Some R&R at Home

I was so thankful this year to manage getting the girls in matching Christmas dresses without spending a dime. With the weather making shopping difficult and some goals to save more $$ this Christmas - it was a blessing to discover that two beautiful hand made dresses that a good friend gave me a few years ago fit Sarah and Natalie. And another dress given to me by another friend matched the color scheme and even had a little jacket for Angela that matched the other two pretty closely. Bonus - one of my Christmas-y dresses is a dark purple velvet, so we all got to be matchy the Sunday after Christmas at church. (Since church was cancelled the Sunday before.) I know it's a little silly, but I love the girls to be matchy for Christmas. It is one of the fun perks of having three little girls. (o:
This year for Christmas break we got daddy home the whole time!! Melvin* and I were so tempted to head to our favorite beach homes again at Bella Beach (we had everything reserved and just had to click one button), but at the last minute, we decided that this year we would stick close to home and play, play, play around here, try to ignore the phone (sorry if we seemed rude) and just be together. No packing, less money and we could get some things done around the house in between all the fun. We had some very fun adventures including ice skating at a place in Sherwood. I wish it was closer because we had so much fun, I'd love to go more often. I felt like a kid again remembering all the youth activities and dates with Melvin* skating in Utah. I was surprised how fast it came back to me. After more than 10 years, I still have good balance! Not grace, but I can stay up!

The girls were very unsure of this at first. The first time around the rink took us about 52 minutes. Not really, but we hugged the wall and it took a very long time. I was very impressed how quickly Sarah and Natalie let go and scooted off on their own. Sarah was quite good by the time we left and had the basic idea, mostly insisting on not holding any hands. Natalie was hilarious. She was as brave as Sarah, but didn't move as cautiously; so she ended up doing some pretty funny twirls and spins before finally falling on her rear. She had one sad, hard fall on her bum, but the rest of the time we all laughed at the very creative ways Natalie went down and nearly brought down the rest of us. Angela took almost the whole time warming up to ice skating and was laughing by the end. She insisted that both hands were holding on to someone the whole time.

The next day, we went swimming (sorry no pics) where Natalie overcame her fear of the waterslide and went down it with, daddy or mommy, 4 times! Sarah went as much as she possibly could and Angela even went down once, but was terrified the whole time. That night we went to the Zoo Lights. We usually see these before Christmas, but the weather kept us from this tradition. It was just as fun afterwards. We loved riding the train, especially Angela, and drinking hot chocolate as we walked through the lights. The picture above is my favorite "scene" of ocean life swimming around. You'll just have to use your imagination!

By the way, most of these outing shots were taken with my new, little camera. I know - Jen got a camera for Christmas?? That's the last thing she needs, right? Actually, I got two. I know - it seems kooky. But I really needed a little camera for those times when a bulky camera is cumbersome and beautiful pictures aren't as necessary as just having something to document memories. The other camera was a total surprise and was one of those bulky, but awesome, cameras. (o: Thanks hon.

Other fun outings for the week included OMSI, a quirky pizza place downtown called Eat Pizza on Burnside that had the best pizza ever, eating out a lot, playing games, watching movies, cleaning up Christmas decorations and sleeping in really late! It was a heavenly week!

One final highlight was our 12th anniversary. For my anniversary gift, Vern* told me I could post this picture of him! (o: Aww, how romantic! (o: Isn't he cute? We had a fabulous dinner date at the Portland City Grill. It's a snazzy restaurant on the 30th floor of a building downtown with fantastic views. I tried sushi, fillet Mignon and most of all enjoyed the time that we had to visit alone! We haven't been on a date since the summer date to Phantom of the Opera! That is so sad! After dinner we went to Barnes and Noble to putz around - one of our favorite things to do when we don't have the kiddos and then got a fancy hot chocolate from Starbucks on the way home. I love our fun dates and am so lucky to be married to my best friend. We have a lot of laughs together and have been blessed with a wonderful life these last 12 years. Wow - how did we get so old????