December and Christmas wrap up

our Christmas card photo

We were searching for a car for the first week or so of December. Not much fun. I did get to drive a Dodge Charger rental for a while. I'm happy with our purchase. Here's me in the Mazda:

I caught a cold after distrubuting flyers for C's Boy Scout troop fundraiser.  I'm feeling better now but I missed a few days of preparation. We had a real tree again this year. I'm hoping for a fake one next year. I had to do so much pruning to make it look right. My hands cramped up from it. I actually lost sleep due to pain in my hands. I also got tired of watering it every day.

Throughout the days leading up to Christmas we read from this book almost every night at suppertime.

We went to various Christmas light displays. Evergreen Church, the Hawks House, and Woodinville Wonderland. Hawks house was really cool.

They invite you inside where they have life size tunnels and a huge train set.

I bought pre-assembled gingerbread houses from Costco for the boys to decorate. They teamed up with their friends on the street and had a "competition."  Everything with boys needs to have a competition element! They did a great job decorating and they cleaned up afterward.

On Christmas Eve in the morning, our family did the advent reading at our church. I read the Old Testament passage and A read the New Testament one. I was able to get a video of us reading to send to our parents.

The amazing thing on Christmas Eve was the snow that started falling (and staying around) in the afternoon.  The boys were really hoping for snow so they received an extra special gift.

I didn't do much crafting this year but I finished this wreath on Christmas Eve

For our Christmas meal we had prime rib. J and the boys remembered it from last year and requested it again. I had hopes of company coming for dinner but that didn't work out. Here's my place setting with some old Christmas photos in the background.

We had Yorkshire pudding, roasted fingerling potatoes, carrot souffle, and upside down black forest cake for dessert.

My hubby bought himself a basic affordable drone. He and the boys are having fun trying it out. I received a new laptop along with a personalized skin for it (a sticker for the laptop.) Here's a photo of it.

J surprised me with it. He knew it was a favourite photo of mine, taken on our summer vacation.
A got lots of sport related gifts like a new football, a new soccer ball, a Seahawks toque. C got super hero things like a Captain America shield, a book about Captain America and a pop head.

I asked for a gingerbread scented candle and J and A went out to look for one. They couldn't find one so A improvised. I love it!

The boys spent a lot of time outside on Christmas day, playing in the snow.

J and I finished this puzzle :

We watched the Queen's message on TV which is another of our traditions.

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Cross Country Memories

A ran for the cross country team this fall. This was a first for him in so many ways. It was the first time he played on a school team and the first time he has run cross country. It was also the first time that A has been on on a coed team.

It started in the summer with him participating in weekly ultimate frisbee games. This was a chance to meet the coach and some of the players. The next event was GO camp in August. It was like a retreat. He was paired up with another team member and they got to know one another. A was teamed up with the best runner on the team whose name is Grant.

The group photo above was taken at a meet in Sultan that A attended but didn't run in because he hadn't attended enough practices to run.

A's first meet was on September 13th at McCollum Park (hosted by Arch Bishop Murphy High School). It was a very small meet which was a good way to get his feet wet. I am proud to say that I was at every one of the five meets that he raced in.

The meet that was the farthest away was in Port Angeles and A didn't attend that one. The largest meet was the Nike Invitational held at a golf course in Marysville. There were 269 runners in A's race.

Some teachers from the school came to this meet with signs to encourage the team.

Here is A running in the rain:

The team had practices every weekday after school from 4 until 6 pm. When I would pick him up, I'd wait to see the big yellow school bus (with the school name on the side) pull into the parking lot and then I'd know he was back.  Most of the practices were held at a nearby state park.

One fun memory is the pin awards. At the team dinners the team leadership (a small group of  seniors) handed out wooden clothespins with something written on them. They were usually funny. One pin that A received was for being a jester and another was for his one-handed catches.

The team dinners were potluck and were a good chance to meet other parents. A's coach was very dedicated and a fun guy to be around. He is super positive and encouraging.

One fun thing about cross country meets was running into A's former classmates from NCA who now go to other high schools and also run cross country.

Here is A at the South Whidbey Island meet on October 5th.

nearing the finish line:

A's fastest time in the 5,000 metres was 21.22 at his last meet of the season which was held in Carnation, in the rain. This was October 19th. He started the season with a time of 24.55.

The school's team sent one young man to the state championship which was held in Pasco in early November.

I hope that A runs cross country again next year. He made many friends in his grade and challenged himself to persevere.


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Thankgiving 2017

This year was a first for me. I hosted American Thanksgiving. We have lived in the US for almost 18 years now. We've spent Thankgiving in Victoria, at other peoples' houses here in Seattle, and we've spent it alone but this year we had guests over for the first time.

Our guests were friends from our church - the Chases.

We had a 20 pound turkey which I brined the day before, gravy, mashed potatoes (which I made the day before), cranberry sauce, and two different green bean side dishes. I made one green bean dish and E made the other. We had pumpkin pie from Costco and E brought apple dumplings which she made with her son's help. I used lots of recipes from the Pioneer Woman. Here's the turkey. It had great flavour.

Here is my table before the food was ready. We put another leaf into the table. I needed to buy some new plates since I don't have a complete set of china to serve 8 people.

My hubby helped me a lot with cleaning and cooking. Here he is peeling oranges (with A's help) to make the brine.

It was a lot of work getting the house guest ready. One example is I took out all the books out of the bookcase in order to dust. It is really nice having the clutter gone.


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My Neutral Fall Mantle

(click on the photo to enlarge)

It is time to share my fall mantle. I've decided to leave it be, rather than obsessing about adding anything. It is very simple this year.

The garland (in between the pumpkins) is from Michael's. I also bought the green and white pumpkins there. I had the gold mirror around for a while but didn't know where it would end up. I have had the brown pumpkin (in the centre) for many years.

I'm not a big fan of orange for fall decorating so you'll notice that I didn't use anything orange.

By the way the last time I shared a mantle (in 2014), it looked like this:

Details about that mantle can be found here.


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Ninety is Noteworthy

My mom celebrated her 90th birthday on September 16th. I was able to travel up to Victoria to visit her for this big event.  I took the Clipper which is the fastest way to get there. I stayed in the guest suite of their building.

On Saturday (her actual birthday) she had a party (a birthday tea) with ten of her friends. My mom likes to plan her own parties. The party was held in the "multi purpose" room in the building where my parents live.

Mom prepared a 20 question quiz about her life. Several years ago she wrote a book on her life so those who had read that scored higher. She handed out prizes for the best score and for the worst score.

The cake was ordered from the grocery store across the street. It was black forest cake and was delicious. I got her a balloon bouquet from the same store.

My mom requested no gifts or cards. Instead a journal was passed around in which her friends could write down their memories or good wishes. She displayed the scrapbooks that she has made about her life.

Looking through scrapbooks

Mom and I sang the song Surely Goodness and Mercy.  She considers this her testimony song. We sang a cappella and I think we would've sounded better with some accompaniment. During the party my dad was behind the scenes playing butler as he guided the guests in from the front door.

Dad snuck in at the end for a photo

My uncle in Alberta sent my mom a gorgeous bouquet of flowers (in the left corner of the photo above) which she proudly displayed on the shelf outside the door of her apartment.

On Sunday the sermon at my parents' church was about the body of Christ from 1 Corinthians 12. When I returned and asked my family about the sermon I missed at our own church, guess which passage it was on? The same one!

No visit to Victoria is complete without a trip to Tim Hortons, Swiss Chalet, and the White Spot. I made it to all three.

On the way up to Victoria, the Clipper stopped to observe an orca pod. It was very active since the whales had just had a kill and were celebrating but jumping out of the water and flapping their tails. The ride to and from Victoria is beautiful if done during the day.



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Volunteer Park - A Saturday Outing

My father in law has been visiting us this past week. Since the boys are back in school there hasn't been much time to spend together as a family. On Saturday we had a family outing and I picked Volunteer Park in Seattle.

There were unique plants for the parents and grandpa to enjoy (inside the conservatory) and a large park with a tower to climb for the boys. I think that I met the challenge of finding something not too strenuous for my 80 plus year old father in law and something with some interest for my boys.

The conservatory was filled with interesting plants.

This chenille plant was my favourite.

Here's a collage of what also caught my eye.

There is a cactus and succulent room.

I'm a fan of succulents so I enjoyed this section.

We took this photo to show the size of this cactus.

Outside is a dahlia garden which is fully in bloom.

We took some family photos by the dahlia garden.

I recommend this park to other flower and plant lovers.



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The Most Challenging Hike I've Done

Heybrook Lookout along Highway 2.

Two Sundays ago I picked a place for our family to go hiking. I heard about Heybrook Lookout many years ago and I thought it seemed intriguing. We brought A's friend L along with us. A and L are super fit so they ran uphill. !!

The hike is almost constantly uphill. The path is very rocky. You need to check your footing almost all constantly. The hike is actually quite short but I stopped frequently to catch my breath. The elevation increase from the trailhead to the top is 900 feet.

Boys inside the lookout

The lookout tower is impressive. You can't get to the very top.

From the lookout you can see several mountains. I don't know their names.

We didn't see that any people on the trail. Most hikes we go on have plenty of people doing the same.

We stopped at Espresso Chalet coffee shop on the way home. We had ice cream and iced coffee since it was a hot day.

From the cafe, we could see Mt. Index and a waterfall in the distance. I'm surpised this area isn't more developed. The views are so amazing.


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Hanging Out

My oldest son turns 14 today. He didn't want us to make a big deal over his birthday. He refused to have a party. Last Saturday we invited one friend to join him at High Trek Adventures (a ropes course) in Everett that opened up earlier this year.

When we arrived we found out that a special charity event was going on and we'd have to come back later. We dropped A and his friend off at the beach for a few hours, alone.

The boys had training first before using the course for a two hour time slot.

There are three levels. Each section (60 in total) is colour coded as to its difficulty. A said that this spider web section was the most challenging of those that he did.

There are 3 zip lines at the end of the course, at the highest level.

At the final descent.

The boys had pizza at MOD afterward. His friend gave him a Seahawks t shirt and a Seahawks navy blue hoodie which are perfect for him.

He had to be in school today on his actual birthday. Poor kid!



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