Last Day of 2019

Now I'm so far behind remembering the Christmas season that I'll never remember everything.  Tomorrow starts the improbable year of 2020.  So strange to hear that number.  So strange that I've lived long enough to be in that year - in a few hours.

I thought I would be babysitting, but Emily and Ryan called off their plans with friends because of various illnesses with the other family and I think really would like a quiet evening at home.  I did keep the girls while they did some errands around Bellevue and bought groceries, but now everyone is safe inside, just like I like it on a rainy and windy day.  I'm still not hearing anything about snow in the future, so that's a good thing, but the rain is supposed to be nonstop for days and cause potential mudslides and flooding.

Elise gave Katherine a kit for playing school, and it's a big hit.  This was the first night they played with it.

The pointer is the best thing ever, and, as JoJo, the perennial "bad kid," I had it pointed at me constantly.  I think I missed a lot growing up being so good.  I get a lot of attention as Jojo.  I say what comes into my mind and am encouraged to do so, because that causes lots of laughter.

Katherine is, of course, the good kid who sits quietly and doesn't blurt and frowns at JoJo a lot.

 

 Graysen with her best no-nonsense teacher face.  There are hall passes and homework cards and reward stickers and all the things that make teaching so much fun!

But a pair of glasses is the icing on the cake.

 This was more fun that playing school - modeling glasses.  Elise had several pairs she wanted me to donate, and I popped the lenses out of two of them for the girls.  This was before the popping, and they were having a field day "walking up a hill" in them.  According to these pictures, this was before the Christmas clean-up vacuuming.

That was last week, and they came over again today for a few hours.  I got them a magnetic board with letters and dry-erase markers, and that was good for hours of play.  Unfortunately, I was involved in most of it.  

 

This was what the visiting scientist drew for our example, and we were to make up our own experiments. I guess it makes sense.  Pour water over French fries and a milk shake, and you get a volcano.

Elise also gave Graysen a science experiment kit too, so we're looking forward to getting into that.

Graysen went to Harper's birthday party this weekend, and I walked over and picked her up when it was over.  It's a cute little pottery-painting shop, and I think Graysen said she made a pug.  They pick them up later.  It would take youth and a lot of money for me to work in a place like that doing birthday parties.

We met Jessica and James walking downtown, and I felt like I truly belong now.  It probably takes a couple of years of living in a place before I randomly run into people I know well enough to stop and talk to, so I guess I've arrived.  I see people I know in the grocery store too almost every time.

I'll add a few more pictures from Christmas morning and comment or not.  It's time to leave 2019 behind.

These are the sweetest and hopefully will solve some of the turf wars upstairs.  They love creating and drawing, and someone is always putting their stuff in someone else's space.

But one bed is enough for sleeping!

I'm glad they love making things and learning things, and they got so many things for Christmas to encourage that.  I'm not sure who gave them all these, but they're neat.

I think this is kind of like rug-hooking, which is the only crafty thing I tried that I hated immediately once a long time ago.  Maybe they've improved the experience.

Emily says they're fascinated at all these stories of famous women and asking a lot of questions - some hard to answer.

They do love Legos, and this is one of several sets they got, I think from Grandma and Grandpa.

And what's more creative than making a plane out of a cardboard box.

This was Graysen's gift to her parents that they made at school.  I was totally impressed at the art work that went into every month.  These are some of my favorite months.

Katherine made coasters at school for Mom and Dad and even made her own wrapping paper.

I was pleased to find something for Ryan that he liked.  In fact, everyone in the family liked it too.  

He's psyching himself up to pretend to like whatever it is I gave him.  Reading the original box and note.  Mike Tucker.  Hmmm.  A gift from Mike Tucker.

 Then he sees Littlefield, TX, and the light begins to come on.  Mike's Jerky Place.

This was a place Mike frequented when he lived there and sent numerous gifts of jerky to people, so I knew Ryan must have gotten some as much as he likes it.  I contact Mike Tucker and told him who I was, and he was happy to package me up a bunch and mail it.  He said Mike took a lot of photographs of the shop, and he had them still hanging on the wall.  

We keep finding ways....

Another gift he loved was a new bird book, and we all learned a lot about birds as we opened the rest of our gifts!

Ryan gave Emily this gong thing - I don't know if it has an official name.  She had gone to a neat yoga class earlier and really raved about the sounds it made.  Everyone gave it a try.

Those cute hair ties are some Millie sent them.

Emily gave the girls a box of prints from one of their favorite bedtime books that they can frame for their walls or give as gifts.

The doggie grooming set I found for them was a good choice.  They had those dogs in the tub in no time.

This is bound to be lots of fun too.  I haven't been back over there to hear it played since then, but I'll see it (and hear it) tomorrow. 

That covers most of it.  I played Mah-Jongg at the Si View Senior Center yesterday with Debbie, Abby, and Nancy.  It was fun, and I learned a little bit more.  I'm considering getting a membership.  There is always something fun going on there.  I remember how much I loved the senior center in Meridian even before I was considered old enough to be a member - all the quilting and crafts and activities.  Yesterday, the main room was full of people playing all kinds of cards and games and doing puzzles.  There are snacks and coffee and lunches offered too, just a warm and fun place to be on a cold afternoon.  I'm just afraid I wouldn't make the trip very often so have to weigh whether it would be worth it.  I might take some yoga classes and strength-building classes if they coincide with when I take Katherine to school - and am pretty close by.

It's always fun to have a new year coming up and to make new beginnings.  This year has been very nice, so I hope 2020 can be even better.

Christmas Eve

I don't really have a lot of pictures that I've requested, but if I wait another day, I'll forget everything.

Emily and Ryan cooked another wonderful meal that we ate sometime during the day, just whenever everything got done.  Elise and I carried over a few gifts and were greeted by the girls and taken upstairs to see all the different things they've been doing.  And then a very nice thing happened.  After they hung around with the grownups a bit and played downstairs and tracked Santa, the girls went upstairs and played quietly long enough for Elise and Emily and me to have a little conversation.  I can't tell you what we talked about.  We were probably so giddy about having no kids around that we talked over each other.  Ryan was in the kitchen with the Christmas music on just cooking on his gingersnap ham and also enjoying some peace from female voices.

We enjoyed our sparkling pomegrante juice.

With fancy ice cubes filled with pomegranate seeds and mint.  Loved that!  And then the ice melts and you get a mouthful of mint when you're not expecting it.

And we had to rehash the story of the glasses that everyone loves so much and is so envious of, and Emily likes to tell them they're from Arby's.  I bought several sets of them when we lived in Meridian, and then Emily inherited them, and after one or two got broken, Ryan found them on ebay, and now they have a lifetime supply.

I admired the growth of Emily's amaryllis, which is doing something anyway.

Katherine showing Aunt CeCe her cat-on-one-side, dog-on-the other-side puzzle and pointing out the delights of each cat.  

It's become a joke that we never know what the girls are going to wear on Christmas Eve or any holiday really.  Pictures are always interesting.  This day, Katherine chose to wear a nearly 40-year-old sundress that I made for Elise and that both Elise and Emily wore.  No reason given for the yellow dress coming out at Christmas.  We just go with it.   It does have a cat on it.

 Graysen chose her Little Drummer Girl dress that she loves so much - again purple and orange, great Christmas colors.

Neither one of them wants anything to do with Santa Claus but like to keep an eye on where he is so they can be fully asleep when he invades their house.  They get one gift from Santa, so they have to put up with him coming and leave cookies and everything.

Emily spotted a nest that she hadn't noticed before.  They've become real bird-watchers and feeders and have numerous feeders out back, suction-mounted, hanging, on poles.  Emily got a new feeder from Ryan, and he got a new bird book from her.  We got little tidbits of bird knowledge thrown in all during the gift-opening.

 


Gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Bindert are almost too fascinating to open.

Millie found some neat things this year for the girls at an arts-and-craft fair, among them hand-made felt paperdolls and ribbon hair ties.

This is the next day but the best picture I got of the hair elastics.  You'd better believe I'm going to study those and see if I can make them!

And even a gift for me, which smells wonderful.  It's almost too delicious-smelling to use, but I found the Facebook page for this company, and I can get more if I want!  

Natural. Handmade. It doesn’t get much better than that and your body will thank you for it. I brought this business to life with the sole purpose of providing people with a soap that is not only good for you, but good for the environment. Think coconut oil, essential oils, and other sustainable & unharmful ingredients. Soak up the good suds!

 

The girls' big gift from Emily and Ryan were these wonderful Saranoni blankets with their names monogrammed on them.

The sweetest gifts were the girls' gifts to each other.  

Graysen has a couple of used American Girl dolls and really wanted Katherine to have one, so I found some Our Generation dolls on the Target web site and let Graysen choose one for her.  She chose the ballerina, and Katherine was a little overwhelmed at first to have her own big-girl doll.

Teaching Anna how to walk up the stairs, because it's a hard thing to learn.

Graysen brought down Bella to meet Violette Anna (or maybe just Anna).

It was so exciting for the dolls to get their own set of luggage, including passports, toothbrushes (tiny), make-up bags, phone with teeny ear buds, and they had already flown somewhere by the time I left.

Katherine picked out a horse for Graysen's dolls and was pretty excited about that last week, examining it and wrapping it and everything.  And Graysen loved it too.



Lots of grooming going on.

Beautiful table with ham, green beans, smashed potatoes made by Ryan and Emily and mushroom rice made by Elise.  And nothing made by me!  

 A little ham tasting.  I'm going to try to get someone to send me a picture of the ham before it was sliced.

 It was such a lovely evening.  Gifts were nice, but just being together and laughing and seeing the girls' excitement was the best.  It was also nice to see Ryan open my gift and realize it was from Littlefield and that it was jerky from Mike's favorite place.   We so wished he could have been there to see it all.

Elise had places to go after dinner, and I decided to come home instead of spending the night.  Emily and Ryan had things to put together, and needed to get the girls to bed.  I went over Christmas morning, and we had more gifts and more excitement.  I'll get to that next time.

It was my year for coffee.  I had hinted that I needed a new thermal coffee container and some new gloves and got both plus several boxes of flavored coffee.

Then today when I finally checked the mail, I had a package from Dina and Gaby with 4 bags of that wonderful Guatemalan coffee.  We loved it at the beach and were sent home with some, and now Elise and I have more!  Can't wait to try it in the morning.  I was so touched that they thought about us and went to the trouble to get it all the way here.  Special girls, those two!

I'm looking for some pictures of Sophia when Debby and Tom get to GA, but this is one she sent me today.

I've seen that look on Debby's face a few times.  She's not a baby any more but is turning into such a beautiful little girl - when she's not making faces - and is full of energy and mischief.  Those pigtails!

Our latest baby here is warming up to us slowly.  He's still a closet kitty for now but will turn over on his back and purr when I brush him.  Layla is stalking him and growling, but it doesn't seem to bother him.  Maybe they will get along one day.  It's taking him a long time to get over whatever happened to him before, but we're patient.  He looks pretty on Sherry's quilt she made for Mama last year!  Looking forward to hearing about her Christmas with her kids.

 I ventured back to Facebook to thank Gaby and Dina for their gift, and I might go back eventually.  I feel like I miss a few things, but some things I'm glad to be missing, so I don't know.

I've undecorated, much to Emily's dismay, but I'm ready for getting it all put away until next year.  I'll go out and get groceries and books and maybe get a hair cut tomorrow, but it sure is cold and tempting to stay inside.  I could talk someone into doing the first too, but I'm not sure about the haircut.

I walked home yesterday, and it was pleasant at 34 degrees, but I didn't linger either.

Home Sweet Alley.  There's quite a bit of snow on the mountains, but I don't hear about any expected here.  We're up to 53 next week!