merry christmas

This morning, Alden has enough gifts to dwarf this little tree. In return, he would like to give you the gift of laughter, in the form of this audio clip. Merry Christmas and (belated) Happy Hanukkah. love, alden and crew.

Audio clip here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRAMOV1nlrQ

grandma lois!

This year's holidays, Alden has been given the gift of three weeks of a Lois visit. He is getting to show Grandma the sweeter aspects of life in Seattle -- some of these aspects are restricted by his lame parents -- fortunately, Grandma knows how to kick it. These aspects include finding pictures of cats online, stirring food (see above) and eating second helpings of frozen yogurt. Grandma Lois is the bomb.

bookworm

We have recently been finding Alden cramming himself into odd corners with a stack full of books -- channeling his grandfathers, perhaps.

skype

aunt jen

This entry is a bit delayed, but we enjoyed a great week with Aunt Jen up from Eugene. We showed her excellent seattle hospitality -- we planned a big birthday celebration -- only to be snowed in -- how about some reheated pasta? That night, we sent her back in the snow to her unheated rental room around the corner - dont worry, we let her take a blanket. Despite all that - Jen was an unflappable joy to have around, giving Alden librarian-quality readings on the hour, and (below) assisting Elizabeth through her Apple fritter production (or whatver kind of apple pastry it was.)

flower pot

A quick video which highlights the benefits of Seattle's damp winters - from a toddler's perspective. To summarize, Alden is standing on a wagon in rain boots pulling dirt out of a flower pot. For the record, Elizabeth was not involved in the parenting of this event.

Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuAI-x2-GjA

springfield

An awesome week in Springfield - hosted by Grandpa (whispered "pop pop" reverantly by Alden for unknown reasons) and Grama K. More stories and photos than are fit to print here. As a summary, Alden was generally spoiled by his grandparents and their cozy home -- hands in yogurt and jello and dirt and dog mouths, legos and action figures from my youth, big carpeted hallways used to chase dogs and be chased by his parents, a new trampoline with cousin Max, new books and stuffed animals with Great-Grandma K, endless drawers and sinks and closets and toilet paper rolls to disorganize (unrestricted!), a Pixar movie on a big screen TV, gentle skin scratching with Gramma (labeled "toes" by alden), and, of course, 7 unrestricted mornings of sleeping in for his parents. Im out of breath. Thanks mom and dad, for the great week.