Christmas & Birthday

This year we spent Christmas in Seattle with my entire family! It's not often that we get to spend time all under one roof. Brodie and I planned on arriving on Tuesday, but because of the flu, we didn't get there until Friday night (the 23rd). We were still able to fit in all sorts of fun-filled activities!

On Christmas Eve we played games, including a minute-to-win-it activity with candy canes. I think I was the ultimate loser in the family. The nieces and nephews also performed a live nativity on Christmas Eve which turned out to be the cutest thing! 

Christmas Eve live nativity

Will was a (disgruntled) wiseman, Anne played Mary, Levi played Joseph, Sophie was an angel, and Davey was the baby Jesus.

All the kiddos on Christmas Eve

With all the wonderful chaos on Christmas day, this was the only photo that I took. Brodie was so thrilled to pose with his stocking on Christmas morning :)

The day after Christmas we went to downtown Seattle for a night out (all thanks to my parents!) We stopped by the Sheraton hotel to check out the Harry Potter gingerbread house display. Every year growing up we would come to this hotel to look at the gingerbread houses, so it was fun to relive that tradition!

After looking at the gingerbread houses, we saw The Little Mermaid at the Fifth Avenue Theatre! Dream come true!

Tuesday and Wednesday we stayed at the cabin at Snoqualmie Pass and went skiing. Always a highlight of our winter! I love skiing with my fam. And the fact that it was a powder day made it even better.

After a morning of skiing on Wednesday, we were able to make it back to Bellevue to do an escape room. This was my first escape room and now I am hooked! It definitely helps when you have genius family members on your team. Not to brag (I'm totally bragging right now), we completed the most difficult escape room available and still had 15 minutes to spare. That's what I call CSI material!!

And to top off my winter break, I got to celebrate my birthday with my fam! I can't believe how much fun we fit into one day. We shopped, raced at K1 speed, ate lunch at Olive Garden, visited the dog park, ate a steak dinner, hot tubbed, and played games.

After 8 days of a whirlwind vacation, it was hard to come back to our normal life. Especially since it has been so cold! Although freezing temperatures mean that Luna gets to stay inside, and she is definitely not complaining about that :)

Christmas Home

Our collection of Christmas decorations is slowly building. It's a hassle to bring boxes up and down from the attic, but it was definitely worth it! 

Christmas Tree

Christmas cards

snowmen and nutcrackers

nativity

mini tree in the kitchen

Tis The Season

December is one of my favorite months of the entire year! This month we've had some snow (and ice), canceled school days, and time with the Fish Fam. Tomorrow we leave to spend a week in Seattle with my parents and the rest of my family.

We spent the first weekend in December sipping cocoa, eating pie, and doing a puzzle while we watched the Christmas Devotional. I think we will make this a tradition!

 . . . and then came the crazy weather! I had 1 late start and 4 snow days. While we did get a few inches of snow, the biggest problem was the ice!

this field by our church was completely frozen over

the parking lot was transformed into a skating rink

the ice was so heavy that lots of trees cracked and fell! 

view of our street

the ice was pretty, but the snow was even prettier! 

a street full of fresh new snow

Since nobody was out and we live on a one-way street, we let Luna run free for a little while.

I love seeing the tree in the window and the lights on the house!!

Because of all the snow days, this is how we spent most of our time. . . cuddled on the couch in front of a pretend fire. 

Another new tradition is to go to downtown Portland and listen to Tuba Christmas! It's a free public event in which hundreds of tuba players put on a Christmas concert. What's even better is that Cohan, Brodie's brother, played in the concert!

Danner was so excited to listen to his dad!

This is only about a third of them. Lots of tubas under one tent!

the whole crew

 December also meant a snowman art project with my class, a haircut, and an early Fish Christmas celebration!

aren't these sock snowmen are the cutest??

I hadn't cut my hair since last December, so it was definitely time!

Before everyone headed out of town for Christmas, the Fish Fam got together for a sleepover, Christmas breakfast, and gift exchange. 

 Christmas celebrations, report cards, and finals week must have been a bad combination for us because Brodie and I both got sick. I had a bad cold and Brodie had the flu. For 4 days, this is what it looked like around our house. . .

and this . . . poor guy :(

Can't wait to be in Seattle tomorrow!

Tree Hunting & Festival

The Saturday following Thanksgiving is reserved for Christmas tree hunting. We went to a u-cut natural tree farm in Oregon. 

The farm is 110 acres, so they take you on a hay ride out to the trees.

We found "the perfect one"! At least we thought we did. Until we realized it was way too tall and couldn't fit into our house. We had to trim it down a bit to make it work. Isn't it such a beautiful farm??

I told you the tree was a huge tree! Almost as huge as the jacket I borrowed from Dad Fish haha  

The farm also had horses, so basically it was perfect.

Each year Camas (our town) has a tree lighting festival, Literally the whole town comes. There's a big count down, the tree is lit, fireworks go off, and it even snows (aka fake snow made out of soap).

and here is our very own tree. . . it takes up the whole living room, but that's the charm of living in a tiny home :) 

November

November came and went so quickly! Here are some highlights: 

Jen came to visit and it was the best weekend! Even though it was raining almost the entire time, that didn't stop us from getting out and enjoying the beauty of the northwest. We hiked in the Columbia Gorge, shopped, enjoyed  a movie night, and stayed up late chatting. Even though it had been almost 3 years since we'd seen each other, we didn't miss a beat. I love this girl!

November means hand dipped chocolates! I have been part of the Heppler family tradition of chocolate making for the past 4 years. I have topped chocolates, rolled fondant, and this year I was promoted to "runner". Basically this job entailed 12 jobs. Melting chocolate, serving melted chocolate, serving fondant, serving toppings, refilling water, washing dishes, transporting finished chocolates to the basement, preparing new chocolate trays, and the list goes on. I wish I had been wearing a Fitbit, because I think I easily hit my 10,000 steps! I woke up sore the next morning, but I sure had a blast!

finished chocolates

November also means family comes into town! I think we had a different activity planned every single night. We kicked off the week with a Fish family home evening. 

new crazy socks for FHE

Tuesday we went to see Fantastic Beasts. As a HP fan, I was impressed and not disappointed!

The rest of the week was filled with game nights and family time. Ironically, I did not take any pictures on Thanksgiving day. We played Turkey Bowl football in the rain and of course had a Thanksgiving feast with Brodie's extended family. 

All month Brodie did not shave for "No Shave November". This was the result, and he was quite proud. I could live with it for the month, but as soon as December 1 rolled around, the beard was out of there!