The Brighter Side of Christmas

We kept things super simple this year. We got each of the kids a few things we knew they’d enjoy, nothing that cost more than $10. As long as they are happy with simple, we’ll keep giving them just that. They couldn’t have been more excited. Every little thing Santa (and Justin and I) gave them was wonderful in their eyes.

Jason was content playing with the orange Santa left for him. (Notice Carly showing off her new undies)…

...until he opened the miniature football and soccer ball Daddy gave him. If Justin has any say in the matter, Jason will be ultra-athletic.


Carly asked Santa for Icebreakers. He gave each of the girls two packages in their stockings. With the two packages my Mom sent a few weeks earlier, and the package Abigail gave Carly for Christmas, Carly had plenty. Yesterday Carly gave Justin a package. Knowing how much she loves them that gesture was sweeter than any present she could have given.


Abigail was thrilled with the camera my Mom sent. She’s been taking pictures ever since. Perfect gifts, Mom – thanks!

That afternoon we headed over to Justin's parents house where there’s nothing simple about Christmas. His Mom even does stockings for us.

Abigail and her cousin asked Santa for a Nintendo DS and Grandma Fletcher decided that it would be best as a family gift. Abigail was super excited when she opened it up. We’ve avoided video games up until this point, but we thought this would be great to have while traveling. After only one day, Justin’s already admitting we might have to lay some ground rules for HIS own good.

Sorry for the blurry picture. Maybe this time next year I’ll have the SLR that I so desperately want (hint, hint). Now that I think of it instead of getting our van towed and repaired, we could have purchased a fancy camera, bummer.

The girls looking through the book we gave Grandma Fletcher for Christmas. Justin and I have been married for nearly 10 years now… crazy huh? Each year we’ve been together has a page full of pictures of our family.

The kids love the Curious George book and toy their cousins gave them – thanks guys!

Apparently I also have Justin’s sister, Tami to thank for Jason’s favorite gift. I have a tradition in my family that when a sibling’s oldest child turns one-year-old they receive a popper. We carried that tradition on into Justin’s family over five years ago and blessed the Baumgartner household with a popper. At the suggestion of Tami, Justin’s mom bought Jason his very own popper for Christmas. Don’t you just love noisy toys? Thanks Tami!

This is the yard of the man who says it never snows in Seattle. It does look beautiful though.

Thanks to all our wonderful friends and family for a great Christmas!

Out of the ditch!

Aside from the car incident, we had a great Christmas. I have lots of pictures to share, but I want to first give a quick update.

Sleeping at Grandma & Grandpa’s house was super exciting for the girls and we had a fun time playing Settlers after the kids went to sleep.

We spent all morning on the phone trying to find a tow truck willing to pull us out.

When we finally got someone there they said it was too risky to try to get the van out. The worry was that the back end would slide into the fence and result in further damage. He didn’t want to be liable for that so he told us we needed to find someone with a bigger rig.

More phone calls.

Found someone 20 miles away willing to come out for a hefty hourly fee.

It took him nearly an hour to get there (on the clock of course).

He arrived and was shocked tow truck #1 wouldn’t get us out. He didn’t have any problem.

Passing by the spot as we make the trek to the van.

Nearly $300 dollars later we’re all safely back home.

Now to make phone calls to replace the side mirror.

Our Christmas Adventure

The fence is lined with barbwire so in the morning we may also find some additional damage to our paint job.

The branches on the left Justin was avoiding

No luck getting out. No tow truck willing to help.

Merry Christmas and we're in the ditch!

So my Christmas lesson learned is to keep going straight in deep snow on your parent's driveway even if low branches might scratch the side. Otherwise you might end up in the ditch on the side of a fence with no sideview mirror, digging out the snow and then sleeping over waiting for a tow. I don't think Holly is too happy with me right now.

Merry Christmas!

"It NEVER snows in Seattle"

Shortly after Justin and I officially started dating, he asked me if I would come up to Seattle to visit his parents during Christmas break. Of course I was nervous to meet the folks and worried that people would think things between us were pretty serious (we hadn’t even kissed at this point). Anyhow, as the weeks passed leading up to our trip to the Northwest our relationship did become serious. In fact it was in his parent’s living room, 10 years ago this very week that we decided to get engaged.

We ended up having to spend the majority of those few days at his parent’s house because of snow. His Dad told me over and over that it NEVER snows in Seattle. According to him it was a complete fluke.

As Justin neared graduation from BYU a few years later we thought about where we wanted to move to. His Dad (knowing I don’t hot temperatures and driving in snow) continued to sell us on Seattle by telling us that the summers were NEVER hot and that it NEVER snows.

Well, we’ve been in the Northwest for almost 8 years and its snowed EVERY SINGLE year. I actually like the snow as long as I don’t have to go anywhere. It reminds me of home.

Unfortunately, Seattle is completely unprepared for any amount of snow. Even a half an inch will close down the schools, everyone stays home from work, the city basically shuts down. School was closed last Thursday and Friday, church was cancelled yesterday, we’re staying at home and the kids are loving the white stuff.

I think this year we’ve received the most snow. Abigail measured nearly 12 inches this morning. Looks like we’ll be enjoying a white Christmas.

The girls found it a little difficult to get down the slide.

Look at those cute little frozen cheeks! He really didn’t want to come inside.

Day Six - Statue of Liberty

On our last day in the city we decided to take the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. I wasn’t too excited. I thought that seeing it from Manhattan was good enough. I was wrong. I am so glad we took the time to go over. Seeing it up close definitely gives you the proper perspective.

(We were able to go up to the top of the platform – this is how close we were to Lady Liberty)

Our hotel was right next to Grand Central Station. On our way to the airport I quickly took a picture. I went in and out of that building countless number of times.

It’s a good thing we came home when we did. The following day hundreds of flights from NYC were delayed and/or cancelled. The kids had a great time with Grandma Fletcher while we are gone and we’re so grateful she was willing to spend that time with them.

Day Four & Five - Rockettes and Broadway

Two of the many things I was looking forward to about our trip were: One, being kid-free and Two, being kid-free AND husband-free. On Monday Justin started his two day conference and on Monday I started my two day… well, I started MY two days. I’m a city girl. I love the crowds. I love riding the subway. I love the fast pace.
Monday was unusually warm – in the 60’s while Tuesday was snowing. The days flew by too quickly. I spent most of these two days shopping. I don’t love shopping, but how can you be in NYC and not shop? I was disappointed that I didn’t come home with everything I had hoped, but come to find out I have the same issues finding clothing in NYC that I do in Seattle.

Monday night Justin and I attended the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. It was, well, spectacular. The Rockettes are amazing… worth all the hype and boy can they kick! The show was fun and we’d definitely like to take the kids to it someday.

Tuesday night we saw Wicked on Broadway. Wow, it was awesome! If anyone ever has the chance to go – do it. I’d definitely put it up there with Les Miserable and Lion King. Excellent show!

Day Three – Adios New Jersey, Hello Big Apple

Mike serves in a Spanish branch at church so we attended his branch meeting. Both Mike and Justin served missions in Spain so they could understand the meeting, but for me, not at all. It was interesting though.

After church Jen dropped us off at the train station to make our way into the city.

We visited the New York City Temple (the building was closed so we only got as far as the front door).

Then we walked through Central Park. Even in the winter it was beautiful. There was so much to see. Such a dramatic change from the city.

That evening we met my favorite roommate from BYU for dinner. We hadn’t seen each other since I came to NYC to visit her over five years ago. We had a great time catching up. Over the past 10+ years so much has changed, yet we are still so much the same too. I guess I didn’t expect that. It was a great visit… this woman is amazing (talented, beautiful, strong, classy….)

Day Two – Hershey, Pennsylvania

Saturday was our day to spend with the Gibbs family. In the morning Justin and Mike took the kids to George Washington’s headquarters while I slept in a tad and Jen did a little shopping. Justin enjoys historical sites, me – not so much.

By noon we were all on our way to Hershey, Pennsylvania. Once there we learned a little about how chocolate is made and took a very cheesy tour of the town. It involved a trolley full of tourists singing Christmas carols, a teenage boy speaking (and singing) in a fake Irish accent, and a visit from Santa Claus. The most disappointing however was the kazoos Santa passed out at the end of the tour (mine didn’t even work). Kazoos – at a chocolate factory – where is the logic in that? It thought it was cool to see the big Hershey kiss street lights along Hershey street, nice touch.

It was a fun day trip and we really enjoyed spending it with friends.

Day One - New York City

We had a great time in New York City. There is so much to do that even after spending 4-5 days there I still feel like I missed out on some things. We took a ton of pictures so be warned these will be long (and probably quite boring) posts, but I need to write about it while it’s still fresh otherwise I won’t remember what half our pictures were (I’m actually on the plane home as I type, can’t get much fresher than that.)

We spent the first few nights staying in New Jersey with our good friends Jen & Mike Gibbs. It worked our really well because Mike was in Seattle for business so he flew into New Jersey on the same flight as us. On Friday morning Mike needed to work in Manhattan so we bummed a ride into the city with him. This was our first day in the city. After a quick look at Time Square we jumped on the subway and headed downtown to the World Trade Center site. The area his actually under construction so there wasn’t much to see. We did see a memorial to the firefighters lost on 911 and a sculpture that survived the tragedy of that day.

We walked around Wall Street. Justin took some pictures of financial buildings and we found a street bearing our name (see Justin’s post below). There were a group of policeman on a corner and one was holding some serious artillery. I suggested that Justin take a picture of him from a distance (in a totally-play-it-cool way), instead Justin walked right up to him and took his time taking the picture. I tried to pretend I wasn’t with him… seriously, aren’t tourists crazy? Justin also took a picture of a parking garage. He thought it was pretty cool that in order to maximize space the cars are moved around on an elevator. Another of Justin’s pictures was of a torn up street. In a city this big there will always be plenty of construction going on.

We spent a little time at South Street Seaport (took a few quick photos of the Brooklyn Bridge (and Manhattan Bridge)).

Then it was time for lunch. So where does one eat in a city with a bazillion restaurants? I decided to try to find Penang, a Malaysian restaurant a college friend took me to when I visited NYC in 2003. My friend had ordered spicy mango chicken. It tasted great and the presentation was memorable. So we headed to SoHo and were disappointed to find that that location was closed. Justin and I ate at another Penang location on a different day. Presentation was still impressive, but the chicken didn’t measure up to my strict chicken standards.


Luckily, I had done my research and had read great reviews about Lombardi’s Pizza (the first pizza restaurant in NYC). We both thought it was excellent. After lunch we walked around Chinatown and ate a pastry in Little Italy.

Our next stop was probably Justin’s favorite of the whole trip… the Top of the Rock. The views were amazing (even on a cold, cloudy day). As Justin mentioned, my favorite is seeing Central Park. It’s incredible to see such a huge park surrounded by one of the largest cities in the world.

Justin was equally taken by the Empire State Building. He took SO many pictures (including several self-portraits). We went to the very top of the Rock – the only thing taller than us were the antennas.

(see Justin's post below -here- for our favorite pictures of the city from atop the Rockefeller Center)

We stayed long enough to see the views by daylight and after the sunset… definitely the best way to do it.

Back in Rockefeller Center the famous Christmas tree was lit (gorgeous… it made me rethink my previous preference for all white Christmas tree lights). We watched the ice-skaters and looked at the Saks windows before it was time to meet up with Mike and head back to New Jersey for the night.

Wow! And that was only Day One.

Snow Day

Today the kids and I are enjoying a snow day. Normally I would LOVE to have a day where the kids and I are stuck at home. However, after being out of town for a week I have a lot of running around I needed to get done today. Oh well. The kids got bundled up this morning and joined the neighborhood kids in the fresh snow. Even Jason got in on the action (he loved riding on the sled and running around with the big kids).

I’ve got lots of pictures to share in NYC so stay tuned. I typed most of it on the plane, but I need Justin to email me the file. He made the mistake of trying to go to work today. It took nearly 3 hours for him to get to the office only to find out nobody was there. For the past two hours he’s been trying to get home (he thinks he still has a least two more til he actually gets home.) Justin is NOT enjoying his snow day.