Here are a couple of photos of the final result:

Now, I will admit that these turned out looking pretty good. However, they took a rather long time to make. Also, they were fairly costly and kind of a waste of a perfectly good york peppermint patty. For my money, chocolate crinkles are my chocolate Christmas cookie of choice! (I’ll be baking those up on Thursday if anyone wants to swing by for a visit!) And if you’re looking for a good minty chocolate, Theo Chocolates Peppermint Sipping Chocolate is excellent!

The day after Thanksgiving, we once again participated in our traditional treck downtown and saw the Christmas trees, gingerbread houses and tree lighting. Beatrice did not take a nap that day and to distract her while waiting in line, we let her have her first candy: a candy cane!  She LOVES them!

And we’ve been doing some other fun things to celebrate the Christmas season. Christmas tree hunting:

Trimming the tree:

Riding a horse-drawn carriage:

Making decorations:

Visiting Christmas light displays:

All this and we’ve still got two weeks until Christmas! It’s been a delight to see hear Beatrice singing Christmas songs and carols and to watch her learn more about the traditions of Christmas (she caught on especially quickly to the fact that men dressed as Santa generally give out candy cane treats!).

I’d also like to share the following two crafts which Beatrice made at school last week. I can’t believe how fast she’s growing! She’s a big fan of turkey meat and has been talking about it for the last few days. Bring on the turkey!

Through our CSA, we get a pumpkin (or two) each year and we went one Saturday to pick it up. First, we picked some chard, which Beatrice “chomped” while I filled the bag:

Chard Chomper

Misty Morning

Then we walked back to pick out our pumpkin. She was very careful to look for just the right one:

The best pumpkin!

Afterward, we went to a “real” pumpkin patch, not that the first one was fake, that had pumpkins and gourds and animals to pet and activities for children. It was also very sunny, so we are squinting in most of the photos. Ah, what a great problem to have around here in October!

Mighty McP Four at the Pumpkin Patch

After looking at many, many pumpkins, Beatrice decided the “teeny tiny ones” were what she liked best. She selected four gourds for our home and only tried to put a few of them in her mouth!

Selecting just the right gourd

See ya next year, pumpkin patch!

Pumpkin Patch 2011

Happy Easter 2011

My parents brought up my rocking horse for Beatrice to use and at first, she didn’t know what to think of it. Now, she is really enjoying it! She’ll say, “horsey! horsey!” when she wakes from her nap. She can’t quite get into the seat on her own, but she has figured out how to rock and this delights her!

Horsey!

Beatrice received some finger puppets for her birthday and this week, she figured out how to play with them on her fingers. It cracked her up!

Finger Puppets!

The first Thursday of the month is free admission at many local museums. Last week, we visited the MOHAI with the Rafer girls. We had a really fun time! Beatrice’s favorite part was playing with some magnets:

Magnets at MOHAI

On Saturday, Megan and Christi came over and we cooked up a big batch of food for the freezer. We’re now prepared with several options on days when things get busy. Hooray! Jonathan helped out by entertaining Ezra and Beatrice for a large portion of the time:

Peek-a-who?

Yesterday was Mother’s Day. We did not take a single photo of us with our little silly pants, nor did I take a photo of me with my mom. Boo! Beatrice is sick, I have an ugly cold sore and I didn’t have my camera out. How’s that for three good excuses? We had a great time though. Jonathan and Beatrice went shopping together on Saturday and got me two really great cards, a basket for veggies from the garden this summer, a giant pack of Mexican Coca-cola Classic, and we had a great afternoon with my parents. Mom and I went for a nice walk down on the trail. Jonathan and Dad cooked up a wonderful dinner of shrimp and scallops, orzo, salad and dessert of angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream. We were also able to get out and do some work in the yard. Hooray!

We started Christmas Eve Day with a series of disasters and because this blog is a family album of sorts, I’m going to include them:  Jonathan starts a load of laundry in the morning. Beatrice and I are playing in her room when we hear a loud thump. I call out to Jonathan who responds that he’s okay, which is followed by the sound of sweeping. Um, okay. “How much detergent do we have left?” Ha! The short version of what happened was that the scoop of detergent he was placing into the washing machine had spilled onto the floor. No big deal. Clean up is pretty quick and easy and we go on our merry way to breakfast. Jonathan is feeding Beatrice her bowl of oatmeal and I begin preparing fruit salad for brunch with family. I take the fruit salad bowl out of its storage place in the buffet and show Beatrice the bowl. “This was your Great Grandma Bea’s and one day it will be yours!” I say and then go on to explain how it was such a treat for us to help Grandma Bea make fruit salad in this bowl and how I know that soon baby Bea is going to be my big helper when I make fruit salad. Beatrice finishes her breakfast and it’s time for her nap. Jonathan brings her over to the counter to give me a kiss before the nap and she excitedly kicks her foot, catching her heal on the aforementioned heirloom bowl and sending it crashing to the floor. It shatters and I ask Jonathan to take Beatrice so she can nap and be away from the glass and I clean bits of glass and chunks of fruit off the floor that Jonathan had just mopped. Boo! I was oh so very sad. This has been a year of losing my sentimental attachment to things (more to the point, losing things to which I am attached), so I’m not terribly surprised that all this has occurred. I clean things up, praise the Lord for the memories I have with my Grandma Bea and remember that it’s the joy she shared, not the bowl, that was important. Jonathan and I take turns getting ready, trying to get Baby Bea to nap and cut our losses and head out to brunch at Jonathan’s sister and brother in-law’s house. While driving to brunch, Jonathan mentioned that the third thing in the series of “bad things” has already happened! We’re in the clear for the rest of the day! Sadly, this involved slicing his thumb, but hey, we’re glad to know we don’t have the dark cloud of gloom looming over us! Katherine made a delicious brunch of quiche and bacon waffles and we were able to spend some good times with family. It was a delicious meal!

We were finally able to get Beatrice to take a nap after brunch and then we worked on a little craft project:

The finished product is a little reindeer head in the shape of Bea’s foot and a Merry Christmas from us! Beatrice was very patient and careful while I put ink on her little foot and just watched and watched. I am a big fan of homemade Christmas ornaments and I’m so happy we have a little something to remind us of what a sweet baby she is at this tender age. She is already growing up too quickly!

After crafting fun, it was time to travel to A-town for Christmas Eve church. Beatrice was her usual chirpy and chatty self, but did pretty well. She said “Bye-Bye” for the first time, which was adorable! They also had battery powered tea light candles for the children and she was quite pleased to have a candle of her own! Here is our little fire-eater in action:

After church, it was back to the Eske homestead for clam chowder in bread bowls! While we waited for supper, Beatrice got to have her first taste of lefse. To start, I just gave her a little bite:

She LOVED it! So we gave her a little more:

We have ourselves a lefse loving baby!

Not long after dinner, Beatrice indicated she was ready for bed. We packed up and headed home as quickly as possible. Having not napped much at all during the day, she went to sleep without a fight. A Christmas miracle!

We started Christmas morning with family cuddles and reading books in bed. Beatrice really enjoyed having both of her parents right there with her! Jonathan and I were the happy recipients of a delicious Swedish tea ring, slices of which we had for breakfast along with the requisite cup of coffee. After Bea’s morning nap, we had our first annual family Christmas adventure! We decided this year’s adventure was making a movie. Beatrice was a really good sport about us moving her gift just before she reached it and it was really fun to share with our families. It might not be the fanciest movie of all time, but it sure was fun to make and is already a treasured memory.

Dad and Mom Eske, Rachel and Erik joined us for Christmas dinner. This year, we had salad, salmon, brussels sprouts, green beans with almonds,  rolls and jello with cranberry upside down cake for dessert. It was a feast! After dinner, we took some family photos. Each one was more hilarious than the last! I think they really say “Merry Christmas!” don’t you?

We hope you had a very Merry Christmas!  Happy New Year!

It snowed! Grandma E. found a sweet snowsuit for baby Bea and we took her outside to explore. She didn’t know what to think about the snow, but she really enjoyed watching us dance around for her benefit:

We celebrated our first Thanksgiving together and Beatrice got to try some turkey! (She didn’t love the turkey, but she did love that Jonathan shared part of a dinner roll with her!). She also got to wear a special shirt that says “Everyone is thankful for me” which is certainly the truth!

We took her to be part of our Eskebold/Potterson Family tradition of viewing the Christmas Trees and Teddy Bear Suite at the Fairmont and watching the tree lighting in Seattle the day after Thanksgiving. She really enjoyed the lights, the decorations and the singing! Even though it was pretty late for her, she did a great job.

Saturday, we had a relaxing morning at home, then braved the crowds at Costco and had a family Christmas tree hunting adventure!

We decorated the tree and got out the rest of our Christmas items. Beatrice was confused about her parents wearing reindeer antlers, but eventually got into the spirit. She really enjoys seeing the mistletoe above her when we walk through the doorway and gets really happy to see the tree all lit up! What a fun time it is for us!

Jonathan will have more photos up here soon! We hope you all had a great weekend!

Beatrice's first Easter 2010

More photos can be found here. The end.