Days of Christmas: Auntie Emily

During our trip to Central Oregon, Alma got to meet and fall in love with her Auntie Emily. 

Days of Christmas: Walking

We had a great visit to Oregon for Christmas.  Since I snapped so many photos (336!) and want to share some of the good ones that summarize our trip, I'm going to spread them out over the next week.  Enjoy!

Beyond the wonderful visiting with family, one of the most notable events of the trip was Alma learning to walk.  Sure, she has done tons of first steps, but on Christmas Eve she decided to walk across the room. 

It was so exciting and I'm thrilled that we were able to experience this first with the Chisholm side of the family.  I will always remember Vickie's screams of excitement and encouragement. 

Happy 30th Birthday, Joshua!

One of the best parts of Joshua's birthday: The giant chicken/singing telegram Emily sent

Visitors

With all of the hulla-balu about Simon, we haven't written about the great visitors we have been hosting the last couple weeks.

The weekend after our trip to Seattle, Emily came to visit! It was so fun to have her out here a second time. Mainly we sat around, drank too much and had a fun time catching up. We were able to celebrate our anniversary with her at the local rock climbing gym. Emily also got to be there when we met Simon for the first time!

Here's us enjoying a pancake breakfast by candlelight.
One night, we played Scrabble. But we changed the rules a bit -- all the words had to be poorly spelled slang (i.e. "boyz"), proper names or sounds. We ended up with a lot of sentences that had to read by the player in order to be properly understood. Just so you know, this was the most enjoyable game of Scrabble EVER.

Okay, I'll help you out a little...

• GY = Gee, why?
• CDEMPOPO = See dem po-po (See the police)
• RRRELY = Reeeeealy
• CUNDAR = See you in there

Last weekend, Mom Thompson came out for a quick over-night stay. She got to meet Simon (yeah, everything is going to be related to the dog) and go on a long walk along the Wissahickon with us. While Joshua was at work on Monday, we got a mani-pedi, drove around in a convertible Mini Cooper and visited Bridgette and Baby Flickr Francis, who is getting big and even cuter! It was nice Mom set aside some time to visit with us.

This upcoming weekend we will host Heather, who just returned from a chunk of time in Thailand where we studied abroad together. Should be fun!

Winter Coat Time! And the Death of the 'Stash

Here at Casa de Chisholms, we celebrate the little things. Like the official switching from our fleeces to our winter coats! Doesn't get better. The other day we decorated the house -- ornaments hang from the chandelier and the ceiling fan due to our noticeable lack of tree (next year, next year ...) -- and went out for a drink to celebrate the occasion. May not seem like a big celebration but, for us, it was perfect.

Unfortunately, folks, this is the last photo you will see of Joshua's mustache. It died in a fit of frustration at how much it obstructed the eating process -- "och, that hurt" was a common theme as the mustache tried to be consumed along with dinner. While I loved the 'stache for the first five months, by month six I missed seeing my husbands lovely smile (*ahhhh*).

That mustache first joined us when we were visiting Seattle in July.

It stayed for our first anniversary.

It helped with the house rehab and move.

It stayed for an entire rugby season, a community action, a few tennis matches, a birthday and visit, the creation of four povitisas, a hockey game and a football game.

(Not pictured, a high school reunion, multiple family functions and meeting everyone from the Geography Department ... yup, all those people think that Joshua is a "guy who has a mustache." Pretty funny stuff.)

We went through a lot together, but it was time ... knowing Joshua, I'm sure we are moving into another stage of wonderful hair creation.

Halloween Decorations

Shanti is on first watch of the pumpkins tonight. She will be done at four bells.

Our house decided to help with Halloween decorations by masquerading as a leaky roof. It was an excellent costume. So real, in fact, we are stuck with it until it is fixed. Awesome.
But since we don't really bother ourselves with such trivial matters, let's see more of those pumpkins! (l-r: Emily, Joshua, Laura)

Happy Birthday, Joshua!

Once again, it is Joshua's birthday. And this time he officially turned old. He got a walker, some new spectacles and some Rolaids.

This is Joshua enjoying his third birthday cake of the season.

#1 = cupcakes with friends on Saturday during a rousing game of Cranium

#2 = work cake

#3 = "traditional" Chewbacca cakeJoshua's wonderful sister Emily came all the way from Seattle to celebrate his birthday and visit with us for the weekend. We could not be more pleased. She also gave him this awesome hat. You will be seeing plenty of photos with this hat in the future. Um, like now.

Joshua would like to thank all of those who sent birthday wishings and presents. He would also like to thank those who put up with him calling to remind them that it was his birthday ... very early in the morning.