Christmas Morning...

Here are some pictures from Christmas morning.  Evan's favorites of the day.... his Millennium Falcon, Pirates of the Caribbean Legos, Batman Wii game, General Grievous Figurine, and Star Wars bath toys!  Drew's favorites...his plethora of books, his Lego table, his ball pit and his Minnie Mouse stuffed animal.  The day was a huge success!!!  We started the day with Mimosas...and ended it with Gruyere cheese fondue with veggies and bread, Seared Duck breast, scallops the size of my head... or maybe the palm of my hand but head sounded way bigger, because my head is rather large to begin with...King Crab Claws, Brussels sprouts, sauteed red chard, and crab stuffed mushrooms.  For dessert, we ate grey salted dark chocolate caramels from a candy shop in Seattle.  Divine I say. Divine. But the company was what made the day so special, and of course the priceless face of Evan when he saw that Santa had come and left lots of loot. Days like this, you really appreciate how good life is. 

Precious Time with Ugbie and Melly...AND SUMO!

This Christmas we spend some precious time with Ugbie, Melly and their adorable French Bulldog pup, Sumo.  Time with them is always so precious. We usually don't do much, but that's how we like it best.  We always miss them terribly when they leave, but we are so lucky, because Ugbie usually visits 3 times a year! You can just see how much the boys idolize them, the love in their eyes is so obvious...and I believe the feeling is mutual?!!

Christmas Playdate

Ok, said I said I was a bit behind in my pictures and that was no lie. This playdate was 3 weeks ago!  As all playdates Jennifer throws, it was adorable! Lots of activities and delicious food, and the kids played beautifully.  I mean, just look at all the unprompted hugs, which mostly involve Claire of course!  Sooo sweet.

Little Fishes Christmas Pageant

Most of these pics are pretty terrible. I had to take them from about 50 or so feet away, and the lighting was awful.  Apparently kids ages 2-5 have short attention spans?!! so Miss Marshall thought getting too close with cameras would distract the children?  Hmmm.... Evan's attention span is at least 10 seconds, and he is very hard to distract (cough cough), so I am not sure who she is speaking of!!!  Anyway, the kids sang about 7 songs.  Drew was barely visible, so I think I only got one picture of him with his buddy Thomas.  And he specialized in looking cute as opposed to actually singing, but it was fun and a proud moment for Paul and I!

Baking with Meema, Nana, Ugbie and Melly

I just love these little aprons our friend Jennifer gave us!  They are perfect for baking Christmas cookies!  We had a baking session with Meema, Nana, Ugbie and Melly this Christmas, but I don't think I got any decent pictures of anyone but these two cuties.  The rest came out super orange tinged.  But anyway, love these little chefs and their adorable aprons!

Meeting Santa

 Yup.  So after all the build up and anticipation... this is the picture we got.  $23.  But I had to buy it because it made me laugh so hard, I peed a little.  I mean, classic Drew.  And silly Evan, hamming it up, doing whatever the camera man told him to do. 
I guess 3 and up is the magic age for Starstrom boys to enjoy and not be terrified of Santa.  Here is Evan at age 2.  Drew wasn't pictured because he was like 5 lbs still by that point!

You can see Evan isn't loving it.  He has tears in his eyes, and a glazed over look because he is looking at some object the camera guy's assistant has that is blinking and spinning... and you can see my shoulder in the corner, the only way Evan would consider sitting.  So happy I wore a bright yellow shirt that day.  And yes, that's my leg between Evan's.

Then there was last year.  Evan is loving Santa, hence my theory on the magic age of 3.  Drew is terrified, but young enough to be mesmerized by the spinning, glowing thing.  This year, not so much.  And this Santa "retired".  Um...I won't tell you my theory on that one.  But the new Santa was actually a little less creepy because he talked.  The previous one almost seemed half comatosed. 

And darn it, I can't find my picture from 2008.  I don't understand why? I only have about 50,000 pictures of the boys I have taken since then???

Christmas Jon-Jon

Question:
Drew is too old to be wearing a Jon-jon.
a. Yes
b. NEVER!!!!!