Children's Christmas Party

Yesterday was a family tradition since our grandchildren began to arrive - the Children's Christmas Party at the Portland Yacht Club.  We've belonged for years and keep our little 26 foot sailboat there.  They are just the nicest people and they do so many fun events.  This one is a favorite - ordinarily Santa arrives on this cute little red tug boat that the club owns, but this year it was too rainy, he just waltzed in! :-)  They have a buffet with kid friendly things such macaroni and cheese, grilled mini hotdogs, dips and cheeses, crackers and cookies and juice boxes - for the adults there was eggnog, coffee and such, and lox! LOL

Above is Paige who wasn't all that sold on sitting on Santa's lap, but Mrs. Claus got her interested in a pop-up book and she relaxed a bit.  Jenna on the other hand was not at all convinced, as you can see her mom is "encouraging" her to get close to Santa for the photo.  What was funny is that Jenna whipped out an ad to show Santa what she wanted and managed to tell him about it.  All is well, Santa now knows what they want.  Paige asked him for a "PINK PIANO"!  :-)

Above is our middle son's boys, Gabriel on the left and Michael on the right.  They had no problem at all sitting on Santa's lap and telling him what they'd like. Each child got a hand-painted commemorative glass ornament with "snow" inside.

Above is Caleb, our youngest son's youngest son - the baby of the family at age 1 1/2.  He loves the candycanes most of all!

Then the obligatory family photo - the last one as our daughter is moving to Ohio soon.  

Above is the club all decorated for Christmas - it's such a fun place.  Thanks to my son-in-law Jay and daughter Amy for some of these photos.

Here is Hayden, our youngest son's firstborn son.  Isn't he a doll?  Below he's admiring the balloon car that was made for him by the balloon artist that was there.

Below is Paige, this is just the cutest photo of her all dressed in her finery.

Below is the marina for the sailboats in the club, this club has half power boats and half sailboats.  The power boats all must be in a boathouse, the houses go down the channel quite a ways.  The waterway we sail in behind is the mighty Columbia River.  We can sail all the way to the Pacific Ocean from here, just 100 miles downriver.  Our boat's slip is on the middle row just 2 slips in from the end.  Our boat's name is Stargazer - it has a star molded into the rudder.

We had the most fun and the kids had a blast seeing Santa, having fun meeting other kids and playing with their balloon toys.  

I hope you're all having a great holiday time.  ((hugs)) Teresa