Being sweet on Christmas Eve.


Being a pastor's kid isn't easy since most other folks only go to church once and then get to hang out with family and you have to go to multiple services. Evangeline was a trooper and made it through the Children's Service (and got to be a donkey) and the Youth and Family Service. Evie was definitely tired by the end.

Is this how you show off a dress?


The story of the night had to be the Children's Service where the tradition is to tell the story and invite kids up to play different parts in easy to put on costumes. For some reason, the father of a 3 month old decided to place his son into the manger to be a live Jesus. If you look in the center of the picture you can see the baby's head. Why he decided this was a safe move I have no idea. He must not have seen the two cows engaged in a battle on the edge of the scene. Once he placed his child in the manger he walked away and was nowhere to be found. This suited the handful of angels just fine because they wanted to tuck in baby Jesus, but instead bonked his head. Pr. John is trying to read the story while our children's director is breaking up the cow fight and we have a real baby screaming his head off. Must be Christmas! Evie, as you can see is just hanging off to the side staying out of trouble.

Our daughter, the donkey.

Merry Christmas!

Sometimes you wonder if imagination is a good thing.


Although we wished we could gather all our family into one place, Evie, Kaia, Evie's Grandma Rhonda and I had a great Christmas Day. Tomorrow I'll share some pictures of Evie Lu's Christmas Eve dress, but for today I want to play with my gift from Kaia and Evie Lu. Here is a video of what Evie was doing with her new dollhouse shortly after she got it. I'm thinking we've got a soap opera writer on our hands. A woman survives a horrible fall and takes care of her cat. That is must see!

Almost A Christmas Card

Sometime you'll have to come out and visit during December so we can take you to the Bellevue Botanical Garden for their light show. When Evie's Aunt Becky was in town we took her and it was amazing. Volunteers spend 7,000 hours putting together the most amazing representations of flowers and plants in LED lights. It wasn't until I sat down on the bench here that I realized the two most beautiful lights were Kaia and Evangeline.

And The Star Goes On Top

No, lift me up higher dad!


We have a pitiful little star for our Christmas tree, but the good part of having such a small star is that Evie Lu was able to cap off the tree for us this year. She is very proud of the tree and wants to be the official tree lighter every day. I can't believe the difference between last Christmas when she was a whirling dervish with very little direction to this year where Evangeline is a whirling dervish with an agenda all her own. Kaia and I are in serious trouble.

Right there. Perfect.

Carol of the Dancing Evies

Unfortunately for Evie Lu, neither one of her parents are what you'd call a great dancer. Thankfully this fact has not stopped our daughter from expressing herself in motion. For your viewing pleasure is a Christmas interpretation of The Carol of the Bells. (You may be able to see the heavily decorated Evie section of our tree as well.)

Trimming The Tree

You know there is a proper way to do this.


The first Friday in December meant that IKEA was offering their amazing rent a tree deal and that I was off to go get one of those trees. It has been unusually cold for Seattle, but that meant it felt like winter should. Evie Lu is thrilled with the new 7 foot addition to our home. She sort of helped decorate last year, but this year she has appointed herself the caretaker of the tree. I'll get a full picture for you later in the week where you'll see the lower levels that Evangeline has made sure are well decorated.
Oscar also loves the tree and his love forced us to buy a cat deterrent. Beneath the tree there is now a motion sensor forced air device. We really shouldn't get as much enjoyment out of watching Oscar try to sneak up to the tree and then get a puff of air in his direction, but we do.

Sign Language

I'm ready for the show!


A week ago I looked in the rear view mirror to see Evangeline giving me the "rock on" hand signal. We don't know where she picked this up, but it is awesome. Now anytime you need an affirmation from Evie Lu you can just ask her to show you how much you rock.

These are my love glasses.


Kaia, being the wiser parent, thought some actual sign language would be cool and now Evie knows how to say "I love you" in sign. I was less helpful and taught my daughter "hang loose" and "peace." I've spent the last couple of days trying to teach her the dialogue from the old Freedom Rock commercial along with her peace sign. "Is that Freedom Rock?" "Yeah, man!" "Well, turn it up man!"

I love you, rock on!