Stumbling into the New Year

Today while eating cake, Ida said, "Do you think if you die while you're having a dream, you get to keep the dream?"

Yesterday we went sledding, which was quite excellent indeed. Ida even plowed straight into a jump and launched herself headfirst into some snow, getting a bloody nose and mouth that painted the slope for the rest of the day. But she's okay.  She also ate a bunch of snow, despite many warnings from Ella.

We were way up in Washington. Crazily warm and sweet day.  The snow was misleadingly deep, however, and some of us were often getting a leg stuck and then losing boots underground, etc.  Miki did not think it was cool that I took her picture before I pulled her out.

Well, who turned 41 today? Hotter than a darn furnace! Just came skiing right over!

She's ready to celebrate...on Tuesday. But meanwhile, here's a couple photos of her with her older sister that I don't really understand and wished to share.

Actually, this was an incidence of a "pinched nerve" that we heard a lot about and then kind of faded out of the conversation.

2013! New Year's Day

Ah, the year turned, so we headed out to Sauvie Island to see what 2013 will look like. It appears that it will be beautiful.

Speaking of beautiful, no one had really forgotten about Maggie's red superhero tights, but seeing them on New Year's Day was a very propitious sign indeed.

Snow!  We quickly began to work on a sandy snowman.  Arthur made a lot of strange noises in his throat while crawling around.

2013 appears to be a year where it might be difficult to determine truth.  Miki's been blaming the "night wind" for blowing various toys of Ida's to hidden spots in the basement; yesterday in the moving van I listened to Elsie explain to Ida, at some length, that her new stuffed bear often talks to her ("just telling me what he's been doing") when no one else is around.  "Do you think you imagine that, or you're playing?" I said.  "No, Peter," she said.  "He really talks."  Anyway--

Elsie, Theo and I have found that crying copiously is a surefire way to get Arthur's attention.

And if Arthur puts one person on his shoulders the rest of us will cry until we get the same treatment!

On the way back to the cars, we spied something strange up in this tree.  What do you think?

Using my new camera, I ZOOMED right in:

Yes, Bald Eagles! Ida has been a little distraught at the many American flags we saw on the east coast during the Christmas season, but let's just claim the holiday season as American, why don't we? At least New Year's, after this Sign.

The actual Christmas

Oh, it was sweet.

Miki said, "Santa Claus must have thought we were better than we were."

Stay tuned for New year's...

Christmas Eve!

Grand as our travels (documented below) were, it was so fine to get here, home, to PDX. And right away it was Xmas eve! And all the girls got new dresses (some trading had to be undertaken to avoid Tantrums):

A ferocious dance party ensued--the vinyl of M. Jackson's "Thriller" was spinning!--and I got some video footage of Ella really shaking her rump but she disallowed me posting that.  I'm using it for my private use.

Out of the eight nights we've been back, we've eaten at the Bradford's seven times.  I like it.

Now, this couple!  This sequence of photos speaks for itself!

Christmas Eve salmon!

The girls did not like to have the lights on.

And then we came home and got things all ready for Santa.

(btw Ella has declared herself really not into the whole Santa thing; stay tuned)