The End of 2011

This post is very picture laden. December is a busy month! 

We started off with gingerbread houses. 

Kelsey and Rachel helped Ryan and Kathryn

Then Michael is home for the break and it's annual baking day.

the rolling of the Buckeyes

minor issue-Kathryn got stuck! really stuck! let's just say that we needed to fix our chair after it was said and done. :)

a few cookies to decorate

Serious cookie decorating happening here:

The day after baking, Michael had four wisdom teeth pulled. It went quite smoothly. Kelsey was disappointed that he didn't even get the chipmunk cheek look. 

We made a couple trips out to Enumclaw, my parents place.

Mt Rainier

detour to Zoo lights after the family party, met up with friends

Christmas eve at my parents

my girl and my daddy

Michael with a couple people he likes! 

the obligatory Christmas morning, by the tree, picture

Christmas Day evening we had a fabulous meal at the Miles. Since Monday was a holiday for all of us, we were going to go tubing with the Roberts clan. Well, who knew that the tickets would sell out? Thank goodness we discovered this online vs. after driving up to the pass. So, plan B was to go hiking at Wallace Falls. The weather held out, and it was a great hike. And on the way home we stopped at Five Guys for lunch. Yum.

I spoiled myself this month. I bought a new Garmin watch for my running. Michael was quite happy to get the older one. I think Michael is becoming a true distance runner. He's been out with me on some long runs lately. He has even surpassed me, getting up to 15.5 miles. I'm up to 12. My heel is a little more crabby. I'm so sick of it!! I'm going to see someone that does ART (Active Release Technique) to see if she can help. She comes with great references. 

My other spoiling, actually benefits the kids too. We are going to see Coldplay this spring. YAY!

Kelsey has submitted the third out of four applications to colleges. Soon it will be the waiting game. She actually knows that on April 1st (yes, April fools day) after 3pm, she will receive an email from Stanford with her acceptance or denial. Weird. The UW should have an answer to her prior to that, sometime in March. Those are her two main schools. 

For Christmas, Pat has contributed to my running passion: with a nice gift certificate to Brooks Outlet and more importantly, plans to register me and the kids to run, and maybe he to walk, the Disneyland half marathon on Labor Day weekend!! Woohoo! I hope we can make it work. 

I had a very nice Christmas. We have no plans for New Years. I'm not sure I'll blog again this week/year. 

HAPPY 2012!!