Holiday Chills and Thrills

Life in Bellevue was quite different this December with all the snow storms. White covered the ground the first few days I spent with Dad, Mom, Kristen,Kev and Madi, Brian, and Maea... Oh, and Joey (Joseph Carlos), of course.

• Snow...One of my wishes for going home during this season was to play in the snow, as it's not as accessible in VA, so that I did for a couple days... Built a roofless "igloo" with the help of Kev (day 1) and Kristen (day 2)... then watched it melt just in time to rake up the bulk of the remaining leaves on the front lawn (day 10)... We didn't quite make it to the mountains this year as Snoq. Pass was closed on the day we had planned to venture. I like the snow as long as I am either warm inside looking at it OR equipped with dry warm clothing playing in it.
• Distance running ... I found a new loop that I titled the "Temple Run," which had the most cleared roads that I could run in the middle of during the snowy days without trekking through great amounts of deep or muddy snow.
• Laughing with Madi... She loves funny faces as well and looking in her reflection while perched high on my head pretending she's superwoman. Madi sleeping was also a novelty that Kristen and Kev enjoyed on occasion- I think there was just too much for us to catch up on (she's 7 months old).
• Volleyball with the Dixon family- non-contact sports are the safer way to ensure that friendships will last from year to year. Any game is fun with the Dixons!
• Christmas lights and a real Christmas tree- something about the classic colored Christmas lights stapled tightly to frame the facade of the house is nice to see, and Mom's favorite Evergreen Noble in the front room smells so good.
• Downtown Seattle- the Gingerbread house village at the Sheraton is always a quite view but fun to see... there's a really cool interactive digital table map that we enjoyed before we headed to enjoy dinner in Chinatown... House of Hong.
• Gingerbread house making... So, it wasn't much of a "contest" this year, but the Skeen girls did not fail us with Mom's stained glass windows, Maea's marshmallow igloo, and Kristen's fetuccini-noodle siding.
• Whirlyball with the McDonald family- competition was high as we rammed each other in bumper cars and raced to outscore our oponents with the whiffle ball in our scoops. This is a family tradition the McD's shared with us this year, and I think we are all convinced it ought spread to more states. Check it out HERE. Diane and Bill gave us a personal tour of the Bellevue Botanical garden lights they helped set up this year to cool us all off after the intense game.
• Swimming with diving sisters... I love swimming!!! Madi and Kev even joined us on one of our excursions- she loves the water.
• Sewing... this is something I still need to work on improving at, but I managed to complete two custom pillow cases- and there's more where those came from! :)
• Breakfast with the Popes- I love catching up with them, and they are always so nice to visit with... can't wait to hear news about their mission soon!!!
• Bowling... matched up well with Kristen and Kev, as we each left plenty of room for improvement on the second game... Mom, Dad and Maea were all stars next to us! (Dad and I wore shoes that made heads turn)
  
• Bowl Games... Kev and I bonded as we caught a few good games- my favorite to watch was Utes vs. Alabama... Honestly, it was fun to be cheering for Utah for once- they played a really good game and dominated against Bama... Should they be in the Champ game? Don't ask me.
• Board games... my oh my is "Life" outdated- still a great game, but it is quite eye-opening to observe the change in salaries and expenses from the time the game was made to now!

Great visit with the family and friends. I will ever be grateful for the relationships that were formed growing up in Bellevue and they continue to grow as time proceeds, families increase in size, and distances spread. Thanks for a great time Dad and Mom!