Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

A Pretzel Suprise

Yesterday when I got home from work there was a FedEx package from Ben's Aunt Judy and Uncle Tony who live in Westchester, PA which is a suburb of Philadelphia. While were used to getting a Christmas gift from them this years gift was cute a surprise and a yummy one I might say. This year they sent us a Philly's best soft pretzel complete with 5 kinds of dipping sauces. This was definitely a different gift and a cute reminder that we still owe them a visit which we will be doing in the new year.

It's Flies!

Yesterday Ben headed up to Paine field for an event that we have been waiting over two years to happen. The 787 Dreamliner made it's first flight. Everyone was super excited to see the plane nearing the end of what has been two years plagued by supplier issues and many delays. Here are a couple of pictures of the plane and the rest can be found on our flickr site.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

The holidays are always fun for us and even more now that we have our puppy Odin. Every year on our trip we pick out an ornamnet from the country.countires we've visited o add to our collection. This year was no exception as we collected ornamanents in Peru and added them to our tree this year. The ornaments are a fun way to look back at all of the places and memories we have about where we've all been and the fun we have had.

Odin's First Back

Yesterday we headed down to Tuxedo Kennels where we train Odin for some fun/training. While the weather was freezing it was fun to see Odin and Ben having a good time while working with Richard on some new skills. Since were planning on having Odin participate in Hunt tests starting this spring Richard decided it was time to step up the training an introduce Odin to a skill called backing which is where he allows another dog already on point to finish working the bird while holding his point. On Odin's very first try he did exactly what he was supposed to do without any correction which was great and made Ben and Richard very happy.

Holiday Party Time

December means party time for us. With three birthdays, friend and work holiday parties we seem to have every weekend booked this month.

On Saturday, Dec 5th the start of the party season kicked off with my little sister Tammy's 14th birthday. This year she had a bowling party and a sleep over with a bunch of her friends. We joined her and her friends, my other sisters and our parents for a little while at the bowling party. She had a great time and I hear that the girls actually did go to sleep at some point the next morning :) That night night we headed to Ben's work party at the house of his lead in Enumclaw. It was great seeing and meeting all of his co-workers as well as tasting all of the different goodies that everyone brought to the potluck.

Friday the 11th we headed to the Lionfish holiday party which was held at the Rainer Vista Boys & Girls Club in Seattle. The evening was filled with lots of games including hulu hoop competitions, remote control car races, a magician show and others, presents for the kids and a visit from Santa. The food was yummy with great appetizers, gumbo and cornbread and lots of desserts.

Lastly for this half of the month we celebrated my mom's birthday on the 12th. My dad treated her this year and took her out to dinner at Coho Cafe in Redmond with no kids which is a rare treat for them. My sisters and I all spoiled her with gifs including socks which is my sister and mothers inside joke/tradition for birthdays.

Maya Turns One!

I headed up to the Lukecarts on the 28th of November to celebrate one of my favorite little girls birthdays. Miss Maya turned one years old on the 23rd. Can't believe that a whole year has gone by already.

McKenzie and Ken invited friends and family over for the celebration which was topped off with Maya enjoying a piece of cake and getting spoiled by those that love her. Here's a few pics from the day.

Thanksgiving 2009

For the first time in at least 5 years we decided to stay home for Thanksgiving this year. Since the decision to stay home came last minute as sadly plans fell through to go to So. Dakota to visit our friends Mark and Robyn we decided to attempt to cook dinner ourselves and spend a nice quite evening at home with Odin.

That night my mom and I decided to head to the premium outlet mall at Tulaip for their mid-night madness Black Friday sales. We both ended up getting some good deals and doing some of our Christmas shopping but mostly we had fun getting out together to shopping.

Saturday, Ben and Odin decided to head down to the the trainer for some hunting and training and brought home three Pheasant and a Chucker. My sister Tammy thought it would be "fun" to come over and help Ben clean the birds so that night after Thanksgiving dinner with my family they cleaned and prepared all the birds for the freezer.

After a busy few days we spent Sunday decorating the house for Christmas. We got all the lights on the outside of the house put up and most of the inside decorated. Now we just have to get the tree and we'll be all set for Christmas.