An Im Christmas!

This was Christmas #2. We loaded up the car and drove to Olympia to have a second Christmas with my parents; brother and SIL, Jinny; and the twins, Anthony and Catherine.

The best part about getting together is watching Jae play with his cousins. It always takes a little bit for everyone to get past their shyness, but once that happens, it's chaos! Just picture three, three year olds running around and up and down the stairs and then you add Christmas toys on top of that and you've got a madhouse (in a good way)!

We ate lots of good food (korean and american) and left the parents with a car full of food (Bill had to take some pictures of what we were bringing back with us, he was a bit overwhelmed).











Here is a link to more pictures. Click or cut and paste into your browser. http://picasaweb.google.com/patty.grunwald/ChristmasWithGrunwaldsAndIms?feat=email#

A Grunwald Christmas!

For the first time (I want to say ever) we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with the Grunwald clan. In the past, we have always split the two days between the Grunwald and Im family, but I think Bill received his Christmas wish this year to have Christmas dinner with his family.

Our tradition for Christmas Eve has been to go to Kathy and Bill's house and each household would bring a couple of appetizers and dessert and of course, the wine! This year was a little bittersweet in that Anna was out of the country in Costa Rica, so we were all missing her, but Josh flew up from San Francisco and Cousin Caryn came to visit, which was quite enjoyable. There was plenty of food and Eric made bacon wrapped scallops, which were very tasty. We played Buzz Word where the Others (those that are not Grunwald's by blood) kicked some butt! We eventually headed home so we could get ready for Santa's visit.

On Christmas day (afternoon), we loaded up the car and headed to Stacey's place to open gifts and have dinner. We watched Jae open up all his gifts and then Hannah opened up a couple. The kids are so lucky to have such great family in their lives. Opening all of the gifts must have made us hungry (or maybe just me), but I was starving and waiting for that yummy roast to be done! Hannah gave me the best gift of all this holiday, napping so I could eat my dinner in peace. It really was wonderful. I ate my meal in piece and savored every bite. Even Jae ate his food!

The next day was a repeat of loading up the car and driving to my parents for Christmas #2.

For pictures, click or cut and paste the link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/patty.grunwald/ChristmasWithGrunwaldsAndIms?feat=email#

Christmas is coming

Well, the kids are getting excited (I should say Jae) that Christmas is fast approaching!

We went and got our holiday photo taken and Jae wore his festive construction truck sweater! Thank goodness we did because we got our cards in the mail before this winter snow storm took a turn for the worse.

Here are some pictures of the kids just having some fun.

Lighting of the Tree!

We got our tree today and it ended up being a 40 minute ordeal of wandering the rows and rows of trees to find that perfect tree! This is the second year that we have gone to this farm (the name is escaping me right now), but they've got quite the variety of nobles and in the greenhouse, a wall of wreaths, a train that kids can climb (great for pictures), and Jae's favorite...complimentary candy canes!

We got the kids covered and started walking toward the field of trees. Jae was picking at all the weeds and his choices for trees were about 4 feet high, not quite the 7+ footer that Bill and I were looking for. He started whining that he was getting tired and was cold and wanted to be picked up, yadda yadda. Hannah fell asleep in my arms, so I couldn't lift Jae up and I was too busy making sure she was warm enough. So Bill had to carry him around for a little bit. It wasn't as cold as last year, but still cold.

We finally found "the one"(actually, we semi setteled) and Bill proceeded to cut it down. We walked toward the road and was hoping to be picked up (they have these guys driving around who will pick you and the tree up and take it to your car), but we didn't get lucky, so Bill hauled it to our car. We walked back to our car and Jae and I went to the greenhouse to get a candy cane and look at the train.

After we had paid, we were walking back to the car when I accidentally bumped Jae and he fell down. This would have been ok had it not been for the candy cane that he was intently holding. Since he had to catch his fall, the candy cane became a victim of mommy 'pushing' him down. Jae was in a tizzy about how I had pushed him down and his candy cane was not edible and that I needed to get him a new one, wah wah wah...after about 5 minutes of this whining and blaming me for what happened, I promised him that we would go buy more. He asked if he could eat the candy cane (which was broken in three pieces) since it was still wrapped in plastic and I said yes.

So as we were driving home, I hear this chomp chomp chomp. He's totally just breaking the candy cane in his mouth and his hands are sticky, his lips are red and he seems to be happy. As promised, we go to the store to get him another candy cane. When we get home, he sits on the counch and proceeds to eat it. He takes one bite and is done. I should have known.

Bill was attempting to get the stand into the tree when his knee joint popped out...gross! So he had to adjust himself and pop it back in. Not so great being tall. But we finally finished and started decorating the tree. Jae did a great job putting the ornaments on the tree and he loves plugging in the lights. We can't wait for next year when Hannah will be able to help!

Happy holidays everyone!