Christmas Eve in Spokane

It's hard to believe another Christmas has passed and a new year is coming this week! We had a joyous holiday with both families in Spokane and Colfax complete with too much food, lots of playing with cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents and of course too many presents! So many we had to have Uncle Mike and Auntie Robyn bring home a load for us!
We spent the days leading up until Christmas day in Spokane. We braved the snowy weather and went to the children's mass on Christmas Eve then headed back to my parents for the evening. This year Dylan had his cousins Evan, Dominic, Maria, Christina and Brian to join in all of the holiday fun! Needless to say it was a bit on the noisy side at my parents house on Christmas Eve but very festive!

Here are the kids caroling to the neighbors- a new tradition!

We had an asian feast complete with pancit, lumpia and Kevin's chinese bbq pork. Yum!

Darcy was hard at work in the kitchen.

The adult table.
The rowdy kid's tableUncle Kevin and nephew Evan playing a mean game of "pink hands"

Darcy and I enjoying a glass of wine. Can you tell we are sisters??

The kids got to open one present on Christmas Eve- Dylan received a Buzz Lightyear doll from Grammy and Bapa.

Christmas morning- Dylan discovered that Santa left him a cool new kitchen. It only took "Santa" 3 hours to put it together!

I will post more pictures from the Lee/Eng/Largent celebration in Colfax too. Kevin's mom got a fancy new camera so I let her take all of the pictures!

(Beyond) Snowy Spokane

We made it to Spokane Saturday evening just in time to avoid the second round of winter weather headed to the Seattle area. The roads were better than we could have imagined and the trip was all in all stress free. Even though I had heard just how much snow there was in Spokane I was shocked when we got past Cheney and saw it for myself. Definitely more than I ever remember growing up here! The crazy thing is it just keeps snowing! Yesterday, while downtown we saw a snow plow hooked up to an auger (sp)that was emptying the snow into dump trucks to haul it away. There literally is not enough room on the streets to push it off to the sides anymore.
We are spending our days before Christmas relaxing, and thanks to all-wheel drive finishing a little shopping (including buying snow boots for me since I need them here)and visiting with friends. Dylan is loving the sled rides, cousin time, and having both parents around all day to cater to his every need. An attempt to take him to see Santa Claus at Riverpark Square was a bust yesterday....Dylan wouldn't even go near him! Oh well maybe next year!

A little puzzler

Dylan is loving puzzles right now. Lastnight after some rambunctious wrestling play with Mom and Dad he quietly went to work on his 12 piece truck puzzles. I couldn't resist taking a little video of his determination. He is so proud when he does it "all by myself!"

Kevin's Christmas Present

Kevin (and I) got our Christmas present early this year....we finally broke down and upgraded our TV. He somehow managed to convince me that we "needed" a 46" screen. I must say I've enjoyed it and our new DVR capabilities the past few days that I've been snowed in at home!

Countdown to Christmas!

Life has been keeping us busy the past few weeks as usual. Since taking over for a third grade teacher who is out on maternity leave I've been adjusting back to life in the classroom and luckily it's been a pretty smooth transition other than I had forgotten how busy things get while handling 22 nine-year-olds for whole day! Needless to say I was a bit out of shape since I haven't had a classroom for four plus years! While I do love the classroom setting I long for my part-time status-- I just can't seem to get much done on the homefront....let alone updating this blog! Fortunately this week's wild weather has provided me and Dylan to stay home later Monday and Tuesday mornings due to snow, home all day Wednesday even though the snow never appeared, and home again today because it's snowing like crazy right now!
I finally broke down yesterday and purchased a new digital camera since I still haven't gotten mine back from the Coug! I just couldn't stand the thought of not having one to take some pictures during the holidays.
We are looking forward to our trip to Spokane/Colfax and are planning to leave Sunday (although it might end up not being the best day for travel). Spokane has been literally dumped on with snow and I know my parents and sister's families are feeling a bit snowbound. Atleast I know we'll have a white Christmas this year! Better pack all the snow gear!

Catching up

So I have been a terrible blogger the past few weeks. First of all I have no clue where November went.....can't quite believe it's December 1st today!
Here's some highlights of the last few weeks:

APPLE CUP- We made the trek east a few weekends ago and were able to take part in the Cougar victory at Apple Cup. I absolutely love Pullman on game weekends as it is such a fun atmosphere and always so many friends that we run into. Perhaps we (and by "we" I mean "I") celebrated a bit too much at the Coug after the game but who can blame us!
As a side note, I left my camera at the Coug (a result of too much celebrating) and have not gotten it back yet....hence no pictures for this blog entry!

THANKSGIVING- We hosted dinner at our place this year and had a total of 11 guests. Our guests included our parents, aunts, uncles and Dylan's great-grandma Eng. A good day of feasting was had by all, and thanks to my mom's help, dinner went off without a hitch.

Dylan continues to keep us busy, entertained and at times exhausted. He is already very excited for Christmas and as we set up our tree yesterday and turned on the lights he exclaimed "Mommy, Santa is going to love it!" It's surely to be an exciting season for him. Yesterday we took him to his first movie Madagascar 2 and he was thrilled! When the movie was over he told us he wanted to go again. Too cute!