Christmas 2023

I was pretty excited for Christmas this year because my boys would be here. I was especially excited to see Alexander again since I hadn't seen him since August. He chose not to come home for Thanksgiving this year. A came home on December 13th and C came home on December 14th. C has spent lots of time with his friends. A has kept busy editing for various projects.

One of our family traditions is to see the lights at Evergreen church in Bothell. They have an elaborate light show with music outside. They hand out free cookies and they have hot drinks for sale. They have a model train set running and faux snow every 30 minutes or so. This year they added a family photo area. I could only talk J into doing that. 

J is wearing a tie since we went on a Sunday night.

This is us in *one* of the light tunnels:

I made lots of cookies this year. I always give a box of assorted cookies to a widower at our church. This year I made up 3 additional boxes. Two for neighbours on our street and one for a couple that we drive to church. I made snowballs for the first time ever and Naomi was so appreciative. She said the cookies brought her back to childhood. 

Cookies I made this year:

        - gingersnaps (all eaten up!)

        - sugar cookies (all eaten up!)

        - reindeer cookies

        - snowballs

        - butterscotch bars

On Thursday December 21st our friends the Walshs invited us to see the gingerbread houses at a hotel in downtown Seattle. It was a spontaneous thing and we had such a nice time. J and I had never been to this in the evening before. The line was much shorter. After we saw the houses (with a Willy Wonka theme) we walked over to the Fairmont Olympic hotel and spent a very nice time hanging out in the lobby. Most people were very dressed up so the people watching was fun. 

Christmas Eve was a busy day. We are on the set up team at church and there was a service in the morning and in the afternoon. Usually I like to eat out the day before a big meal (to minimize the dishes and to rest up) but this wasn't possible. The poinsettias at church survived until Christmas Eve (which was what I hope). I bought them December 2nd. I watered them every Sunday. 

Our candlelit Christmas Eve service was really nice. Very well attended. I can remember years back when it was a very small group. A was one of the readers. 

He volunteered after our pastor asked for people to help out. There were two male readers and two female. The topics were Love, Hope, Joy, and Peace, with old and new testament readings. We sang lots of carols and our pastor preached a short sermon. J and I put the candles together when we arrived. 

I love to set a fancy table. It is my favourite part of serving special meals. I found this idea of folding a cloth napkin into a tree shape on Instagram. I had to try it!

Place setting:

Flowers

Here's my Christmas mantle

This year, J received lots of presents. He had the largest amount of the four of us. He doesn't buy much for himself. He is now a target shooter and soon to be a hunter. Having a new hobby makes it easy for us to buy for him.

J also got a case for one of his guns from A. This year A was proud to buy gifts for the family with his own money. 

Here are my presents:

I also "received" a new TV for our living room  that has a clearer picture. It is a couple inches bigger than our previous TV.  Here are J and C getting it set up.

A's presents:

A is slowly building up kitchen supplies. That helps us know what to buy for him.

C's presents:

Those t shirts are ones that he found and suggested I buy for him. There is a study Bible at the bottom of the photo.

Dinner menu

                - turkey

                - dressing

                - mashed potatoes and gravy

                - cranberry sauce

                 - fruit salad

                - chocolate cake from Costco. We were too full to eat any of that on Christmas Day!

Us at the table.

After dinner we posed for photos by the Christmas tree.

We did do Christmas crackers but no photos were taken of us wearing our crowns.

There were numerous football games on Christmas day. I wasn't a fan of that, even though I like football. We ended the day by talking to my parents on the phone and watching the movie The Nativity Story as requested by Alexander. 

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Christmas Lights at Butchart Gardens

Kind of on a whim, Mary and I went to see the Christmas lights at Butchart Gardens. I'm so glad we did! It was so lovely. Jonathan and I were there for the Christmas lights many years ago. Maybe 1998 or 2001, I'm not sure. It was snowing that night and it made the lights even more memorable.

The theme (then and now) is the 12 Days of Christmas. It wasn't raining the night we were there. We arrived at about 7:15 pm and stayed until 9:40 pm. 

As you enter, this rain tree is the first thing you see.

The partridge in a pear tree

Two turtle doves

Three French hens

Magical forest

Four calling birds

Two of them are holding phones. The bird at the top has headphones on.

Five golden rings

Six geese a laying were too far away for a good photo and the seven swans a swimming were also too far away.

Eight maids a milking

Nine ladies dancing. I took this photo from a tourism website.

There was a path with globe lights that lit up while soothing music played.

At one spot there were noise activated lights in a tree. I sang "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" to get the lights to go on. Ten lords a leaping was frogs dressed as lords. This was too hard to photograph

Eleven pipers piping. 

There was a brass band playing Christmas music.

After we saw everything I had some hot chocolate and we sat in the coffee shop to warm up.

Twelve drummers drumming was in the driveway as you left. Again, too hard to photograph.

I found a video on YouTube that captures the experience much better than I ever could.

I'm so glad we decided to go. 

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Playing Tour Guide in Victoria

My husband commented that I was "doing all the things" in Victoria this past week. My friend Mary came along with me on my most recent trip to Victoria. She was great company.

We left on Tuesday December 5th and came back on Friday December 8th. The Canadian border guard was a bit unusual. There was only one car in front of us and when we got the gate we reached down to get our passports out of our purses. He really didn't like that! He said we could've been reaching for a gun! 

There are less ferries running this time of year. We had to wait almost 2 hours for our ferry from Tsawwassen on Tuesday. We missed the 11 am by about 20 minutes. We visited with my parents for a bit when we arrived into Victoria. I was happy to be able to bring them gifts in person instead of shipping gifts. I gave my mom a robe (among other things) and my Dad always gets a prayer diary from YWAM. I make a photo calendar for them every year. Mary and I stayed one night at the luxurious Oak Bay hotel. We enjoyed their outdoor hot tub which we had to ourselves.

On Wednesday morning we had breakfast in the Oak Bay dining room. After that we had our photo taken (see the top) and checked out. 

tree in the lobby of Oak Bay Hotel

Mary wanted to experience tea at the Fairmont Empress Hotel. We went early in the day in order to spend the afternoon with my parents.

Here is a close up of the china pattern.

I liked this warmer underneath the tea pot. I'm going to look for one. 

The tea experience was lovely. 

There was a man playing the piano in the background.  There was a Christmas tree decorated with golden tea pots. 

Afterwards we explored the gift shop. I bought this little tea tin, shaped like the Empress hotel.

I noticed this light fixture and stained glass window in a room just off the room where the tea is served.

That afternoon Mary explored the shops on Oak Bay avenue while I spent time with my parents. Later I showed Mary the views from Dallas road. 

Later we checked into our 2nd hotel - Marketa's Bed and Breakfast. We had dinner at the Irish Times downtown. This is from the menu. The building has an interesting history.

On Thursday morning we went over to help my mom with various things. Mary and I had lunch at the Village in Estevan village which is close to my parents' apartment. In the afternoon I did more things for my parents. I went over some old photos with my Dad. 

Mary took some photos and we said goodbye.

We had dinner at the Penny Farthing in Oak Bay on two occasions. Shepherd's pie and fish and chips are good choices. Thursday night we went to the Christmas lights at Butchart Gardens. I'll write a separate blog post about that. Friday we had breakfast and then drove to the ferry. At the ferry ticket gate, the lady said we *might* get on the 11 am ferry. We should have made a reservation.

We anxiously watched the ferry loading. We were the 2nd to last car on the ferry. We were very thankful! The next ferry would have left at 12:30 pm seriously delaying our return home.

Our border wait was about 35 minutes. The US border guard asked us what we do for work. Mary said "we're housewives!" We had sunny weather as we drove home.

I'm very thankful for Mary agreeing to come with me. I really appreciated her company and we had a great time. 

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Thanksgiving 2023

Thanksgiving 2023 was very different. It was the first one spent without Alexander. He chose to stay in LA. He said that the trip was too short and that many of his friends would still be in town.  Unfortunately, almost all his friends left town. He spent the day editing and had a non Thanksgiving  dinner with two friends. He'll be going to a Friendsgiving on Saturday with a friend and her family. Friendsgiving is a new tradition where friends gather to have thanksgiving dinner together. 

We really looked forward to Christopher's visit. He arrived on Wednesday. Next year we'll book him an earlier flight because his classes were cancelled last minute on Tuesday. I remember the same thing happening with Alexander in a previous year. 

We had dinner on Wednesday night at a burger place (C's choice). I don't cook the day before Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Day was spent cooking and watching football. There were three NFL games on that day, including a Seahawks game. I spent a long time making a very complicated (but delicious) green bean casserole and wore myself out. Next year I'll make that in advance. 

Here's what we had

Martinelli's Cider

Brined Turkey

Premade gravy from Costco 

Homemade cranberry sauce

Stuffing/Dressing (Christopher loves this)

Green Bean Casserole

Mashed Potatoes

Pumpkin Pie from Costco

Our turkey was 15 pounds. Of course, we have plenty of leftovers. I plan to give some to a couple who lives nearby that we drive to church. Christopher might take some back to LA with him. 

For making the turkey, I followed a recipe from Joy of Cooking. The Seattle Times did a taste test of three different methods of cooking a turkey. This recipe won. We brined the turkey for almost 24 hours. We cooked the turkey upside down for the first portion of time, then flipped it over for the last portion. 

I didn't take a family photo because it seemed sad without Alexander. 

I love setting a fancy table. I got a new table runner which I really like. I made the napkin "rings" a few years ago. 

I have a lot of things for which to be thankful. 

One funny thing about American Thanksgiving is that once it is over, bam! the Christmas stuff starts happening. I prefer to wait until December 1st.

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