Merry Christmas and Happy 2007 Holidays to all!

Typical of our blog these days it's been AWHILE since anything new has been put up. Tsk. But it's fall and beautiful for hikes, or the holidays and busy with friends and family, or a million reasons!

Our fall was fabulous. We made a trip to Moscow with Webb and Emily for our annual cider making fiesta. The four of us, my parents, and Peter worked together to make crazy amounts of cider in record time. I think the total was somewhere around 29 gallons! Yum. Webb and Emily took two big carboys home for the hard cider experiment 2007. Last year's just wasn't as he'd expected and Webb has become a master brewer so he's enjoying the challenge of figuring out what should be done with this batch.

Geez, have some cider!

For Halloween, we once again headed to Renton to the fabulous Woodside party. We had a great time carving pumpkins, and having delicious Korean soup made by Kim, on Friday before Halloween and then the next night we dressed up and Leigh came along to celebrate with apple cider drinks and LOTS of food. We all created our costumes at the last minute on Sat afternoon, and I must say, we did pretty well! I found fake ears that I HAD to use so I became an elf for the night, while Leigh had some horns and borrowed a devil tail I had from years ago and was a she-devil. I found a lovely (broken) tiara for Emily and she was a princess -happily getting another wear out of the bridesmaid dress from our wedding! And Mike (creative as usual) was a hit-and-run bike victim. You can see he enjoyed using the fake blood and some gravel for a creepily real effect! Webb didn't dress up but since he provided the excellent beer for the evening we forgive him. =+)

All decked out

November 4th is my dad's birthday and this year we were able to all get together in Seattle and celebrate in style. He and my mom went to Vancouver on Friday night and got to chill with Batdorf and Rodney again (a group my dad has listened to since high school!) and then came up to Seattle. Mom and I ran off to browse some Christmas stores in the area and Peter flew in from Moscow. Mike picked him up and they just HAD to try some Lil Mahis at a great little place we know. (a lil mahi is a mini mahi-mahi sandwich with tasty sauce and cabbage, YUM) and have a beer since Peter finally turned 21 on October 11 and we can all go out together now, hooray! That night we celebrated with dinner at Anthony's, a real treat, and in the morning my brother Mike and Teresa drove over to join us for Dad's actual birthday.

That Sunday, the 4th, was also the day that the Seattle Seahawks played the Cleveland Browns. Now we don't get to see the Browns play very often, and certainly not against our second favorite team, nor do we get to be the minority when cheering with good friends who are rooting against us, so it was quite the event. I contrived to import some fellow Brown's fans (my family) and we all went to Renton to party with the Girards (and the people they convinced to also come over and buff up their fan base=+) It was a hoot! Everyone was rowdy and fun and wearing their respective team colors...even Mike since, as an honorary Beard that day, he had to be an honorary Browns fan too, even if just to make us feel better. (normally he doesn't care about any team!) Guess what? The Browns won...in overtime, it was awesome! Everyone who had to drive so far for the festivities went home satisfied.

~Seriously intense~

Peter and Teresa -pose!

Less than serious!

Brown/Orange v. Blue/Green

A couple weeks after that Mike and I got to take a quick trip to visit my great aunt and uncle in Michigan with my parents. It was fabulous to see everyone and to have the opportunity to show Mike the woods where my grandparents used to live and where we used to play and explore as kids. My uncle John and cousin Madison made it up for a brief visit while we were all there too so it was wonderful to get to see everyone. After traveling for 20 hours or so we arrived just in time to trek out to a fallen tree and spend the afternoon chopping it up for firewood. Doesn't sound ideal, but it was WAY fun and we wore camo and hunting hats since we didn't want to ruin our clothes. Sweet!
Hard at work.

A family shot.

After a long trip home and lost luggage we had to jump right back into the work week and, of course, that was the week my schedule filled to bursting and I got a bunch of new students. I was toast by the end of the week. Since then I've definitely been keeping busy with work -teaching every period plus a class after school. Time flew by and suddenly Thanksgiving was upon us. We were lucky enough to get to return to Fresno, for the second Thanksgiving in a row, and visit with Mike's family there. It was great to see the kids, Lexi is growing up the fastest since she's baby, and also get to check out Erin and Barb's new office. I got to see it under construction and it looks MUCH better all decked out, complete with patients!

A Couple of chefs

Sudoku training

Love the dimple!

Handy carrying outfit

It's 11/25 Santa, we're ready!


We missed seeing Winfield and Tracey this year with the little one but we got to talk to them and they are doing well! Baby Peter is growing like a weed and they sent us some adorable photos to enjoy.

About 4 months old with Mom

Since Thanksgiving we've be enjoying the holiday time of year and getting ready for Christmas. We set out for Moscow to see Peter in his big production at the U of I. He played Lysander in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and he was absolutely fantastic. Yes I am biased, but even without that inherent bias, he rocked! The whole production did and it was well worth the drive over the mountains (and back through snow!)

Last week was a crazy one for the Seattle area! After a bunch of snow we warmed up and got more rain than the drainage ditches, holding ponds, and rivers could handle. Monday I was luckily not needed at work so I was able to stay warm and dry at home. Unfortunately, many in Western Washington weren't! Flooding was rampant and really caused havoc for people in Chehalis, Centralia, Woodinville, Bothell.... A real bummer and it made traffic wretched since so many roads were under water or washed away. Whew, quite the excitement with the weather!

This past weekend we just hung out, I went to book club, Mike went hiking, we made cookies, played Scrabble, that sort of thing. It was lovely to stick around and see friends from Seattle! (Odd concept I know.) This weekend is happily more of the same and we are going to spend Sunday concocting our Christmas gifts! I call it being "elfy" and I can't wait. Tis the season! We hope everyone is having a wonderful December and looking forward to a fabulous Christmas and New Year's with family and friends. We will talk to many of you over the holidays and are thinking of the rest of you warmly!