It’s been an exciting weather week here in the Pacific Northwest. It all started Saturday evening when it began to snow and it continued to snow right through to early Wednesday morning before it started to rain heavily on the 18 inches of snow in our yard. It sure did make a muddy, slippery mess, but we soaked up every bit of snow fun we could. Jakob, Madison & I worked together to make what Jakob deemed a Ninjango Snow Alien. I sure love getting to play with the kids in the snow. Most of our snow is gone now. Hopefully the next snow event and our next snow creation isn’t very far away!

Madison’s obsession right now is a Nickelodeon television show called the Fresh Beat Band. They sing and dance and so does she. Although I’m not so fond of their music, I really do love watching her sing and dance to it. Josh and I have tried a few times to catch it on video and finally this week Josh did. She is such a character and is growing into such a spunky and fun little girl. Here is the video and a couple of cute pic’s I’ve taken of her recently.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!!

Christmas was wonderful and oh so busy. I’ve been working a ton with the holidays being a busy season, so trying to get the time to decorate, shop, wrap, bake & cook was so challenging. I’m so blessed to have such a helpful husband because I’m not sure if we could have accomplished everything we did without the planning & teamwork we put in together this season.

We had all kinds of fun the week of Christmas including going to an ugly sweater Christmas party at ZigZag. We spent Christmas at home and were blessed to have my sister Maya and her awesome boyfriend Casey over for the day. Both of them just left this last Sunday for 4 months studying abroad in the Dominican Republic, so getting the chance to spend some quality time with them was priceless for us.

The kids of course had an amazing Christmas day and spent the day playing with the new toys they received. It was hysterical watching Madison rip into her presents this year. She got so crazy that at one point she even fell over! LOL! It was priceless and the best part was that we caught it on video. I’ll never forget when Jakob was this age and did the same thing.

Josh and I brined a 14 pound turkey overnight & served it with garlic mashed red potatoes, gravy, candied yams, herbed pancetta and gruyère stuffing and an amazing vegetable salad my sister made. We topped off a perfect meal with some pumpkin pie, chocolate tarts and a some really great games of bocce ball.

John’s Ugly Sweater Christmas Party

Christmas Day

Birthday at Montage

My birthday is the 30th of December. Although there is a downside to being born so shortly after the biggest holiday of the year, the perk is that after Christmas is over you know that your day is coming next. I turned 36 this year although I like to tell everyone that I’m 29 & holding, lol. I worked the morning/afternoon of my birthday and then we headed out to Le Bistro Montage in Portland for dinner with friends and family. We had an amazing meal starting off with some Gator bites, Frog legs and Full Sail’s Sessions beer. Maya and I couldn’t resist having some oyster shooters which I highly recommend if you ever visit Montage for dinner. The cocktail sauce they make is UNBELIEVABLE! For dinner Josh, the kids & myself shared some Alligator Jambalaya & Chicken & Andouilli Gumbo. The food at the Montage is absolutely amazing and if you ever get a chance, it is one of Portland’s great restaurants to try! I know we’ll be back!

Happy New Year

There is something wonderful, refreshing and hopeful about the dawning of a new year. We rang in this New Year at home with the kids. Josh ripped out some of the fireworks we set aside from 4th of July and we all had fun setting them off outside at midnight after counting down and watching the ball drop on TV.

It’s been 4 years since we last made and decorated a gingerbread house. Josh, Jakob and I actually drew up our own plans, made old fashioned gingerbread and put together the entire thing from scratch. It took us about 3 nights to complete and boy were we proud of it.

This year we opted for a time saver and bought a pre-made, assembled gingerbread house kit from Costco. Although I love the satisfaction of making things from scratch I thought it was nice to skip over some of the hard work and get straight to the fun part, decorating. We stopped and picked up some of our favorite candies and even some novelty candies to decorate it with. The kit even came with a tree and two gingerbread men which might have been the kids favorite part. Jakob couldn’t wait to eat his gingerbread man and did so shortly after we photographed it. Boy was Madison upset about that. She cried. She was so worried that Jakob would eat hers that she decided to hide it. I found it this morning in the freezer and couldn’t help but chuckle. That’s a good hiding spot Maddy! LOL!

Jakob and Madison are two happy children this week. They have received word from Santa via a letter and a video email that they’ve both made the nice list.

I really wished I would have gotten on video Jakob’s reaction to the letter when he read it. He squealed and giggled in such joy. Madison waited a couple of hours before opening her letter saying that “it’s not Christmas yet so we have to wait”. Of course her curiosity set it and she asked us to open and read it to her. It tickles me to see the kids in those moments, so when Santa sent the kids a video message, I made sure to record them using the webcam so I could get their reactions. The resulting videos are something I will always treasure!

This evening we took the kids to visit with Santa at the Clackamas Town Center. Madison was so excited, patiently waiting all day for Jakob to get out of school and asking me to curl her hair so that she could be pretty when she met Santa or “HO HO” as she likes to call him. We got to the mall just in time to have them let us know that Santa would be running to dinner and would be back in an hour. So after explaining this to Madison thoroughly, we headed over to Costco to pick up our Christmas cards and kill an hour. We made sure to be back early to avoid long lines but unfortunately not early enough. We ended up spending about 30-40 minutes in line so the kids could personally get their chance to tell Santa about their Christmas wishes. Both kids sure did light up when he talked with them and they spent the rest of the evening trying to figure out where he kept the reindeer while meeting with all the kids in the mall. I’ve come to learn that some things are better left unsaid so we let their imaginations run wild with that one. Here are the photos we were left to cherish from this years encounter with Santa.

Here is a slideshow I made of our Zoo Lights adventure.

Last Sunday the Oregon Zoo was offering buy 1 get 1 free on admission for their annual Christmas celebration, Zoo Lights. Josh, myself and the kids had never been and had heard so many great things about it, so we talked with some of Josh’s cousins and set a date to get together and take our kids to see it.

We all met at the Zoo Sunday evening and it was apparent by the large crowds that the promotion was effective. Josh and I stood in line for about 2 minutes before being approached by two ladies who graciously offered us their unneeded tickets for 2 adults and 3 kids and parted with a greeting of “Merry Christmas”. SCORE!!! Nothing starts a fun night off better than saving money and some Christmas spirit in action. We were so thankful. ♥

When we entered the zoo the sun was just starting to set and as it fell below the horizon the glow of Christmas lights really began to come alive. I couldn’t help feeling, while walking through all the lights, like a child at Disneyland during the days of the famous Electrical Parade. I was swept by a wave of nostalgia. It was fantastic!

After about an hour of checking out some of the light displays, we got in line to ride the train which was all decked out in Christmas lights. The train takes you around the zoo and gives such a unique perspective on the shear quantity of lights the zoo has up this time of year. I can’t even imagine the amount of manpower it must take to set it up although I’ve heard that they begin the process more than a month in advance.

We all had such a wonderful evening. Armed with hot cocoa, hot spiced cider, snacks, family & lots of laughs I can definitely say this experience will launch even the grinchiest of persons into the holiday spirit! If you’ve never been to the Zoo Lights I highly recommend it. I think we may need to make it an annual outing for our family.

Now that our tree is up, brightly lit and adorning our living room, I can say it’s officially the holiday season in the Leikam household. Last Sunday we went down to our favorite local tree farm here in Sandy and roamed the field until we found and agreed upon a beautiful nearly 8′ Noble Fir. We were so fortunate as we literally escaped the incoming storm by a couple of minutes. It was so cool to watch as Jakob assisted Josh this year in the cutting of our tree.

There is nothing quite like a Christmas Tree to completely put you in the holiday spirit. I love that I get to work in the living room sitting next to it and there is nothing better than walking around a corner and getting a whiff of its wonderful aroma. It is something I’ve always loved and definitely something I don’t believe I’ll ever outgrow.

Decorating the tree has been so great the last couple of years. It seems that the kids really do most of the work now. I put the lights on and then set out the ornaments and let them have at it. I do need to re-distribute some of the concentrated areas but I must say the kids did a really good job this year. I’m super stoked that they don’t really un-decorate and play with the ornaments so much anymore. This is the 2nd year we’ve gotten to decorate below the “reach” line, something you can never quite really appreciate until you’ve been there as a parent. So here is are some photos followed by a video of our adventures in Christmas tree hunting/decorating this year!