Christmas in winter!

ahhhhh, a white christmas! it is astounding how important environmental cues are for the holidays. any aussie visiting the US in winter would feel like it just wasn't christmas without summer temps and, no joke, shrimp on the barby. but snow and appropriate weather for santa's red suit warmed our hearts... that and seeing a LOT of family.

we arrived stateside and headed directly for salt lake city, where grandma and grandpa gardner helped us to get settled at great-grandma's house and great - truly great - aunt katie stayed with us for a full week. payton went to a conference in san francisco while the kids and i went to oklahoma and visited a bunch of whitehurst and hall family. back in slc for christmas, the entire lund clan gathered at great-grandma's house for a fantastic celebration. we missed payton's aunt lori terribly; she passed away earlier this winter. jerome and the boys - ty, cade and birch (we missed you, erica!) - made it up before christmas, so nova got to do some serious partying with her cousins.

after slc, a quick trip down through grand junction - shortened by the need to get over the passes before a huge san juan snow storm arrived - to durango for new year's and finally to santa fe before flying back to australia. whirlwind! blizzard! but, oh, so fun to see everyone.

merry christmas!

a walk around sequoyah club with mom, uncle buck, theo, nova, lindsey, canon, sylvia, lauren and aunt becky. brrr.

canon and sylvia.

nova playing ukelele with uncle buck.

nova was introduced to the world of epic sword fights by her cousins. ty (to the right of nova) did a lot of stabbing and killing and nova tended to come around and "heal you" with her sword. venus. mars.

canon lounging with grandaddy in durango.

lauren and sylvia

canon! nice hair

auntie iris came over for a couple days and we got some cross country skiing in...

driving the tractor with theo and grandaddy! super cool!

nova got a major haircut!

the blokes.

this incredible quilt is a handmade beauty by nikki childers - commissioned by whitney! thank you both, again, for such a special gift for canon.

we re-enacted part of lord of the rings with the kids in durango. this is the part where some elf and some knight are running... somewhere.

the boys playing guitars

i think this is a sweet picture of mom and lauren. it may be snowy outside, but the back deck, on a sunny southwest day, is warm and delightful, even in winter.

our cousin emilee and her daughter vivian upped the baby-ness around the house for new year's. nova was in heaven with canon, sylvia and vivian to dote on.

party like it's 1999...

holiday hangover. nice matching sweaters, guys.

ah, snow angels cure everything.

bad. ass.

i wore these pajamas when i was around nova's age - crazy! and i had to stick this pic in because i think it is the ONLY one - of all these christmas pictures - that has a christmas TREE in it!

we hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! we sure did!

The calm before the storm

october to december, 2010.

after the grandparents whitehurst left and before we idiotically loaded two kids on a 12 hour international flight, we tried to stay sane with the day to day banalities of bubble-bath mohawks and swings in the park coupled with early christmas-time festivities (you think they start early in the u.s.? we start christmas parades - pageants - by mid-november here! and you guys haven't even started basting your t-day turkey!) of course, this was all in an effort to stay grounded during the excitement of preparing to visit the u.s. for a white, family-filled christmas...

who's child is this who lays to rest...in a park while his sister is swi-i-ing?

captain's hat or mohawk?

gardening with mama. brilliantly, i planted a broad bean that nova started at school and a variety of herbs from the farmer's market just before the 40 deg C days of summer arrived and we left for six weeks to the u.s. money well spent. everything died. are you LESS of an environmentalist if you can't grow anything?!

an effort to recreate a similar picture taken of me and my big sister when i was only weeks old... canon - huge - is obviously not weeks old, nova is not doting quite as much as lauren was in the original, and neither child is dressed in a sweet, white, homemade, grandmother-smocked 1970's baby dress. i'm so sorry mom!

halloween! aren't WE creative parents!? someone else painted her face, btw. nonetheless, nova puts glenda to shame.

mmm, bbq chicken!

sometime around mid-november, adelaide has its annual christmas pageant. families turn out en masse - with chalk... i didn't get that memo, so we filched from some unsuspecting eight year old - to see wise men riding real! camels and other exciting christmas- and not-so-christmas-themed floats. fun for the whole family.

richie - this pic is for you! first boots for both kids! well done.

should we move to austin? park city? would this footwear fly in eugene?

my crib...

pediatric recommended table-top partying. canon looks a little nervous. nova is confidant that this will be fun. canon can't roll yet (in this pic).

this is why one needs a sizeable breakfast table.

omg - again! fast asleep in the middle of 3 yo commotion. is this child ours?!

roll training.

a december beach trip - before the snows of north america...

brian and jessica treated us (i don't think they knew what they were in for) to a family photo session as part of canon's birth present. well done, you guys. thank you!

ah, the sleep smear. nova was a champ at this. canon is not too shabby himself.

the norwood christmas pageant.

a roo bar on the way home from the norwood christmas pageant. does this seem excessive? esp in the city?

i was not very excited for our u.s. christmas trip, so shortly after mom and dad left in october, i began gathering/packing. nova and canon were extremely helpful...

nova helps me decide how many pull-ups are necessary for the 32 hrs of travel (for her, not me!). i packed something like 10, and used none. space well used. who knew a pull-up could double so nicely for a hat? alas, they're not really very warm.

wait till he gets his first look at snow!

one-girl band? drumhead didgeridoo.

jolly jumper.

could he be 16 here?

nova, ever the proud and helpful big sis, located the stocking caps (one is an adelaide crows hat and the other is the port power - footy teams) and decked herself and canon out in them. you can tell by the bathing suit it wasn't really that cold.

ok. next stop, usa.