O Tannenbaum

We got a jump start on the holiday season today and drove somewhere east of North Bend to pay an absurd amount of money to cut down a Christmas tree ourselves. Being the true PNW outdoor types that we are, we thoroughly enjoyed the ruggedness and natural beauty of the..... Christmas tree farm with ample parking and perfectly spaced rows of Douglas and Noble Furs. Did I mention the hot apple cider and Christmas cookies? It was the only way to soothe Theo after he fell in the mud three consecutive times. These falls were perhaps a bit startling but certainly not painful. We think he was most upset with the mud on his hands. So we're a little soft. But I can’t imagine hiking into the National Forrest on snow shoes with a little kid to cut down our own despite the bargain basement price of the $10 permit required to do so. Who would place our tree on a mechanical shaker to remove the loose needles? Who would provide the saw? And most importantly, who would operate the mechanical bailer that condensed our puffy Noble Fur into an aerodynamic green missile that can be easily mounted to our front wheel drive station wagon. Does the Forrest Service provide rope?

Ok, the real reason for my post. Theo told us when we were preparing for this big adventure today that he wanted an orange Christmas tree. Naturally. Not sure what planted that seed in his head but we assured him that we wouldn’t be able to find an orange one and that he should be prepared to get a green one. Well not less than 10 yards from where we parked our car we stumbled upon this little gem. And while we didn’t take it home, I am pretty sure Theo enjoyed an “I told you so” moment at our expense.

guest appearance featuring:

Selim! He visited in early November (along with Pete and Ayse) and we shared a lovely rainy weekend in Seattle. Among many other fun things we staged a Theo and Selim photo shoot with them in their Door County tye dyes. Here is my favorite of the 36 pictures we took. Not easy to get an 8 month old AND a two year old to look at the camer at the same time.

Pictures from the whole weekend are here:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=245932869703%3A1360114611

halloween pictures

Pumpkin carving eve:

Mental prep on game day:
All set to go with Mommy:

Trick-or-treat-scream-a-thon on Queen Anne with the Tintles (Quincy pictured):

Not much candy collected in the end but Theo and Quincy thoroughly enjoyed bowls of ice-cream after we devoured pulled pork sandwiches from Seattle's mobile pig http://maximus-minimus.com/. After each bite they would exclaim how yucky their ice cream was and then laugh hysterically. 2 year-old irony?

pasta sauce, aka.....

meatball jelly. At least according to Theo it is. Theo always wants to know what is being made in the kitchen and so when Penny showed him what she was making the other day, this is what he intuitively called her creation.

theo digital art

Theo and I had fun with MS Paint this morning. He is just starting to be able to draw with the mouse, taking after his mommy of course. Here is a copy of our creation.

a baller?

Craig & Daph got Theo a new basketball that was signed by Chris Paul. Here's a little demo of his skills along with a message to Daph (and Craig).