And There It Went.

Really? It's over already? I can't believe how quickly the Christmas season passed by and when I think about the fact that we've also completely exhausted the year 2011 -- I'm amazed. Time just goes by so incredibly fast. I'm feeling the pressure and anxiety of all of the things that were left undone this year but also the relief of the "clean slate" that the new year will bring in just a few minutes. I know it's just another day with different numbers attached to it and yes, there will still be things on my to-do list come tomorrow morning, but there's just something so wonderfully refreshing about January 1st. You get to start a new planner and if you're really lucky maybe even a new journal or list-book. I even finished reading my novel today so I get to start a new book tomorrow too :)

I haven't taken my Christmas stuff down yet. I'm a little behind this year. I usually like to have everything even remotely Christmas related completely put away by January 1st but I'm still just really loving my tree. It's so nice to sit here with the house all dark and just the Christmas lights on. I don't think I've gotten to enjoy it quite enough this year. I suppose I'll have to take care of all of that on Monday since I have the day off and Steven will be working. Putting Christmas away is always a bit of a downer but it will be nice to have the house put back to normal again.

This year has been a good one! We started out the year with Steven working at Rural Metro and really struggling to stay optimistic about his job. At the time I was just starting to fill out substitute applications for the local school districts. Then we found out the dates of the application/testing/interview process for the Enumclaw Fire Department and decided it would be best if Steven quit his job at RM so that he could focus on studying for the test. It was his birthday present to himself and all of the sudden we were living on a substitute teachers salary. I was subbing full time in six different districts from April through the end of the school year and I was one cranky young lady. Poor Steven. He stayed home and studied for 8 to 10 hours everyday and then his depressed little wifey would come home from work in tears and complain for hours about how substitute teaching is the worst job ever. I'm a little dramatic sometimes. Let's be honest. Then came the testing and interview process. STRESS!!! And the news that Steven did not get the job with the fire department. Huge disappointment. We left the next day for a week in Kauai with the Mayers and then, thank God, got a call a couple of days later saying that as it turns out, Steven was going to be hired by the fire department. Phew! That totally saved our trip for me -- up to that point I was a bit of a basket case and was just kicking myself for allowing myself to be depressed on my first trip to Hawaii. The first weekend in July Steven started his new job and I had the pleasure of being in Lena and Aaron's wedding! It was a big weekend for celebration. A couple of weeks later I coordinated Joy and Cody's wedding down in Dayton, Oregon. Steven was a huge help at that one and we even got a few minutes of swing dancing in. In August we celebrated our first anniversary -- woohoo!! -- and drove down to southern Oregon with Chad & Whitney where Steven and Chad stood with Jeremy as he and Ronnie said "I do" and the rest of us melted in the sun :) It was a beautiful wedding! Then came the fall and my never-ending sinus infection -- seriously, I was sick for almost 3 months. Between rounds of antibiotics and with bags of coughdrops in every jacket pocket we made a trip down to Portland to visit with Jeremy & Ronnie and then flew over to Boston for a long weekend with Chad & Whitney. It's been such a treat so see Chad and Whit so many times in one year even with them living so far away! Then Paige came up to spend Thanksgiving with us and then the Christmas whirlwind and now here we are. Ready to start the whole crazy cycle again. I'm very much looking forward to a new year. Big things are going to happen in 2012 and I am so excited to find out what they are. I'll be real honest, I hope it includes a new job for me, an improved stair climb time and huge fundraising boost for Steven (because I know that's what he's working towards right now) and maybe even a really fun vacation for the two of us. Not to worry, I'll keep you informed as usual ;)


Happy New Year Friends!

Loving the Christmas Chaos.

** Just so you know, if you read the Christmas post from last year, you may not even need to read this one :) Most of the family events and Christmas celebrations took place in exactly the same fashion as last year. There are new photos obviously but I even accidentally wore the same shirt on Christmas Eve this year as I did last year... so there you go.**

These last two weeks have gone by in a blur. A beautiful, fun, exciting, twinkly blur but a blur just the same. The Thursday before Christmas, Steven and I attended the memorial service for his grandfather. It was a very nice service at a military cemetery in Maple Valley. The sun was shining, the mountain was out and it was absolutely freezing but the service itself was lovely. We had dinner with Steven's family right after and then drove up to my mom's house for some last minute Christmas baking. We had about 5 different recipes that we wanted to get to but only had time to make the "Snickers" bars that night. They were fabulous, just as I remembered them being last year, and one very tired night when I was feeling super silly they were dubbed the "snickery-doo bars" so now that's what we call them.

Here we are wearing our Christmas aprons and unwrapping the caramels for the third layer of the bars. So, so tasty.

Steven and I kicked off the Christmas weekend with a breakfast date first thing Friday morning. I don't know why going out to breakfast seems so special to me but I just love it. We went to the Krain Korner in Enumclaw. The breakfast itself wasn't fabulous but the experience was fun and relaxing. The inside of that restaurant is super cute with all kinds of fun little decorations (just like any other diner of that sort) and it was decorated all Christmassy too.

Later that evening we drove over to Covington and had our Christmas with Steven's family. We ate spaghetti and opened gifts. Steven and I were showered with gift cards! Sushiland, Blue Highway, White House Black Market, Teavana and JoAnns. We also received a few fun "boy" DVDs. They're all movies that I really like and am glad to have, I just called them "boy" DVDs because we recently noticed that we don't seem to have much beyond the Disney, musical and Chick Flick genres. It's nice to have a few superhero movies thrown in to the collection. Steven's convinced the reason we were gifted with these particular DVDs is because maybe, just maybe, his dad was hoping he'd be able to borrow them ;) As it happens, our copy of Sherlock Holmes went home with him just he other day. We ended up staying late into the evening playing the new copy of Ticket to Ride that we bought for Karen and Ralph.

Christmas Eve morning Steven and I each opened a gift. Steven opened a "Keep Calm and Carry On" canvas wall-hanging and I opened the much anticipated gift of footie-pajamas. I shall save that story for another post. Then we each went our separate ways to spend time with our families. Steven spent most of the day at his parents' house and I went out to tea with the ladies.

Just like last year, Mom, Mandie, Tara, Grammi and I all went to afternoon tea at the Queen Mary. It was even better than last year! Since we went on an actual holiday they weren't very crowded at all and we had the table right next to the window so it was nice and bright. We each had our own kind of tea -- mine was called "Golden Monkey" -- and then shared these amazing towers of food: crumpets, scones, snickerdoodles, cream and jam, quiches, fruit, shortbread, gingerbread, pecan pie bars, cucumber sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, salmon sandwiches and, my favorite part, this fabulous peppermint cream stuff. I don't know what it was supposed to be paired with (it was on the sandwich tray but definitely wasn't meant to be eaten with those) but it was wonderful with the snickerdoodles and even just right off the spoon.

I just love "girl time." Being married is the best but after being used to a life of living in a "girls only" house, it's nice to have these "girls only" dates every now and then.
Steven met up with us back at Mom's house after tea and we all went to church together. And then we had a surprise visitor -- Paigey!! She was spending the holiday weekend with her family in Bothell so she stopped by to hang out with us while we had dinner and opened gifts on Christmas Eve. It was such a treat! We've never had Paige in town at Christmas time and it was just really fun for me to share that time with her.

Digging in to our stockings. Santa came while we were at church again this year. He was very good to us! We got new head phones for our ipods and 4 seasons of Psych and Frango cookies and I got nail polish and all kinds of fun things. Steven even got a bottle of champagne! It wasn't actually in his stocking but sitting next to it on the floor by the fireplace.

Since Dad and his family were out of town for the holiday, Tebow spent the entire weekend at Mom's house. Can't say that her animals were too keen on this idea. In fact, I'd say they were downright angry about the whole situation, but they survived. It was fun to have him there. Evidently Tebow likes opening presents. He's pretty good about not chewing on things but this was just too much fun for him to resist. It was pretty cute.

We gave Apanda some sock-monkey pjs. I'd say she was pretty happy with them.

Steven and I were very blessed this Christmas. We got some really wonderful gifts from Mom including a Nook and a portable iHome. We've been wanted some portable speakers to plug our ipod into that we can take when we travel. This one is great -- the speakers are good quality and can get pretty loud but it still folds together and zips shut. Steven is in love with the Nook. He carried it around for 4 days straight. I was getting a little jealous of it. I'm not even kidding. I really was. But then I picked it up and learned how to use it and then Steven and I started playing Sudoku on it together. Big mistake. Fun but still a mistake. We were up past 1am two or three nights this week just laying in bed playing Sudoku together. It was really silly. The girls gave us some really fun stuff too including new mix CDs and a Scandinavian cookbook!

A little last-minute cookie decorating. This was a fabulous new recipe Mom tried. The cookies have loads of butter and cream cheese in them and then an awesome buttercream icing on top. She also tried another new recipe. Something like "mint-chocolate wafer cookies." These were pretty yummy too. It's like a chocolate cookie sandwich with peppermint icing in the middle.

Playing Tara's new Disney trivia game. As Tara was opening this gift she asked "Did you put glue on my gift?" I was really confused and said no, of course not. She said that it was sticky and then I remembered why. At this point she still didn't have the wrapping off far enough to see what was inside (she's a very careful gift opener) and I said something along the lines of "Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure it hasn't been used before but I got it from Goodwill and they always tape their games shut there so the pieces don't fall out." To which she responded "Oh, so it's a game?" Hahahaha! I laughed so hard. I was kind of embarrassed and felt like I had spoiled the surprise a bit but it was just really funny. Especially because earlier in the evening I was passing out gifts and Amanda told me to hand one of them to Steven and I said "this one?" and she said "No, the book's for Tara. Oops!" It makes me chuckle just thinking about it. Poor Tara, we spoiled all of her surprises :) I'm pretty sure she liked her gifts anyway.
Steven and I drove back home late Christmas Eve and spent Christmas morning at home together. We opened gifts and made cinnascones and hot chocolate and cuddled together in our new pajamas. Steven gave me these Disney DVDs that have a bunch of animated shorts from WWII. The government asked Disney to make cartoons to help sell war bonds and encourage people to pay their taxes on time etc. etc. There are even military training videos that were considered classified until just recently. We watched a few of those while we were eating breakfast Christmas morning. They were really interesting. It's so strange to see Donald Duck cartoons that obviously weren't made for children.

Steven also gave me a beautiful ring. It has a big pearl in the middle with a diamond on each side and I love it! On Christmas day I wore the pearl earrings that Steven gave me for Valentines Day the week after he proposed, the pearl necklace he gave me on our wedding night and the pearl ring I got this Christmas. It's so fun having this little collection of jewelry from Steven. Any time I wear any of it I am reminded all day long that I am loved :)

The rest of Christmas day was spent at Papa and Grammi's eating way too much food, playing with the puppy, and watching each other open gifts. Micheal and Danny gave us CDs and the Shadows Over Camelot board game. And Papa and Grammi gave us a gift certificate to Teatro ZinZanni. We've been wanting to go there for a long time and I'm so excited to finally be able to schedule that date!

So cute. Tebow fell asleep across one of Michael's arms and one of Tara's arms and neither of them wanted to move him so they had to help each other open gifts. It was really funny. They kept opening clothes and they would each have to hold up one side of the shirt so that they could get a good look at the gift they had received.
Grammi made a marvelous dinner, Scott made two fabulous desserts, and Mom made some delicious rum slush! All in all a very successful evening.

I was SO glad we decided to spend that night at Mom's house I was exhausted, as you can see (I was actually really comfortable like that), and that long drive home night after night was just getting really tiresome. Steven and I made a little bed on Tara's bedroom floor and had a slumber party :)

But don't worry, the fun doesn't end there! Things slowed down a bit on Monday and Steven and I even got to spend the evening at home just the two of us. Tuesday night we had one more Christmas celebration with my dad and his family. We met at Maggiano's just like last year to celebrate Nathan and Grandma's birthdays, then went to Dad's to open Christmas gifts. Steven and I received another Teatro ZinZanni gift card! This was very, very unexpected but also really exciting. They change the show there every few months so we'll be able to go twice and see completely different shows. We're really looking forward to it.

Steven and I have spent most of this past week enjoying the Nook and our new Psych DVDs and all of the leftover Christmas cookies and trying to make the most of our time off together. I think we've done a pretty good job.

Last but most certainly not least -- Friends. Steven and I tend to live our life in extremes. Not by choice really, it just happens that way. Like with our schedule for example: we either get to see each other all of the time, or hardly at all depending on the week. And so it goes with our friends. As most of you live hundreds, and some of you thousands, of miles away we really don't get to see you all that often and then a whole bunch of you will be in town for "one week only" and we want to see everyone and hang out with everyone the whole time but we also know that we have to be respectful of your families and share you with them too (and your other friends, though I don't know why you need them when you have us...) and it really isn't easy. Lucky for us, we had quite a few of our favorite people in town this past week. We got to see Paige on Christmas Eve, we met up with Chad and Whitney for games and tea on Monday, we had sushi and played Phase 10 with Rachel on Thursday, and last night we had an absolutely marvelous time playing games and eating and drinking and eating and drinking and eating and drinking some more with Chad, Whit, Jeremy and Ronnie.

Chad and Whitney had been slaving away making an incredible Mexican meal for us.

 

Chad made these amazing empanada type things filled with beans and sausage. We dipped them in salsa and sour cream and they were just so, so tasty. Jeremy brought some fresh bread that he baked and he mixed up margaritas for us too. We had to take breaks in between snacks and drinks and appetizers and dinner. We played games while we waited for the fullness to subside and then we had tacos. Chad and Whit had slow-cooked the beef and chicken and everything just turned out perfectly!

Jeremy and Ronnie also made some pretty incredible cinnamon rolls for dessert. I don't know how I fit that in my tummy but I managed to find room. Us girls had gotten a little tired of the games so we left the boys upstairs to play another one and we went downstairs to watch Captain America. When Jeremy came downstairs with a plate of warm cinnamon rolls I just couldn't help thinking "What a good man." Haha! That was just a really happy moment for some reason. Whitney, Ronnie and I were all cuddled on the couch under blankets watching a movie and chatting about girly things and then Jeremy came in with a big smile on his face and delivered freshly baked cinnamon rolls with frosting dripping all over them and it was just lovely. Girls just need that sort of thing -- girl talk and fresh baked goods.

Our day with these couples was a really fun way to end the holidays and I'm so glad we were able to squeeze in such a big chunk of quality time with all of them.

So there you have it. Our Christmas break in a very large nutshell (coconut maybe?). Can't say that I'm too excited to go back to work next week but I'm trying not to think about it too much yet. We do have a visit from Chelsea next weekend to look forward to and then Tim and Annika's wedding at the end of the month -- Let's say we just hit the ground running in 2012, okay?

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and I wish you the happiest of New Years. May this be the best one yet!

Making Merry.

Just in case you hadn't already seen the tree in one of the other forty-seven pictures I've posted of it this year. This picture has lots of gifts in it though so that's fun.

Steven and I had an absolutely fantastic weekend filled with friends and lots and lots of fudge. Well, there was plenty of other food too but the fudge is what really made the impression.

On Friday morning I was already in "Christmas break" mode. When Steven got home from work we had a quick breakfast and cozied-up on the couch to watch Morning Glory together. It was a very funny movie by the way. We were both pleasantly surprised by how entertaining it was.

I was so bummed to have to get up and drive to work but so so SO happy to come home Friday evening knowing that I have two full weeks off. It was a rather emotional start to the break as I had been a little on-edge all week long. And when I say "a little on edge" what I really mean is hanging-on-to-my-sanity-by-the-fingernail-on-my-pinkie. Yeah... I cried at about every other little sad or slightly frustrating thing Friday night but was ready to roll come Saturday morning. Phew, glad I got that out of my system in a hurry.

By Saturday afternoon it was time for our Christmas party. Steven and I had been looking forward to this for months -- literally -- and were definitely more than slightly bummed at how few people were able to make it. Not to say that it wasn't fun! Because it was a REALLY good time, but the scheduling just ended up being so crazy. We had planned it for Sunday afternoon but only Lena & Aaron said they could be there then and Tim & Annika said they would plan to come over around 8pm on Sunday... I figured Lena & Aaron would probably be gone by then so things weren't really shaping up into much of a party -- more like back-to-back double dates. Then Jeremy & Ronnie and Scott & Kristen all said they could come if we had it Saturday afternoon so that's what we ended up doing. And we kept the double dates for Sunday.

So at 2:30 on Saturday we were sitting in our lovely little dining area with two couples who had each driven 3 hours to come to our Christmas party, haha! It made me smile. Our friend Chase showed up a while later and then Lyle & Samantha came and brought Liam, who is now a year old and very very cute. 

Wow. Steven and Chase kind of really do look like a couple there. Isn't that sweet? Maybe I should have made Chase take the picture...

We played a game of Betrayal and drank rum slush and ate and ate and ate. We had cookies and fudge and crackers with goat cheese and hummus and chips and salsa and it was all slightly too much but completely wonderful.


The White Elephant gift exchange was a huge success. Steven snagged himself a Maglite flashlight, Jeremy managed to take home the coveted "trick switch", Samantha won a box of sweet-tart candy canes and Ronnie scored a VHS copy of Corky Romano. Scott was not at all pleased that he was unable to unload his Mickey Mouse top hat and gloves -- they ended up back with him by the end of the evening :)

I wish I had gotten a picture of Liam! He's SO cute! We dumped the dominoes out for him and he was trying to carry all of them at the same time. I think he managed to get three in each hand and was walking around with one sticking out of his mouth. It was really funny. I love babies. Want to know a secret? So does Steven. He was definitely loving having Liam over and hanging out with him. But I won't tell you that because Steven probably wouldn't want it to be public information ;)


Sunday was a total food day. We started the morning off right with a huge breakfast. We had French puffs and bacon and grapefruit and pomegranate seeds and satsumas and hot chocolate. (the boys had friend eggs too but Kristen and I don't eat those). Doesn't sound like much but I couldn't even finish what little I had put on my plate. I should have taken a picture. I left about a bite and a half of everything. It looked really silly. What really got us into trouble was when we discovered that everything tasted better with fudge... first Steven and Scott were eating fudge with pomegranate seeds. Then we started eating fudge with little pieces of bacon. Oh. My. Goodness. That is definitely where it's at. Always eat fudge with bacon. You'll thank me for this tip one day. I'm sure of it. After Scott and Kristen had started their long drive back down to Vancouver, Steven and I were out the door for a late lunch with Lena and Aaron.

It was so fun to see their home all Christmassy! They have 3 (three!!) nativities, twinkle lights all around the windows, and a pretty tree that they cut down while they were in Yakima last month. Lena even made stockings that are hanging in the living room. I just really liked it. It felt cozy. We spent the first few minutes making peanut-butter-cup-type-treats and then spent the next two hours eating them :) We also taught them how to play Cargo Noir. Steven won. I know, you're shocked, but it's true.

Sunday evening we had a quick dinner at home with Tim and Annika, watched Prep and Landing for the 5th time this holiday season and went to bed early, leaving a sink (and a couple of counter tops) full of dishes to be done the next day.

Monday we got meet Dad's new puppy. There were other things that went on that day (Ticket to Ride with Sam and Charlie Piehler, wedding planning with Annika, amazing phad Thai and pumpkin curry at Thai Ginger in Redmond) but I'd say the puppy was probably the most exciting. And definitely the only thing that I took pictures of.


This is Tebow. He is a 10 week old labradoodle and he is adorable! I want one. Not really. I don't want one in my house. I just want one that I'm allowed to play with and visit with whenever I want to. Maybe we should get one for Mom (not that we could afford one even if we wanted to). One of the best things about Tebow is that Steven didn't show any signs of being allergic to him -- yay for finding a dog that I'm actually allowed to pet and pick-up and love on!!

I might have put the puppy on Steven's lap just to watch him lick Steven all over his face. I thought it was a good game. I'm definitely looking forward to visiting with Tebow more over the weekend. Dad and his family are going to be out of town for Christmas so Amanda is puppy-sitting, which means he will be coming with her to all of the family functions. Rainier is not going to be pleased about this...

I had a shopping date with my friend Joy yesterday. She lives in Portland so we met at the Centralia Outlet mall. We finished up our Christmas shopping and then spent two hours chatting at Quiznos. I hadn't seen her since her wedding last July and even though we've talked on the phone a couple of times since then, it was so fun to catch up in person! I don't get enough dates with girlfriends. Lena and I usually see each other once a month but that's pretty much it. I love talking with Paige and Chelsea and Rachel on the phone every now and then and there are e-mail updates and the occasional facebook comments but I really miss just being around girls and having friends nearby. Dear friends, let's live near each other in the future. Love, Steph.

My little Tar-Tar Sauce and her kitty-cat peeking at each other through the window. So cute.


Tara, Mom and I went to Red Robin last night and then to Michael's basketball game at Woodinville HS. Michael plays for Skyline and it was nice to be able to go to a game so close to Mom's house.

Papa and Grammi came too. They're the best. They go to ALL of our games and concerts and plays and recitals and just everything. I'm always impressed by their dedication.

They even put Michael in for the last 47.5 seconds of the game! Woohoo!! His team won by 17 points.

We saw the new Sherlock Holmes today. It was FABULOUS! I loved it. Can't wait until we can get it on DVD. I wanted to watch it again as soon as it was over. You should definitely go see it if you haven't already (there's a very good chance that Paige and Steven are my only readers in which case this is completely irrelevant because I know you've both seen it.)

We have a busy week ahead of us, including many holiday celebrations and some slightly more serious family time. Steven's grandfather passed away a few days ago and we're attending a memorial service for him tomorrow. Steven didn't know him very well and I had never met him but this kind of family stuff is difficult and emotional for everyone just the same. Steven was fortunate enough to get some time off of work so that he can spend more time with his family than he had originally planned this week. He will be able to visit with them for most of the day on Christmas Eve. It will be nice for all of them.

We will be having 5 Christmas celebrations over the course of the weekend including our own little Christmas morning just the two of us -- have I mentioned that having a husband to spend Christmas with is the best thing ever? Because it definitely is. I highly recommend it.

We are also very much looking forward to seeing Chad and Whitney who will be arriving sometime Friday evening I believe. We already have a dinner date planned with the two of them and Jeremy and Ronnie next week. Should be a blast!

I still have some of my Christmas baking to do... okay, all of my Christmas baking to do. Other than that I've tied up most of my Christmas-related loose ends. The shopping is done. The cards have all been sent. Almost all of the gifts have been wrapped. The movies have all been watched (with the exception of I'll Be Home for Christmas -- love that JTT!! -- and It's a Wonderful Life) and I think I've listened to every Christmas song I own at least two times. Now it's time to relax and enjoy.

For now, I'm signing off to watch Muppet Christmas Carol with Steven before it gets any later and we fall asleep. Goodnight!

Decking The Halls.

Wow, wow, wow! The Christmas season is a bit crazier when you factor a job into the equation -- haha! This is the first year EVER that I've had a regular work schedule at Christmas time (yes, I realize that it's quite normal for everyone else to go to work everyday and that this makes me sound really lame but that's okay) and it's making everything else so much more difficult!

I had a Christmas tree decorating marathon last week -- three trees in three days. Then it was a mad-dash to design and make all 5 zillion of our Christmas cards (okay, only 65 actually, but still way too many for this early in our marriage), but I have since managed to get all of them in the mail. I've also done a bit of slightly frantic Christmas shopping (both online and in stores) and just a few moments ago finished making my first batch of fudge for the season.

 It's all been really fun but there were a few moments where it felt like business instead of pleasure. Like I have this big Christmas to-do list and I have to dutifully make sure that I watch every movie, and bake every type of cookie, and listen to all 53 versions of the same dozen or so Christmas songs. I adore Christmas and I don't want it ever to feel like a chore. I can't wait until school is out for a couple of weeks and I can really relax into the holiday season.

 The trees. Last week we did Mom's tree on Sunday, then Steven and I did ours on Monday evening and then Scott and I decorated Grammi's on Tuesday night. By the time I got to Grammi's tree I was starting to feel like a robot. I think this was the fastest we've ever decorated it. When we finished I had to just lay on the couch and stare at it for a quarter of an hour because I hadn't taken any of it in while I was actually in the process of decorating. It's beautiful, as always. Mom has a lovely tree and it is absolutely perfect, as always. Steven and I have an adorable tree that is packed full of ornaments. It's a bit chaotic but most of them have some kind of memory attached to them so that makes it more fun. I look forward to the day when I can start investing a little in our tree and purchasing matchy-matchy ornaments and all white lights etc. etc. but for now, I absolutely love the hand-me-down chaos of it.

The first Saturday in December Steven and I went straight out to find our tree. It was a very frosty morning, only 32 degrees. Perfect Christmas-tree-picking-out weather.

Look at that cute little tree! Last year was Steven's first time ever having a real Christmas tree, and this year, for the first time ever, Steven got to cut down a Christmas tree. I loved it. We had a nice time at the Christmas tree farm and topped off the visit with french vanilla hot chocolate.

Mom found a perfect tree. Taller than ours but with nice evenly spaced branches and a lovely shape.

Tara and I helped a little with the tree picking-out but mostly we just took cute pictures and ate kringle and wandered around the winter wonderland that is Molbak's.

Amanda wasn't much interested in helping to decorate but she was working on a little project of her own. I guess it was some type of art project... it's supposed to be a picture frame. I have no idea how it turned out but at this point it just looked like a stick-y little reindeer thing.

Santa! I love this Santa ornament. It was the first ornament I put on Mom's tree. I think I want one just like it.

Taa-daa! The tree looks better with the big lights off so you just see the Christmas lights but my camera doesn't do well taking dark photos so I have to use the flash sometimes.

Phew! This Christmas putting together is a lot of work! Mom's house looks so cozy and Christmassy! She has really nice lights on the outside of the house as well.



I don't think I deserved this look. Steven and I have been having so much fun enjoying Christmas together!!! I love it. Spending the holiday season with your husband is just the best thing ever. I'm so glad I'm married. Steven helped me with the lights and then mostly just watched Elf while I did the rest. He would get up every twenty minutes or so, put one ornament on the tree, and then sit back down. It was so funny, I couldn't figure out what prompted it. I think maybe he would just see an ornament that he decided he liked so he wanted to put it on. It was pretty cute.






One of my new favorite ornaments! I found that long red one (there is one more just like it and then three that are the same style but all gold) in the garage of one of the houses my dad recently purchased. I think they look really cool and kind of old-fashioned. The clock ornament on the right is from a little collection that my mom bought for me. She has the same ones on her tree. There are all kinds of cute little shapes. And the one in the upper right-hand corner was a gift from the Mountfords when I was visiting with them at Christmas time a couple of years ago.

Beautiful. See the record player in the background? It only comes out at Christmas time even though I have plenty of non-Christmas records. Steven has been playing the Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas records non-stop. Glad we found some Christmas music that he actually enjoys :)


Here's the little wreath that I made. I think it's really cute. It has bells on it and it even lights up! I took a little bow-making class at the community college the week after Thanksgiving and then a couple of days later the same lady taught a wreath-making class. I wanted to make a Christmas decoration that I could keep for years and year and years because I love the decorations that Grammi made when she first got married and still brings out every year.

And Grammi's tree, it was the best photo I could get.

I've even managed to squeeze in a cookie-baking session with Mom and the girls. We were feeling really, really silly! We were cutting little shapes out of all of the bigger shapes so the Christmas trees had stars cut out of the middle and then Tara cut the little girl cookie cutter out of the big girl one and said that cookie was pregnant and I said she should have used the boy cookie cutter so that it could be Mary and Jesus and then Amanda cut the boy cookie cutter out of the bell shaped one and made a "bell-boy" and mostly we were just laughing a lot. I think the camel is still one of my favorite shapes. Do other people have Christmas camel cookie cutters or is that just our family?

Three more days of work and then I plan to spend the weekend cuddling with Steven on the couch, eating satsumas and drinking hot chocolate with Bailey's. And, of course, there's still more cookie-baking and gift-wrapping to be done. Hope your holiday season is off to a phenomenal start!

50 Years.

Last weekend we had the pleasure of celebrating the 50th wedding anniversary of a very special couple: Larry and Rita Jordan. Larry and Rita are the grandparents of our cousins Demi and Keegan -- so... like our grandparents-in-law on my dad's side of the family. I haven't spent much time with Larry over the years but I've enjoyed Rita's company at many family gatherings and parties and I count her among my favorite people. It was such a special event and I'm very glad we were able to share in the festivities.

It was a beautiful party at Salty's on Alki. Everything was decorated and Christmassy and it was just lovely. It was our first dressy date of the holiday season so we had fun taking lots and lots of pictures. Many of them can be found on facebook if you're interested. 

Fifty years is a very long time. I was feeling a little sappy about the whole thing really. I was just sitting there eating my piece of cake and watching the slideshow (how do you choose only 15 minutes worth of photos out of 50 years??) and I found myself fantasizing about the fancy 50th Anniversary party our kids are going to throw for us some day :) I just got really excited about it. Not just about the party or reaching that milestone but about living the 50 years. We have 48.5 more years between now and that party and after our first year and a half together I can already tell you that I know we are going to have the best time ever. I'm the most excited.

(with Grandma Fran)

Plenty To Be Thankful For.

Isn't Thanksgiving just the best? I love it. It's all just about food, friends and family (not necessarily in that order). No materialism, nothing really to be bombarded with by the retailers and the only thing you have to buy is stuff you're more than happy to have leftover for the following week. We celebrated multiple times this past week. On the evening of Tuesday the 22nd, our tiny little apartment was crammed full of some of our favorite people for a little Friends Thanksgiving gathering. Steven and I made salmon, as usual, and everyone else brought their own favorite addition to the holiday meal. We had some incredible sweet potatoes, salad, pie, cheesey cauliflower, sparkling cider and two or three very intense rounds of Catch Phrase. It was so fun just visiting with everyone. Steven and I love hosting and it's always a wonderful feeling to have a full house.

My school was closed on Wednesday and Steven had to work so I had the pleasure of spending the day with my family. First I spent a few hours at home doing a little baking. I made chocolate chip walnut cookies and some cinnamon rolls, which I put into small pyrex dishes and delivered to my mom's house, my dad's house and Papa and Grammi's house. I left some for us, of course. We all had fresh cinnamon rolls Thanksgiving morning.

I visited with Grammi and helped her make mashed potatoes then spent the rest of the evening with Tara and my mom. We went out for Mexican food and just kind of hung out. I was mostly just trying to stay awake long enough to pick Paige up from the airport. Oh my goodness, it felt like ages since we had planned her trip up here and I just couldn't comprehend that it was actually happening. I was the most excited. It was a late night and we were exhausted but still managed to stay up chatting until late late late and then I stayed up until even later (3 o'clock-ish) so that I could finish reading The Help. I paid for that one. Oiy, not the smartest way to start a busy weekend.

Thanksgiving morning it was up early to get the cinnamon rolls baking. It was so much fun to have breakfast on Thanksgiving with Paige and Steven! It was cozy and the house smelled yummy and the three of us were together and I loved it. The rest of the day was busy busy busy. We started off at Steven's parents house for a game of Shadows Over Camelot and an early Thanksgiving meal. Then it was over to Papa and Grammi's for a huge dinner and some Catch Phrase. We laughed a lot and I had a blast but was beat by the end of the night. The drive home felt particularly long.

Friday morning Paige and I were up super early for the Macy's parade in Downtown Seattle. We were both feeling a little apprehensive about the whole thing. It had been pouring down rain all week long and the idea of wearing a costume, walking down the streets of Seattle in the freezing cold rain was not at all appealing to us. We seriously lucked out. The weather was absolutely beautiful. We couldn't have asked for a prettier day. It was cold but clear and sunny.

Lucky us, we got to be trees. What do you think? Pretty cute, huh? I almost freaked out trying on the costume and having to put the head-piece on but I survived. I think it was probably a good thing for claustrophobic little me to see that I can still breathe even when I have my head stuck in the fuzzy top part of a tree costume.

Most of the time this fabric was in our faces and we couldn't really see much at all.

Paige trying to keep warm while we were waiting for our turn to walk in the parade. She's the tree that's sitting on the ground. I heard one lady walk by and say something about the tree needing to be watered because it looked a little wilted :)


I've already put dibs on these costumes for next time. I think the blocks are so super cute and they spell things out too. Like "Happy Holidays" and I don't really know what else, but they're just cute. I also suggested that we could be the people who get to just bundle up and walk around with baskets of Frangos and throw them at people. As long as we get to eat them along the way.

What a perfectly beautiful day for a parade! We had a marvellous time. We were dancing around and Paige was giving "high-trees" or "high-branches" or something and we were "tree-chest-bumping" every now and then and it was just really silly.

Oh my goodness. We were a total disaster by the end of it. On the last leg of our walk I discovered that I had lost an earring, broken a nail, sweated through every layer of my clothing and that my shoulders were bruising (possibly blistering) from the weight of the costume. Paige really was wilting by the end and had gotten so hot dancing around in her costume that her glasses fogged up and she couldn't see anything at all. Pretty hot, huh? Our hair was all super messy and we had both tucked our gloves into our waistbands to try to cool down a bit.

Pacific Place looking all pretty and Christmassy. We had lunch with Paige's aunt, uncle, cousin, Lindsey, and loads of her cousins friends. Paige's friend Beth was in town and was able to join us for lunch as well.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the city with Aunt Nancy and Uncle Robert. We bundled up and walked over to the Fairmont Olympic to see the Christmas tree display...

...and then stopped in Starbucks for our first holiday drinks of the season. Paige and I shared a pumpkin spice latte and a peppermint mocha. Yum. We aren't really into the whole black Friday thing but we mustered up enough energy to stop in Anthropology, Urban Outfitters and Forever 21 before heading back to Enumclaw. We were on the couch in our sweats by 6:30pm. And I'm pretty sure we were in bed by 9.

Saturday we had a quiet morning of games and tea and breakfast and then it was off to the Peihlers'. One of my favorite places to be.

We played Castle Panic and made Christmas cookies and ate turkey soup (so good!!) and then cozied up on the couch and watched The Polar Express. Definitely not my favorite Christmas movie, in fact, I'm really not all that fond of it, but I thoroughly enjoyed sharing the Christmas movie experience with the Piehlers. Parts of that movie are just beautiful and so, so well done. Tom Hanks is fabulous, as always, I just think the character development is a bit weak and I don't like the depiction of the North Pole and the elves. They're kind of creepy. Those are my thoughts on that.

And finally, Sunday. We picked up Tara from my mom's house and then met up with Nancy and Lindsey at Red Robin for lunch before going to see the new muppet movie. It was really cute! I just love the Muppets.

Then back to the house where Tara rekindled our love of knitting -- she taught me how to purl, showed us how she makes fingerless gloves and helped Paige remember how to start a scarf. It was so fun hanging out on Tara's bed. It reminded me of the weeks that Paige was living there with us before Steven and I got married. It's a silly thing really but we just felt right at home sitting there chatting and relaxing on that bed. Quite possibly one of the best moments of the weekend.

Then we dragged Mom out to the car with us and it was off to see The Help.

This was fabulous. Read it. Watch it. Love it. Back at Mom's we had dinner and watched Eloise at Christmas Time. Can't say I was too excited to go home that night. I was already sad that it was my last evening having Paige in the house. It felt so natural having her live here and it just didn't seem right when I looked in the bedroom the next day to see that the futon no longer resembled a bed and Paige's clothes and books and jewelry were all gone. I couldn't believe that it was already Monday and time to drop Paige off and (gasp!) go back to work. The work thing still hasn't settled in yet. I think it's just going to take some getting used to.

Did I actually mention anything that I'm thankful for? I'm thankful for a pretty glass kettle that makes me hot tea as many times a day as I like. I'm thankful for turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy. I'm thankful for sewing dates with Sue Piehler. I'm thankful for M&Ms. I'm thankful for pomegranates. I'm thankful for satsumas. I'm thankful for rice-socks and a microwave to warm them in. I'm thankful for my slippers. I'm thankful for my Grammi and my Papa and my uncles who laugh with me and show a genuine interest in my life. I'm thankful for a new job and learning opportunity. I'm thankful for singing and music. I'm thankful to finally be healthy again**. I'm thankful for sunshine. I'm thankful for cinnamon. I'm thankful for a husband who never fails to show me the true meaning of unconditional love. I'm thankful for my dear friend Paige who understands me better than almost anybody (maybe almost the best actually). I'm thankful for my mom who reminds me that it's okay to laugh at myself. I could continue but I'm getting tired and rambly... this could go on for ages :)

It was a fantastic weekend and the most fun kick off to the holiday season. We can't wait to have Paige back in Seattle with us again sometime in the very near future. Hope your Thanksgiving weekend was as great as ours!!

** Health update: the sinus infection (yeah, the one that started back in September) never actually went away. I started feeling really poorly again on Monday before Thanksgiving and even stayed home sick that Tuesday. I couldn't believe I was taking a sick day after only two weeks on the job but I just felt miserable. I was able to fight off the headache with ibuprofen everyday over the holiday weekend but decided not to take any on Monday to see if I was doing any better. Bad idea. I was fighting tears for the first two and a half hours of work and finally lost the battle and burst into tears around 3pm at which point my co-worker forced 4 advils on me and I called the doctors office and tearfully made an appointment for the following morning. My head hurt so bad I thought my forhead was going to explode. I think I was channeling Harry Potter. Anyhow, the doctor was great. I pulled my list book out and explained all of my health issues since September the 16th and told her that I'm certainly not the type of person to call the doctor for just any little thing and I was worried that after two rounds of antibiotics over the course of two and a half months that maybe something was just wrong with me. She suggested a CT scan and I'm certainly glad she did! She called me the next day to report that I have (had? this was on Tuesday morning) a very severe sinus infection with lots of swelling and stuck fluids, which would explain the unbearable pressure. SO, she prescriped me a much stronger antibiotic and an anti-inflammatory and I am feeling so much better! I haven't had to take any pain medication for my head for the last two days. I'm looking forward to a healthy holiday season after what has been a rather difficult stretch of unhealthy days.