Merry Christmas Eve!

While it was deeply contested by the rest of the family who wanted to skip ahead to opening the presents from the Whites, it IS a Christmas tradition to take a family photo on Christmas Eve in front of the fireplace with Syd. We have the one that turned out decent of all of us:
And then, the one in which even Sydney is getting bored of posing and ready to move on:
Usually, we exchange presents with the Whites while in Sunriver (they give our kids a few Christmas Eve presents, but generally the majority of the exchange is on vacation), however, when we decided to give this to the Whites, we opted not to pack it to and from Sunriver. Go Mariners!

The kids also chose to give gifts to the Whites tonight. From Brayden to Stephie, a stuffed "Pluto" - the only character in costume Stephie is not afraid of. =) (Not pictured, Mikayla gave Stephie the most recent Kim Meeder book, the author who is coming to speak at our Womens' Ministry Retreat in February).

From Brayden to Travis - an X-Box game that Travis has enjoyed playing on our PS3 version. From Mikayla to Travis - a neck massager, as Travis suffers from similar tension headaches as myself.

A gift from the Whites to Mikayla - a DS game that Mikayla loved, but lost a long time ago...

Mikayla is now very much into organization. (Love it!) For Christmas, she asked for binders and office desk holders/caddies which the Whites got for her. She loved them. I then told them all about Mikayla's response to seeing "The Container Store" at Bridgeport Mall the other day....this was how she imitated it, picture a high pitched "ahhhhhhhh" to go with it....

The one present she got to open from us tonight contained these VERY fuzzy slippers.
A highlight for Brayden was opening NCAA 12....

Earlier this morning, we chose to go see "We Bought a Zoo" at the movie theater. It was great to get out of the house (where I constantly feel like I still have more to do) and do this as a family. I'm not sure if it was because it is Christmas Eve and I was feeling incredibly sentimental and thankful for my life and family, but I had tears running out of my eyes for several minutes following the credits. The movie was absolutely exceptional, particularly in the realm of character development. And the little actress that plays "Rosie"....oh my goodness, she is SO CUTE!!! It was the perfect movie to go see as a family on Christmas Eve.

Following that, we went to church with the Whites and Mom and Dad - and then pizza and to the present moment here at our home.

I hope that wherever you are, and whatever life has brought to you this year, that tomorrow brings a ray of hope in the knowledge of the gift of Jesus being born for us all. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Winter Bucket List

I've spent the last 36 hours or so hanging out at Michele's house. I've reached my limit on what can be "listed, organized, and prepared from afar" and am to the point of itching to hop in my car to start crossing those things off of my list at my home. However, the kids are still sleeping (which I've also done a lot of while I've been here....apparently, I needed it) so this down time has led to blog surfing and eventually Pinterest. I saw this and thought I ought to share:

So, I'm actually doing pretty good with this list - or at least I will be by the time we reach 2012. A few things that won't get crossed off...."Horse Drawn Carriage Ride" (does playing flag football in a horse arena work?), "Make Fireplace S'mores" (let's face it folks, I made enough s'mores this summer to last all year long - and next year too!), and "Shuck Oysters"....(huh?!!!)

Any additional items you'd add to the "Winter Bucket List"?

Marvelous Monday

I had the kids open their Countdown Calendar activity a little early for Monday....as in Sunday night. Given the activity required a little travel and staying at Michele's until Wednesday, I frankly needed their help in preparing and packing.

So, after returning from watching "Arthur Christmas" (Sunday's activity - and yes, Jodi, I'm in agreement with you, definitely not a holiday favorite - but not deplorable either....), they opened the card that said:

"Courtney + Dutch Babies + Julie + Portland Zoo + Ending up at Michele's = A Super Fun Monday!"

Kaela showed up a few minutes before Courtney, which was perfect as she had given Mikayla a birthday present and I had told Mikayla that she was allowed to open it only if Kaela said "yes". Of course, Kaela agreed and Mikayla was delighted. Kaela had wanted to see Courtney and give me something to pass on to Julie - unfortunately she had a staff meeting she had to attend that had her leaving just before the Dutch Babies were ready to pull out of the oven....but, not before we got a lovely picture of the three of us reunited.

I love how much the kids love these folks just as much as we do. (Or almost....)

After an all-too-brief time with Courtney (it was nearly 3 hours, but our time together never seems long enough as I enjoy her company SO MUCH!) the kids and I hopped in the car and headed north to meet up with Julie. She had flown in from Oahu the night before and was setting aside her afternoon to hang with us.

We met up at Bridgeport Village - which is, I've decided, a wonderful place to shop and stroll. The mall is all outside, which in Oregon can be an issue, but it is very high class and might I say, romantic in its set-up. I told the kids we'd be returning some time in 2012 to shop as a family...kind of an untapped treasure for us.

This Christmas tree at the center demonstrates the mall's classiness.


As we ventured forth to find Julie at the Apple Store, we passed a PF Chang's - and thus decided that would be the location to satisfy our need for lunch. As usual, the food was great and a big hit for my kids (yes, they are picky eaters) - but, our server was so awkward! She was abrupt, inefficient, and forgetful. It was one of the scenarios where you had to wonder why she pursued being a server as a job, as it really seemed like she didn't like people. But, for Julie and I, it was merely a source of humor and fun to kick off our time together.

The next stop was the zoo. We assumed correctly, that at the time we were going, it would be relatively empty. They have an evening attraction called "Zoo Lights" that brings in a lot of people these days, but we didn't plan on being in Portland that late, so our ambition was to visit the animals - not see the lights.


As you can see by this picture, there were a lot of lights already turned on, though - which was a bonus for us.... =)

There was also the bonus of "Elephant Ears" (and in case you're noticing, no, it wasn't a stellar calorie day for me!).


One thing that I would have never noticed, but Julie makes fun of herself is her long arm length. So, when we saw this sign, we couldn't resist taking a picture to prove just how long they are.
Is this pose with my kids becoming a trend, or what?


We did hit a little Portland rush hour traffic on our way out, proving once again how I'd never make it in a big city. But, fortunately, it was pretty easy getting back to Bridgeport and heading on back to Dallas with minimal traffic issues. We arrived at Michele's at 6, and I'm now cozily perched atop her bed, so happy to be here until we all leave for our house on Wednesday. Michele is wrapping presents while I'm typing away. Soon I will move on to the stack of magazines that have arrived in the last 6 weeks that I haven't had a spare moment to look at - noting that their Christmas themes and ideas are a little ineffective if read about in January.

So goes our "Marvelous Monday". Two women that I feel such a tight bond with - both of them ladies that I am sad no longer live near by. But, the beauty with both of them is how time and distance are never an obstacle - conversation picks up as if we'd seen each other yesterday.

Now, on to those magazines....or maybe bed....I'm getting very sleepy after such an eventful day.

Feeling the Love!

Last night was the first night in Riley Family history that the "Countdown Calendar" activity was a surprise to even us. It was fun having the kids open the activity card and to say "we don't know....Heather Spinney is in charge and all she told us was to be ready at 5:30 - and to not have eaten anything for dinner." (She also suggested we dress comfy in jeans or so when I texted about that....so glad I didn't stay in pajamas!!). It was SO FUN for the whole family to be in anticipation for an upcoming "surprise". Even for me, as a person who isn't keen on surprises (the expectation of the right response stresses me out....not to mention I like control....) - was excited about the evening as I trust Heather to know me and my family well enough that it would be very special and nothing I'd be uncomfortable with.

So now I'm going to jump to the narration of Kaela who wrote a blog post about the experience from her point of view to give a set-up of what the plan really was.....

TONIGHT though....was the BIG night. So a few weeks ago, Heather came up with an amazing idea to have a night devoted to the Riley's to give back to them all that they have blessed us with. I'm just going to give ALL credit to Heather and wish I could have thought up of such a plan. She thought it would be great if their closest mentees would put together something for them. Since her and I both have spent a lot of the time with the Riley family, it would make sense that the two of us would be involved. The other two would be guys John has mentored this past year - Michael Chase and Kenjon Barner (yes, UO's running back). Anyways, Heather mischievously had to get Michael and Kenjon's phone numbers without John knowing. So one Thursday when we were at bible study, she stole John's phone without looking, took the numbers and had me give the phone back to him. John was so suspicious and blaming me and Heather for doing something. Little did he know what we were planning. Heather contacted the two boys and had many awkward conversations with them. Props to her because I would never be able to do that. And a week ago, when I had mentioned that I met up with a group at Starbucks to discuss an event we were planning, it was this evening. We met up with the boys and it was PRETTY funny. They're awesome. Anyways so the plan was to make them dinner. We were all going to show up at 5:30 and then each come in in 30 second increments. Heather was going to prepare the main dish - Lasagna, Michael was in charge of bread and drinks, Kenjon was in charge of salad and I was in charge of the dessert (I brought brownies I made from scratch this morning. They turned out okay but I realized after placing them in the oven that I forgot the salt and baking powder. WHOOPS!). Anyways after dinner, we planned to go bowling and invite the Whites along. After that we would just come back to the house and have dessert and hang out. Everything pretty much went as planned. Heather, Michael and I all showed up at exactly 5:30....Kenjon was a tad late. All in all, they were surprised! So glad!

Yes, indeed, we were surprised! Once Kaela walked in, I started to wonder just how many other folks would walk in...if it would be a "Thursday Night Ladies" group, a party, or something else entirely. But, then when Michael and Kenjon walked in, I was DELIGHTED....talk about the perfect mix of just the right folks that are SO DEAR to our hearts. And, clearly, based on the pictures, incredibly dear to our kids' hearts too.



The lasagna was DELICIOUS!









Some "family" pics....I'm so loving John's early Christmas present of this new lens....


After dinner, we loaded in to our Denali, put "Elf" into the DVD player and merrily took off to a mystery location. My guess was bowling - which was PERFECT, because we weren't able to make that happen with our usual crew (Quigleys, Meyers, etc..) and I just really wanted to do that that evening. In fact, I even mentioned that to John as we were getting ready for the night as the activity I wanted to have happen. Unfortunately, "Strike City" which had the cosmic bowling that Michael was wanting was PACKED. So, we called "Southtowne" and sure enough, their place was empty and ready for us to take over. Along the way, John mixed up the "control factor" and took them on his own route to dazzle the crew with the light display at the Vickers house. They were definitely impressed.

At Southtowne, we split into guys vs. girls and got our game faces on to do battle.



I love how Kenjon couldn't keep the straight face...







The quartet of conspirators. These four are PRICELESS to us!

While the rest of us kind of stunk it up with our bowling game, Heather was having an incredible night. Strike after strike after spare. At first, the contest was against Kenjon in the higher score, but unfortunately for Kenjon, that eventually got out of reach. However, Travis was having a stellar game as well. As it game down to the final throw for Travis, Kenjon and Michael ensured that Heather would not be distracting him...

Which wasn't at all fair because look at the way Kenjon and Michael were distracting Heather....I can't believe she was able to pull the spare with Kenjon jumping out to ambush her!

As it turned out, at least for the first game, Travis and Heather ended up with exactly the same score. =)



The evening ended with folks returning to our house, some chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, and brownies for dessert - and plans for at least some of the crew to join us again Sunday to see if Tebow can pull off another miraculous win.

I really can't imagine anything Heather could have done different that would have made the evening any better than it was for our family. PERFECT, PERFECT, PERFECT!!! We felt so loved and honored - and absolutely had a blast. Love you Heather!