Christmas in Kennewick

This year we spent about a week over Christmas in Kennewick visiting Derek’s family. Braedon has been able to see all of his cousins while we have been here and it has been so much fun watching him interact and play with them all.

This was Braedon’s second Christmas and I would say that he enjoyed it greatly. It took him a little bit to figure out that the real present was underneath the paper, but he actually showed excitement while opening presents this year and it was a lot of fun to watch.

Santa brought him a little motorcycle and he received a bunch of trucks and tractors.

He also thought his older cousin's presents were pretty cool and lucky for him, they were nice enough to let him play!

As you can probably tell, I am very behind on posting but the plan is to catch up and get the blog up to date over the next couple of days.

Leavenworth

Today was our fourth trip up to Leavenworth for the Christmas Lighting Ceremony in five years.  Our very first trip up there was on our 2nd date and I remember “sharing” a German dinner with Derek before the ceremony.  I have sharing in parenthesis because has anyone shared, or tried to share, a meal with Derek?  Basically you need to eat as fast as you can if you want to eat anything at all.  Well, I know that now but not five years ago,  so I remember devouring a piece of cold leftover pizza about 30 seconds after he dropped me off at home.

2006: Having fun in the hat store…

and watching the show…

We didn’t make it up there the year after that because we were in the process of moving from Kansas back to Seattle.

Our second trip up there was when I was about 5 months pregnant with Braedon and all I really remember from that trip is Derek enjoying wine tasting without me.  No pictures from that year, but here is one of us on New Years, just for the heck of it.

Last year we took my sister and Braedon up to see the lights.  It was a lot of fun everyone enjoyed it.  I do remember that is was especially cold last year though.  Braedon was dressed up like a little marshmallow peep.

This year Braedon was old enough to try out the little sledding hill that is so popular right in the middle of the town.  He seemed to enjoy it but wasn’t upset when it was over either.

Braedon had fun checking out the snow and watching the town light up.

He did have fun, I swear.

He especially enjoyed the Christmas music.

Lights!

It was a beautiful day and perfect for travelling over the pass and spending the afternoon up in the mountains!

Oh my

Well, we made it back to Seattle.  Our long day started out at 11 am at Ithaca airport where we found out that our flight was cancelled due to the winter storms that were going across the Midwest.  We were supposed to leave at 12:20 pm and fly to Detroit and then land in Seattle at 5:20 pm.  Not a bad flight, right?  Well, due to the cancellation we ended up leaving at noon, flying to Philly and then all the way to San Francisco, and then finally up to Seattle.  So our 8 hour day turned into a 13 hour day.  Now, I consider that a long day of travel for anyone.  But oh my, with a one year old it feels so much longer.  The flight from Philly to San Fran was the killer.  It was a 6 hour flight with a Baeo on my lap.  A Baeo that had been up since 7 am Ithaca time with no nap.  A Baeo that does not like to sit still.  Okay, I need to give Braedon more credit than that though.  Given the circumstances, this kid is awesome.  Despite not having a nap all day and not going to bed until 11:30 pm Seattle time, he did great!  He didn’t cry at all and really was a trooper.  He clapped when the plane landed and I think that everyone around us wanted to clap as well, including the lady in front who had the pleasure of being kicked numerous times in the back of the seat and the poor guy beside us who was trying to sleep but was constantly woken up by Braedon trying to hand him magazines or trying to touch his face or touching his work clothes with sticky fingers from sucking on a sucker that I had given him to try and by a few minutes of stillness and quiet.  I’m sure the guys behind us wanted to clap as well considering Braedon thought a game of peekaboo should last for 6 hours straight. 

Do we look tired?

 

Because we are. 

When we made it to San Francisco we found out that in order to get to our next gate we had to walk out of the secure zone and go back through security.  Again, everyone who flies knows that security can be a pain, but having to go through security with a toddler is just flat out stressful.  I feel bad for holding people up behind us, so it feels like a race trying to get my shoes off, Braedon’s shoes off, taking off my vest,  taking out the sippy cups of milk and water, and getting all of our carry ons onto the conveyer belt all while trying to keep Braedon from escaping or crawling under the conveyer belt onto the security side or from picking up random trash off the carpet and putting it in his mouth.  I was sweating by the end of it…and that was before we found that we still had quite a ways to walk…with all of our carry ons, a car seat, and a Baeo to carry.  After dinner and a much needed shared beer, we made our way to our gate and were pleasantly surprised with a kid play area right next to it.  Braedon ran around like a sleep deprived but wired crazy kid for a good 30 minutes before we boarded our plane and he finally passed out across my lap.

At 10 pm we landed in Seattle!  We will be here for about a month and are looking forward to spending the time relaxing and enjoying the company of family and friends.

This is my version of our day.  Derek may have a completely different version and may or may not post his experience.

Braedon, meet Santa

Today up on campus they had a Christmas party for the kids that included Christmas crafts, hot cocoa and cookies, Christmas music played and sung by a very good entertainer that Braedon loved, and Santa Clause.

Braedon just loving the Christmas music.

and the company.

Sitting in Santa’s chair.

Family photo.

and then the big guy came out…

and it was Baeo’s turn to sit on his lap…

except he didn’t quite make it to his lap.

He had no problems accepting the toy that was being handed out after the photo opportunity though.

Okay, I lied.  he was still a little shook up from such a traumatizing experience.

Boy, did he give Santa the evil eye.

We’re glad we didn’t fork out 20 or 30 bucks for a photo with Santa at the mall.

Just say….

No to crayon eating.

Soon after ingestion they make you do crazy things.

Say no to the blue ones specifically.

Unless you like that look.

Oh, but do say yes, yes, yes to…

Dough balls!!!  Oh. My. Goodness.  These are SO GOOD!!!

Peanut butter chocolate chip dough balls

Makes 12-18 balls

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. butter or margarine
• 3/4 c. natural peanut butter
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 3/4 c. powdered sugar
• 1/2 t. vanilla extract
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 3/4 t. salt
• 1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
• 1/2 c. peanut butter chips
• 1/2 c. chocolate chips

Directions:

· Beat margarine, peanut butter, sugars and vanilla until fully incorporated.

· In a separate bowl, combine baking powder, baking soda, salt and flours.

· Add dry mixture to the mixer bowl a little at a time.

· Mix until a dough forms

· Add your chips. 

· Combine and chill dough for 30 minutes.

· *your dough may seem a little dry based on the type of peanut butter used (I used Jiff natural).  If you cannot get it to come together by  mixing or packing it into your scoop tightly, you can try adding an additional tablespoon of peanut butter or milk.

· preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Scoop dough with a mini ice cream scoop (or your hands) and place balls on a cookie sheet.

· Bake for 10-12 minutes.  They’ll still be soft and look much like they did going in, but don’t over bake.  Let the dough balls rest on the pan for a minute before transferring to a cooling rack.

Or you can try Derek’s favorite:

Snicker doodle dough balls

Ingredients:

• 3/4 c. butter or margarine
• 3/4 c. powdered sugar
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 1/2 t. vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups unbleached flour 
• Cinnamon and sugar

Directions:

· In a large bowl blend together margarine, sugars, vanilla, salt and flour.

· mix together your cinnamon and sugar in a separate bowl.

·Roll dough balls in the cinnamon sugar mixture and transfer to a baking sheet.

· Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350.  The dough balls will be delicate, so allow to cool for at least 3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Try to stop at one!

 

 

·

Buffalo in New York (not the city)

We have one of these living upstairs, right above us.

A big buffalo.  He tends to roam around and be most active in the evenings when we are usually hanging out in the living room.  I often wonder what he could possibly be doing up there to create such a ruckus.  But I guess buffalo aren’t known for their daintiness or the ability to tip toe around.  He definitely has proven that.  I have to say that we wont miss our buffalo.

Marco

Polo. Ha, that was dumb, but I couldn’t think of a title and I couldn’t get it out of my head that marco goes with polo.

Yesterday we went to our first Polo match which we thought Braedon would like due to his love of horses. Well, we were right...he loved watching the horses run around.

Oh, and he loves peanut butter crackers too.

We watched Cornell kick butt. Too bad it also smelled like butt. It was STANK! I honestly don’t even know how Braedon was able to eat in such smelly conditions. I don’t know if I am a huge fan of polo, stank aside it is a pretty slow game with a lot of stopping and waiting around. If I was one of those horses I would have been annoyed. Also, I don’t understand how a polo player gets credit for being good or bad. Speed and stamina are both pretty important factors in most sports and these players don’t have to have either. Their horse does all the work. Anyway, it was still a fun experience and I’m glad we did it.

Moving forward…

A few months ago I found a motorcycle on clearance at Target and I knew Braedon would absolutely love it. We decided to hold on to it and give it to him for Christmas. However, because of the size there was no way we were going to haul that thing across the United States and back so we let him open it today. Braedon was pretty excited.

There was some assembly to be done and Braedon was right there to help.

After helping dad for awhile he decided his other toys needed some tuning up as well.

It’s almost done!

Ready. Set. Go!

First crash of the season.

Don’t worry, he recovered quickly despite the fact that he didn’t have his leathers on and got right back to it.

As Braedon would say, “vroom, vroom.”