The holiday letter I haven't sent yet
Dec. 30th, 2017 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jadeejfI have a holiday letter that I haven't sent yet - it's electronic. I'll see if I can get the images in here.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Read more!.
We had a very full year this year, with lots of family time, fun, and friends. Goodness, it's almost hard to know where to start. Perhaps from the beginning.
We started January strong with new housemates, ski lessons, and protests.
Beth and friends participated in the Women's March, as well as protests after the travel ban went into effect. We walked alongside friends from church, school, work.
We also welcomed a new housemate (and his dog!) in January who moved up here after getting a job on the Eastside.
Oh, and Beth started a Daisy troop!
In February, it snowed twice in Seattle, we wrapped up ski lessons, threw a party, and we babysat a cat.
Every year, we throw a party to mourn/celebrate leaving the Midwest and we continued that tradition with a casserole-heavy celebration.
In addition, we got the chance to babysit our friend's cat, Ella, who is a frequent and much-loved houseguest (though perhaps not quite as loved by the dog of the house).
By the end of the month, both girls were good enough to begin skiing blue runs!
In March, we had a big celebration for Beth's grandmother's 100th birthday with her whole family. It was quite the occasion. We stretched the celebration out for the whole weekend and got to visit a lot of great friends while we were home in Champaign-Urbana as well.
We also helped paint some tiny homes for the homeless in Seattle, and Beth got to see her good friend from elementary school play at the Showbox Theater in downtown Seattle as Psychic Twin.
April had even more adventures, when we took spring break to meet up with Beth's grandma, mom, dad and aunt and uncle for a beach birthday.
We were so blessed to be able to also spend time with Beth's dad's family, who we don't get to see nearly enough. It was such a delight to visit with them again and get to rekindle old relationships. We also snuck in visits to Disney, Universal Studios and the Everglades.
In May, we began work in earnest on having our foundation leveled using a push pier system. It was a very long, rather contentious and painful process eventually involving lawyers, but we don't walk around our house like drunken sailors anymore.
Beyond that project, which ate up much of our summer, we said goodbye to Chris and his dog who moved to a house slightly closer to his work, and Beth and Catelyn celebrated Catelyn's successful year of Girl Scout cookie selling (thanks First Covenant friends and others!).
Visitors to our home this summer will recognize the giant hole in this picture that occured every three feet around our house until July.
June was full of beginnings, endings and mile markers along the way.
Catelyn turned 8 on June 7th.
Beth got together with her music teacher for middle school for a dinner in early June. We celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary with friends, and then celebrated Carl's friend's wedding the same week.
The girls ended first and second grade and went to their first overnight camp together at our local church camp. That was only one of five camping trips taken by the Anderson family in June.
We were also sorry to see the end of the Sunday School and choir years at church!
July was full of trips and visits.
We went back to Cascades for Fourth of July family camp. The girls also got their first weeklong overnight Girl Scout camp experience at Camp St. Albans.
Beth's parents came to visit for two weeks, and we were very thankful to have more time with them.
Ella the cat came back to visit, too!
And Beth somehow found time to fit in sailing lessons with her friend Jess.
August was for adventure!
At the end of the month, we traveled with our good friends, their family, and a friend across the country in pursuit of the Great American Eclipse.
We found it on top of Pilot Peak in Idaho, and went on to camp all the way out to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.
Along the way, we got to see friends in Yakima and Boise and happened to randomly run into a friend from Seattle at a restaurant.
September was necessarily a little slower.
The girls began their second and third grade years. There was a visit to the Evergreen State fair to check out the animals and ride some rides.
Our dear friends Kari and Bryan were married, and we had a beautiful picnic to celebrate the start of a new church year out on Vashon Island.
Beth also helped run a fantastic, if very rainy, multi-troop camping trip with other Girl Scout leaders at the end of the month.
In October, Beth spent a lot of time with friends and ferrying kids to and from soccer games. Beth and the girls particularly enjoyed spending one Saturday making hummus and watching birds with friends.
Carl spent a lot of time with a new contractor, finishing off some of the work left undone by the previous contractor along with building a new shed, adding an interior door, and re-leveling all the things that became unlevel as part of leveling the house.
The girls dressed up as a golden phoenix and Adrienne Attoms, the culinary chemist from the tv show Project Mc2, for Halloween.
In November, we visited Beth's family for Thanksgiving, starting with her aunt and uncle outside of Minneapolis, then driving down to Illinois for the holiday.
Unfortunately, while we were there, Beth's grandma fell again (after breaking a hip in October and undergoing surgery and rehab) while we were at her house on Thanksgiving, and that was pretty difficult for all of us.
Even more difficult was getting the news the morning we flew back to Seattle that Carl's grandmother had passed away unexpectedly.
December isn't quite over yet, but so far, we're doing well.
Beth's parents came to visit in the first half of the month and got to see Julia perform as the lead pepparkakor in our church's annual Julfest celebration. Both girls did a lovely job partcipating in the Santa Lucia procession.
We were able to spend another year caroling with friends and family, as well as watching the Nutcracker for another lovely performance.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Read more!.
We had a very full year this year, with lots of family time, fun, and friends. Goodness, it's almost hard to know where to start. Perhaps from the beginning.
We started January strong with new housemates, ski lessons, and protests.
Beth and friends participated in the Women's March, as well as protests after the travel ban went into effect. We walked alongside friends from church, school, work.
We also welcomed a new housemate (and his dog!) in January who moved up here after getting a job on the Eastside.
Oh, and Beth started a Daisy troop!
In February, it snowed twice in Seattle, we wrapped up ski lessons, threw a party, and we babysat a cat.
Every year, we throw a party to mourn/celebrate leaving the Midwest and we continued that tradition with a casserole-heavy celebration.
In addition, we got the chance to babysit our friend's cat, Ella, who is a frequent and much-loved houseguest (though perhaps not quite as loved by the dog of the house).
By the end of the month, both girls were good enough to begin skiing blue runs!
In March, we had a big celebration for Beth's grandmother's 100th birthday with her whole family. It was quite the occasion. We stretched the celebration out for the whole weekend and got to visit a lot of great friends while we were home in Champaign-Urbana as well.
We also helped paint some tiny homes for the homeless in Seattle, and Beth got to see her good friend from elementary school play at the Showbox Theater in downtown Seattle as Psychic Twin.
April had even more adventures, when we took spring break to meet up with Beth's grandma, mom, dad and aunt and uncle for a beach birthday.
We were so blessed to be able to also spend time with Beth's dad's family, who we don't get to see nearly enough. It was such a delight to visit with them again and get to rekindle old relationships. We also snuck in visits to Disney, Universal Studios and the Everglades.
In May, we began work in earnest on having our foundation leveled using a push pier system. It was a very long, rather contentious and painful process eventually involving lawyers, but we don't walk around our house like drunken sailors anymore.
Beyond that project, which ate up much of our summer, we said goodbye to Chris and his dog who moved to a house slightly closer to his work, and Beth and Catelyn celebrated Catelyn's successful year of Girl Scout cookie selling (thanks First Covenant friends and others!).
Visitors to our home this summer will recognize the giant hole in this picture that occured every three feet around our house until July.
June was full of beginnings, endings and mile markers along the way.
Catelyn turned 8 on June 7th.
Beth got together with her music teacher for middle school for a dinner in early June. We celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary with friends, and then celebrated Carl's friend's wedding the same week.
The girls ended first and second grade and went to their first overnight camp together at our local church camp. That was only one of five camping trips taken by the Anderson family in June.
We were also sorry to see the end of the Sunday School and choir years at church!
July was full of trips and visits.
We went back to Cascades for Fourth of July family camp. The girls also got their first weeklong overnight Girl Scout camp experience at Camp St. Albans.
Beth's parents came to visit for two weeks, and we were very thankful to have more time with them.
Ella the cat came back to visit, too!
And Beth somehow found time to fit in sailing lessons with her friend Jess.
August was for adventure!
At the end of the month, we traveled with our good friends, their family, and a friend across the country in pursuit of the Great American Eclipse.
We found it on top of Pilot Peak in Idaho, and went on to camp all the way out to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.
Along the way, we got to see friends in Yakima and Boise and happened to randomly run into a friend from Seattle at a restaurant.
September was necessarily a little slower.
The girls began their second and third grade years. There was a visit to the Evergreen State fair to check out the animals and ride some rides.
Our dear friends Kari and Bryan were married, and we had a beautiful picnic to celebrate the start of a new church year out on Vashon Island.
Beth also helped run a fantastic, if very rainy, multi-troop camping trip with other Girl Scout leaders at the end of the month.
In October, Beth spent a lot of time with friends and ferrying kids to and from soccer games. Beth and the girls particularly enjoyed spending one Saturday making hummus and watching birds with friends.
Carl spent a lot of time with a new contractor, finishing off some of the work left undone by the previous contractor along with building a new shed, adding an interior door, and re-leveling all the things that became unlevel as part of leveling the house.
The girls dressed up as a golden phoenix and Adrienne Attoms, the culinary chemist from the tv show Project Mc2, for Halloween.
In November, we visited Beth's family for Thanksgiving, starting with her aunt and uncle outside of Minneapolis, then driving down to Illinois for the holiday.
Unfortunately, while we were there, Beth's grandma fell again (after breaking a hip in October and undergoing surgery and rehab) while we were at her house on Thanksgiving, and that was pretty difficult for all of us.
Even more difficult was getting the news the morning we flew back to Seattle that Carl's grandmother had passed away unexpectedly.
December isn't quite over yet, but so far, we're doing well.
Beth's parents came to visit in the first half of the month and got to see Julia perform as the lead pepparkakor in our church's annual Julfest celebration. Both girls did a lovely job partcipating in the Santa Lucia procession.
We were able to spend another year caroling with friends and family, as well as watching the Nutcracker for another lovely performance.
Beyond that, we're planning to close out the year with friends, watching the ball drop in Times Square for East Coast New Year's with the kids, and then onward, to 2018!
no subject
Date: 2017-12-31 05:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-12-31 06:11 am (UTC)I find so much of the time when I write these things up that I'm like "Whoa! I did way more than I think I did." This was a particularly full year, although I think that might be true every year... ;-)