Foto Phriday - 12/28/12

This is my eighty-ninth Foto Phriday post. The pictures today are from Juliana's preschool Christmas show, Wild Waves Holiday with Lights, and Christmas Day. Full set with all 65 photos can be viewed here.

It has been a busy holiday season this year. Since this is Julie's first and only year in preschool, the whole family attended her class' Christmas show.

Coral was there to cheer her sister on.

The kids performed a few songs with hand motions and then bells.

Here are the two classes that performed. The majority of the kids were very well-behaved. Some were more shy than others.

Here they are shaking their bells and singing holiday songs.

Here is Julie's whole class with her teacher.

Afterwards, everyone went back to the classroom for Christmas snacks and opening presents.

The cupcake cake was awesome. It said "Happy Birthday Jessus." Going to submit it to Cake Wrecks.

Our local theme park, Wild Waves, brought back Holiday with Lights this year after a few years of not doing it. I worked here for one summer and winter back in high school and will never forget operating rides in the cold and wet northwest weather.

Juliana and I had a father/daughter night at the park and we had an amazing time. All of the lights were absolutely gorgeous.

I took my little LX3 point-and-shoot instead of my DSLR since I knew we'd be going on rides. Sometimes you just want a small camera to carry around with and that's why I'm keeping my LX3.

Julie was reluctant to go on any rides when we got there, like most kids are. I find that catering to this can really make kids hide in their shells a lot. I pretty much had to force Julie onto the Scrambler, a safe, fun first amusement park ride, and after that, she wanted to go on everything! Here is a shot from when we were on the Ferris Wheel, one of her favorite rides there.

The train ride has changed a bit from when I worked there. It used to be little individual cars and now it's one long train. This was probably Julie's second favorite ride.

Picture of their light Christmas tree reflected in the lake.

We were there from open to close and there was never a line for any rides. It was pretty much a perfect night.

Julie wanted an armoire for her American Girl doll clothes for Christmas, so Santa brought her that Christmas morning.

Coral got her fair share of new toys for Christmas, too. She's almost 8 months old now, so she probably didn't understand all the hustle and bustle of the season, but she likes her new stuff.

In honor of Bethany being a huge Doctor Who fan, I got her the Sonic Screwdriver that the 10th doctor used. I think it's her most favorite thing ever.

One of Julie's gifts was some Sailor Moon magnets. As I said in my last TV post, we've been going through the entire series and she loves it. It's really hard to find Sailor Moon merch these days, even in Japan, so this was a nice surprise. Speaking of anime and Japan, I have some exciting news to share regarding this soon.

We pretty much celebrated three Christmases this year. First, we opened presents at our house, then went to Bethany's parents', and last at my parents' house. Busy day with lots of celebration... and food.

Even though Julie got a ton of great new toys, she loves watching and playing with her sister.

Tawnya and Bethany got matching holiday sweaters.

More presents!!!!!!!!!

Christmas dinner was at my parents' with my aunt and uncle and cousins. It was quite tasty.

The day after Christmas, I hosted my first video podcast for Cam-Fu and Friends. We've been planning this for a month and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I will have a separate post about this later with more news and info. To see more pictures from Christmas, Wild Waves, and Julie's preschool, view the full set.