Icy Rainier Mornings

For Christmas we spent a peaceful eight days at home in Rainier. It didn't snow but it got cold. Several nights we had freezing fog that coated everything in a layer of ice and thick frost, it was quite beautiful. The other mornings it was crisp and clear with impossibly blue skies.

These are a few of my favorite shots. Some are from the clear cut behind our house and the others are from Silver Lake. The first shot is from Christmas morning out at the top of our drive looking through the trees at the cold fog in the valley below- definitely my favorite shot.

A Very Busy Day!

Ah, the not-so-gentle madness of the Christmas season. One day you're stuffing cranberries and turkey in your mouth, the next BAM! it's straight into the madness. Throw in a life divided between two houses, a full-time job and the closing weeks of a semester and you just get a whole new wrinkle, and that wrinkle is probably right smack between your eyeballs and born in a permanent scowl.

But, despite the pressure to achieve gift giving perfection and get Christmas cards in the mail sometime before Valentine's day, I love the holidays. I especially love the "idea" of the holidays; you know envisioning the holiday meal, the kids expressions when they see their gifts on Christmas, thinking about spending time making more memories. And as the kids get older I think of more and more things I want to be able to do with them. Today was one of those opportunities.

I remember my mom taking my sister and I to the Nutcracker when we were little. I just remember being enchanted by the ballerinas. Somehow I forgot how hard it is understand a ballet, even the Nutcracker, when you're four.

Kathryn, dressed in her Christmas finery, was so excited for the ballet to begin. Then it did. She sat quietly for about 20 minutes, then leaned over and put her head on my arm. I brushed her hair with my hand and kissed her head. She looked sweetly up and me and said, "when are they going to start talking?" Ah, there it was that one little detail that I completely forgot to discuss with her.

Then there was the lack of anything except nuts and macaroons at intermission, Kathryn is convinced she doesn't like coconut or cashews. That led into the temper tantrum just as the lights dimmed the first time to signal us back to our seats. Let us just say that won't be a cherished holiday memory and leave it at that.

We ended up making it almost through the whole thing, but Kathryn was convinced she would die of starvation and I was convinced I was going to die at the hands of the people surrounding us.

But, somehow it was all worth it. When I tucked her in tonight I asked her if she enjoyed it a little bit and she said it was the best thing ever. It really was worth it!

We also crammed in the kids Christmas party up at the Air Station. It was really fun this year, both kids really enjoyed themselves and I really do love seeing Santa come in on the helicopter. Our final feat was walking up to the truck parade with our good friends, Sarah and Doug and family; I LOVE the truckers parade. No really, I LOVE IT. There is something just so darned cool about all the fire trucks and dump trucks and log trucks and every other truck imaginable completely decked out in christmas lights. Kathryn was going nuts yelling Merry Christmas to everyone and David ran himself ragged trying to shepherd her around.

It was a crazy, crazy day. But, I loved it. And I hope you enjoy the pictures of our memory making.

He's been slated!

After what seems like a few dozen years of stress, Jon found out this morning that he got his number one pick and is headed to the USCGC Healy. The Healy is an ice breaker home ported in Seattle. So, while we still haven't figured out the logistics of the move and the timing of all of it, we know that we're going to be doing a GEO tour. That just means that the kids and I will be living in Rainier and Jon will be up in Seattle during the week and home on the weekends- except when he's up hobnobbing with walruses and whales, that is!

So, the details are pretty limited at this point, but stay tuned and I'll keep you all posted. It's pretty exciting for all of us, especially Jon who is really excited to get started on this next adventure.