Xmas, part one

Ida was in no great hurry to get out of bed, but once she did she was quick to check out her stocking:


She was also more excited about delivering packages to their recipients--she had to touch each one--than receiving any herself, necessarily. Look, she gave Grambee some socks with skulls on them!


Grambee doesn't like any of the Xmas photos of her, photogenic as she is. The only one she likes is this one, where she's wearing some kind of German ear muffers.


What was Miki doing? Wearing her new sleepsuit and trying to climb into the highchair to eat some stuff:


Also, as a special treat, she got to manhandle Baby Matthew!


Finally, here's a short film about some dogs Grambee got. It may remind you of her birds. What it is with Grambee and cheap mechanical toys is up to you to decide.

Matchy Matchy

Those Holladay Rock girls are really into wearing matching outfits! It might be related to the Mormon Heritage mentioned earlier, or it may just be that Grace is really on top of it. In any case, she scored matching white sweater dresses for Miki and Ida, so they could match with Bonnie Kate and Margo. Check it out:


No, really, check it out (Bonnie is a little more used to matching outfits than is Ida):


How bout all these cousins?


Next: the actual Christmas:

Holladay Rocks: an introduction

Sorry about misleading you about those dogs. Anyways, Bode and Keely belong not to us, but to the Rocks who live in Holladay. They are peculiar people! Let's meet them again. You see, Pete has this brother who looks nothing like him (Jim is stronger and handsomer)--here's a picture of him with Miki:


Jim's all hitched up with Grace! And here's Phoebe!


Phoebe and Pete are tight friends who go WAY BACK.


12/24 is a big party for Grace's big Mormon family and their heritage--her extended family, that is; Jim does not practice Mormonism, though his family does try to CTR (Choose The Right) at all times--so the girls get even more dressed up than usual. Here are some preparations:


Hey! That's Bonnie Kate! Wow. Ida thinks it's all right if her cousins wear curlers,


but Miki is not so sure.


Here's Margo Jane and then Matthew (the namesake or name-progenitor of our own Baby Matthew!)





By the way, Holladay is kind of an offshoot of Salt Lake City. And here's an example of how friendly Ida is with her Uncle Jim:



Next: Matchy-Matchy

sledmasters

Okay, for those of you not familiar with the situation--those were really not our dogs. They are real dogs, however, and those are their real names. They were Christmas Surprises of the Holladay Rocks, who will be fully documented in subsequent Christmas postings--much to catch up on.

Meanwhile, we did that big sledding. Here are a couple photos...first, a photo of Ella and Ida on an old skool runner sled that was a source of ridicule for some SLC hipsters on the hill:



And here's Jim and Grambee on an even older skooler Toboggan, GOING BACKWARDS, which almost took out four aforementioned hipsters...

MERRY XMAS, 2009!

Happy Happy!

We got two new Maltese puppies! Their names are Bode and Keely!

Several hundreds of other photos exist, and will be doled out over the coming days.

Salt Lake City=snow

Practice sledding; big hills tomorrow...

Christmas, part I

Word was--before the crazy east coast blizzard situation--that Arthur, Elsie and Theo were heading East Sunday night, so we decided to get together and open a few presents. Theo and Miki were quite ready for this.

First, it was time to make some cookies:


It really got kind of crazy:

Who wanted to eat some Xmas bratwurst? (Note: Devil Dog Bradford got bit by a vampire.)
Whoa! Elsie's not afraid of a sausage.
And then it was time to get down to business. Fair warning: Ida will open everyone's presents, even if she is doing it "for them."
Ella insisted on having "Old Grand-Dad" in her egg nog, and then someone lit Vida Mae's butt on fire!



Crucial Fact #1: Elsie got a Shark Robe! From Santa!


#2 Miki eats paper. She loves it.


#3 GrandmaToko made Baby Matthew some new clothes!


More examples of craziness. Arthur failed to pump up this yellow horse like six times and air whooshed out its butt and it got all saggy and Theo was distressed.

Miki vs. Clay

This is so messy and fun-lookin that you know it happened at Tumbleweeds.

We're going off the rails on a crazy train...

All aboard! If you don't like the following video, you either don't dig Arthur's singing or you're anti-holidays, or both. That's wrong of you.



To rewind: we set out from the Oaks Park parking lot (some consternation about the rides not being working) en route to the Old Skool Holiday Steam Engine Train.

Everyone was looking good. Some very, very good. (Though Mighty Mutts Ella and Miki stayed home.)

This could be the Vining/Bradford Christmas card...

Ida and Elsie went to the tinder car to look out the opening...

If you were out on the bike path or the river, this is what you'd see:

Riding on a train can get tiring...

...good thing Santa came by with those candy canes.

Then we got off and Ida and Elsie ran around being crazy.

The end.