It was actually kind of mellow. Chris, unfortunately, didn't have any time off (other than holidays), since he had just started his job at eBay. I had decided not to enroll Anya in any mini-camps or activities, since I had envisioned a few weeks of mom-kid spur-of-the-moment fun days. In the end, we mainly went to parks, the zoo, had a few play dates. It was a quiet break, punctuated by Christmas and our annual PEPS trek to the snow. We didn't do the downtown Christmas activities, as she didn't seem to appreciate them last year. She also wasn't in the mood for Wildlights at the zoo, so that was skipped. We did manage our Candy Cane Lane tradition (this year walking in the rain with Todd, Tracey, Eva, and Greta). We went ice skating, decorated a gingerbread house, and other standard assorted Christmassy things we do around the house.
A few times, Anya (once with Liam) set up a table on the side walk and sold some of her (and his) old toys/trinkets. The plan was to raise money for supplies for their planned escape to the wilderness at our Suncadia Trip (see earlier blog post for Anya's packing list). They managed to rake in over $30, excellent little salespeople that they were. It was actually rather impressive - they'd yell to people over a block away to come over and buy, people even pulled over in their cars to buy things. So their tactics certainly worked.
Christmas Eve (eve-eve-eve really, as it was a few days early) was spent at Uncle Terry and Aunt Linda's, as per usual. A nice time. Anya played with her cousins, doing things like sliding head-first down the stairs. We scored an awesome dart board in the white elephant gift exchange. The dart board is now proudly hanging in the den and is getting lots of use.
Christmas Eve. Anya barely made it into the pic.
While the following didn't technically happen during winter break, we're throwing it in here anyway. We finally did the Jingle Bell Run as a family. We had signed up last year, but it was too cold (in the teens) to be running with the kiddo and we skipped it. It's stupid fun. A 5k where you dress up in silly Christmas attire and sing carols. They shut down the I-5 express lanes and we got to run on them in the tunnel. Anya didn't enjoy the actual running as much as we thought she would, but managed to run most of the way. Chris had to carry her over the finish line, not because she was tired, but because she was being obstinate. We're looking forward to next year's run.
family selfie in the crowds about a minute before we started the run
Christmas Eve we met up with Lynn, Steve, and Eileen (Chris' grandmother/Anya's great-grandma) and some friends at St. Catherine for the children's mass. Afterward, we all came back to our house for dinner. And then it was time for Anya to go to bed because Santa was coming. Unfortunately, this year she was wired and would.not.go.To.SLEEP. It didn't help that our neighbors were having a loud, festive gathering. Chris eventually kindly asked them to quiet down and Anya fell asleep sometime in the 10pm hour.
The next morning, Anya was up around 3, 4:30, and finally 7 so we were all pretty tired. Fortunately, Santa came and left some presents. She got some great things, but that morning the Zoomer Dog she received was by far the favorite. We lazed around the house and then had a nice afternoon with Lynn and Steve.
The rest of the week to follow was playdates and mom-kid days.
New Years was pretty low key. We all played darts on our new dart board, and watched a Carol Burnett special on PBS. We found a live (non-Jenny McCarthy) feed of the ball dropping in NYC and hooked and hollered at 9PM and sent the kiddo to bed, and we followed shortly there after.
After new years, we drove to Suncadia to for our annual PEPS gathering in the snow. It's one of our favorite things we do all year and this year did not disappoint. We played in the snow, cooked, visited, etc.
Moments after our arrival at the cabin Liam and Anya decided it was time to execute on their run away plan. We spent a lot of time prior to going trying to decide the right way to deal with the kids' plans so they both felt supported, but didn't get themselves frostbitten to death. Eventually Jeff and Chris opted for sitting on the porch of the cabin, drinking a beer and watching the kids try to set up a tent after dark while refusing to help them (If you run away, you'll need to get used to doing everything yourselves). The kids lasted exactly one dad-beer before they threw in the towel and went in to the warm house to play with their other friends.
On Saturday, Amy went for a 3-hour snowy walk with a few of the moms, while everyone else made an amazing Rube Goldberg machine.
Here are some choice Rube Goldberg set up shots
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| This is the final mechanism, rigged up to turn on Despicable Me 2 for the kids |
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| The long run of wooden dominoes |
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| Brian setting up the weight which would release the zip-line |
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| precariously balanced basket of Christmas Ornaments and poker chips |
The final product from Tatiana's angle
From Chris' Angle
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| One of the awesome meals provided by one of the families |
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| The place had a ridiculous bunk jungle for the kids. We had group story time at night. This one led by Amy |
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| Kids in bunk jungle (resting peacefully an hour after bed time) |
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| There wasn't much snow, but we make the most of it. |
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kids posing for a quick pic before we headed back to Seattle
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Anya getting a little extra sled time in
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