Christmas Memories 2011

Mrs Claus Pulls a Prank- A Cautionary Tale

Several days before Christmas a new name became highlighted on the "Naughty List"- young Grayson. Grayson had decided that he wanted to use Christmas, the "Season of Love", as an opportunity to play a prank on his sweet little brother Rowan. He had taken the biggest box that he could find, placed 4 rocks in it, and wrapped it up with lots of paper and tape. He then placed the box under the tree and proceeded to build his brothers excitement and anticipation about the contents of the box. The hints and promises of greatness grew as the big day approached. Grayson was often seen chuckling to himself about how clever he was.

Well, Mrs Claus got wind of the plotting and scheming. Now Mrs Claus has been known to enjoy a good prank herself, (living with all those crazy "elves" will do that to a person!) and decided that she wanted in on the action. She believed firmly that the best person to prank, was a fellow pranker. Plus she just might teach young Grayson a lesson. She considered many different possibilities and determined that the best thing to do was to replace the rocks in Rowan's present with a really good gift. She got great support for this plan from the mother elves and also some interesting suggestions to make her prank even better. For awhile she planned on not just giving Rowan a substitute gift, but she was going to re-wrap the rocks for Grayson. In the end Mr C stepped in and suggested a change in plan. He thought ruining Grayson's prank might be punishment enough and maybe giving him a little treat to soften the blow was in order.

On Christmas Eve Mrs Claus used her magical stealth powers to swap out the gifts. Rocks were replaced with Bey Blades (Rowan's favorite) and a little treat with a message was put in the box for Grayson. The box looked exactly the same and no one suspected a thing.

On Christmas morning the boys gathered around the big box, all of them full of anticipation. Two of them were expecting a big reaction to the prank, and one of them was ready for his cool gift. As Rowan ripped off the paper and looked inside the box a big smile came across his face. The smile continued to grow as he pulled the awesome toys out of the box. At this same moment Fuller realized that the prankster had been out pranked and began to laugh. Grayson looked on for a moment in stunned silence, his mouth hanging open. He looked confused, and started walking around the room protesting that that wasn't what he had gotten him. He admitted that he had put rocks in the box. He struggled to make sense of this turn of events.

Then Rowan pulled from the box a small wrapped present with a card addressed to Grayson on the top. The card contained the following message, "Dear Grayson, GOTCHA!"
He cracked a smile.

The mystery of the Christmas magic continued in the days after Christmas, as Rowan proudly informed others of how Santa (he gets credit for everything!) had magically replaced Grayson's rocks with a COOL present. Even Grayson, (long suspected to be an unbeliever) started to wonder what had really happened. He also stared trying to talk Rowan into pulling a prank on him next year so he can get extra presents.

So if any of you start getting any ideas about using Christmas as a time to pull a prank on your loved ones, just remember this....Mrs Claus is watching.

HOOT-HOOT

Tree Hunting

We headed out this afternoon for a super chilly search for the perfect Christmas tree.

We've been heading to the same local tree farm for a couple of years and always manage to find the perfect tree. Plus the $20 for any tree price cannot be beat.

Fuller announced that this was his year to get to pick the tree. He saw one that he liked about 6 feet from where we parked, but of course we had to search all over the place just for the fun of it.

He picked a beautiful noble.

Rowan was more than happy to help carry the tree, especially since the hot cider and cookies were waiting back at the parking lot.

Christmas in the City

I love Portland, and Christmas is one of my favorite times to experience the city. I love all of the lights and decorations, and the hustle and bustle of people out doing their Christmas shopping.

On Saturday we went in to see the tree. After dining on some yummy food cart fare, we headed over to Pioneer Square. We were met with a bit of disappointment (the square was being used for the Portland Ale Festival and unavailable to those under 21), but made the most of it. We enjoyed our traditional hot chocolate from Starbucks, and admired the tree from the edge of the square.

As usual Portland did not disappoint and we enjoyed some great people watching and talented street musicians.

Later we headed over to the Rose Garden to enjoy a Winterhawks game.

It was an exciting night of hockey! The Hawks won 7-1 over Seattle.

We all got free hats!

There was some good fight action.

AND we ended up being there for the annual teddy bear toss, and the wedding of two crazy hockey fans.

December is off to a good start!

Thanksgiving Wonderfulness

Time with family

Wonderful cooks

People we love

Game time

Making fun memories

Thankful

Some of our local third grade classes were featured in our little paper yesterday. Rowan's class wrote about what they were thankful for. Maybe it's just me, but I think he forgot about something (or someone)...



( He said it was supposed to say we get "materials" from animals. Also I mentioned to him that Paul was in the Air Force, not the Army. His response was "who cares".)

But I do like it better than when Grayson's class was in the paper as third graders. His class wrote about how to cook a turkey, and most of the boys in his class ended up writing gory, turkey killing stories.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Banks-Vernonia Trail

We recently took advantage of a dry November day to head out for a family hike. We have been wanting to check out the Banks/Vernonia trail for some time, and were glad we did. This trail is part of the "Rails to Trails" program, and the trail spans a 21 mile stretch of old train track, including two trestles. It's a nice level, paved path, and we can't wait to go back with bikes and ride part of it.

For our hike we went to a trail head near the middle of the trail and hiked about 2 miles in, and then back to where we started. The trail was pretty empty, but we did see some cyclists, walkers and a few horses.

The train trestles have been re-done with a nice path and side rails, but Rowan still had a hard time with the heights issue.

Grayson and Rowan had fun looking for the biggest leaves they could find.

We also had fun looking for mushrooms. We saw several different types of mushrooms that we have never seen before, and found some really cool ones.

Grayson wants to get a book about them to bring next time so we can identify them.

Along the way we saw reminders of the trail's past.

I really love the moments that our family shares on hikes.

I love that we are all together doing the same thing, that there are no distractions.

I love the laughs and the stories that are shared.

Some of my favorite things about these hikes are the moments between brothers. Those loving, connected moments...

....right before a wrestling match starts.