Camille & Alec

We generally spend Thanksgiving with Alec's family and Christmas with Camille's family. This year we actually took over the Christmas hosting! Our Christmas celebration is very traditional. Christmas Eve dinner is our big holiday meal. Every year we have HoneyBaked ham, au-gratin potatoes, green bean casserole, and "FlyLady" baked beans. We also drive around to look at Christmas lights and watch a Christmas (or Ice Age!) movie. Christmas has always included books at our house. When Camille was a kid, her mom always said that "Santa believes in reading," and Santa used to leave a wrapped book next to each stocking. However, when we went on a trip to Sweden a few years ago to explore Camille's family heritage, we learned of the Scandinavian tradition of the Julbock (Christmas goat), a Christmas gift-bringer. We loved it, created our own Julbock costume, and now the Julbock hand-delivers a book to each person on Christmas morning. Thanksgiving is a little bit more playful. We always have pie because Alec LOVES pie. However, we switch up our side dishes, switch up whose home we celebrate at, and enjoy having a variety of guests.

Alec enjoys recharging at home by working on and driving his vintage 1969 BMW 2002. (1969 being the year, 2002 being the model - it denotes 2 door/2 liter engine. Camille had to be educated on this fact. ;-) ) He likes to fly fish when we travel to places that are cold enough for trout. Alec also enjoys computer programming. He always has one or two special side projects that he likes to work on while listening to music.

Camille's favorite hobby is gardening. She has a special interest in permaculture, native plants, pollinator friendly plants, edible perennials, and tomatoes. Alec thinks eleven tomato plants might just be a bit much for two adults and a toddler. Camille thinks you can never have too many tomato plants. Camille also enjoys knitting, cooking, and travel.

We love to spend time outdoors as a family. We hike, bike, camp, and fish. We bought a used pop-up trailer last year in order to make camping a bit easier with littles, and we have been loving it! So far we have hit a few state parks and have a large extended family Big Bend National Park camping trip planned for the fall. We also enjoy spending time on Camille's parents' ski boat and the small fishing boat that Camille's dad hand-built.

We live in a four bedroom home on about 1/2 acre in a quiet, shaded neighborhood. Our suburb has a little bit of a country feel - some of the properties nearby have goats, horses, and cows. A number of the families in our neighborhood have small children and we are excited for our kids to have friends nearby to grow up with. Our favorite feature of our home is our backyard. We have a large vegetable garden, an herb garden, a "pocket prairie" for pollinators, and plenty of grass for playing! Our backyard chickens also provide us plenty of eggs and endless entertainment.

We keep a small flock of backyard chickens. They till our garden, provide us plenty of eggs, and keep us pretty entertained in the process. Our current flock members are Freya (an Olive Egger), Opal (a Saphire Gem), Wynonna (a Golden Laced Wyandotte), Ana (an Easter Egger), Henrietta (a Barred Rock), and Henrietta (also a Barred Rock). And yes, we do have two Henriettas - they are the same breed and we can't tell them apart!

Moose is our male Siberian cat. He is a quirky, sweet, laid back boy with a bit of a surfer dude vibe. Moose loves to lounge on the dining room table while keeping a close eye on the backyard birds. Much like Sophie, his favorite place to be is outside. Both of our cats live fully indoors, but Moose enjoys taking walks on a leash in the backyard. We even have a dog tie-out cable so he can sit outside enjoying his catnip plant while we eat dinner on the back porch.

Ellie is our female Siberian cat. We call Ellie the boss of the house. She is definitely the dominant cat, and the first to let us know that it's time for dinner. Ellie is quick to come up to new people to greet them, and often immediately jumps on their laps to provide cuddles. Another of Ellie's many nicknames is "laundry dragon" because she likes to sit on top of the clean laundry pile, guarding it from anyone who dares try to take an item to fold it. Ellie came to us after being fired from being a breeding cat because she was so busy cuddling with the humans that she didn't nurse her kittens. She has maintained that strong desire to bond and nuzzle her humans.

Our daughter, Sophie, is a delightful, hilarious, sweet toddler girl. Everyone who meets her comments about what a happy child she is. Sophie is fascinated by babies and always makes sure that her baby doll gets milk and a pacifier before she goes to bed. We know that she will love having a younger sibling! Sophie's favorites: Favorite activity: To go up and down stairs while pointing and announcing "uh" (up) and "dnnn" (down). Favorite place: Outside! Favorite item of clothing: Shoes! To go outside! Favorite toys: Baby doll, toy cars, slide, books. Favorite belonging: Her green crocodile Croc style shoes. She wears them to bed every night and likes to push them around in her stroller during the day. We had to designate them as "house shoes" so that they don't get too dirty to wear under the covers!