Goodbye Princess Leia ~

Totally sad to find out about Carrie Fischer dying today.  She was a wonderful, funny person that I admired for years and I LOVED her in all the Star Wars movies.  I remember looking up to her as a kid...Princess Leia was a strong, intelligent character, and she played her well.  Thank you for giving me a strong role model Ms. Fischer...you will be greatly missed!  May the Force be with you!

Merry Christmas!

Hooray...I'ts finally here!!!  Merry Christmas!!!

Now that Jordyn is older she sleeps in on Christmas, so we didnt get started till late, but none of us seemed to mind sleeping in!  The first thing to kick off the morning...searching for the pickle ornament.  It's a tradition in our house that we do every Christmas.  The person that finds the pickle ornament gets the pickle gift.  This year it was Jordyn, and the gift was a game, Forbidden Island!  After finding the ornament, it was time to get down to business....presents!

 After opening a few presents it was clear that Kato and Stitch wanted in on the action, and they proceeded to attack each other among the gift wrap, chewing up all the paper.  It was almost more fun watching them, than it was to open presents.

 And speaking of presents, both cats loved their cat nip toys from Grandma Barbara....in fact, they went nuts over them!  Jordyn received all kinds of goodies...a few movies, new clothes, a couple of games and books, art pens, a spirograph set, bloxels (to create your own video game characters), pajamas, a cork board for her room and lots of other fun things.  Justin got the new Star Trek movie and some clothes, and I got a light reflectors set with a stand for my camera.

Then it was on to stockings...

the stockings are my favorite...there's always so much fun digging to see whats inside.

 Jordyn's was filled with chocolate, beef jerky, hot wheels, a charcoal pencil set, lego figures, gum, tic tacs, etc, and Justins was the same.  Mine had a rolled up $100.00 dollar bill :)  It was a great morning...and it even snowed for us so that we could have a white Christmas!

 We enjoyed bloody marys with a breakfast casserole and a visit with Damian and Jen before they headed home. The rest of the day was spent relaxing while Jordyn played with all her toys.  I even squeezed in a 2 hour nap!  hooray!

 That night we played a few rounds of Forbidden Island...a super fun game where you work together as a team to beat the island before it sinks.  We won both rounds and then watched X-men Apocalypse (one of Jordyns xmas presents) to finish the day.

It was a wonderful relaxing Christmas spent all day in our pajamas!
We hope your Christmas was filled with laughter and joy too!

Christmas Eve ~

 We went to Ken and Kristis for Christmas Eve and enjoyed some delicious cheese soup and tilapia.  Damian and Jen were there so it was great to hang out with them!  After dinner we went into the living room for present time!

 Jordyn opened the traditional puzzle, this year it was a snowman.  We always enjoy working on a puzzle when we are up there on Christmas Eve, so once the puzzle was opened we got started on it!

 We don't really exchange gifts, just consumables, like wine, chocolates, etc...so its always fun opening our "goody" bags from Ken and Kristi.  It was filled with all kinds of stuff...smoked salmon, cheese and crackers, chocolates, etc.  There were even a couple of gift cards.  Jordyn made Uncle Damian some art and a pair of earrings for Jen, but the big gift this year was for Jordyn...

 a zip line with a seat on it!!!  The kids are gonna love playing on that!  I can't wait to try it out :)

After presents they put on a movie, "Miss Peregrines House for Peculiar Children".  I am currently reading that book, so I left early so there were no spoilers.  Besides, I had a lot of wrapping to get finished up...in fact, I was still wrapping when they came back down to the house.  Jordyn read The Night Before Christmas, and then Santa's Twin, while Justin looked on.  We were all pretty exhausted after our full day, so we crashed out pretty early.  Besides, we didn't want to prevent Santa from dropping by!

Merry Christmas to all...and to all a good night!

Winter Beauty ~

We tried to get some portraits the next day, since the weather was up to 15 degrees, but with the wind it was even worse than the day before!  I did manage to snap this awesome shot of my kiddo before we scurried inside though and I think she looks beautiful!  Love the freckles!

Tis the Season ~

 It's time for our annual winter photo shoot...only it was extremely chilly today at around 5 degrees! Brrrrr!   Jordyn was a sport though, and posed anyways....if only for a short while :)

 Happy Holidays from all of us at the Black Bear Cabin...We hope your holidays are filled with magic and wonder!

Our Last Winter Program at Red Feather

The Winter Music Program was tonight and the kids were great!  My preschoolers really rocked the house, but to be honest, the entire program was a hit!

All the kids had a solo reading parts from the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, and the music was wonderful.  It was sort of bittersweet knowing this would be our last RF winter program, but perhaps that's what made it so magical!

 Jordyn was the only kid to memorize her lines, and even though she got lost at one point, she still did a great job!

 I had to get a shot of the BFF's with Santa...look how cute they are...the BIG 5th graders!  Sigh!

You did a great performance Jordyn...We love you!

Cozy Cats ~

 It seems kitten has to sleep wherever Kato is now...I love the friendship these two cats have created!