Christmas & Boxing Day Going Losting 2009

Christmas was our most delightful one yet, I'd have to say... Just the four of us snuggled in for the day, with nothing better to do than focus on each other... I didn't take a lot of pictures, because 1) I was busy doing other things, and 2) I didn't feel like it. Sometimes I think I remember moments better if I set the camera down, and just fully live in each moment. It felt intrusive to our good time for me to have the camera in my hands. Just a weird thing I have I guess... :-)

So, while I was making Christmas Dinner, Debris ate all our pickled appetizers I had sitting out and waiting to go in their serving dishes... She LOVES pickled beans and olives, but the pickled carrots she's not too fond of. The olive dish provided her with great entertainment for quite some time...

So, for a long time the girls have had a stuffed Golden Retreiver they've shared--appropriately enough, named "doggie." Well, recently Debris has laid claim to Doggie and Kiki has been left with nothing, as Debris plays with it quite a lot. So, for Christmas we got Keira a stuffed dog of similar size so she would have one to play with & sleep with. She was thrilled, and the new dog was promptly named "Russia," because Kiki currently thinks Russia is the coolest country in the world, due to the extreme amounts of snow, and St Basil's Cathedral, and the fact that Siberia is in Russia, which Kiki would like to live in Siberia someday, so she could ice fish, and hunt bears year-round. Yeah... I guess I should also inform her of Russia's unfortunate history of maniacal rulers one of these days too.

So then, on Boxing day we went losting. We first of all went up over Badger Mountain, and found a road that goes along the edge of the Waterville Plateau and looks down over the Columbia River, and Orondo. It's a super cool thing because the clouds sometimes settle over the Columbia River, and if you go high enough in elevation, you are over the top of them, I love it when that happens. So, the following pictures show that... The girls were very concerned that Daddy was going to go leaping into the clouds without them... haha!

Trying to get some good Rovey Snow Pics...

And, driving back out to the road, I happened to glance behind me at these tiny little feet with their mismatched socks... and the mouth on the other end of the feet was singing, "Someday my prince will come..." It was just one of those moments a mommy tucks into her heart and treasures... :-)

I believe, according to the signs, that this is Dump Canyon? Pleasant name.

After all that, we headed up to the Okanogan Valley, which I love. However, usually by the time we get there we have to hurry to see what we want to see before dark, so we don't stop to take a lot of pictures... which is sort of making me crazy. We will have to go camping there next spring or something, so we can pay tribute to the Okanogan with pictures. We ended up in Conconully, which I had never seen before, and I totally fell in love. Adorable little town with false storefronts everywhere, and OH. MY. LEMONS! The deer! Deer everywhere! If you did a pirouette with a knife in your hand, I guarantee you'd bring down at least three every time!! It was amazing!

Walking down the sidewalk...

How often do you see a Post Office with a storefront... how cool is that? Love it!

I am solemnly swearing to rope Frank into more trips up the Okanogan Valley next summer...

Hope your Christmas was great!