No, these people aren't us and we didn't run a marathon... But Mom went to California to support her friends... |
Dad and I stayed to see the Forest Grove Light Parade... Go bag pipes! |
Mom and I think Dad should do this to his car next year and then we can be in the parade... |
Some groups really go all out for the parade... |
And it took a long time to get to this guy... (Santa! Oh my God... I know him! (but do you know your movie quotes?)) |
Anyway, Dad also put up the Christmas lights on the house while it wasn't raining... |
Then we all went for a "run" - we walked, of course... and Mom was the smart one behind the camera this time... |
But she couldn't help herself and had to take a celebratory "ussie"! (you know, a group selfie... an ussie... what you think it should be an "usie"? Think about how that would be pronounced... see... ussie!) |
Dad went to California for "work" - now he just needs to explain how this was work related... |
Or this! Though he doesn't look like he enjoyed the Incredicoaster as much as the other guys... |
I think the "dancing cars" were more his speed! (See - this is a selfie... who is that impostor? what happened to my father?) |
Even the shopping area of Disney was festive... |
Obviously not really one of Dad's photos... but this was December 21st and close to my heart! |
Dad says that you have to be careful when you use PhotoShop because it will try to do whatever you ask it to... (look at people 4 through 7... do they look right to you?) |
Anyway - we had another choir concert... I had to add a little color to the outfit... |
Of course, I think they should have let me go with this look! |
Micaela and Anna went to see Zoo lights with me... |
The evening started off great with a break in the weather! |
We saw lots of cool lights! |
And then it started to rain... |
And we saw some more lights... |
And we saw the same lights from lots of different places as we walked... |
And while we walked the rain got harder... |
So we ducked into the elephant house and saw real elephants... |
And then we went back out and posed with Santa (Santa! Oh my God... I know him!) |
And walked in the rain some more... |
And walked through the light tunnel... |
And stood in line for the train and got wetter and wetter... |
And saw some more lights from the zoo train... |
And then hurried back to the other train to get out of the rain... which then stopped, of course! |
This was my culinary creation for the holidays... |
And these are the stuffed animals Mom's friends made to give away at the hospital... |
Mom just can't help herself with the ussies... (here I thought I had a great new word, but Dad says it is in the Urban Dictionary as "a self inflicted group photo") |
Merry Christmas! It was a quick one for us this year... everything was opened by noon! |
This is my attempt to do "Blue Steel"... Mom insisted on straightening my hair... |
Dad had to play with combining pictures again... he really just wanted to show off our New Year's Eve weather... |
As if writing an annual Christmas letter isn't hellish enough, the fine folks at Pinterest are full of their usual great ideas to make you feel even more inadequate than you normally do...
Create a "Holiday Infographic"! Oh boy! A year in review with quantified meaningless facts!
Create a Christmas Poem! There once was an elf from Nantucket...
Write "12 Days of Christmas" letters, including letters from the Reindeer (how are reindeer supposed to write letters?), the Head Elf (that sounds like an inappropriate job title), Mrs. Claus, and Santa himself (hopefully they don't just get drunk, argue, and try to use the kids against each other...)!
Write the letter in the shape of a Christmas tree! Hey, it doesn't matter what you actually say as long as you can make each line the right length!
A top ten list! All you have to do is compete with the professional comedy writers on the late night talk shows... no pressure!
Anyway... Here is my attempt at a Carriker's Year In Review...
Step 1. Select Photo Gallery from the menu bar (but first cut the blue wire... No seriously, first read all the instructions because once you complete step 1 these instructions won't be on the screen any more...)
Step 2. Select January from the 2018 row
Step 3. Enjoy reflecting on our January adventures
Step 4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 for each month of 2018
Step 5. Select Home from the menu bar to get back here
There you go - 2018 in a nutshell!
See you in 2019!