I just want to say that I love living in Portland. Late this afternoon, Mr C and I went downtown and did some Christmas shopping. Then we had dinner at a little Italian restaurant. We have a class at Trinity on Monday nights, so we parked there and walked up to NW 21st. It was crisp and cool and we enjoyed the ambiance of being in the city.

Yesterday was Miss Mia’s seventh birthday. I know you all want to see some cute pictures. Here she is dressed in red, as we entered Keller Auditorium for The Nutcracker. That is Milo in the spiffy hat. It is her fourth time to attend, and she announced each act for me as the music started.

After the ballet we met Mr C and her Dad back at her house to open presents from us. We bought her a Mod Pod Boom box ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù it has pink flowers. She is totally enamored with the radio station K103, here in Portland. It plays only Christmas music – most of it sappy. Her mom has had to send her up to their bedroom to listen so we thought she should have her very own radio and CD player. She told us that if we want to go to the Barry Manilow concert in January that we should go to K103.com and click on the keyword, Manilow. I mean, she is really listening!!

Miles watched the gift opening with some restraint. She also received some Cd’s and a Hello Kitty baseball cap from Mr C.

Our next event was sushi. It is hard to find a sushi restaurant open on Sunday, but we succeeded. Here is Milo with an empty rice bowl – guess what his favorite food is?

Then it was back to Steph’s house for a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream cake – yummy!

Steph makes wonderful stuffed trees from wool scraps. Here are some sightings at her home:

All in all, it was a wonderful day with the family. As I said at the beginning of this post, I love being in Portland.

Today I received a big box of goodies for my girls and I from one of my blog friends, Jeannie, who lives in Richland, WA. I will wait and share the thoughtful treasures tomorrow.