Christmas and some older pictures...

Merry Christmas! We have had a nice relaxing Christmas here in Seattle with Marie's brother Rinus. The weather is gorgeous but cold. We have spent some fun times outside still, all bundled up going on a walk to the playground and at Alki beach. The past two months have been busy. Marie started a new job at OneAmerica managing their citizenship initiatives and is really enjoying it. Karina started daycare and after a rough start is loving it. She talks about her friends at school all the time. She is saying more and more words every day.

Marie's first day at her job and Karina's first day of daycare. Karina wasn't too impressed. We were telling her that Mamma was going to go to work and she would say, "No" and scream when we dropped her off. Now she barely acknowledges us when we come to pick her up and doesn't want to leave her friends.

Hamming it up on her 25th month birthday. (We missed 26 months)

Hamming it up even more. Karina loves to play dress up. She doesn't care if it doesn't fit her.

Karina and her friend Elias "hiding" under her highchair.

Christmas Eve and round one of presents...

Karina trying on some of her new gifts. It was hard to keep her motivated to keep opening presents. She would get something, start playing with it and not want to stop.

Christmas morning and second round of presents. Rinus and Tim show Karina how to use some of her new gifts from Santa.

Dressing up again. She loves to twirl in her new princess skirt.

Christmas Day playtime at the park. It was cold but that did not stop Karina from having a blast.

Karina's new haircut. You'll see its shorter than her 25th month picture. We were trying to grow out her bangs and finally gave up.

A real Seattle child...

Posing with Oom Rinus on Alki Beach with the snowcapped Olympic Mountains in the background.

Happy New Year from the Ericsons!