This week we put up our Christmas tree. It's Christopher's favorite part of Christmas. He would leave the tree up all year if I let him. I always make him wait until after Thanksgiving to put it up. He thinks that is so unfair. Wednesday night he helped Matt put the artificial tree together. Thursday afternoon he made me put the lights on. Then he put most of the ornaments on. Riley and Maya put a few on. Riley was more interested in watching ESPN. Maya wanted to climb up and down the ladder. The cat lay under the tree and attacked my hands as I was stringing the lights. The cat loves the tree almost as much as Christopher does. Chris won't let us turn the lights on, though. He is saving electricity so that we don't run out before Santa comes at midnight on Christmas Eve. When he hung up the stockings, he was very worried that Maya did not have a stocking yet. So we had to run out to Ulmer's and buy her a stocking. He also picked one out for the dog and the cat. So now our fireplace mantle is quite crowded!


Posing in their traditional Vietnamese outfits that Ly brought back from Vietnam.

Chris shows Maya how it's done.

We're almost finished decorating the tree.

Friday night Maya went to her first Nutcracker Ballet, and she stayed for the whole show!

It helped to have Nanna and Tirzah sitting next to her.

When it warms up and rains, our driveway turns into a private ice rink for the boys. It's treacherous for everyone else, though.

Give me blue bubble wrap and a swim wring and I'm happy.

Saturday night we went to a surprise party for Stephanie's 40th birthday. What a nice looking family!

Matt and Irene at Stephanie's birthday party.

The team meets for lunch at Buckets, a family sports bar in Soldotna.

The hockey and team and siblings playing a game at the sports bar.

We had two games in Soldotna today. We played the same team twice, Kenai Peninsula Hockey Association Ice Hawks. In the morning we beat them 3-0 at the Soldotna Sports Center. After lunch we tied 3-3 at the Kenai Arena. I want to know what they had for lunch! Maybe we should have cut our kids off after their first beer at Buckets.