verdict is in: riley loves the snow!

both yesterday and today tyler needed my car to get to work, so riley and i have been house-bound. both days we have only ventured out once to take a walk to the store (just two short blocks away) to pick up a few items. today i decided to let riley play in the snow. this is her first real snow, as last year she was just barely a month old when it first snowed. don't mind her horribly mis-matched snow outfit. we mostly dress her in hand-me-downs and consignment store finds, so we just kind of go with it :). she was pretty excited to walk around in the snow and kept trying to run down the front lawn, only to fall and not be able to get up. It was pretty funny. This whole event didn't even last 10 minutes!

i took this picture just out of my front window - what a beautiful ending to a low-key day.

tonight we are packing for our trip to spokane tomorrow. we hope that we can make it - the pass is supposed to be pretty snowy, and spokane has several feet of snow. it should be interesting, especially since we have to take our dog and are also picking up tyler's brother jon and his son bjorn. a squishy car! we will (hopefully) spend a full week in spokane with tyler's family for christmas - a first for us. then we will spend just a few days in seattle before we head back home the 28th.

i have much more to update - but will maybe have to wait until later. a peaceful and joyful christmas to everyone, if i don't get back here before then.

let it snow!

our tree

on monday night we ventured out in search of the perfect christmas tree. except this year was a bit different than in years past. instead of cutting down a tree like we did last year, we drove the 5 minutes to youngstocks (a local produce stand) found the smallest (and cheapest!) tree, threw it in the back of our car and were home about 15 minutes later. talk about quick and efficient!

we decided on small tree this year mostly because of the adventures of our lovely little walking gal and her grabby hands. i imagined her pulling the tree on top of her, so i figured a 4 foot tree was a much nicer option than a 6 or 8 foot tree. we put riley to bed, then tyler and i spent the evening decorating the tree and house. we had candles lit, christmas music playing and were enjoying a nice dark seasonal ale. it was a lovely evening and the first festive event of the season for us.

(notice daddy's two helpers in the photo below!)