Preparations....

Christmas eve and getting ready for Santa.....making cookies, shoveling off the landing pad for Santa's arrival, the sprinkling of the reindeer food, and finishing it off with a glass of milk, cookies, and a note to Santa.

.....and Sahalie just along for the ride and enjoying every minute of it.

The Darkest Day of the Year....

We had our second annual solstice bonfire and we spruced it up quite a bit this year. Luminaries lighting up the path to the river, white lights on the trees, snowbots, and ice sculptures...move over Andy Goldsworthy, cuz Todd Arney's in town.

Breakfast with Santa...

We had breakfast with Santa one morning and of course Santa was a big hit, but so were those antlers.....Spencer wore them ALL day.

Ain't she sweet?

Festive Weekend....

Well, Paul broke his tradition after 12 years of living in Bend...he attended the Christmas parade. There was one point in the morning where both kids were crying, whining or whatever and Paul looked at me and said, "I have a great idea honey. Do you want to take the kids to the parade and I could stay home?" Now picture the look I gave him. It wasn't pretty.

Of course, after watching Spencer mesmerized by the whole thing, he was glad he went. My favorite part....the corgie's pulling the sled (as you can see from the photo, they were going so fast I barely caught it) and watching Spencer and his friend Owen with their arms around each other anxiously awaiting the next float. Too cute.

We wrapped up the rest of our weekend with the boy's annual beer tasting, the local performance of the Nutcracker, and the Deschutes Christmas party. Phew!
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