A very merry, and snowy, Christmas to all!

This Christmas will certainly go down in our memories as the snowiest ever! Unfortunately, it made travel too difficult to have our traditional Christmas Eve celebration in Redmond, so we had a quiet one with Grandma Gail at our house.



On Christmas Eve, the girls opened up the gifts they had made for one another, along with the gifts from Grandma Gail and one gift from Jeff and me. They each made a book for their sister. Caroline made a photo scrapbook for Margaret, and Margaret made a neat quiz book for Caroline. They worked so hard on them, and they both turned out really neat. Grandma made each of them lots more doll clothes, which worked out well with the new American Girl "Just Like Me" dolls we got them. Mom made each of them school uniform pants and green sweatshirts so the dolls will be ready to go to school after break!



The girls wanted to camp out in the living room on Christmas night to try and catch Santa Claus. We set them up on the sleeper sofa, and later regretted it (more on that another time...)


Opening stockings on Christmas morning, watched by Kathleena and Lindsay (the "old" dolls) and the new dolls (which they have named Caroline and Andrea--very confusing!).

Santa brought the much-longed-for Nintendo DS for each of the girls. These are the fancy handheld video games that create zombies out of kids...


Caroline got Margaret a fancy Nutcracker doll to celebrate the end of the Nutcracker season.


Our future, now that we've entered the world of video games...

45 and counting for Jeff...

Jeff and I went out with our friends the Barrettes on Sunday night in celebration of Jeff's b'day. The snow kept us close to home, so we decided to try out the Japanese Steak House, Fujiyama, near the mall by our house. We got quite a kick out of the performances of the chef at our table, and especially of the "band" that marches out to sing "We will, We will, ROCK YOU!" and then "Happy Birthday." Jeff was a sport about it.


On his birthday, the girls frosted a cake I had made, and we had a very low-key celebration at home. The highlight was Jeff's present from the 3 of us--7 years of home videos converted onto DVDs so we can finally watch them! I got them made, and Margaret and Caroline colored the DVD cases for each of them. We're all really enjoying watching the movies of when the girls were little. It's especially fun for them to see themselves at the age Jameson and Caleb are right now. We still have several hours more to watch to get all caught up!

The Show Must Go On...

Despite the snowy conditions that started around noon today, Margaret's Nutcracker performance went on as scheduled. For those of you loyal fans who weren't able to make it to the show, and those of you who have already seen it, here are some of the pictures I've been snapping from behind the scenes over the past couple of weeks. I wasn't really supposed to be taking pictures, so I had to be somewhat discreet with my phone camera (that has no flash or zoom, which is why some of the shots aren't so great).
Getting make-up on in the black box.

Hanging out in the black box with some of her new cast-member friends.

Margaret got a surprise visit from her best friend Chloe just before today's matinee performance. It was a special treat to see her and share the experience.

View from stage left, looking over the heads of the little mice getting ready to enter the stage opposite of where Margaret is lined up on the far side.

In the middle of the fight scene. The blur in the foreground is the Nutcracker, and Margaret is on the other side preparing to fight some more mice.

Hanging out under the stage after their fight scene, where they waited until the end of the Act.


The full cast waiting just off stage for the snow scene to finish at the end of Act I.

Taking their bows at the end of Act I.

Margaret was thrilled to receive her flowers & notes back in the dressing room during intermission. One had a candy cane heart, and the other a chocolate nutcracker candy to go along with the flowers. She says "Thank you Grammy & Grampy, and thank you Jennie & Brian!" For those of you who couldn't see the show live, we at least have a video of her dress rehearsal we can share sometime. Unfortunately, the clip is too long to upload here.

An early McNamara Christmas

Yesterday we celebrated the holiday season with the McNamara side of the family. Grandpa Bill, Grandma Lourdes, Great Grandma Dorothy, Uncle John, Uncle Greg & Aunt Rose all came to Olympia. After taking in the matinee performance of the Nutcracker, they came over for a Christmas party at our house.

Margaret was able to join us for just part of the time, since she had to head back to the theater for her evening performance. Ah, the life of a ballerina!





Caroline helping Daddy wash the dishes after the end of the party.

Opening night!

Margaret's Nutcracker debut was a wonderful success. This picture was taken during intermission, after she finished her fight scene. They are required to take off their make-up to come out into the audience area, so the cute cheeks and lips are mostly gone...

Concert with Grammy

Grammy took Margaret & Caroline to a holiday concert at Benaroya this weekend. Doesn't everyone look so nice? And it sounded like a very lively and engaging program. The kids were quite thrilled to have been picked out by Santa for a chat, although they apparently couldn't think of anything to ask for for Christmas. Go figure...

Sneak peak...

Tonight was dress rehearsal with makeup for Margaret. She just keeps getting more and more excited as opening night approaches. It was my first time backstage in the the "black box" where all the performers are getting dressed, made up, and ready to go on stage. I was AMAZED at the effort and organization that goes in to putting everything together. All the mice and toy soldiers did great and seemed to be enjoying themselves. Tomorrow night is my first time as an official volunteer--thankfully all I have to do is hand out costume bags and babysit.

O Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree...

Party in Portland

This weekend we made a whirlwind trip to Portland to kick off the start of the holiday season. We joined our friends the Barrettes, who have made this an annual tradition. We started at OMSI, which we had never been to before. That place is WAY cool! We could have spent the whole day there, but had to get on to all the other fun the Barrettes had in store for us, like a visit to Voodoo doughnuts, a swim at the hotel, dinner out, riding the MAX light rail, strolling through downtown with the holiday lights, caroling in the hotel lobby, a PJ party in the room, etc... Unfortunately I was having too much fun to take many pictures, but I did get a few.