Where's my orca?

So the story with Orca started like this:

In October, Tristan came down with a nasty case of croup.  And since it was Saturday night, all the urgent care facilities were closed and so I had to take him to the ER.  Now my copay for the ER is $125 (vs. $25 for a doctor's visit), BUT my $125 fee included a very special stuffed Orca.  Tristan did great in the ER and we were seen right away since he had respiratory issues so we were out of the hospital in less than an hour or two.  And Orca is now king.  Sometimes, when he is looking for him, Tristan will be like "where my orca?".

You can just see the top of Orca on the other side of him.

So...Christmas was approaching and I wanted to get each of the kids some sort picture/scrapbook.  Jamie got a framed  picture of him on the rail on one of the recent sailboat races.  Abby got a photobook of her 1st year pictures since she loves looking at her baby pictures.  So for Tristan, I thought I would make him a photobook of snapshots of him - with an Orca included!  The name of the book became "where's my orca" and he totally got a kick out of it.  I simply downloaded a clipart of an orca and photoshopped (sometimes not very well) into several different pictures from the last year.

Take a look:

This is actually a Nemo shirt.

And here's the video of him opening the book Christmas morning:

Christmas

All setup - 12:30am 

Christmas morning

On Christmas morning, mom&dad, Jon, and Charlie&Arwen came over.  The kids had so much fun (of course) but next year I need to keep an eye out on the older two as they were opening gifts left and right (and behind the tree in some cases) so I didn't even get to see them open some of them.  Near the end, Abby commented that Tristan got so many more than her (he didn't) so it was clear that she opened all hers way too fast! For breakfast we had quiche that mom made plus baked french toast and sausages that I made.

 After everyone went home we let the kids play while Chad and I worked on getting dinner ready to put in the oven (prime rib).  Tristan insisted that he did not need a nap, but...

Christmas Evening

Then since we had a few hours until company arrived, Chad and I took a nap and then I went for a run.  During my run I was stopped by a policeman and asked if I had seen a man they were currently searching for, which did not make me feel good about being out running!  So I called Chad and he met me at the bottom of the hill and walked back home with me.  At dinnertime, Chad's side of the family showed up and we had prime rib with whisky cream sauce, mashed potatoes, Burgundy mushrooms, and Grand Parisian salad. We also had lefse, and cookies, and raspberry pretzel dessert.  And then of course we did presents all over again!

Videos

Snow

The kids got a 2-hours late school day in December from a bit of snow, they were so excited even though there was hardly any snow at all but they still got all their snow clothes on and went out to play. Jamie wanted me to take him sledding but there simply wasn't enough snow.

Then a few weeks ago we got a lot more snow (on the same night that Chad and his crew drove the boat home from a race, brrr!).  That next morning all the kids had a snowball fight at park after church.