Visit with Santa

Phew! Friday night we went on a wild goose chase for a Christmas tree bouncing around a few of the local lots in town, but we didn't find that "perfect one". We tried again on Saturday AM, and found a great tree! We loaded it up, got it home, had to hose some of the mud off of it, so we let it dry overnight and are planning on decorating it later today. Last night we hosted our own "Holiday Ale Fest" at our house. The one we usually go to in downtown Portland doesn't allow children (shame on them), so our friends Jim and Deb and their son, Levi, along with Andy's brothers came over to our house for a taste test of some of the season's best beer offerings. It was great to hang out with everyone, especially Levi, and see how much he has grown! He is quite the charmer and wanted to "hold Baby Ben". For being 17 months apart, they aren't that far apart in size!

Here is Ben's first visit with Santa. We will pick up a CD of our picture next weekend. This was at a local toy store here in Newberg, "Hey, Diddle Diddle". We had no idea that this store even existed - Thanks for the tip, Katy T.! It was like stepping back in time about 50 years (in a good way). The store is set up nicely, with a great selection of toys (especially wooden toys - my fav!). They have only been around for about 4 months, but as Andy said "It's dangerously close to our house" - just a few blocks.