Haley has become a fork expert. She’s pretty excited about it. My mom, in a stroke of genius, bought Haley some cocktail forks. They are perfectly sized and yet have enough stabbing power to pick up anything, including the steamed eggs she’s enjoying in this photo.

JT and Jim worked hard yesterday afternoon to clean both vehicles, inside and out. They got a hot chocolate break in the middle!

Haley is interested in hats now (funny, considering her past aversion). Here she tried on JT’s hat and thought it was sooooo funny.

Yesterday I heard JT say, “Haley, do you want to sweep the floor?” Helpful and sweet, right? Until I saw he meant with her. Too bad she loved it. She giggled all over the house.

Last, this is how JT spent some time this morning while I made breakfast. Must be nice. 🙂

That’s right – the Christmas spirit! I’ve got to keep track of all these fun things we do in the Christmas season because next year I’m absolutely going to finally finish my advent activity calendar idea from my friend Sarah. Really.

I kicked off the month by hosting a table at the Antioch Women’s Christmas Dinner with my mom. It was a wonderful evening, as usual. Each hostess decorates her own table and it is so fun to see the myraid of table ideas.

Then we visited my aunt and uncle’s church’s Living Nativity after a dinner and gift exchange with the Skagens, hosted by my parents. Haley got an adorable fish-shaped xylophone that she loves and JT has been playing with his Hot Wheels race track ever since.

Grabbed a picture with Uncle David the centurion on our way out!

This week we had dinner with the Schmalz family and then jetted to Bellevue for Snowflake Lane. (Doesn’t Haley look ridiculous? But she was warm…) We followed it up with dessert at Red Robin where JT and his BGF Gracie split a cookie sundae. Fun!

I’m avoiding making Christmas cookies too early because then I will eat them all month long… but tonight we were out running an errand and I took the long way home so we could look at the Christmas lights in the neighborhoods around our house. Check that one off the list!

Friday morning our friend Katie graciously took our kids to have play time at her house while Jim and I had a quick ski date. It was foggy when we arrived at the lake, but we were optimistic.

 Then Jim started driving the boat.

And it looked like this.

And we couldn’t see our own wake behind us, which meant you couldn’t tell if you were driving in a straight line, which meant that you would drive over a bunch of your own rolling waves, which is annoying and slightly dangerous. So then we were sad.

The end.

Haley has gotten more interested in coloring. Sometimes when JT is doing his school work she asks to get up and do some too. Here she is enjoying a coloring page that her cousin Ali sent her in the mail.

We have braved the cold and rainy for a couple of walks. It feels odd without a dog. 😦 Haley looks pretty adorable in her hat from Grandma Cole!

I finally ordered the attachment for our Dyson that I’ve been wanting for ages… the articulating hard floor tool. Worth every penny – it is fabulous. It takes me less time to vacuum the downstairs now and it does a better job. Hooray for quicker, better house cleaning. JT was very excited about the new attachment (see, things do get boring in the winter) and he has been doing some vacuuming for me with it.

Haley loves to take the directions to the Rubik’s cubes out of the coffee table drawer. I have no idea why. (Again, things get a little crazy when you’re stuck inside.) Here’s proof of how funny she thinks she is.

We’d like to thank Sarah Ellen for another round of beautiful family pictures!

I think Haley is torturing JT…

This summer we started praying about a new home for Slider. Let’s start by saying that she is a wonderful dog. However, we thought we’d live out of the city on more land by now, and we thought she could be outside more, and neither of those things are going to happen anytime soon. We don’t give her nearly enough time and attention either. She is a great home protection dog, but it just wasn’t fair to pat her head once a day, feed her, and call it good.

We really had trouble thinking about giving her up. We talked about the perfect scenario, and when we’d feel comfortable giving her to someone else. Our list was long and seemingly unattainable: a family with time for her, room to run, other animals to pal around with, maybe some goats or sheep to herd, people who would keep her until she dies, maybe somewhere we could see her now and then or at least get some updates. Pretty high standards, right?

Then on Thanksgiving, we saw our extended family and my uncle asked how Slider was doing. She was there with us for the whole weekend and spent a lot of time mingling and schmoozing for head scratches after dinner. “Actually, we’re thinking of giving her up,” we mentioned. My uncle was surprised but the wheels started turning. His family has had a few German Shepherds in the past and their last one died of old age recently. After an evening-long “dog interview,” my uncle called back the next morning. He said that the whole family talked it over, and that they’d love to have her, if we were sure.

I cried.

And then we thought about it rationally (which is how we prefer to make our decisions!). My uncle is retired (check). He loves to work outside and take long walks (check). They have a couple acres – fenced (double check). They have two other dogs, a cat, a chicken, and two goats (check, check, check). They love dogs and have had German Shepherds in the past (check). We’ll see her once in awhile, and of course we’ll hear news, because we’re family! (Lots more checks.) It was too perfect to pass up.

So on Saturday, we dropped Slider off along with her kennel, leash, a day of food, and a list of her commands. I cried again, I’ll admit it. Then we came home and vacuumed, and I tried to focus on the fact that our clean floors will stay that way. On Sunday, we talked to my uncle and he gave us an update on her transition. Today, he drove up to our house and picked up her food, dog bed, toys, and papers. He said, “We revised the Christmas letter!” so I guess it’s a done deal. He said she slept next to his side of the bed last night, and aside from getting to know their animals being a little rocky, it’s going well enough.

Jim and I miss her. JT said he doesn’t miss her and he’s glad she’s having fun at Uncle Kurt’s house, but also that he’d like to go visit her sometime. We’re going to wait awhile so she doesn’t think we’re coming to take her home. That would be too hard for all of us! Meanwhile, we’re installing an alarm system that costs about the same per month as dog food, and the house feels a little empty. But we know it’s the best thing for everyone.

A huge thank you to the whole Christensen family, for giving Slider another family to love on.