Thank you everyone!

Once again, my children received so many gifts from our family that Jeff and I were tempted to take back the gifts we bought them simply because they would not have noticed! But seriously, thank you so much to the grandparents and great-grandparents and aunts and uncles who just could not resist- we have more than we could ever have asked for, and we are exceedingly grateful! One of my favorite gifts, my new pots and pans, have me singing Grandma and Grandpa Stinebring's praises, as I have discovered a new favorite recipe: oven-roasted chicken with garlic and rosemary, browned on the stovetop and then transferred to the oven to finish, resulting in tender, juicy meat. Jeff can't stop playing his new XBOX game, the newest Call of Duty, and so my daughters will grow up accustomed to the sound of machine guns in the background. Abby has so many toys that sing, flash, pop, and teach the alphabet that she hardly knows what to do with herself, so she has begun an intense campaign to chew upon and eat all of them before her first birthday so we will have room for more. One of Charlie's most memorable presents, but one that we regrettably could not keep, was a 6-foot-in-diameter Princess Castle tent, which took up literally every inch of space between our kitchen, living room, and hallway in such a manner that I actually had to crawl through it in order to get to the bathroom. We were all laughing so hard as we set it up because it just kept getting bigger and bigger, and then it required tent poles, and the next thing we knew, it had lights flashing like a Vegas hotel and more turrets than the Excalibur, and I thought maybe we could put it outside for out of town visitors to stay in, as it was nicer than my apartment. So it went back to California with Grandpa and Grandma, but Charlie was consoled by her other dolls, dollhouse, castle, books, games, tiny amusement park, and so on. So we are quite spoiled, and we would like to say a big thank you to all of you! Lots of love, and we will see you soon!

A White Christmas

We had our second beautiful white Christmas in Washington, and I still am in awe that I live somewhere that snows in the winter and can look so amazing! For Jeff, however, the shine has come off, or should we say, the chains have come off? He seemed to have one problem after another with the chains on his patrol car, from two flat tires (on two consecutive days, no less) to near-spin-outs to losing chains and his cell phone in the snow in front of our house. He spent a few days shoveling the station parking lot, which got him major brownie points with the chief, but it was not to show off--all of the police cars were frozen in the lot, and no one could get in or out of the station because of the slab of ice underneath the several inches of snow. At our apartment, we received a total of 19 inches of the white stuff in just two days, and then it melted, and then after New Year's we got 8 more in just one night. The good news: because we are high enough to get all of this snow, we are high enough not to have any flooding, a huge blessing when we watch the news about the rest of our poor state. At any rate, I still think it is beautiful, but I don't have to drive in it. And Charlie sure loves to play in it!