SCREENSAVER

This Rhonda's screensaver picture of her two girls. I just love this picture of Emma and Elsie (glasses). Mimi says that she loves being on the same gymnastic team with them. Last week Emma was really on cloud nine because she mastered doing a "kip" on the bars and a "ariel" (cartwheel where the hands do not touch the ground) on the mat.

SANTA

On the way to Ms Celia's house for piano lessons, Mimi and I had a
discussion on Santa Clause. We were talking about our plans for this
coming Wednesday. I told Mimi that Santa had stopped by the house for
a short while when she was in school and he gave me some money to buy
her piano, school, and gymnastic teacehers plus her big sister a
present this year. "You mean you saw Santa today?" she asked wide
eyed. "Oh yes" I said. "All of the mom and dads know Santa on a
personal basis. Since there are sooo many kids in this world Santa
needs a whole lot of help". "You know mom, I wish that us kids could
see the "real" Santa instead of the fake ones.

Sent from my iPhone

CROUCHING TIGERESSES

Today we have our usual gloomy weather and freezing cold outside. John
came over to help dad put up the Christmas lights while the girls were
busy playing Kung Fu.

THE LIGHTING OF THE STAR.

The lighting of the star and the firework show that follows marks the beginning of the Christmas season for those Washitonians (I still consider myself and always will a native Californian).

A VISIT FROM ST. NICK

There was also the carolers who sang just about any Christmas carol old and new.

WINTERFEST

We finally made it to the Westlake Center where the festivities were going on. Took these pictures while were waiting for Santa to arrive and starting the lighting of the star atop the Macy's formerly known as the Bon Marche department store. Although it was Black Friday, I did not do any shopping as there was a gazillion people everywhere. I was sooooo glad that we took the light rail into town and did not have to deal with the traffic jam on the streets. However we did have to deal with the human traffic jam for a short while. Don't know what was behind the protesting. Dad went to go find out but they had already dispersed.

PIONEER SQUARE SHOPS

Pioneer Square is the old part of downtown Seattle and it is full of old buildings and quaint little shops. I have to mention that the reason why Mimi has her hands up like paws and her tongue hanging out is because for the past year or so she likes to pretend that she is a dog. It drives me nuts sometimes. Hopefully she will outgrow this stage soon.

ITALIAN COFFEE SHOP

The name escapes me at this moment but there is a little small Italian coffe shop in Pioneer Square that Uncle David's childhood friend Curtis brought us to about 3 years ago when we were here on Christmas vacation with the family. So this is where we took the kids. Blake says it was the best strawberry ice cream that he has ever had. So good that he went back for another scoop. It was actually strawberry gelato that both he and Mimi scarfed down.

PIONEER SQUARE

Mimi and Blake hopping, skipping and jumping down Pioneer Square playing "Step on a crack and break your mother's back"

OFF TO SEATTLE

Dad wanted to stay home and Mimi and myself wanted to go out. Dad said he wanted to stay home cause he goes out everyday when he goes to work. I on the other hand have been cooped up when I am not taking Mimi to either school, piano lessons or gymnastics. I desperately needed some contact with the outside world or I would just go mad. So I told dad that he could stay home if he wanted too but Mimi and I were going into Seattle to the Winterfest. Dad being dad is someone who rrreeeaaalllly hates to miss out on anything even though he will never in his life admit to anything came with us. So after Testy Chef we swung by the house to pick up Blake. He and dad are so much alike. Keri says that Blake would jump on a sinking ship if he knew his friends were on it. Sooo..... off to downtown Seattle we go on the lightrail.

TESTY CHEF

Now that Thanksgiving is over, I refused to cook so off to Testy Chef we went for lunch. We just missed the breakfast shift. Mimi loves her hot chocolate especially in the Winter time.

THANKSGIVING DAY CONTINUED

When dinner was over, Brandy and her family came to the house for desert. They brought over some delicious homemade apple pie and some not so sweet pumpkin pie. They forgot to put the sweetner in it but it was not too bad when you put the homemade whipping cream on it. Mimi just had a grand time showing off to her friends and family. Then both Mimi and Halliwell showed off their gymnastic skills. Little Mc Callister loves hanging out with the two girls and grandma got a chance to hold baby Therrian "Therrie".

THANKSGIVING DAY

Thanksgiving day started off with mom cooking breakfast and a phone call to her favorite "Cuz" Mari. She just thinks the world of her Mari. So do we. Then it was time to cook the turket. Nothing fancy as grandma and grandpa likes their food on the bland side of life. Therefore it was pretty easy. Just some butter, little salt and Paprika for the coloring. Turkey came out pretty good if I do say so myself.

HITTING THE SLOPES

While Mimi's friend Samantha is on a cruise just soaking up some sun, Mimi is up here in the northwest hitting the slopes. She went with dad yesterday and could not wait to go. It was as if she had ants in her pants. Crystal Mountain is trying to get more families up there so now they have a deal going on. Any kid under the age of 10 can ski free. I know that Mimi wore herself out yesterday because she was one big grump butt this morning. But just just like her dad won't admit to anything. "I AM NOT TIRED!!!" the girl tells me at 8:00 last night.

FAMILY TRADITIONS

This year I am starting with a new family tradition. I got the idea from Keri that she says started as a fluke. What happened was that a couple of years ago she packed away her family album along with the Christmas decorations and then completely forgot about it until she opened the decoration box the very next year. The album contained all of her Christmas pictures from the year before. I thought that was a great idea and so I started one myself the other day and Mimi has a blast looking at the pictures from when she had her first Christmas here until the one we had last year when we had so much snow. Not sure if we will have as much snow this year as we did last year though. It is however already started snowing up in the Cascades and the passes about 3 weeks ago. Just last week it snowed up in Tiger Summit.

PARENT/TEACHER CONFERENCE

This week and next week will be early release days due to the parent/teacher conference. This afternoon was our turn. Mimi went home with Julia (Olivia's mom) while dad and I went to talk with Ms. Greenfield. It turned out just like we expected it would. For the most part Mimi did pretty good. On a scale from 1-4, with 4 being the best, Mimi got mostly 3's with a couple of 4's sprinkled here and there. Her strengths lie in reading and math. Ms. Greenfield says that when she asks Mimi to tell her a story about herself, she will make up a very wild and imaginative story to tell her. "Writing will be my main focus with Naomi. We'll be working on developing some spelling patterns, writing lower case letters and developing a nice voice in writing. Naomi sometimes has difficulty thinking of what to write and she would really like to make up stories instead of telling true stories. I enjoy having Naomi. She is my reminder that they are just little kids and sometimes they just want to play! So far, her playful spirit and her social nature are not causing any harm to her academic progress so she just gets reminder now and then. Hopefully, the need for her to focus and be persistent in her work will not be necessary until she is a bit older. In the meantime, she is fun to have in class." Focusing on not goofing off when she is supposed to be paying attention is something we are working on at the moment. Not only in school but in gymnastic class as well. Last Tuesday when her gymnastic class was over, she came flying upstairs "Mom, I have something to tell you. Allison said to Danielle that when I get in trouble 20 times, I have to go into time out and without getting any stickers." I asked the girl, "So tell me, how many times have you gotten into trouble?' To which the child answered "19 times". I just hung my head, shook it and gave one big long, long, LONG sigh. That's our Mimi.

NEW SHOES

Went back to the mall today to get a warmer snow jacket at the
Children's Place where we have a credit account. What happens when mom
and dad don't communicate with each other? A double payment gets made,
that's what. At least we are in the black as oposed to the horrible
red. Of course I could not help myself when I passed The Walking
Company. This is the more modern way to measure yor feet. You learn
something new each day.

AT THE MALL

I think that this is the best way to go through the mall.

GROOVEY SMOOTHIE

Mmm, mmm, good!

RED ROBIN WORD SEARCH

This is one of Mimi's favorite things to do while waiting for her
food. Others include playng ja-Ken-po aka rock, paper, scissors or
telling jokes, why did the rooster cross the road......

PRE-COMP MEET

Yesterday morning was Mimi's first real competition ever. I must say
that she did pretty darn good if I do say so myself. The real fun
begins in this upcoming January when the cometitions really do count.
However for some of the Oder and more exerienced girls like Emma, it's
already started.

COMPETITION

Getting ready for her very first meet tomorrow morning.

COMPUTER LAB

Today was comuter lab day and instead of making designs Ms. Greenfield
had them do math games while she tested students one by one in order
to get them ready for next week's parent/teacher conferences. It's
that time of the year again. Can you believe it?

RAPPER GIRL

A princess we do not have. Mimi says that there are several ways to wear a cap and this is her "Cool Dancer" look.

BAKUGAN

While eating dinner tonight, our good friend and neighbor Krista stopped by the house to give Mimi a "just because" present. Times being what they are, we all shop the Goodwill Thrift store at times. She said that she went the Goodwill in Bellevue and saw this on the rack. Brand spank'in new. Still had the tags on it and she thought of Mimi. Bless her heart. Mimi could not get into them fast enough to suit her.

WINTER ENSEMBLE

Winter will be here before you know it. In fact I saw on Mimi's school calendar that this coming Saturday marks the official first day of winter. It seems just like yesterday that we were sweltering in 100 degree heat. In fact today we actually had a break in the gloom. Almost everyone was out and about. Mimi and I took advantage of the weather and went out to Target for the snow boots and Uwajimaya for lunch. When we got home we went to the neighborhood park to have some fun. Even Butch got to have some fun playing with the kids.

Mimi has outgrown her ski clothes from last year and is out of the ski bibs. She has graduated to pants. This is only 1/10 th of the snow clothes she has. It is not counting how many pairs of scarfs and gloves and caps she has. The white coat is what she wears to school and you may have noticed the lime green jacket. There is a reason for that and the reason is......it seems that almost everyone on the slopes has either a red or black outfit. The little boys usually wear black or blue and the little girls are in red or pink. With this lime green jacket, we will be able to spot Mimi quite easily. Fortunately as of now she does not need new ski boots but dad says that he is going to take both his and Mimi's ski's in to get the bindings readjusted.

SPY KID STRIKES AGAIN

Last night after piano practice, we called up Sara to see if she would like to go out and have dinner with us at Chuck E. Cheese down by her house and of course she was ecstatic. So that is what we did. While the girls had fun running around playing with the games, saying hello to the mouse and taking pictures, Daphne and mom had a good time enjoying some girlfriend time together. We did call dad to invite him but he said that he was going to stay and work late. Poor guy. Around 6:30 we dropped Sara and Daphne at home and stayed for a while. Sara has gotten Mimi interested in the Spy Kids Movie and she loves all of the equipment that comes with it. While there we got a phone call from dad saying that his car was locked in the parking garage and the attendents had already gone home. Although dad did mention that he would not mind to stay at a hotel/motel, I know dad, he would prefer to be at home in our cozy bed, with his family at home, be able to shower in the morning and have clean clothes available to him. Wouldn't you? Instead of staying at some sleazy motel and paying an arm and a leg? Therefore I told that I would come up there and pick him up. So I did. I packed up Mimi and off we went in the pouring rain driving all the way up to Everett and back. We got home around 11:00 last night. Then again early this morning we took him to work. I came home and dropped Mimi off at school (we were about a hour and a half late) and went right back to bed for a 2 hour nap. Now it's time to clean out my car and get ready to take Mimi to gymnastic practice. The things we do for love.

Collections

Ever since Mimi was a baby she was collecting rocks. I followed her
teachers suggestion and put the in a container however I draw the line
when it comes to leaf collecting.She likes to leave them all over the
house.