Christmas Turkey time take two

Of course this in the time of year where we all get a chance to hang out with family and relax about the house....or last minute shopping and sitting in traffic.  I did minimal shopping this year and went into a Toys r us for the first time and after about 4 minutes was out of the Christmas mood.  That Place is a zoo.

The weekend before Christmas we went down to the in-laws since I had some work to do down there and we wanted to see Ben and Laura.

The classic family photo.

A neighbor kept telling us that limp bacon is good for kids that are teething and we thought we would give it a try.  Sure enough he liked it and he has a little tooth poking through on the bottom.  James did not really eat much as of a week or so ago, but now he loves to eat just about everything we give him.  His mouth is very wide and gets all excited when the spoon is lifted.....even if it my spoon to my mouth.

Got some snow on Christmas eve.  We (us and Jim and Sandy)went to Coeur d'Alene to check out the bald eagles and it started to snow.  The snow was coming down hard and made it difficult to see the eagles and made the roads turn nasty in about 20 minutes.  I did look awesome though.

James and Brenda in the winter weather clothes

Need I say more.

Jim and Sandy were here for Christmas and miraculously I got a few part for the bike in, so we got to work putting the engine back together.  We go it all assembled and it should be ready to go after some paint and a little odds and ends.  Christmas Eve I revieved the new used tank I am going to be using on the bike and was all excieted....very excieted....it is going to look awesome.

James got a "rock and roll ball" from Brenda and was shaking with excitement when it rolled all over the place.

He got some irrigation boots to help with changing the pipes.  They looked big, but his thighs are so huge he could barely fit in them

I got him a motorcycle to chew on.  On the package it said only for kids 3 and up, but I ripped the parts off that could fall off so no worries.....Brenda thought it was funny for some reason.

James got tired.  He rarely fall asleep like this, but Sandy loved every minute of it.

I made another turkey.  This one was only 10lbs and not the 22lbs of Thanksgiving

Brenda loves working in the kitchen cleaning up the messes I make.

I made this for Brenda for Christmas.  It has the verse from our wedding on it and actually turned out really sharp.

Jim made this mirror for us out of tree props from his dad's place.  The wood looks awesome on this frame

The past few days we have been in St. Maries where I have some work.  Brenda and James hung out at the suite and seemed like they had a good time.  I really enjoyed coming "home" to them.

Thanksgiving 2011 and tree hunting

Thanksgiving has come and gone long ago, but the pics of the turkey still are fresh in my mind and I wish I could taste the juicy bird once again.  22 pounds of sweet meat did not last that long with all of the friends and relatives we had out here.

Here was the bird.  I have been the one to cook the bird ever since we have been married and I got a great recipe from Jacob Van Ewyk in San Jose that makes it the best turkey ever.

This is when I would like to have a 6 burner stove.  Gas would also make it easier, but we made due and still had room to spare.

Here is the gang for Thanksgiving assembled and ready to dig in.

James has not been eating much solids  up to this point, but I thought Thanksgiving is a perfect time to break him in.  He did like some of the stuff contrary to what his expression is saying.

We then had a bunch of friends over that night for some games.  Poor mans taboo was on the schedule and of course the men dominated the game.

James is getting more used to food now.

Brenda sometimes goes online while at home with him and he likes to grab for the computer.  She decided it may be fun for him to play with our old slow dinosaur.  He does enjoy punching the keys, but I am always a little worried staring out this young.  I guess this is what the digital age looks like.

Two weekends ago we went to get our Christmas tree from the National Forest.  This year we had friends go with us and we made the trek out into the forest to pick out the perfect tree.  Last year there was about 4' of snow here and this year there was only as trace in the shadows.  That made it easier while toting a kid around and our friends had a  1 month old that was only about 8lbs so we were kind of glad there was not a lot of snow.

Here are Izumi, Noah, Brenda and James picking out a tree.

We found the one behind us and thought it would be a good time for a family photo.

Then back at the truck James thought the tree looked great.

While I was away at work Brenda got a  couple of pictures of James in front of his first Christmas tree.

Last weekend we also got to spend some time with Chris and Izumi and the girls coordinated the kids to dress alike.  I am unilaterally opposed to dressing kids alike unless they are twin, but I have to admit they do look cute.

Our neighbors have a big pole with wires going up to it and a sprinkler at the top.  It looked weird when the temperatures were higher, but with the big freeze up here they turn the water on and then it looks like this.  When the lights are on at night it looks pretty cool.

We plan on staying around the house for Christmas and just hanging out.  I have a lot of parts for the bike arriving and am going to try and get the motor together and few other things in order over the few day break, but there is constant progress being made.

England Part 2

Quickly going to run through the rest of our trip in mostly photos here.  If you really want the scoop as to what we did you are going to have to call or even better, visit us. 

To start this post out I got to start where I left off.  Here is evening at King's college.

We decided to take a day trip to Kings Lynn to see a castle.  James likes trains, because they are great for sleeping.

Here we are at Castle rising.  This is apparently the most famous 13th century castle in England, but my cousins who live 1 hour away had never heard of it.  How famous can a 13th century castle really be anyway.

Sweet high hill all the way around it to make intruders run up hill.  Then on the inside a square building with very high wall.  it was not huge, but still impressive.

This day was the coldest of our whole trip.  No rain, but probably on 50 and misty.

The old timber floor was right under Brenda's feet and then there was storage under that.

I know I was there....although there are rarely any photos to prove it.

Not that great of a pic, but when we got back to Kings Lynn we walked around and checked out this church.

Then warmed up with come Coffee.

Back at the De Jong's, Kalyi and James played around.

The next day Matt was able to take us into the Kings College Cathedral.  Since he is a member of the University staff it was free for him and guests which is always nice.  The stone ceiling was spectacular and they are not entirely sure how it was constructed because there is no cement is the stones, but the weight of each one pushing like a wedge against the next holds it up.   Kind of scary if you think about it.

You are not allowed to walk across the grass unless you are a professor there that has worked there for about 15 years....ridiculous rules, but since I did not want to reflect poorly upon my cousins good name I followed them.

Got in this picture as well.

Then we walked around for a bit.

Ate in the city square to see this kid....wait a second...is she....no she couldn't be.....she is!!!  Parents, I implore you to get the pacifiers out of the kids mouth once the can speak full sentences and think rationally.  This girl looked about 6 to my, but I am not a good judge of age.

Brenda and I then went off to a rugby game.  Cambridge got killed, but there was a lot of yelling and one fight. 

Lots of grunting

Kind of fun to have a few pints and watch a match.  The fight was pretty cool.  Two guys got pissed at each other and decided to headbutt one another.....at the same time.   Never had I seen that before, and after the headbutt they were both thrown out, but neither of them flinched.   Man was it cool.

Then it was off to Kayli's birthday party.  She was turning two and we had a chance to meet some of Matt and Cara's friends.

Then hang out and eat cake.

The next day was pretty mellow with church in the morning then Matt and I left on the bikes for Ely.  We rode like madmen for what seemed like forever, but really was just over two hours and the girls met us there.  We went to the cathedral there which is very famous for being cool.

Never point a gun at anyone is what I think of my mother saying at this picture....hahahaha.

For dinner it was fish and chips, and mushy peas.  Brenda ate the peas.....eeeehhhhwww.

We kind of just hung out the next day again going for tea and then a long walk through the country and town.

Cara took care of James while Brenda and I went to Evensong.  It is a choir that sings every night in the cathedral and kind of cool to see, and of course it is free so just withing my budget.

Here is a cool bridge in Cambridge

James pulled his hat over his face to keep the lights out I guess.

The next day we were off to London for 3 nights to wrap up the trip.

When we arrived we went to the British Museum and checkout out the Rosetta Stone.

Saw some cool coins from Judea about 30 AD.  Some had Caesars face on them.....I think I heard a story about that once....let me think.

After a long day it was time for dinner.  We ate every night a pubs.  They were great because they were loud so no one would care if James cried, but most of the time he looked like he does here, dead asleep.  They also had good food and beer.

We got the variety platter....m.m.m.mmmmmmmm.

Our hotel was two block from Buckingham Palace and 4 from Big Ben.  perfect place to use my hotel points I get when I go on the road for work.  The Crown Plaza was nice and we definitely looked out of place in that hotel which normally was about $250-300/night.  I am glad I had those points as there is no way we would have been able to stay in London otherwise.

Right before the changing of the guards.  The changing of the guards is ok, but if you go in the summer I am sure it is even more crowded and unless you are right up front it is kind of lame.  We were about 5 people back and of course heads taller than anyone else and I still thought it was lame.

I could not resist getting pic of this lady...seriously.

Classic shot which made me feel like a tool, but the wife insisted.

Big Benny

Parliament

Westminster Abby.  Note on Westminster is that it costs about $22 us per person to get in.  Nice to see, but I think if you go to the evensong you see enough and you can go to that for free ( we did that as well).

Westminster at night

Then, the last day it was on to the Tower of London.  We had a great time there and got to see the crown jewels.

the spot where Anne Boleyn got separated from her head.

Tower Bridge.  I kind of expected London Bridge to be better, but it was just a concrete bridge and was lame.

Shakespeare's globe ( we just walked by and did not go in).

One last time past Parliament and Big Ben at night

The next day we headed out on the long journey home.  Slight snafoo with ticketing when they told us the computer says we should have two kids, but I assured them we only came with one.