Scout's Golden Hour: Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

This is the first Christmas that the kids have not been with their Nana & Grandpa. Every year, the kids patiently wait for them to come over and watch them open up their gifts! We did miss that this morning along with Scott's incredible beef tenderloin dinner he usually does on Christmas Eve. Instead, we had an excellent Shephards Pie, all organic with beef from the Hearst Cattle Ranch...the best part was he didn't spend the entire day in the kitchen!

What I did not miss was the all the last minute running around, the crowds, stress, cleaning, spending an entire day wrapping gifts the kids didn't even want! This year, we put our faith in Santa and he delivered! The boys asked for 1 item each, they got 2! Jack really wanted a skim board that he saw in a shop last week. He really wanted us to buy it and we didn't. We just kept saying that you have to Believe to Receive....it worked! He got it. A few days ago, Jingle, their Elf had finally tracked them down so I was fairly confident that Santa would find us, as long as we stayed put! The other gift I won't mention here, was something Tyler really wanted but we had to get 2! This was a big gift that parents usually give but I think Santa made an exception because our space was limited. Of course, Jack was happy with just the skim board. Tyler also got a portable badminton set...he loves playing that game. He really got into it the last couple of summers while entertaining our exchange students, Alex & Ellen from France!

We have spent the last couple of days relaxing at the pool/hot tub, biking, reading and having campfires after dinner. We started to tell stories and would take turns as all of us added to the story. This never resulted in anything great so we moved on to singing some Christmas carols...we are so musically inclined, this family! The 12 Days of Christmas was a challenge...5 Golden Rings...that one I was certain about!

nice weather in the mid 70's this week!

We biked down to the beach. Getting there is easy, it's all downhill. It's getting back that is hard! It was low tide so we were exploring the tide pools and finding lots of cool things.

I call this my Rock Star parking...front row!

They spent some time building totems...

I then challenged them to find me some heart shaped rocks. I got this idea from my friend Keri whose husband looks for them whenever they go to the beach. Thinking this would be a difficult task, I said I would give them $10 for everyone they found. Here is one...

and a couple of more...

This is getting expensive...

So now I am changing all the rules...$10 for the first one, $5 for the second, $2.50 for the 3rd...but then, some of them aren't really that great so I'm taking 30% off that value of that one...etc. This math lesson cost me about $20 when it was over! The good thing is that they never actually ask to get paid! I think we just keep a running total in our heads!