Tillman got a SUPER long winter break: 23 December-16 January. Well, of course, it snowed like crazy last week, so I got him home for another week! I was praying for it. 
James only got 8 hours in because of it, but we had a good time. Our power did go out for a couple days, so we headed up to my mom’s, but other than that, I loved having the snow. Here is a snowman we all made together. Aren’t both of my boys so handsome?
Another graduation celebration for Tillman’s karate. He went up to an orange/white belt this time. I made 5 DOZEN cupcakes for the occasion, because last time I was super disappointed at the lack of celebratory treat. I didn’t get a picture of them, but wish I had. It was a lot of work, but I think they were a big hit.
Grandma came down for her birthday. We went to lunch, and I made her a cake.
Tillman made the decision to be saved on 10 December 2011. He had been wanting to for a very long time, but he never REALLY seemed ready. On that particular evening, he seemed ready – although it’s really just through him and God, so whether he’s ready or not, only he can tell. Anyway, he wanted to be baptized right away, but with the special services and such, today was the first day that he could do it. He was really excited and I think it was a good way to start out the new year. We are super proud of him, and, of course, love him to pieces.
Tillman and I heard on the radio or something about a family tradition of blowing up their gingerbread house they made at Christmas time. We thought that was a terrific idea, so we did it. Happy New Year.
One of Tillman’s gifts from Aunt Bethany was a volcano kit. It was really cool. He made a plaster mold, painted it, and then we started the chemical reaction! It was pretty cool, and Tillman really enjoyed himself.
Our Christmas went to fast – again. We did do a lot of festive things during the month, though, so it does feel like we adequately celebrated this year. Grandpa came over on Christmas Eve, and Grandma and Grandpa Chop-Chop came over on Christmas Day. We all got way too many gifts.
They were relaxing on the floor together the other day. Cute.
This year, I bought a pre-assembled Gingerbread house for us to decorate instead of buying one to put together. It was much more enjoyable.
My grandma had a long strand of pearls. She took it to a jeweler and had it restrung into two smaller strands for my sister and me. I love them. I asked James to take my picture this morning so I can send it to my grandma, but it’s actually a pretty good picture of me, so I thought I’d post it here as well.
Yesterday, we had tickets to Handle’s Messiah at the Seattle Symphony and had reservations for dinner at a nice-ish place downtown. The Symphony as enjoyable – for only me. James was bored (fell asleep a little even) and Tillman was flopping around through the whole thing. Afterwards, we went to dinner. We were finished and waiting for our check when the fire alarm went off. We assumed that someone had just gone out an emergency exit or something, but turns out there was a car on fire in the parking garage under the building our restaurant was in. They made us all evacuate and after about a half hour, the restaurant hostess said, “Thank you all for visiting us tonight. It’s on us.” I’m sure they will be able to file an insurance claim for it. Anyway, that ended up being pretty exciting and we got free dinner.
Friday was Ugly Christmas Sweater day at Tillman’s school. Since we don’t choose to buy him ugly clothes, and since I wasn’t going to buy him ugly clothing for this one occasion, I simply bought a red fleece and some Christmas stickers. His sweater was ugly, but now it’s just regular.
I have been baking cookies every few days. When I made the sugar cookies, Tillman wanted to help with the cutting and decorating. Here is a tree that we did together.
There is a park about 45 minutes away that is decorated like crazy for Christmas. We went this weekend. Tillman loves to stand up and stick his head through the moon roof.
Tillman and I took a toy to the fire department this year as a reminder of all the people with little this year.
We made it over to Leavenworth this year. We decided to stay in a hotel instead of driving back in case the weather was bad. We stayed in Wenatachee which is about 20 miles east of Leavenworth. It made the trip much more relaxing. The place was crazy crowded on Saturday, but when were stopped back by on Sunday, it was much less crowded and much more enjoyable.
We made our annual trip to the Christmas tree farm. It was a lot of fun – again. This year, Tillman was old enough to help saw the tree down and help carry it. When we first got there, we decided to take our time and look at ALL the trees. We put X’s next to the ones that we liked. We walked all through the place, and ended up cutting down the first tree that we marked. It’s perfect and glorious!
Here is James on his birthday, and all of us at the Space Needle hosted by my dad to celebrate our birthdays.
Tillman had Veteran’s Day off of school. He and I had a day of fun including doughnuts, painting a flag, decorated the house in red, white and blue, and building a fort.
We went to visit the troll and got some pictures of Tman being friends with it.
