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!

Thanksgiving 2021

The week before Thanksgiving, Cade had an awesome opportunity to be a part of the Western International Band Clinic. It was a weekend long band festival that he auditioned for and was selected to be a part of. We dropped him off on a Friday evening and picked him up Monday afternoon. He spent all day Saturday, Sunday rehearsing and then the various ensembles performed on Monday. He got to stay in a hotel and eat, sleep and breathe band for a bit! The only bummer is that they weren't allowing any audience members so I watched his group perform on a livestream from home and Dan made the trek up to seattle from work since his office is at least 30 minutes closer than our house is. At least when we go to All-State in February we'll be able to hear him perform in-person! Good job Cade!

After Cade's band clinic it was only a few days before we were on the road to Boise for Thanksgiving! We drove all day Wednesday and arrived just in time to participate in the big day. We stayed with the Charles and Sarah McBride family and enjoyed turkey and all that with them, and his sister Kristina, their family and his parents.

Your butter just isn't good enough if it hasn't been molded into a turkey :)

We've taken up a new hobby- charcuterie! This was our first time putting a board together and it was a hit! We haven't stopped snacking on cheeses, crackers and meats since!

Family time always means game time! I did NOT realize a picture was being taken in this moment, though clearly everyone else did, lol

Dan has even more family that lives in the Boise area, but not everyone could come for Thanksgiving Day itself. So we stole a tradition from my side of the family called Friday Pie Day! Let's be honest, most of us are way to full to really appreciate pies on Thanksgiving, so we saved (most of) the pie for Friday and had even more people over for food and games.

We were trying to get a whole group picture, but Dan got in on the posing before the rest of us were ready!

I think this is pretty close to everyone that lives in the Boise area, plus Phillip and Michelle and our family. Most the little kiddos were upstairs playing happily- didn't want to disturb that!

Saturday, the adventurous folks went up to the Hot Springs on cooold day. I was not one of those adventurous folks that day. Instead I went shopping with Charles and Sarah to Deseret Book and went out to lunch. Much more my speed, lol!

What a great way to kick off our holiday season of 2021! We love living within 8 hours of so much family and we had such a great visit. On our way home, since the weather wasn't an issue, we took a longer route home by Mt. Hood. That was Cade's idea, since he doesn't love driving on main interstates, he thinks they're boring. It was worth the extra drive time because there was a spectacular view of Mt. Hood from our car!

 

And as soon as we got back into Washington it POURED the rest of the way home. Thus began our very rainy, wet and cold Christmas season!

A collection of things

Right before Halloween we finally received our belongings after 3 months without them. (That's longer than we were without our stuff when we moved from VA to korea!) It was long enough that a lot of times when the movers asked us what something was, it took us a minute to remember and then tell them where to put it. Re-configuring your life is always a challenge, but I kind of love how we end up with different ways of doing things. Kitchens are always different and we have to decided where everything will function best. In this house we have two living areas and were initally thinking of putting the piano upstairs near the kitchen and the TV downstairs in the carpeted area. But after Dan's convincing words we switched it up and I really like what we ended up with. Here's the piano once it was finally set up down stairs. 

In our renovations we took out the old closet hardware for the master bedroom because it was bent and in a really weird configuration. We also took off the doors to help make the room feel a little bigger. (it's not a very big master, and no walk-in closet) After months of living in duffel bags, and about a week after our stuff was delivered, we finally got a way to hang our clothes again! Yay!

In with our kitchen items were our pizza stones. The family had been anxiously awaiting the day we could do homemade pizza again!

It has been fun watching Alex's passion and skill as a baker grow. We decided to invest in his business by buying him a new Kitchen Aid. When he leaves the house he'll be able to take this with him and keep up the awesome work!

I was so excited when I finally unearthed my hoodies from their box. Washington weather is definitely made for hoodies!

Dan turned 41 in November! We kept it simple with a Korean themed weekend. Dak Galbi for dinner, gifts of a Korean cookbook from Maangchi, and a day pass to a korean spa. Alex made Dan's request of a better than sex cake- recipe from Sarah McBride. It was delish!! Happy Birthday Dan! Can't wait to have a day away enjoying the spa with you.

I got my first haircut here in Yelm, WA. It turned out pretty cute! Still miss my barber from SATX!

Over Veteran's Day weekend, our friend Janel who lives in Chelan, WA brought her family to the area and we got to hang out a bunch! One day the gals just went to a craft fair, lunch at Mod Pizza and brought some Crumbl cookies home! Love spending time with good friends.

Here's the Russian doll set I got at the craft fair. This lady was selling her whole collection, and at fantastic prices. This one is hand painted and signed by the artist in Russian, from Moscow 1990 and has 9 pieces!

And even though the weather is often rainy and gray, the days that are sunny feel amazing, and give a chance for Mt. Rainier to shine. I can't help but snap pictures whenever I get a glimpse!

We even get some pretty amazing sunrises around here. This literally looked like the sky was on fire!

We are slowly settling in here in Washington and it is really is beginning to feel more like a home than just a place to exist. I've started working as an accompanist already, started an Etsy shop, and Dan has been very busy at work. Cade has been doing marching band and now has two honor band opportunities that he's looking forward to. Alex is glad to be done with football, as the concussion still plagues him a bit and so it wasn't the best experience all around. He has completed one bake sale and is in full prep mode for his holiday bake sale, with a logo, business labels, Instagram page and everything! It's been such a long transition that it is nice to get some sense of normalcy again. Now wouldn't it be nice if all this Covid stuff went away? Inflation is.... just wow right now.