You’d think that we’d never seen snow before the way that we’re celebrating it here…or at least the way that Maggie is celebrating it. Yesterday morning she woke up early and started poking Barry in the nose insisting that he get up. When he’d finally wiped the sleep from his eyes and wandered down the hall after her, she ran up to the window looking into the back yard and yelled at the top of her lungs “NOOOOOOOOOO!!” (which translates into snow)

So we piled on the layers and went outside and Maggie was in heaven and so was Sparky. Sydney, on the other hand, had to take a moment to herself before she got off the back stoop and when she did she too ran around like a mini snow plow. We frolicked in the back yard and I demonstrated my best pitching stance while hucking snowballs at one of the big trees in our yard. Barry informed me that I may or may not have some serious skills when it comes to my pitching of snowballs.

That afternoon when the Little Miss wanted to go out again, I was smart and brought my cup of tea to enjoy because I learned earlier in the day that Maggie just doesn’t get cold. Period. When I was pregnant with her I was constantly warm and often light-headed because I was so hot, and now I feel like I know why. The child does not get cold ever and poor little me does. So, I brought my tea and kept it close by for occasional sips while we rolled out a couple snowmen.

Today when we woke up to more snow, I found that good snow really does make a difference when it comes to rolling snowmen.  The snowfall from last night just wasn’t as good as that snowball material the other day, but we made do and put together a mini snowman.  The squirrels didn’t seem to mind, and immediately stole his entire facial structure. Poor guy.

The prediction is for more snow to dump tonight and all day tomorrow. That’s fine, I guess. We’ve been busy inside also.  Mostly in the kitchen baking breads, muffins, chili and other snow-related things. I can do this for a while longer and can battle the cabin fever by going outside and making forts, but I’m slightly excited for it to melt. Then we can crack open the windows and welcome nicer weather.

But until then, we’re going to be watching the “NOOOOOO” fall from the sky and work on perfecting the best drying techniques when it comes to our jackets and hats. It isn’t so bad. We had our yearly snowy visit from Chach, she is fearless driving her little car in this weather. I’m a wimp; however, we did go across town yesterday just to get out of the house. I decided I didn’t need to do that again, at least with the predicted snow coming.

And aside from cooking and watching the snow fall, we’ve got other indoor activities to do. For example, reading the paper and making sure that we haven’t missed an important story. Maggie, like her dad, likes to read the advertisements. [B-mills edit 1/17/2012: "That's how you know where the best deals are." ]

Most importantly, we’ve got a new game that we can play all hours of the day: “Night-Night”. Maggie invented it and I’m almost certain that this game is just part of the developmental process. She loves bossing us around while piling blankets on our heads insisting that we go night-night. She also loves to pop up and yell “Morning!” to whomever is playing with her. Every once in a while I only wish night-night time was as simple as a pile of blankets and a simple “night-night.”

I’ll give it a try here and see how it goes.

Night-Night.

It was odd since between both Maggie and Sydney we’ve almost always got one of them lobbying for some attention.

I spent an extra long time getting dolled-up to head out the door, only because I could, and we crammed ourselves into our smaller car and hit the road to have dinner in Seattle.

The drive wasn’t pretty because we hit traffic, but being able to sit in a car and chat Barry up without a Pug on my lap or Maggie shouting from the back was just as enjoyable as it was rare. I loved it.

Dinner was a luxurious affair of fancy-pants food, drinks and conversation. Halfway through dinner we realized that one of our ‘shared’ memories wasn’t quite shared. Barry claims it happened in Canada and I swear it happened in the good old US of A. We agreed to disagree, but both of us found it humorous that we’ve been together long enough to not quite remember things.

I never tire of telling Barry how much I appreciate and love him. I think because he is a constant surprise to me, encouraging me in so many different ways. I wish everybody had a version of him in their lives….life with him is rich, full of purpose and adventure.

We capped our night off by ordering an extra large chocolate chip cookie that arrived in a cast iron skillet, just to make sure that all our talk about our future (and getting oldish) wasn’t because we are old. We ate most of the cookie and then hit the town…..or maybe found our car and drove home to a quiet house.

People should go on dates more often with those they love…

We’re all prepared for Christmas, with the exception of ONE very, very difficult person to shop for. We’re simply stuck and have ZERO ideas. Other than that, I think we’re pretty excited for the coming events. Linda sent Maggie some Reindeer Dust and we’re planning on sprinkling some on Christmas Eve. Maggie won’t really care or have an idea of what we’re doing, but I have no doubt that she’ll like throwing the stuff outside.

I’ve been feeling myself cranking the Christmas tunes (side note: have you heard the Lower Lights Christmas album? Cjane has heavily promoted it, and we got it. LOVE it. Find it here.) a bit louder and staring at our tree with a bit more feeling of excitement than in years past. I think it must be having a child in the house that is interested in the presents and Santa, or at least pictures of him. We wrapped a present for my dad that Maggie really, really liked and she keeps going and finding it under the tree, shaking it and saying ”Ampa, ________” (I had to put the blank there in case he reads it and then it won’t be a surprise, but I’m pretty sure that he’ll have to open that present FIRST this year.

We’ve been asking Maggie to get her vest on when we’re ready to leave and she totally does it, but it is almost always upside down. The first time she did it we zipped it up (or is it down) and went happily on our way. That night we ended up going out to sushi and Barry had to conceal our laughter when she crammed a bunch of sushi in without hesitating around the big collar of the upside down vest. Since then, I’ve just decided to go with it and every so often we’ll get some weird looks, but I’m secretly really proud that she’s getting her clothes on.  Because the alternative is this:

I’m thinking that it might not be socially acceptable for her to ride along in the ‘Beep Beep Car’ at the grocery store or pick out books at the library without any clothes on. You know? So we’re encouraging her in her fashion endeavors. She NEVER wants help and is very determined.

It isn’t clear who she gets her fashion sense from? Barry? Me? Clearly we had a little help, right? There is no way that I could have buckled my shoes with my chubby feet. And Barry getting his collar to perfectly fan out?

With the exception of maybe one or two people, there probably isn’t really anyone interested in seeing how we made Maggie’s Christmas card this year. It was a fun project to do, but I’m thankful that we don’t have to do it on a regular basis. I’d had an idea in my head and what we ended up getting was pretty close to what I’d imagined.

I picked up some extra tall wrapping paper and we taped it to the wall. We originally were going to try and do a whole family shot, but with the amount of space that we were workig with along with my camera that isn’t remote friendly, we decided to stick to a Maggie only photo.

Barry wasn’t opposed to being a test subject, however. Isn’t he cute? And now you know where Maggie gets the cheese-ball smile.

While we were setting up the wrapping paper, Maggie was entertaining herself in the other room trying to ride her bike in boots. The girl loves boots, I can not say that enough. We tried to convince her that she’d have better luck riding the bike without shoes, but she wasn’t into that. We brought her into the photo shoot room and she was ALL about being a test subject with Papa, cue the cheese-ball smile.

After changing her outfit and fluffing her locks, Mag-Pie was ready to work her magic.

But she kept wanting to touch the wrapping paper or the lights, which is totally understandable because it isn’t every day that we’ve got our wall covered in Ho, Ho, Ho paper and insist that she stand directly next to plugged in lights.

But I think she did pretty good.  I only wish that I would have thought to take pictures of Barry behind me and beside me. My Man was a clown and Mags ate it up. Again, cue the cheese-ball smile.

We tried to get her to hold the chalk board, but it was slippery and she was too busy laughing at her Papa to concentrate on holding it.

After a few more cheese-ball smiles, Maggie decided that she was done and proceeded to cross her arms in protest and announced that it was nap time.

I’ve been in a bit of a writing rut since the first of the month. It seemed I was so excited when December arrived and things have just taken off from there, but I just haven’t been able to catch my breathe and capture my thoughts without sounding like I’m full of it or complaining. So I’ve just decided to let it go….

I really like having a blog and writing, but sometimes I find myself second guessing my words because they might give too much away or be over-sharing. But then I read stories written by other women that I admire and see images that inspire me to take more photos in my own life, and I let it go. Because when we started this blog (way back in 2005!) when Barry and I went to Australia for a number of months, I never thought that I’d still be using it as an outlet in 2011 and I certainly never thought that there were so many other women out there like me….telling stories of their own.

I’m gathering myself up and finding my words again, they seem to have escaped…perhaps with the golden glow of our Carmel trip? I’m thriving on the glow of our Christmas lights and all the preparations that come with the season. We wrapped gifts last night and Maggie hauled them from the den to the living room with her handy, dandy Radio Flyer cart. She hasn’t quite figured out that the presents are for opening and she’s content to haul them from here to there now.

Last weekend we escaped to Kirkland and only left our hotel to walk around town and meet up with Greg and Linda for Snowflake Lane.  We watched the boat parade on Lake Washington and listened to the booming Christmas music coming from the floating line.  We ordered hot chocolates and walked the streets, talking of our Christmas tree back home and shared interest in finding good sushi. We did indeed find sushi and Maggie slept through the whole lunch, it was scrumptious and being able to talk with Barry uninterrupted was an added bonus.

In the lobby of our hotel were piles of newspapers for the guests and you better believe that I scooped one of each up. We poured over the paper each day that we were there and traded tit for tat on different articles. I passed him the business section and he passed me the comics….not sure what that says about our relationship.

Saturday night we bundled up and hustled to meet up with Greg and Linda for dinner before heading to Snowflake Lane in Bellevue. Aside from getting lost, we had an enjoyable time. Since we were late and had already eaten plenty of Trader Joe’s dunkers, Barry and I decided to share a plate.  I ordered Camarones  Rancheros knowing that it typically is a delicious shrimp platter with tortillas and other tasty sides. Well. It was that and certainly more because I somehow missed the part of the description that mentioned that the shrimp would be wrapped in bacon.

It was delicious, but I wasn’t expecting to see bacon on my plate! Snowflake Lane did not disappoint and both Barry and I were glad for it because Maggie was a CRAB POT before and after the extravaganza. Thankfully the dancing penguin was fascinating enough to distract her along with the drumming and guy on stilts.

Anticipating the start felt a bit like waiting for a big parade, with people angling for the best spot but nobody really knows where the entertainment will come from. Greg and Linda scored a great spot and we ended up having tons of  characters stop by and high-five Mags or pass her candy. We also were in full view of a couple drummers; however, the BEST drummer was directly across the street from us. He was bustin’ a MOVE!

We were those people with a screaming child walking back to our car. We were also those people that thought we had a tired child, but really she just wanted to play a bit.  So we ran up and down the hall and organized the sugar packets and coasters before conking out.

There you have it. Last weekend….and me working myself out of a writers rut.

The month of December is traditionally very, very busy for our family and even with me being home with Maggie it hasn’t slowed down. Don’t misunderstand me, it is a month full of fun events with friends and family that we care deeply for; however, usually by the time we greet the new year, Barry and I both feel like we haven’t had a chance to really connect or even relax. For years and years we’ve talked of getting away for a weekend and it just has never really happened for whatever reason and we get through the busy time and promise the next year will be different.

This year we made sure that we carved out a time for our family to relax and unwind before the whirlwind really begins. This past weekend we went and stayed in a fancy-pants hotel for a couple nights and soaked up life away from home….even though we were less than 30 minutes away from home sweet home. Sydney got to guard from our hotel window, Maggie got to carry the ice bucket from floor to floor, Barry got to practice jumping on the bed and I got to wear the hotel robe as if it were a princess dress. It was ALL good.

We tend to thrive on being together and this weekend was no exception. Being home is just that….HOME, but being away sometimes has its perks. We’ve been blasting Angus Stone’s version of Joni Mitchell’s “River” in anticipation of this exciting time and I feel like we’re ready to go now that we’ve had a bit of reprieve from the coming events.

Right outside our cabin door there was a trail that hugged the shoreline and it might have been the biggest blessing of our whole trip. We started and ended our days on the trail because it was a perfect place for both Maggie and Sydney to stretch their legs without the constraints of a leash or a hovering hand.

One day we took the trail all the way to town, but that was a horrible move on our part because we decided last minute (as in, already halfway there) to go and didn’t bring any snacks for Maggie. By the time we reached town, a couple miles later,  she was screaming as if she were starving and we felt like the worst parents in the world. Thankfully we found a bagel shop and her happy food dance ensured. Lesson learned: Always, always, always bring snacks…..and diapers.

But the evening strolls were my absolute favorite. We’d often have dinner simmering and the sunset would pull us all outside with our eyes attached to the ever-changing clouds. With the exception of a few foggy nights, and the night that we were accidentally still on a hiking trail in the State Reserve, the trail is where we’d be watching the sunset. Maggie was usually chasing Sydney wanting to put her leash on and Sydney was usually sniffing some weeds trying to get away from Maggie. Barry and I’d spent our trail walks talking about this and that, clinking our wine mugs in cheers, watching Mags and Syd.

We mostly had the trail to ourselves, but by the end of our trip we’d met a few locals that knew both Maggie and Syd by name. They’d fill us on in on some of the local haps and we’d tell them about the rain we’d left behind in Seattle. Sometimes we’d take a side trail to the top of the bluff or down to a sandy beach, but we’d always keep our eye on the setting sun as if it were a ticking clock reminding us it’d soon be dark.

The mad-dash to get back to the cabin before it was dark out, even though Maggie would often bring our head-lamp, was usually not necessary. For the colors right outside our front door were often far more dramatic than the ones we’d seen on the trail.

I guess all those Sun Salutations that Maggie and Sydney did on that first day really did something, because we were showered with sun and sunsets that were astounding. At one point I was talking with my dad on the phone and telling him that we had to go buy sunscreen because we weren’t expecting such nice weather. He said he felt so sorry for me because I had to buy sunscreen in October….I have a feeling he was being sarcastic.

But really, to start and end our days on the edge of the ocean was spectacular, there is something mightily refreshing about sea air, the crash of waves and the safety of a trail that contains both your dog and child.

For all the greatness that our trip turned out to be, we had a rough, rough start. The evening before we left, both Barry and I got sick and we put off leaving because there was NO way I was getting off the bathroom floor. It was awful. Poor Maggie had two parents that were feeling less than stellar, not the best way to start a long-awaited vacation.

But it gets worse.  Doesn’t it always, at least before it gets better?

The next day when we finally started driving, many hours past our original ETD, we had to establish a new rule in our car: Maggie is NOT allowed to eat or drink in the car. She gets car sick and we’re just not willing to clean up puke over and over again. This meant that we stopped frequently and our car was by far the stinkiest on the road.

But our arrival to our new precious home was met with high-fives and sighs of relief because we’d decided on a whim to rent the cabin and only had a few pictures from the owner’s website.  A revolving conversation on our few-day drive was about our rental cabin and a shared fear that perhaps we should have done a bit more research.

At last we arrived and it seemed that Maggie and Sydney kept doing Sun Salutations just to make sure the weather would stay because our cabin was spitting distance to the beach and the puking had stopped!!

We popped open a bottle of champagne (thanks, Sue!), busted open the windows and doors, found our flip-flops and headed to the beach with huge smiles plastered on our faces. The cabin was perfect in a funky, rustic way. Aside from moving the living room coffee table to the extra bedroom, because Maggie was jumping off of it, it was perfect for our little family. And did I mention the beach was outside our door?

Watching the sunset that first night and sipping on champagne, while Maggie and Sydney continued doing their Sun Salutations, both Barry and I decided that it might be a few days before we felt like getting back in the car. It became abundantly clear, after just a few short hours of being at our cabin, that we’d made the right decision to come. There was something for everybody, plus a little left over in case we wanted more…..and we wanted more.

Me: Someday I’d like to do another 10K and feel like I’m not going to die.  I want to do it in less than X amount of time.

Him: That seems reasonable. You can totally do it.

A FEW DAYS LATER

Him: I found you a good training schedule and you can start right now.

Me: For what?

Him: That 10K you said you wanted to do, to improve your time.

Me: Someday

Him: Someday is today.

Me: I guess it is.

My dad hung a swing in my favorite tree for Maggie to enjoy and I can hardly wait for the leaves to change and make the bright, bright Fall colors that I so dearly love. Apparently I’ll be waiting for a while, which is fine, because we’re enjoying 80 degree weather around here this weekend. On a side note, a couple members of our crew are going to Camp Janet to stay for a couple nights without the parents.

Any guesses?

Let’s just say that Maggie and Syd will be having their first vacation where they’ll probably get to swing until they get dizzy, run naked, and eat ice cream out of the carton….and stay up until midnight dancing.

Barry and I are going to probably do similar things, minus the swinging until we get dizzy.

Enjoy your weekend, peeps!