) had a great time laughing at each other.

We also played Apples to Apples and seriously laughed our tails off for a few hours!

Thank you Aunt Susu...

Charlie got the coolest gift tonight from Susie. Her very first Alphabet book!

Happy Christmas Eve...

Why I smiled today...Great time tonight with friends (Victor's war gaming buddies). Karen, we hope you are feeling better, we missed you & Garland tonight!

It's actually starting to melt...

I really can't make this stuff up....Checkout what our giant icicle started doing last night. Looks like it started to break off, took a turn, then froze into place at about a what 30 degree angle? How cool is this!!!

























We needed to do one last Costco run before dinner tonight. Since we still have our chains on and the main road to Costco is melting, we took the back way in and got to see my favorite little redish barn still covered in snow.

















Melting views for our two neighbor's front yards...

Yes, it keeps coming down...

That's right folks...those of you keeping score, Mother Nature is winning the battle of Winter here in the PNW! My little snowman received another layer of snow since last night, and it's still coming down (more like the snow we had Saturday--not the pretty stuff we had on Monday.
















Victor's car this morning...Except for the taller pile on the top of the car, it was totally cleared off yesterday. I'd say another 2" have accumulated since last night.

Twas the day before Christmas....looks like a White Christmas for sure this year!

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas...

After spending 2+ hours outside borrowing our neighbor's shovel and moving lots and lots of snow, Victor then moved into the kitchen to start prepping for tomorrow night's Christmas Eve feast with his war gaming buddies and their wives! We are expecting 11 of us tomorrow night for dinner...Weather permitting (they are forecasting another 3-5" tomorrow morning)...okay, I am officially apologizing for wishing for a white Christmas! Technically we did have one last year, but this year will definitely go down in the record books for Portland.

Here's Victor and the meat balls. Our home smells amazing right now!!




Oh, and for those of you that have been up to my parents house...they are literally trapped with over 18" of snow and they can't get their cars down their drive way. They are doing fine. Plenty of food, videos to watch, Scrabble to play and they haven't (knock on wood) lost electricity. Not sure we will get to spend Christmas Day up at their place this year, if not we'll see them sometime this weekend.

Duplos are the best...

This is like the 25th tower/castle that Charlotte and I have built in the last few snow days! Good thing she's getting a few more for Christmas from Santa!!!

Why I smiled today...This kiddo and her Legos!!!

Neighbor's lights...

I seriously love the fact that Joe & Linda's home just lights up our little street! This was taken at 8:45pm. Makes me smile looking out at the reindeer knee deep in the snow.

Gingerbread house...

Why I smiled today...Nothing better on a snow day than making our first gingerbread house as a family!!! We stole the idea from Trina, THANKS Trina!!! Charlie did a great job "supervising" Victor's construction of the house. We all had a great time.





























Scary nutritional facts...Serving size 1/46 of the kit...oh my!

Round three in the snow department...

It was snowing a little last night, but the main streets were bare. This is what it looked like when I got up this morning...I still don't quite believe our weather forecasters....they said up to 6" on the valley floor...we shall see.








































Charlie re-arranged her window decor last night...

Our Christmas cards are still flying in....

Lots more today in the mail...the front door is getting full!!!

























Card from Maria "Eldin"...fishes!

















Card from our general contractor that did the work for us this summer...how appropriate!