Sunday, December 25, 2016

Saturday, December 24, 2016

The Night Before Christmas

Everything is so quiet and peaceful now- time to get to bed before my first wake-up call at 4:30 AM.





Christmas Eve at Main Street Bakery

Ever since our favorite Indian restaurant moved we have been going to Main Street Bakery for our annual Christmas Eve dinner.

And every year we always have a bunch of discussions leading up to it about trying a new restaurant out somewhere else.

And every year we still end up here :)






Christmas Eve Eve at the Peacock

Randy (president of Gearbox) and his wife Kristi hosted a free family Christmas show featuring the Circus Freaks at the Peacock Theater (which is located inside their massive house).

Everybody had a lot of fun, and it helped bring awareness to the great work that 'Clowns Without Borders' has been doing across the world.



Thursday, December 22, 2016

Reading List

As 2016 winds down, I looked back and realized that I had read a lot of books this year. 

I always have my trusty Kindle nearby, preferably next to a nice warm bowl of Pho Ga (Vietnamese chicken noodle soup).


The year started off with me finally getting around to reading the complete Harry Potter series (in anticipation of the play that was coming out this past summer), and after a small run of Stephen King books I read a whole bunch of detective novels. My favorite book was probably 'Steve Jobs', but that might have been more about the subject matter than the actual book itself.

The New Yorker (weekly periodical)

J.K. Rowling

Philipp Meyer



Stephen King

Stephen King

Stephen King

Stephen King

Dan Brown



J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, John Tiffany

Stephen King

Pierce Brown

Dennis Lehane

Tom Wolfe

Ian MacDonald

Walter Isaacson



Dennis Lehane

Robert Crais



Robert Crais

Robert Crais



Robert Crais

James S. A. Corey

Ian McGuire

Monday, December 19, 2016

Welcome to Winter Wonderland

Keira has set up a Christmas store in our living room called "Winter Wonderland". She is selling snow globes and hand made snowflakes.

She is eagerly awaiting Grandma's visit to the shop :)





Sunday, December 18, 2016

Christmas Mail

Here are some letters that Keira wrote to the all important Santa and Grandparents.





Dolls and Crafts

Katharine has an Instagram channel devoted to her doll photography. I would have opened with "little known fact", but she already has over 1000 followers.

Here is the link:


She actually knits a lot of the clothes that they wear in her pictures. She made these Christmas sweaters for them this week.


This Old Horse

The kids still play with Iria's childhood riding horse. 

At some point the kids will get too big to ride it or the toy will just fall apart- not sure which will happen first :)



Friday, December 16, 2016

Happy Birthday, Lukas!

Lukas turned 11 today!

I continue to be jealous of his hair..






Favorite foods - steak, noodles, oranges, spaetzle
Birthday presents - Titanfall 2 (Grandparents) / Titanfall 2 controller (Aunt Sue) / Electric guitar and accessories / plus some cash from Oma and Erica
Favorite school subject - writing
Least favorite school subject - math
Favorite soccer players - Messi, Robbie Keane
Favorite teams - Barcelona, Argentina, LA Galaxy, Seattle Sounders
3 things Lukas would bring with him to a deserted island - an infinity refrigerator that will not run out of food / electric guitar / Superman
Birthday present that he was hoping for but didn't get - remote controlled lambrogini
When Lukas grows up he wants to be a guitar player
Favorite video games - Titanfall / Halo / Battlefront
Favorite songs - 'American Idiot' and 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'
Favorite friends - Aiden and Gwen
Favorite colors - anything neon
Lukas takes guitar lessons every week with his teacher Alex
Favorite class at Hogwarts - Care of Magical Creatures
Favorite things to do with Lennon - play video games, build Lego, everything
Favorite things to do with Katharine - play Wii-U
Favorite thing to do with Keira - hide and seek
Favorite thing to do with Kassidy - cars
Favorite thing to do with Mom - school
Favorite thing to do with Dad - play and go to places
Dislikes - gluten free food / losing in games
Loves - guitar / soccer / video games
Favorite season - Fall
Lukas is a pretty quiet kid and very chill
Lukas is extremely loyal
Favorite phrase "That's medically impossible!"

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Solar Santas

Lennon and his team had their Christmas party at a bowling alley tonight, and posed for group picture on the way out.


Pajama Day

Kassidy's class getting silly on pajama day.





Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Ladies Man

Linda and Erica have been visiting from Germany this month.

Sherman barked at them for around 15 minutes when they first arrived, but now he follows them around all day.


Rocking the Xylophone

Lukas took to the xylophones after rocking out with Green Day.