the night before...

This here is Christmas Eve, a day of snowball fights and preparing for the next big storm and more than that preparing for the arrival of my good buddy Santa Claus. The night, the eve, is pretty great because you get to choose one present to open and I chose the one from Rudolf the RNR. And also, on this very night, the night before Christmas, when I was in the stupid tent with Bob, I actually heard the bells of Santa's sleigh outside my window. I am not jiving you, there were jingled bells.

The Recap:

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Now that we're back home in Portland all safe and sound and missing our family, we can watch the movies and re-live the Xmas experience (over and over if we feel like it). This here is the first leg of the journey, my parents' long and harrowing trek from the snowed in Portland all the way to the snowed in Bainbridge Island...

Turkies

The mental memories I develop in the dark room of my mind...


The soft candlelit glow of a loving family meal. It does NOT get better, so quit trying to find anything better.


Bobby Grandpoop and the beautiful Mamop. I've been here for a whole week now and I still can't get enough of these people.


I <3 r2d2 !!! (Thank you Uncle Mike!)

They Made It!!!

Mom and Dad ignored all the department of transportation's warnings and got on the road to fight their way to me. It took them 9 hours to get from Portland to Seattle, going 35 miles an hour, with chains, with chains falling off, with putting them back on, three times, with then just taking them off and driving through snow with frozen wipers...lots of stress and worry but when I woke up they were here.


Good thing too because another five inches of snow fell that night and it just keeps on coming. We made snowmen. Their names are Carlisle and Ronstan.


And now we are all together for the Christmas holiday, with bags of cookies and bread, multiple pies and many Scrabble games.


My parents have vowed never to separate our love again.

snow will tear us apart

There is a crazy snow storm storming in Portland! And my parents are stuck! Bobby came on Friday to come get me because he is impatient with love for me and we took an early taxi to the train and we made it out before the real snow hit:


It is a big blizzard there now and my mom has to work though she probably won't make it but they are now trapped and can't get out of the city even though my dad put the snow chains on.


It's a good thing I am safe and warm at the deWitt house in Bainbridge with my grandparents and my Uncle Mike and Jenna and a fire place and everything but I miss my parents and I can tell by the way they are calling every hour that they miss me too. Hang in there guys. We'll be together soon. I'm having fun. I love you.

Pillow Fight!!!

This is Owen, my best mate from school, remember I told you?


He came over my house and I showed him all my race tracks and now he is addicted like I am.


But when we decided to pillow fight things got real crazy, in a good way.


No matter how hard you hit Owen with a pillow he just laughs and comes back for more. My kind of guy.


And he got plenty of good hits in himself, you better believe! This is the give and take of friendship.

Up All Night

I had my first sleepover at a friends house and it was the coolest! I got to sleep at Stuart's house, in his room, for the whole night and then the morning also.


We stayed up as late as we could, until almost 11:00 at night, until Stuart's dad said we had to pipe down, but we were chatter boxing and giggling and playing the up/down game where Stuart goes up when I go down and then the opposite again and again for hours of fun. We woke up early because we looked out the window and there was the first snow outside and we stood at the window side by side looking out for a long time before Stuart's mom came in and said she would make pancakes. When can I have another sleepover, that is my question to everyone.


So my parents decided to go out and try to stay up late themselves. They went to see their cavesinger buddies. This is one of them, Pete. He is 100% Irish, and all that that entails.


They rocked the house in their mellow cave style and my parents were glad to be out in the world of music and drinks.


We were all very tired the next day but as they say in the world of music and drinks, you have to pay to play.

Let It Snow

Yeah!!!


We woke up to a beautiful white blanket over the neighborhood.

Stuart came over and we made a Frosty the snowman and threw snowballs at our car while shouting, "I got that car right between the eyes!"


When Danny and Amy and little Nadine came out we got them right between the eyes.


I think it's going to be a white Christmas!

The Cocoon

Please do not disturb the delicate and magical birth of the gusapillar!!!

Toot Toot!

This is me, on a TRAIN!!!


Not your average Amtrak number, but a real steam engine train from the olden days, one of the very last in the world.


Look at the gigantic wheels. And there is a fire you can see under the engine that makes the whole thing run which I find incredible.


And all my pals from school were on board because it was our preschool Christmas party. Here's one of my best mates, Owen.


Mariella and Ty and Julian. My posse.


The train went all along the Willamette River with all its beautiful bridges. It really couldn't have been better. Until...


This guy! Santa showed up!


He talked to every one of us and shook our hands or gave us hugs and he also gave us candy canes. He's truly the best guy ever. I was going to talk to him about the fold out fire truck and the ambulance rescue unit that I want but then I figured he already knows in his head somehow.


This was the first time I've ever seen Santa Claus in the real world and basically I freaked out with happiness.


Best train ride ever. Best night of the season, so far.

BAWK !!!

My dad made a new friend and his name is Chris and he's got chickens!


Chickens!


A lot of people in Portland have their own chickens. We checked in the chickens' bedroom to see if they laid any eggs.


And they had! And it was green! Now, if we only had some ham...

O Lucky Me

Thanks. Thanks to the sky and heaven, for everything.


It was a week long visit with my grandparents and we did so much stuff I can't even remember. This was one of the best days when we drove along this old highway over the Columbia River and saw all these vista spots and about twenty waterfalls.


The cold and foggy vistas (of my mind).


Biggest waterfall of the day: Multnomah Falls. We ate at the Multnomah Falls Lodge where you can watch the water fall through the ceiling. I had the chicken strips and a hot chocolate.


Wet and wild and beautiful, there she is.


Nana and Papa are gone now. I started missing them fifteen minutes after they left, and I'm still missing them right now. I called them when they were at the airport to tell them, make sure they knew. I love them. I love going to see Bolt with Nana, I love playing pinball and shoot em up with Papa, I love hanging out watching football at their hotel room. I really, really, really love the toy catalogs they brought. I'm really feeling like thanks giving.