Sugar plums

Feel my pain here. No matter what I tried, I could not get both kids to cooperate and give me as cute a pic as last year. Uncle.

Merry first Christmas, Sawyer

One in each hand.

Proud parents. Darren looking a little sleep-deprived.

Christmas with Aunt Beth

We had so much fun with Aunt Beth at Christmas. Great to have family around. Below she shows Tristen how to play that hand-slap game.

Deck the halls 2012

This year's tree features a finger-knit garland by Tristen. Not pictured: Amy, Tristen.

I love decorating the tree. Fun to look back at the ornaments we
have collected over the last 20 years.

Awww.

Winter bazaar

In theory, I really love the winter bazaar at Thornton Creek. Kids get creative and  make things, then sell their wares all afternoon and into the evening in the gym. It's big learning, even beyond the creative part: setting a price, marketing your stuff, making change...And it's a great way for kids to participate in raising funds for their school.

But whew, it was a slog. Tristen had more ambition this year than follow-through. He REALLY wanted to have a table and spent weeks leading up to the bizarre coloring mandalas, which we made into ornaments -- the few he decided he could part with. It was like pulling teeth to get him to let go of even a quarter of his inventory. He then priced the mandalas as if they were gold.

We made a couple of other kinds of ornaments as well: the Christmas tree fans (you can't seem them well, but the tree trunks are real wood) and nature ornaments (pieces of our evergreen trees stuffed into glass ornaments I bought at Michael's). But Tristen really only wanted to make the paper mandalas -- so the other projects were exercises in frustration, and the various projects cluttered our kitchen for weeks.

We used an upside down tomato cage topped with a bow for display and shared a table with Willow, who had made adorable little necklaces -- and plenty of them she didn't mind selling, I might add.

I took the day off work to set up our table and help out. Tristen didn't sell a ton of stuff, but he didn't seem to mind. In fact, he might not have even tracked on it -- sitting at the table waiting for customers was another part of the bizarre he didn't have patience for.

It was all loud, crazy, chaotic. Two saving graces: Willow's parents, who were fun to hang with, and the awesome kid who sold soaking salts and candles. I used them that night to decompress in a hot bath with a glass of wine. A toast to the theoretically awesome winter bazaar!

The upside down tomato cage: genius, no?
Thank you.

Artistpreneurs Willow and Tristen at their table.

Salmon lifecycle

Tristen is very engaged in school this year -- and he especially loves his class expedition, which is "What Do Scientists Do"? When they studied the salmon lifecycle last month, Tristen came home and drew it. He also drew "a salmon in a good environment for spawning and a bad environment for spawning." Salmon turn red when they spawn, he tells us.

Toothy play date

Tristen and Nishan lost teeth within minutes of each other during a recent play date.