Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful Christmas celebration this year.  I hope all y'all did too.  Again, I am so blessed by living up here near family.  And we took full advantage of it this Christmas.

After we got back from our ski trip, we kicked off Christmas by heading to Grandma Audrey's to spend the night and have Christmas Eve dinner.  The girls entertained both Grandma and Suzy, and we even got to Skype with Santa (otherwise known as my Uncle Paul).  After our Skype date, we had Christmas Eve dinner with my cousin Brennan, and my Uncle Tom and exchanged gifts.  All too soon it was time to get on the road to go visit more family.  My cousin Cindy hosted their gift exchange at her house.  We arrive just in time for the younger cousins to get in on the action.  The girls received some wonderful gifts!

Christmas morning came way too early, but it was oh so fun!  The girls got everything they wanted and more.  After church, we spend the rest of the day lounging as a family and enjoying some downtime.  

Normally, my Christmas post would end there, but not when you live up here and get to take part in some other traditions.  My grandma is a member of the Sons of Norway.  If you're not familiar, think the Elks Lodge but they are all Scanda-hoovian.  In Norway, they have a wonderful after Christmas tradition known as Julebukk, where after Christmas, families travel to visit one another, go carolling at their neighbors, and sing around the Christmas tree.  You know that scene in The Grinch Who Stole Christmas where the Whos down in Whoville start singing in the town square? Yeah, it's kinda like that. 

I got the girls dressed in their Christmas dresses and we went to the party.  We had a blast.  The girls danced and danced some more.  They did the Hokey Pokey and the Chicken Dance, all to an authentic Norwegian band playing live music.  Then it was time to dim the lights and just enjoy the Christmas tree.  The tree was so beautiful, and all the members started singing traditional Norwegian carols.  It was such a great time!  I hope my grandma invites us again next year.

Merry Christmas everyone!

It's All Downhill From Here

After last winter's successful ski trip (read here if you don't recall), we have decided to take advantage of our current location and get to the slopes.  But we got to take advantage on two fronts - not only did we get to go skiing...   we got to go skiing with some of our great friends!  Seems that an added bonus of moving to the Evergreen State is that our friends, the Blochers, visit up here often because J's parents have retired here.  Yes, that is a BIG BONUS, isn't it? 

This summer, I posted on Facebook that we were moving this way; J emailed me and told me they would be up this way for Christmas and asked if we would be interested in going skiing with them.  My answer was a big hell-ya I'll go with y'all!!!!  Not only do I love skiing, I love the Blocher family soooo much and haven't seen them since we all left Texas. 

Months and weeks of planning finally came to a head this week as we hit the slopes at Crystal Mountain.  We had two days of skiing and three days with friends...  and it was absolutely awesome.  Fresh snow, good friends, and kids who love skiing. 

The girls went to ski school for one of the ski days to really learn what to do.  Ronnie and I got a few runs in before lunch.  We had a fantastic lunch at the top of the slopes with an even better view of Mount Rainier.  After lunch, Ronnie went skiing with Coke while I stayed with J and V on the easy slope.  Before we knew it, it was time to pick the girls up. 

Back at the lodge, Ronnie, the girls, and the Blocher boys took advantage of the heated pool while the ladies put some dinner together.  We spent the night in front of the fire lounging and catching up more. 

The next morning, we hit the slopes again, with the kids in tow.  Ronnie and I stayed on the easy slope with the girls to check out their skills.  I have to say, they are really getting the hang of it.  Holly can get down the slope on her own, do some small turns, and is ready for some more lessons; Sarah needs just a few more runs to really get the feel of her feet below her.

Two days, two nights, two fantastic days of skiing and reconnecting with some fantastic friends.  I can't say we could ask for anything more. 
 

How Lovely Are Thy Branches

I love decorating for Christmas!  The slow transformation of our home to a place of celebration is so much fun.  I especially love putting up the Christmas tree because I get to enjoy all of our ornaments and tell the girls stories about them.

A few weeks ago, I was on Facebook talking with Ronnie's cousin who is putting up her first family Christmas tree and told her about our tree.  You see, we collect Christmas ornaments from all over: where we live, where we work, where we visit, and just some that tickle our fancy.  In 11 years, we have been a lot of different places and our tree is a memory tree. Ronnie and I have our collection and we have started collections for both the girls.  We have a John Deere tractor, Princess castles, Disney mementos, and first ornaments the girls made.  Airplanes, and blown glass, and glass slippers.  Stars, and Santas, and bells to give angels their wings. A black Santa riding an aligator and a cactus with Christmas lights. 
As I was enjoying my coffee and the view of my tree this morning, I realized the light was perfect to capture some of the ornaments.  So, here is a tour of our life: 

on the left, an ornament my Auntie Martina made me; on the right, my poinsettia from Kim Frankel

An A-10 bullet casing, Holly's handprint, and Sarah's voodoo doll from NOLA 

Nutcracker from 2010 Seoul Nutcracker performance, Tibetan prayer wheel, John Deere Tractor from Oklahoma and a medal from the top of the Great Wall of China, and ballerina from 2011 Seattle Nutcracker performance

Cowboy from Texas, Vegas sign from 2008 trip, and a embroidered ball from Chiang Mai, Thailand

Bum bum be-de bum, bum bum be-de bum!

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas if the Oliver's didn't go see the Nutcracker.  We have been spoiled rotten the last two years in Korea by seeing a fantastic company who presents the Bolshoi version.  I was a bit skeptical that there would be a performance to top it.  We researched the options to view the Nutcracker in Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia and decided to attend the one presented by the Pacific Northwest Ballet. 

We attended the show on Saturday.  One of the bonuses for the PNB is that the hall is at the Seattle Center.  We rushed downtown, found a parking spot and hustled to the performance hall.  Even though it wasn't Bolshoi, what we came to find is that you can appreciate the Nutcracker even if it is a bit different.    The sets were fantastic and looked just like they came out of a storybook.  The dancing was wonderful.  The Land of Sweets is always my favorite act and I look forward to the different celebration dances.  But the best part of the PNB performance was the Arabian Dance, interpreted into a peacock gracefully strutting across the stage.  Quite honestly, it stole the show, even from the Pas de Deux of Clara and her Cavelier. 

After a wonderfully different performance, we walked through Seattle Center at dusk, enjoying the lights and then set out for dinner.

Treasure Hunting

How do you get two girls interesting in hiking and being outdoors when it is drizzling outside?  Such is our conundrum...   Ronnie and I both like being outdoors, the girls tolerate it but not when it is wet out.  Yeah, we live in the Pacific northwest, they are going to need to get over it.  Ronnie came up with the perfect solution: Geocaching. 

Geocaching is an outdoor treasure hunting game using a GPS.  Basically, you navigate yourself to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.  The caches are listed on various websites, which also let you know how easy or hard they are to locate when you get to the coordinates.  So, enter our rainy day tromp through the woods around Lacey. 

This weekend, we set about locating a "Pink Princess" cache in a local park.  I think the pictures tell the story the best....

Off we go through the woods.  We wandered around for a bit trying to figure out the exact clues to get us near the cache. 

Hmmm, is there something in this dead stump?

I don't know, let me look...  Hey, there is something! 

Hurry hurry, open it up!!!!!

The girls had so much fun in the woods looking for the cache, though the prize itself was a bit disappointing.  We had fun learning about local mushrooms, the different trees, and all about moss - nature's carpet.  So, our first geocache was a success, and left the girls asking to go on more "treasure hunts."

Giving Thanks

Over the years, we have been blessed to have been with some fantastic friends that make missing our families at Thanksgiving a distant thought.  But this year, everything changes.  You see, we are stationed in the Seattle-area, meaning that we are stationed near my mom's side of the family.  My grandmother, aunts, uncles, and loads of cousins all live within a two hour drive of our home.  So this year, we had a Thanksgiving celebration complete with lots of family surrounding us.

On Wednesday, we drove over the hills and through the woods to my grandma's house.  We woke up Thanksgiving morning and I learned how to make her homemade pie crust and her famous apple pie.  We had a great time in the kitchen together and even got the girls involved in some of the smaller tasks.  Later in the afternoon, we drove down to my aunt's house to meet up with the rest of the family.  We ate and laughed and enjoyed one another's company. 

Friday morning we lounged around my grandma's house and visited some more.  I am so thankful that my girls have this opportunity to get to know their great-grandma.  Later on in the afternoon, we headed on back home so that I could get a move on my homework.  Sticking with our promise of eating cleaner and more local, we ordered a fresh turkey from the Tacoma Food Co-op.  And since Thanksgiving isn't Thanksgiving if you don't have leftovers for days, we cooked up another mini-Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday.  Our bird came out so lovely; it was a little more on the game tasting side, which was a wonderful surprise.  I'm thinking this will be the way we go from here on out. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!