Christmas Tree Hunting

Every year, we go and hunt a Christmas tree. Chris has a strong feeling (he's probably right) that fresh-cut trees last longer. We have a family tradition to go out, find the "perfect" tree and chop it down to take home.

Luckily, we have two amazing helpers to give their opinions and help us find that perfect tree that has ideal spacing for ornaments, will fit in our house and also fits the pocketbook requirements.

The kids took their job very seriously and examined what felt like every single tree in the entire Christmas tree farm Obviously, every tree on the farm was equally beautiful and my kiddos gave them a major case of the insecurities because they literally went from tree to tree (to tree to tree to tree) until we found the perfect one for our household. 

We ended up coming home with a lovely, perfectly proportioned Noble Fir for our Christmas tree. Jamisen helped cut it down and we wall helped drag it out of the Christmas tree forest. 

The kids had such much fun helping to decorate the tree. Funny story: I put up all the Christmas lights myself (I mean, after the kids straightened out all the lights) and it turns out that putting on Christmas lights takes an engineer. Chris was gone during that episode and when he got home, he had to redo all the lights because, again, it is much much harder to put on perfectly done Christmas lights than it would appear.

Chris and I also got super lucky and were able to go to a fancy Christmas party at Chateau St. Michelle in Woodinville, WA. Chris is part of the Entrepreneur's Organization and they had their annual Christmas party there. One of the children's former nanny/babysitters moved to Seattle so she came and watched the kids in the hotel room while we went to the party. The kids had brand new play dough sets, and freshly delivered pizza to keep them busy. It was fun to have a date night with Chris.

Snow and Soap Shops

Our little Lily is so hilarious! She has been doing a "work" at Montessori school involving cleaning windows so lately, she's been all about cleaning any shiny, glass surface. I swear, I had literally only been out of sight for 2 seconds (maybe a minute) when I turned around and saw this little daredevil with zero safety inclinations precariously balanced in the pedestal sink, "cleaning" the mirror. Photos over safety however, so we managed to get this for posterity before saving her life.

It's been a crazy weather year and we have gotten snow galore here in Whatcom County. Jamisen has never really seen snow that he can remember so it's been fun to watch both kids explore it. Time will tell if Lily remembers this snowfall. Do note that it's night outside in the photo because it was SO early when Jamisen got up. He was ridiculously excited about the snow and got himself dressed and ready to go without our help.

Lily was excited as well but seems to be affected by cold a little more than Jamisen. That said, she's a trooper and wouldn't come inside even with wet gloves and pants.

Little Lily set up a soap shop to sell soap. She's turning into a little entrepreneur-in-training, just like her brother.

Google. Swim Lessons. Hilarity Ensues.

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The kiddos have been taking swim lessons. It's been going well in the grand scheme of things. Jamisen has been excelling at the mechanics of swimming. Lily has been having a wonderful time but is less about the skills and is more about the sparkly fun to be had at the pool. It feels like every-other-lesson that we're pulling one kid out (usually Lily) because they're not listening to the teacher. Parenting is hard. 

Both kids are loving their roles in the household as helpers. Lily is obsessed with being at counter height. We try very hard to make sure she's positioned in the middle of the counter so there's zero chance that she can fall off but she loves to see whatever we're doing, including cooking. She's more into the controlling part of helping as opposed to helping- helping. Her favorite food to help with is banana egg pancakes.

Jamisen continues to be very into domestic arts. In the photo above, he helped to clean up an art project that went awry. He knows how to hook up the vacuum cleaner and how to use it. That is a sure sign that he's going to be quite the lady's man in college and beyond.

He also loves his Grandma Faiola very much. This is a sweet photo from the last weekend of my Nutritional Therapy course where he got to go to the children's museum with Grandma and Grandpa. It was wonderful to have Grandma and Grandpa Faiola in the same city as the school (and probably the only reason that the schooling set-up worked).

I recently had the honor of speaking at Google. They invited me to speak on 'Resilience' and what that means to me. It was amazing to be at their campus, speaking to their team and family members. I spoke of the importance of integrating all the experience and parts of yourself.

It was a career highlight and also deeply terrifying. There were so many smart people in the audience and it was hard to give the talk in a vulnerable and open manner and not feel nervous about how it would be perceived and received. 

Ultimately it went well (I think). Audience members seemed appreciative and open and had good feedback after the talk was over. It was a definite career high for me and I felt (and feel) grateful for the opportunity to share my story. It was amazing and it felt once-in-a-lifetime (hopefully it's not! Hopefully it's just the start). =)