Our first holiday season in Washington!

December is a famously busy month, especially for musicians. Last year there wasn't much going on because of COVID, and I didn't really think it would affect as much this year, but it did. Alex did not have a holiday concert, neither did Cade, and Dan's unit had a virtual video concert thing. The only really busy week for us was the week before Christmas. I had two schools I was playing piano for and Dan of course was out of town.

But we intentionally decided to stay in town for Christmas this year so that we could just have some down time in our new city and new home. Here's some of our decorations!

Early in December Alex and worked together to participate in a local craft fair. He sold mini pumpkin breads and I sold some of my calligraphy work! He definitely outsold me!

The day after school let out for the break the boys had friends over and that's when we did our cookie decorating for the year. I remember doing cookies with friends about that time in my teenage years too!

I always frost one of the stars yellow and eat it while decorating. It's tradition!

Cade even got together with friends to go ice skating! I'm glad he's having a good time here :)

I felt like we spent the weekdays leading up to christmas eve carting the boys to and from their various friend activities, and of course doing that last minute shopping. We always do Christmas dates with the boys and one kid goes with one parent and they shop for the opposite people in the family. It allows us to shop local and just enjoy an evening out.

Christmas Adam we saw the new Spiderman movie (it was great!), and Christmas Eve was just a really nice day at home. We did our traditional Friday night pizza night and watched the National Lampoons Christmas family vacation. We opened up a family game and played that until late, and then headed to bed.

While we were watching the movies the boys were fighting over their spots on the couch and then ended up very close to each other, and then stayed there for a good chunk of the movie! It was a Christmas miracle! Our boys NEVER do this. They don't even know I snapped a few pictures of it.

Just a few shots from Christmas morning!

We were watching the Bennett's dog Maggie, the pups had so much fun!

Dan got me a new Silhouette! I had an old enough model that it would no longer connect to my laptop or computer. It's great!

Alex had a great Christmas with a new mini computer he built to play lots of retro video games!

Dan got his favorite candy and an apple pencil!

Cade got things to help take his trombone recording to the next level, and crazy socks of course!

Mother nature gave us a wonderful Christmas present too. It started snowing on Christmas Day and didn't stop until the next day. Then it kept snowing all week and went through various phases ice and more snow. Apparently this is NOT how winters in this part of Washington ever go, but it happened at the perfect time. Dan got to stay home from work and the kids didn't have school to worry about missing. We spent the week just taking more time at home. I'm glad we hadn't planned to travel anywhere!

They named him Melty the Snow Monster

Because of the snow, church was cancelled on the day after Christmas. While it was nice to cozy up at home, some of the youth had planned to play their instruments as some prelude music. Here's a video of them practicing a few days before Christmas!

For New Year's Eve we were really hoping to have Kristina and Brett and their kids come to stay with us for a few days. The weather was just awful around the whole country that week and Boise got slammed with snow, and the roads between there and here were terrible. We were going to have kids at stake dances and a get together at our house with the Bennetts and the Foutzes to do a fun Bingo game with prizes. The dances were cancelled and the Foutzes couldn't make it, but we still rung in the New Year with the Bennetts. We had chili, cornbread, charcuterie, sparkling cider, and alex made a two layer cake to ring in the new year and wish Grandma Kathy a happy birthday!

So far 2022 has already been up to no good. The snow didn't really melt, it was just drenched away. It rained SO hard for 2-3 days straight that parts of Olympia and Lacey flooded. Just another unprecedented weather event. Look at poor melty the snow monster on his last day! 

The last bit of our holiday fun was a week after everyone was back at school and work. My friend Teletha got us a gift card for a local escape room, since she knows how much we love those. You guys, this place is legit! We can't wait to go back and try their main room, but you need 8 people. :)

I sincerely hope that despite weather, COVID, and all the other stressors out there, that you were able to find moments of joy and peace during your holidays. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!