'Twas the night before Christmas Eve

Christmas is here!  And this year I'm taking an approach to celebrating that's, well, let's just say, not super conventional.  Instead of flying out to spend Christmas with family, I stayed in Seattle to celebrate with Amanda (who came up from Denver) and Justin.  The plan was to do Christmas at my house, then go out to Bainbridge Island to see Justin's family, and then fly out on Christmas night for a mid-winter trip to Puerto Rico and New York.

As I'm writing this, the plan is already in motion, and so far it's going roughly as expected, though not quite as linearly.  But before I jump into those details, let's look back to Wednesday night, when things were calm and bright.  I worked from home and was able to get the house all cleaned up and festive for the holiday.  Amanda's flight landed around 7pm, and shortly after we got home from the airport Justin came over and we had a beautiful little Christmas Eve's Eve that consisted of eating meat pies from the shop down the street and comparing stocking traditions.

Then we all retired to bed (but not before laying out some "Santa"-brought stocking stuffers!) so as to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the adventures ahead!

I love how my Christmas tree turned out this year.  It looks so festive with gifts under it.

I wrapped mine in red paper with gold stripes or filigrees.
Justin wraps exclusively in brown paper with string.
And Amanda brings in more variety with two types of paper and ribbons.

Out of the three of us, my family was the only one who had really fixed stocking-related traditions.  We each
had our own stocking (as indicated by the trim), and we used our stockings to stake out our seats before going to bed.
Because we didn't expect to be together on the real Christmas morning, we put our stockings out the night before
in hopes that Santa might read our minds and come early.

Spoiler alert -- he DID come early!  This was Amanda's stocking post-stuffing.

This is Justin's stocking.  (I didn't take a picture of mine.)

I don't have many Christmas knick-knacks -- basically just this one Danish solder that Granny got a long time ago.

I put red berries into my water-bag vases from China.

The cards on the bannister, and the berries in the garlands are a nice touch.
And I kept changing out the lanterns for candlesticks with glass chimneys -- only
the tapers burnt so quickly that I had to go back to the pillars in the lanterns.

Party season! (Or, I might be crazy)

Here's how things work at my house during the holidays:

[Thanksgiving weekend -- decorate house for holidays]

First Sunday:  It feels so festive!  Let's have a little Christmas gathering! [counts chairs; invites 15 people over for the following Sunday]

Monday:  [after a stressful day at work]  I don't have time for this!  What a terrible idea!  It's too late to cancel, but maybe everyone will be busy [crosses fingers].  At the most, I'll just throw something in the crock pot and call it good.

Saturday:  Crock pot?!  Ugh, so BORING.  Oh, look -- here's a menu for what Martha Stewart calls an "Easy Christmas Extravaganza".  Let's do that!  Also, why did I only invite 15 people?  [Justin intervenes, stops me from doubling the guest list. We stay up until 1am prepping for the party.]

Second Sunday:  [Dinner party with 15 people; it's a huge success.]   That was awesome!  Let's do it again!  Only this time, let's have a REAL party! [plans a co-hosted party with Justin and two other friends for two weeks out; we invite approximately 120 people]

Monday: [after a stressful day at work]  I don't have time for this!  What a terrible idea!  It's too late to cancel, but maybe everyone will be busy [crosses fingers].

Third Sunday:  [does nothing party related; hangs out with Lady all weekend]

Monday:  [realizing the party is less than a week away; also realizing that December is a super busy time at work]  Oh crap.  Remind me never to do this again.

Saturday:  [waking up at 6:30am] Wahoo, PARTY TIME!  Okay, so if the guests arrive at 6pm, we should be set and dressed by 5pm.  Let's do this!  [sprints through 47 errands, rearranging the house, baking and cooking and dressing up for the party; everything's ready exactly on schedule and the guests arrive . . . . ]

Candles and garlands were a nice festive touch

So many people!

Sunday (2am): [guests are gone, house kind of cleaned up, collapsing on the couch]  That was awesome!  Let's do it again!

Oh, nature

Here's what today's post should have said:

Lady's here!  We have tickets to the PNB's new production of The Nutcracker on Sunday, so she took the train up a few days early to play in Seattle.  I picked her up a little after 8pm, we had a tasty dinner of Beecher's mac&cheese, and then headed off to bed.

Here's what actually happened today:

• I woke up to news reports that all train service had been suspended between Portland and Seattle due to flooding.
• I cleared my work calendar and drove to Portland to pick Lady up from the train station.  We ate a delicious dinner of organic, locally sourced, hipster food and then got back on the road...
• Only to discover that Northbound I-5 has been closed due to mudslides, and all surface roads totally blocked by semis, wrecks, and just plain congestion. 
• After filling up at a gas station that was already running out of gas, we made it back to Portland and the comfort of the local Marriott.  We turned on the news and powered up the Internet in hopes of finding a way home.  We learned not only that I-5 will likely be closed until tomorrow night, but also that our best alternate route (along the coast) also is closed due to mudslides.
• Which means that our only hope of getting home is to drive to the eastern (aka dry) side of the state and come in to Seattle over the Cascades through Snoqualmie Pass.  Only problem there is that another storm hits tomorrow, which means 100% chance of snow in the pass.  Fingers crossed we make it through the pass before they close it for snow and/or require snow tires! 
• Oh, and I also have a full day of meetings tomorrow at work that I'm supposed to attend?  Once we get on the road tomorrow, I'll be calling in to the ones I can't reschedule and bailing on all the others.

Sheesh!  This is the sort of adventure I'm used to having in other lands (say, in trying to get from Fez, Morocco, to Granada, Spain, in a single day), but not in the US...  Crazy!

.

 

The night before the party

'Twas the night before the Christmas party, and all through the house there were garlands, poinsettias, and Christmas lights, some terrific red tablecloths that I found at Crate&Barrel, and a fresh chocolate cake all ready for frosting.   

It's 1:00am, and the twelve guests I'll be feeding won't come until 4:00pm, but at least I can go to bed now feeling calm that everything's all set and ready to go.

Cordless, pre-lit garlands are the best thing ever.

Note that for the first time in my adult life, I have real serving spoons!
And in case you're wondering, I'll be serving spiral-cut ham, cheesy potatoes, green salad,
peas with red onions, and dinner rolls.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The first best thing about Thanksgiving is getting together with family for delicious food, fun conversations, and the feeling of gratitude for all the blessings that fill my life.  All those things happened this week (I flew down to Reno and spent the holiday with my parents), but since my phone battery died and my charger was on the fritz, we're left with the eternal question of whether a life unblogged is actually lived.

The second best thing about Thanksgiving is Christmas!  Because unlike all of America, which decided that Christmas season now starts roughly the same time as Halloween, I firmly stick to the tradition that Christmas comes after Thanksgiving.  And by "after Thanksgiving" I mean "turn on The Bishop's Wife as soon as the dishes are done."

I helped my parents put up their Christmas tree before flying home and could barely wait to get started on my own today after church:  Justin and I came home, donned our ugly Christmas sweaters, cranked up the Mannheim Steamroller, boiled a pot of cinnamon for ambiance, and set to work.

First the garland and wreath for the front door.  They're pre-lit and cordless, with a timer to go one between 5p-11pm every day from now till Christmas.  

Once inside, I've got more little white lights.  A garland over the TV cabinet becomes the "mantelpiece" for stockings, and my perfectly-sized tree fits perfectly between the couch and the cabinets.

The tree came pre-lit with 300 lights.  I added another 400.

Another garland leads upstairs.  Again, thank heavens for cordless technology!

I can't take credit for the ugly Christmas sweaters:  they're the most recent masterpieces to come out of the brilliant mind/craftroom of my dear sister Ashley.

Happy Christmas season!  

Joyeux anniversaire!

In honor of the tenth anniversary of my 26th birthday, which was yesterday, my parents sent me a miniature metal model of the Eiffel Tower. When I thanked them for this new addition to what's becoming a collection, they said, "We all know from the movies that the Eiffel Tower is visible from every window in Paris. Pretty soon you'll have enough little towers to put in all your windows and feel like you're living in Paris!"  Which of course is exactly everyone's deepest secret birthday wish. :)

Wedding in the San Juans

Justin's brother's best friend Jenna got married this weekend at her now-husband's family's house on San Juan Island.  The whole family went along to be supportive, and I was invited too.  I didn't know anyone there other than the Keyes family, but I'm glad I went.

The San Juan Islands are one of the most beautiful spots in the country, as far as I'm concerned.  I remember the first time I visited (on a bike trip 20 years ago), I thought how lucky I'd feel if I could live in the San Juans.  Given how remote they are, I'm not sure my adult self would feel quite so lucky to live right on the islands, but I do feel very lucky to live within driving distance.

On the ferry leaving Anacortes for Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.
That's Mount Baker in the distance.

Lunch in Friday Harbor.  I got prawns; Justin pulled a face.

The house faced the water, with a lawn running down to rocky cliffs and a stunning view of the Olympic Mtns

Suits and sun and outdoor marriage ceremonies aren't the most comfortable combination.
Thankfully, the ceremony was short.

You can see the white chairs on the lawn to the left.  That's where we had the ceremony.
Obviously the view was incredible.

Back to the ferry on our way home.

Labor Day!

Labor Day was forecast to be excellent weather, so Justin and I decided to take advantage of it and go for a hike.  We picked Little Si, a 4.7 mile hike not too far from downtown Seattle.

The trail wasn't difficult. Most of it passed through lush green forest.
The epitome of the Cascades.

We got to the summit more quickly than I had expected.  The views over the valley were lovely.
We sat on rocky outcropping for quite a while and ate our lunches and talked.

Back down the mountain with more gorgeous greenness.

After the hike Justin took me to a place he knew that promised to give us our fill of "grease, salt and caffeine".

Bacon burger with fries and a coke -- promise delivered.

  
Having had our fill of grease, salt and caffeine, we drove over to Snoqualmie Falls.  It's a local falls made famous in the opening credits of the TV series Twin Peaks.  Also, it was one of the first places people built hydro-electric plant about a century ago.

PDX with Justin & Eve

September's here!  And with it the lull of summer "vacation" has ended:  Everyone's intensity-level at work is ramping up, and I've got every weekend booked with plans from here to Christmas.  Well, maybe not Christmas (yet) -- but I will be traveling every weekend in September, and at least one or two in October.

The first of my September travels was a day trip to Portland.  Justin has a good friend, Eve, who lives in New York but was flying out to Portland for a wedding.  She had some down time between wedding events on Saturday, so we went down to meet her.

This being my third trip to Portland since February, we agreed the priority was to see Eve; we didn't care to stay the whole weekend.  But we also didn't particularly fancy spending 7 hours in the car for the round trip in one day.  What to do?  Train!

The Seattle train station was recently renovated.  But the shiny new paint didn't dispel my disappointment at Amtrak's
shabby operations.  Train travel in third world countries is more organized and logical than train travel in the US outside
of the Northeast Corridor.  Sigh.

We got to Portland a little under 4 hours later (nearly an hour longer than it would have taken to drive), and Eve met us at the station.  We started with brunch at a restaurant called Urban Farmer (because of course -- this is Portland, home of urban farming), and then set out to explore Portland's Saturday Market.

The market was actually very cool -- way bigger than I expected (it went on for blocks) and had some really nice
arts and crafts in addition to the usual kitsch.  Justin purchased a terrific photograph (which I would have bought if he hadn't), and I picked up a handful of business cards from booths that showed Christmas-gift potential.  

After the market we felt a little peckish, so we headed out on a donut-seeking expedition.  Voodoo Donuts are all the rage right now in Portland -- they're known for outrageous concoctions and toppings -- and typically the line is something like an hour long all the time always.  I had no desire to wait in line so long, but Eve's boyfriend (who went to college in Portland) knew of a different location that didn't have such a long line.  Before we knew it, we were in a Pepto-bizmol-pink booth binging on more fried dough and sugar than any of us needed in a month.

I got an enormous peach fritter with cream cheese icing.
Sunglasses for scale.

Eve got the Voodoo Doll (complete with a pin through the heart and jelly "blood" on the inside).
Jonah, her boyfriend, got the fritter with a bunch of stuff all over it.  

The donuts were good enough -- probably more faddish for their outlandishness and reputation than for the actual quality of the donuts -- and after sampling a few I felt a little ill from the sugar.  So we packed up the leftovers and went to find something that smelled sweeter than donuts and wouldn't add to our calorie intake:  Roses.

Portland is famous for its Rose Garden, and both Eve and I wanted to see it.  September's a little late for peak rose season, but we still saw some really lovely blooms.  Even more interesting to me than the visual variety was the variety of scents.  All the roses smelled like roses, but some had notes that were rich and velvety, others stickily sweet; some a little powdery, and others fresh and fruity.  I wanted a vintner-turned-gardner to come and give us a "rose tasting" to walk us through the many scents.

That's Eve in the gray sweater in the foreground.  It's apparently the only photo I got of her the entire day...

He got some pretty good shots with that camera.
I just stuck with my iPhone and got the ones below.

 

Squinting in unexpected sunshine

By the time we had seen/smelled our fill of roses, we had only just enough time to grab a quick sandwich at a local deli before Eve dropped us back off at the train station.  We bid fond farewells and made promises to meet next in New York and then boarded our train back to Seattle.