Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

We spent a quiet Christmas Eve at home watching the Nativity and Mickey's Christmas Carol 

 We had had a big late lunch, so for dinner, we just had muffins and cocoa ......

on Cora's Mermaid Tea set.....

....by candlelight.

Christmas Morning 

Anna Dress and Fingerling

 Aunt Robby makes such cool presents!

 Fun gifts from China!

   T.T. is Timmy's nickname!

 Treasures from Germany

 Aachen Printen from NOBIS!

 Building the Eifel Tower in Legos

New Snow-duds!

And for a fun Christmas Activity, we all went to the Cinema and watched

 STAR WARS: The Last Jedi!

.....And played with the camera phone AR (Augmented Reality) Stickers the rest of the week  

Part of the kids' big present was SKI PASSES.   

My biggest present is Scott watching the little kids this winter so I can take the boys skiing.

Even though we had FREEZING rain and some of the coldest temperatures in New England's history,  I took the kids skiing 3 times over the break so far. 

 Thank you to Scott for giving Cora a short "at home" lesson to show her how to put on her skis 

and try them out a bit in the backyard.

The boys refreshed quickly on their first two days and were enjoying themselves very much and quite autonomous.....

so I braved taking Cora on Friday afternoon too.  

She loved the lift, and skiing between mommy's legs.  

Thank goodness for the hand warmers we brought!  We were able to do 7 runs.  

Not bad for her first day.

Dad Parker - she is wearing two pair of ski gloves with hand warmers between the two.   

These pink gloves are the ones you bought me the first time you took me (night) skiing at Brighton.  Do you remember?  You had to buy me a pair from the ski shop because we realized we had forgotten gloves for me.  I still use them!   I'm getting you your money's worth 30 years later.  :) haha

Twinner Babies - 8 years apart

December News

Two exciting bits of news:

First......Timmy won the Award of Excellence for Film Production in his age group at his school for  Reflections.  We're very proud of his original "Pew Pop Video" that he made.  

It's a 10 second long stop motion film.

Second......The boys won their pre-final Floor Hockey Game on Tuesday.  

 They get to play in the Finals next Tuesday.  

It was really exciting because their team hasn't won many games this season. 

They left for their game that night laughing about how they won't win.   

SCOTT even said "Yeah, you won't beat the Blue Team."  

Famous last words!   

Their coach, Phil, has been so positive, inclusive and motivating.  I'm so happy that they got to play.

 Tiny dancer

 Our first snowfall of the season

  The magical Christmas Tree

This baby bath mat makes a great rock collection mat

I came in to get Oliver this morning and he was on his tummy snuggled up to his blanky (that Aunt Robby made him).  This is the first time I've come to get him when he hasn't been on his back, and he looked so sweet.

Happy Birthday T.T.

 Thank you for all the happy birthday wishes to Timmy.  He had a great birthday!

 We celebrated by viewing Coco

(free showing even....pretty sweeeet!)

 And - going to Launch, a trampoline park.

 The kids had a blast!

Scott and I even jumped as well.  

15 Minutes jumping on a trampoline is a serious workout for me these days.  

I feel so....not 4 years old anymore. 

Developing 35mm Film

I found that I had a waterproof disposable camera in a storage box.  I remembered taking it on our honeymoon to Hawaii in 2005, and thought I had purchased it then. 

When I have run across it here and there, I kept putting it back in storage or putting it in our swim bag, because it had 15 more exposures on it.

On Cora's birthday this month we went swimming, so I brought it along and used up the rest of the film.   FYI - you can still develop 35 mm film at Walgreens.

Unfortunately, the film was so old and must have ruined the film that was not rolled in.  None of those pictures turned out.

However,  I got some interesting ones from the rest of the film.  Turns out the camera was from 1999.  Photos are from 1999 and 2005 and 2007?

 These are all from scuba diving at "Magic Island" in Honolulu

This was apparently a test shot out of my bedroom window on Bob Lane 

when I was packing for my honeymoon right before my wedding. 

Scott in Mokokai, Hawaii on our honeymoon

 Emma Hansen

 Bridger Hansen

 Lukas Morgan

Seth and Melissa Morgan with Beth Hansen and Kinley Morgan

I believe we were at Cottonwood Heights.  Is this 2007?  Seth looks like he's about 10 months old.

End of Roll   :)

Good flashback to 35 mm film and a few snippets of life at age 19 and 25.  

I'm 38 this year, so this film was 19 years old.