Christmas on the 19th

Diana and Peter are spending Christmas with his family in New Jersey so we had a partial Christmas on the 19th. Chuck read the Christmas story and then Diana and Peter gave us their gifts and we gave them ours. Peter made lasagna the day before and put it in the oven after we opened presents. Plus homemade garlic bread. And those meatballs! Everything was SO good! 

Sharaya created a trivia game that was so much fun! She had questions that everyone in the family could answer. One category was Musical Lyrics where she would just read the lyrics and I can't believe how hard those were to guess! When she sang them we're like, "Of course!!" Another category was Whose Hairline is it Anyway? with celebrity photos of just their forehead up and you had to guess who it was. The whole game was so creative and fun! She even had prizes for the winners. Hint, it wasn't my team. But it was a close score! Then we ate too many sweets and played Mexican Train and laughed way too hard!

We kept forgetting that it wasn't actually Christmas day!

From Our Family to Yours

 Merry Christmas!

And an Angel of the Lord Appeared to Them Saying, "Fear Not"

I'm just staring at the screen, not sure how to start this. Not that there's anything major going on, probably more the opposite.

I've been taking time in the evenings to watch Christmas movies and drink hot chocolate and really just try to enjoy this season. It sure is going by too fast! We finally got the tree decorated and I have about one-third of the Christmas cards done. We're getting there!

 

We all went out antiquing last week, walking through Snohomish, then having lunch at The Cathouse. It was very eclectic and so fun! The tables were shellacked with all sorts of things, and they even had a full drum set on the ceiling!

 

 

 The small town of Snohomish

 

 

We've had a lot of parties at work the last couple of weeks. our staff party was so fancy! Our office manager really went all out! She had a full charcuterie board (a full 6' table!) plus steak or salmon, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes... even the decor was so cute. We had a raffle, and games, plus lots of worship. It's such a fun party and I look forward to it every year.

 

I don't know why this has suddenly moved to center align, and it won't let me change it! Ah, you gotta love technology.

We're having our first Christmas this Saturday. Diana and Peter are going to New Jersey for Christmas this year so we're exchanging gifts with them this weekend. Everyone will be here for gifts, then Peter is making lasagna and bread sticks, yum!

Then on the 25th, Sharaya and Ally will come over and the 5 of us will exchange gifts. We didn't want to wake up on Christmas morning with nothing really to do! If I don't get back on here in the next week, I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

 “Glory to God in the highest,
    and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Late

Today I finally finished putting up the Christmas lights outside. We pulled the tree out of the box and got it put up last week and I froofed it a couple days ago. Tonight I got the lights on. We got a Christmas card from my nephew and his family and I told Chuck I haven't even started on ours. Even he was shocked!

I've never been this late preparing for Christmas!

How are you doing? Are you completely decorated?

Chop Chop, Twelve, and Snow!

This past week for me has been much more manageable than last week. I hope you've had a good week too.

Beth and I spent a day shopping. Went to the mall for the first time in a very long time. I was hoping it would be all decorated for Christmas but all they had was a few lights hanging from the ceiling. That was a little disappointing. But we found a few gifts and after a while we got hungry so we stopped at our favorite place, Auntie Anne's! It was a fun mother-daughter day!

 

Diana and Peter found their tree! They drove up into the mountains a cut it down themselves. Their first tree on the west coast. 💖

 

Ally turned 12! This beautiful, smart, funny, kind girl is twelve years old! She came over Thursday afternoon and we made chocolate chip cookies. She didn't want cake for her birthday, she wanted MY chocolate chip cookies! I love this girl! Afterward we all met at Red Robin and she opened her presents. She's growing up too fast!

 

The next day she and Sharaya left for a weekend up in the mountains. They woke up the first morning to snow!! I was a little jealous. They had a fun, relaxing time with friends. (I pulled these from her Instagram page.)

 Do you have your tree yet? 

Do you celebrate Hanukkah?

Turkey Toss, 70, and No Surprise About the Winner

Sorry it's been so long. I've been thinking about you and hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

Last Monday through Thursday I worked 40 hours and walked more than 70,000 steps preparing for our Thanksgiving Outreach. We served 850 people on Thanksgiving Day! A delicious meal, great entertainment, family photos, games, prizes, then those that wanted to could go upstairs to our clothing bank. And everything throughout the day was free. Every year I'm a little more sore at the end of the week, but it really is a privilege to serve our community.

 

A few weeks ago our office manager decided to do a turkey toss. We all went out to the south parking lot and... tossed a turkey! I tried to hide in the back but I was spotted and called to the front. 😁 It was fun though! It was definitely the topic of conversation for the day!

This is me. Gotta love my good form! 😂

 

This was Diana and Peter's first Thanksgiving with us and he brined the turkey. We'd never had it that way but it was really good. The white meat was juicy and tender, like it was falling off the bone. Did you ever brine a turkey? Or eat one? We had all the usual food: green bean casserole, dressing, rolls, Sharaya made the mashed potatoes... for dessert I made an ice box pie and Diana and Peter brought a pumpkin cheesecake. That's something else we'd never had before. 

Then we played Mexican Train. Sharaya won. Again. She wins a lot and we always take the opportunity to tease her about it!

We ate way too much and laughed too hard! Exactly like time with family should be. I hope you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!

Surprised by a Chicken

 I walked into the main storage room at work last week and this greeted me!

Just hanging out by the bleach and the vacuum cleaner bags.

I've asked some of the custodians where it came from but they don't know. We don't know who put it there but it sure puts a smile on my face every time I see it!

We'll be at church on Thursday, helping with our community Thanksgiving outreach. Then our family will have Thanksgiving on Saturday.

I hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Six Month Scan

It's been 6 months since Chuck's last scan, when he was declared cancer free. He feels great and all the side effects from the immunotherapy have disappeared.

He'll be getting these scans every six months for a while so we headed downtown early this morning.

 

We had a few hours between the scan and when we would get the results so he made a different appointment for work since we were already down there. We did a lot of sitting! But we got back to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and met with his doctor. Bottom line... 

He's still cancer free!!!! 

All of his organs look good, his blood counts are all normal... what a huge relief! The Lord has been so good to us!