little black journal

After our busy pre-Christmas week, it felt good to pull up to Mitch and Kathyrn’s house on Christmas Eve and settle in for a few days of laying low with family.  I missed these kids!

THIS.  This is what I needed.

My dad helped with some last-minute light-stringing in the front yard…

And then it was time to eat!  Salmon, chicken wings, roasted veggies, a couple of bottles of good wine – these Jarrells do tasty+healthy right.

The girls got to open their new Christmas pajamas from my mom that evening…

And then, there wasn’t anything left to do but hunker down and wait for Santa to come down that chimney.

We heard the pitter-patter of excited feet running circles around the house early Christmas morning and sleepily made our way upstairs to see if Santa had indeed made a stop at Chez Jarrell.  HE DID!

Watching Juliette unwrap this stuffed puppy was the highlight of my morning.

Unwrapping my new boots was highlight #2!

Elise, the budding scientist, was over the moon about her new electricity kit.

My mom, meanwhile, was thrilled with her jars of duck fat and clarified butter (to each his own!).

That blessed moment of post-gift peace, when everyone sits back for a minute to admire their new wares…

We rode that post-gift wave for most of the morning, as the girls set up shop in the dining room to play with their new art supplies and magnets.

Eventually, though, we were all ready to get out, so we hopped in the car and drove over to Westmoreland Park to bike and run and climb.  Poor Shane came down with a stomach bug the night before, so he stayed back at the house to sleep it off.

Morgan was eager to try our her new running shoes.  It looks like Mitch has just realized he can no longer outpace his daughter!

There was some more quiet afternoon play…

And then I settled into the couch with the girls for our traditional viewing of The Polar Express.

Turns out, this movie is a bit more intense than I realized!  Juliette nearly jumped out of her seat as the train skidded across the ice.

We ate a hearty Christmas dinner and then it was back to the chessboard.

And, a Christmas dance party!  Courtesy of Juliette and Morgan.  What a day.

The day after Christmas was quiet – we slept in a bit and then walked over to the neighborhood Starbucks with the kids for muffins and hot chocolate.

My mom and dad left later that morning, pausing on their way out the door for a few family pics.

The rest of the day was a bit hazy…more chess, I think.  Mitch and I got out for a long walk while Juliette napped.  I drank a lot of tea and ate a lot of ginger cookies.  The girls were thick as thieves.

Tuesday, sadly, was go-day.  Elise read Juliette’s new books to her for the umpteenth time while Shane and I loaded up the car.

We grabbed coffee and a scone on Division Street…

Played a round of hide and go seek in the yard…

And then, fare thee well, Jarrells!  ‘Twas a very merry Christmas.

The past 10 days have been a whirlwind of holiday cheer – we’ve fondued and light-gazed and made all kinds of cookies.  Baking has become my go-to Mama-Jules activity, as this girl seems to love the kitchen more than any other room in the house.  We really milked the whole sugar cookie experience – Day 1 was spent mixing dough:

Day 2 was spent rolling and cutting:

Day 3:  FROSTING!

Having a steady supply of sweets on the counter necessitates extra doses of veggies and exercise.  Cue the Fondue 5k, where we brave the cold with the gang to do a loop around Seward Park.

And then, of course, the post-run gluttony!  We gathered with friends last Saturday to chow down on cheese and chocolate and exchange White Elephant gifts.

La Verne lucked out with these perpetually full beer mugs, huh?

Jess barely had time to pull someone’s liquor cabinet remnants out of the gift bag before…

Shane exercised his right to swipe her pick.

We ended the night with our traditional charade of The Twelve Days of Christmas.  Jules and I fluttered across the room as the French hens.

I can’t tell here if Shane’s a maid-a-milking or a drummer drumming…it was all a bit hazy by this point.  I think Brian’s back there as the pregnant goose-a-laying?

And I thought La V’s beer mugs were a special gift…

Cheers, gang!

The next night we met up with the Chen clan to take in the lights at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens.  The place was kind of a mob scene, but the lights were pretty and the kids were amused.

(photo by La Verne)

Juliette’s school was closed a couple of days last week, and as I was in deadline-mode at work, Shane took some time off to hold down the fort.  I admit, when he told me he wanted to taking Juliette skiing on Thursday, I raised my eyebrows and asked, “Are you sure?”  I envisioned all the falling and the whining and the likely tears, reminding Shane that the toddlers he’d watched zipping down the slopes on YouTube were probably only the best and the brightest.  Around 10 am that morning, this pic popped up on my phone:

And then this:

She rocked it.  Kudos, Shane – you’re a braver parent than I.

That evening we convened at Chez Rust for dinner and gifts, feeling all kinds of gratitude for our Seattle family…

And then, on Friday, Juliette and I conquered Seattle’s downtown holiday scene.  We met up with a few buddies at the Sheraton’s Gingerbread Village, which was full of absurdly elaborate edible creations (Mama, can I lick that?).

We then walked over to the Fairmont Hotel to check out the Teddy Bear Suite, a room on the second floor decorated in Christmas bling and packed with teddy bears of all shapes and sizes.  It was precisely as weird as it sounds.  And right up a three-year old’s alley.

That tree in the lobby, though!

I wondered as we left the Fairmont if we should just call it a day, as the weather was increasingly cold and wet, but I’d told Juliette earlier that we were going to ride the carousel, and rain or shine (rain, it turns out), that kid was going to hold me to my word.  We made our way to Westlake Plaza and she picked out a horse with a checkered handkerchief around its neck, looking back at me with equal parts nervousness and excitement as we waited for the ride to start.

Once we got going, though, JOY.  Pure joy.

Ain’t no rain gonna keep us down!

We made one final stop for hot chocolate by the Westlake Christmas tree…

And then both decided we were done.

We zipped home, spread out the camping pads and blankets by the tree, and slept off that morning’s excitement.

Post-nap, inspired by the gingerbread castle we’d seen earlier, we decked out one last gingerbread man.

Such could hardly believe how delicious it all looked.  I could hardly believe how much sugar had been packed into a single cookie.  ‘Tis the season, I guess…

Next up:  onto Portland for the main event!

Lord knows I love a sunny July in the PNW, and a richly colored October, but December is chock-full of its very own charms, rich with old (and a few new) traditions.

The month kicked off with a kid-free weekend for Nance, La Verne, and me as we trekked a whopping 15 miles south for a weekend at the Cedarbrook Lodge for our annual ladies getaway.  We upped the ante this year and booked a reservation for two nights, skipping town on Friday evening and enjoying a leisurely dinner at the hotel bar before hitting the hot tub and queuing up Serendipity back at our room.

Our pilgrimage to the Auburn Supermall has become an integral part of ladies weekend, so after breakfast on Saturday we hit the outlets.  Hard.

I always walk out the mall wondering if maybe I overdid it a bit – did I really need five new sweaters?  That’s buyer’s remorse written all over my face, in case you can’t tell.

We landed back at the room late afternoon and wondered if maybe we should fully revel in our freedom with drinks and a fancy dinner out on the town.  Nah.  Instead, we spent an hour trying on our new clothes, oohing and ahhing over the deals we’d scored, and then venturing as far as the hotel bar for dinner (again), ending the day with ice cream in bed while SJP affirmed that Girls Just Want to Have Fun.

I thoroughly enjoyed our little escapade, but was happy to be back with Juliette and Shane come Sunday morning.  We had a cozy family day at home and then bundled up before heading over to Lake Washington to watch the Christmas Ship pull into the bay and serenade us with 20 minutes of carols.  We huddled on a little stretch of beach with dozens of other families while the choir’s voice rang out across the water.  This was the first year we’ve done this, but it’s been officially added to the list of Schnell family traditions.

Seattle got its first dusting of fresh snow last week - Juliette was asleep by the time it really started to accumulate, so I ducked outside and snapped a few quick pictures at 11 pm, just in case it all disappeared by morning.  You never know here.

Sure enough, that lovely blanket of white had turned to gray slush by mid morning the next day, but we ventured into the mountains on Saturday to frolic in a foot of fresh powder.

Juliette had a blast!  For about 30 minutes.  I’m afraid that girl has inherited my intolerance for being cold.

Ah, well.  It was good while it lasted.

My mama’s intuition told me to stick a lollipop in my pocket when we left the house.  It turned out to be just the consolation I needed when Juliette got snow in her mittens.

We stopped at Dru Bru on the way home for beer and Italian sodas.  CHEERS, kiddo!

Being a part of Juliette’s Latino-centric school has opened us up to a host of new rituals and traditions.  On Tuesday we gathered with her classmates and teachers to celebrate Las Posadas, a Mexican festival commemorating the journey of Mary and Joseph.  There was music and dancing, bowls of pozole and cups of hot chocolate.  Juliette was quite taken with the whole thing (one bite of a giant pink polvorone cookie, and she was ready to profess her love of all things Mexican!).

Up next:  Fondue, Christmas lights, maybe a ride on the Christmas Carousel – we’ve got some more December’ing to do!

We’re due, right?  Quite a bit has happened with Jules in the past three months.  Most significantly, little lady is finally potty trained!  We hunkered down at home the weekend after her third birthday and essentially bribed her out of diapers.  A sticker and an M&M for each pee, double-sweets for each poop.  There was much initial resistance, but after just a couple of go’s, she had the hang of it.

She was so confident by day 2, in fact, that she decided she could teach Purple Baby how to use the potty as well!

Once she was in big-kid underwear, she wanted to play big-kid board games and spent a few weeks endlessly requesting that Shane and I play Hi Ho Cherry-O with her.

She claps excitedly for the winner every time, whether she’s it or not, and makes a big show of rolling her eyes and good-naturedly grumbling when she gets a bad spin.  This pre-cheating, non-competitive phase is pretty sweet (though probably short-lived…).

She’ll always opt to have Shane and me fully engaged in whatever she’s doing, but there are the rare occasions when I can set her up with something to do independently and step away for awhile.  If I call it a “project” and make it sound very grown-up, she’ll indulge me.  She spent a rainy Saturday morning drawing circles while I sat nearby and organized my desk.  It was a treat, getting to spend time with her but focus on my own task at hand.

Juliette’s showing increasing resistance to naps, so I told her a couple of weeks ago that she didn’t have to go to sleep if she just played quietly in her room for awhile.  She pulled out her blocks and I patted myself on the back.  My kid had graduated to solo “quiet time”!

(Four minutes later, she yelled, “Mama!!! Come plaaaaay with me!”)

It seems that parenthood is one continuous loop of finding, then losing, then finding your groove, but for the time being, it seems we’ve nailed a couple of pretty important routines.  Getting dressed and out the door in the morning can still be a hot mess, but once we’re on our way, we’re digging our morning commute on Lightrail.

Once we get to school, I read her two books from her bookshelf (admittedly skipping a lot of words if I’m running late…), give her a hug, and then, most importantly, wave goodbye and blow a kiss at each of her classroom’s four windows.  No tears.  NO TEARS!  We have arrived.

We’ve also managed to eliminate the crying portion of bedtime, as Juliette is satisfied with two books and a story by Shane that always starts with, “One day, Pooh got some newwwww honeypots!” (we’ll call that a Daddy-Jules inside joke).  Once Shane turns out the light and comes downstairs, we both belt out “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” from the living room, so she knows we’re close, then she calls down, without fail, “Goodnight, Mommy!  I love you, Mommy!  Goodnight, Daddy!  I love you, Daddy!”  Gah!  That girl can be a dream when she wants to be.

She can chat a mile a minute when she’s hopped up on sugar or just sheer toddler adrenaline and continues to say the darnedest things.  She turned to Shane one evening as they were sitting on the couch, put her hand on his face, and said, “Daddy?  You’re my favorite cute guy.”  She’s picking up quite a bit of Spanish at school and is practicing her new vocabulary any chance she gets, pointing at planes and shouting “Avion, Mommy, AVION!!!”  She counts in Spanish about as often as she counts in English these days.

She sings a lot in Spanish, and although I often have no idea what she’s actually saying (I suspect she might not know, either!), I’m awfully proud of her.

Finally, some old pics of an extra-special Mama-Jules day – she and I took the ferry out to Bainbridge for a Friday adventure a couple of months ago.

We hit the Bainbridge Children’s Museum first, taking a pretend spin in the Smart Car and then doing some crafts upstairs.

Girl’s got skills on the climbing wall!

We grabbed lunch at Blackbird Bakery and then hit Mora’s for ice cream, trading our mint chocolate and raspberry cones back and forth.

We were completely tuckered out by the time we landed back in Seattle – Purple Baby snoozed in Juliette’s tummy while we walked to Lightrail.

And a few last sweet pics from sunnier days…  Our Fridays with friends ended in September when most of Juliette’s buddies started preschool, so Purple Baby has been filling in as her new playground companion, which is sweet and kind of sad all at once.

The 35-month time capsule:

Favorite songs:  “Flowers in Your Hair” by The Lumineers and “Bad Blood” by Taylor Swift

Favorite book:  anything with Pete the Cat

Favorite show:  Puffin Rock

Favorite foods:  chili, french fries, “wollipops”

Favorite color:  purple

Favorite pastimes:  grocery shopping; cutting pieces of paper into a million little pieces with her new scissors, then scattering them all over the floor; dancing with Dad to Beyonce and Katy Perry

Favorite way to make me crazy:  refusing to get dressed in the morning (my nerves wear thin just writing about it…)

My favorite thing about 39 months:  Her exuberance is more infectious than ever – I opened the blinds this morning to the sight of big, bold rainbow, and when Juliette saw it, she exclaimed, “A RAINBOW!  It’s all the colors!  It’s so, so, SOOOO beautiful!!!”  She was also wide-eyed and breathless today about the single string of Christmas lights our next door neighbor had strung on her outdoor tree and the Lumineers song that came on the radio when we were in the car.  Life is indeed quite grand, Jules.  Thanks for the multitude of reminders.