So Much

 Food

Fun

  Laughter 

We had such a great time with Diana and Peter here

Sharaya and Ally have been here every day

We made ravioli from scratch, a tradition with Peter's family

Played so many board games!

Ate way too much food

Laughed hard over the silliest things

Enjoyed each other's company

 Four days before Christmas we got a little bit of snow! Chuck was at work, the girls and Peter were out... shopping I think, so Ally and I went out to play!

Traditional Christmas Eve Jammies

Christmas morning

The aftermath

 I hope you had a wonderful celebration!

Happy New Year!

Familiar But Foreign

For 25 years our church has served a family style Thanksgiving dinner to our community. We have about 500 volunteers and they help serve more than 1400 meals.

Well obviously we couldn't do that this year so we decided to make it a drive-through the day before Thanksgiving so people could just heat it up the next day. We spent a week cooking everything, putting it into containers and then on Wednesday, a few volunteers packed it all into bags and we put it in peoples trunks. When all was said and done, we gave away 2300 meals.

 Picking up the pies at Costco. This is one of two pallets plus about 20 additional pies.

Walking into church on Wednesday morning I felt that old familiar excitement, knowing you were a part of something so much greater than yourself. But the day sure was different!

Chuck put the turkey in our oven before he left for church, then Sharaya and Ally came over and made mashed potatoes... then we had our family Thanksgiving when we got home.

We FaceTimed with Diana, played some board games, and watched The Muppet Christmas Carol - that's a tradition at our house!

This was the only picture I took:

 Was your Thanksgiving different this year?

Thankful Thursday - So Blessed

 

Time for some more gratefulness

This week finds me so thankful for:

Much needed rain

A new fireplace!

Family game night

Ordering in for dinner

 Seeing old friends

Appreciation gifts

Sunflowers

Fall

Chocolate chip cookies

My husband

My home

I pray you've had many things to be thankful for this week!

Saturday Snippets - A Foresty Walk, Help With Mowing, Need Some Help!

Chuck is still walking a few times a week. He went by himself last week and did 5 miles! On Wednesday we did about 2.5 miles on the Burke-Gilman Trail. He's got so much energy lately!

 

Sharaya and Allie have come over a couple times recently and I have Allie this weekend, well, tonight anyway. She helped me mow the lawn by doing a few passes with the mower and she used the broom to clean off the lawn chairs.

 She beat the pants off me at Monopoly! We put on our fuzzy socks and slid on the kitchen floor a while. Have you ever tried it? It is so much fun! 

She's such a goofball! 💓

 

 

 

 

Do you do puzzles? I'm finding I'm just not that good at them. When my sister was here Rachel (her 14 yr old granddaughter) would walk over to the table, look at all the pieces, then pick one up and place it in the right spot! What?! How?! We would try every single piece we thought would fit and even then we wouldn't find it and have to try them all again.

I recently spent about an hour on a puzzle Sharaya bought me and this was as far as I got...

After an hour! Is there a trick to this?

 We're slowing making improvements to our house. We've spent our whole marriage traveling, road trips, National Parks. Now the kids are grown and we're putting money into our house. The next big thing is our fireplace. When we bought the house we learned it wasn't up to code so we've never used it. (19 years!) But now we're in the process of getting a gas insert. I can't wait for winter now!!

This is what we have now. I keep a large green plant in front of it to try to hide it. It's so old! 😄

This is the model of the one we're going to get. Our logs will look a little different and the back will be black bricks. I can't wait to be able to flip a switch and have a real fireplace!

 

Do you have a fire place? What kind do you like?

Are you good at puzzles?

Saturday Snippets

How is everyone doing?

Staying at home?

Staying healthy?

 We're doing well here. Staying in except to go grocery shopping.

Beth sent me this text and photo the other night:

i am out of food in my fridge already so I need more for in my fridge

 I had planned to go shopping by myself but how could I after that plea for help! So we both went to the store, stocked up and now her fridge is filled again. Am I the only one buying things I've never tried before? There are so many things in our cupboard right now that we don't normally buy!

We're still going on our walks. We've been getting at least a little bit of sunshine every day.

Look at all those cars in the driveway!

People in this neighborhood really are staying home!

We cleaned out all of our games and I came across Password. This was my moms and it still has the score sheets from about 50 years ago! I was too young when they would play this but I remember watching them. I forgot I kept it!

The PET scan went well. They told us we'd be there about 4 hours but turned out it was only about 2 1/2. When they called Chuck back Sharaya and I found a bistro there in the hospital and we sat and talked almost the whole time. I was so glad she was there! No results yet. We've been getting so many texts and phone calls from friends and family, they've truly humbled us and made us feel so loved.

I pray you're all doing well and are finding moments of joy in this unprecedented time we're living in.

I Was Sure I Had Killed It

Chuck and I finally went and saw Downton Abbey the other day. There were only about 8 of us in the theater cause it's been out for so long already but it was really good! We love those characters! As we were walking to the car he asked if I noticed they left the ending open for another movie. 😊

Sharaya and Allie come over for lunch on Sundays and Sharaya sometimes goes grocery shopping while we watch Allie. One Sunday recently we all went outside and cleaned up the driveway. I was told evergreen trees don't lose their leaves, they stay green all year so our first winter in Washington I saw our huge cedar trees needles (not sure you can call them leaves?) turn orange! What?! I started to panic! I was sure I had killed this 50 year old tree! But no, some of the older 'leaves' turn orange and fall off, covering your driveway and front porch and sidewalk and they get in your car and your house...

So you have to go out and clean up. We got the leaf blower and brooms and got to work. It's not as fun as jumping in a huge pile of maple leaves but it's family time!

 

After the yard work we went in and played Mexican Train. It's such a fun game! Look at that concentration! If I remember right, Beth won. Of course. She's so good at this game!

Work is still very busy but my boss and I are trying to come up with a solution to lessen my workload. Honestly I'm not sure his idea will work but I'm willing to give it a try. I'll let you know after the changes have been made. I had another meeting with my team today. With our Thanksgiving outreach right around the corner things are about to get even busier!

Are you already prepping for Thanksgiving?