Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Photos

Santa's Elves

I looked out my window on Christmas Eve to behold not Santa, but an even better surprise. In my heart, I believe Santa sent them. Their trucks were red, after all...

This one's for you, Kati...

...when my Mom and Dad were in town this last week Shawn and I met them for dinner at the Catacombs. Every time I go there I think of you, Kati. We got done with our wonderful dinners, then had the traditional s'mores for dessert. For those not familiar, they bring this little fire to your table along with all the fixings and you get to roast your own marshmallows for s'mores. Yum, yum they were good. Kati, we haven't been for a while, but we gotta go the next time you are up. I hear the s'mores there are 0 points. :)

My Hero!

Shawn came over around 2:00 this afternoon to shovel my car out of the snow. He is so good to me, what a hero!

The snow finally quit (for now) and I have to brave the streets and go to work tomorrow. I am super scared, but luckily I carpool with 3 other girls. There is safety in numbers, right?

On another note, only one more week until Christmas! Ho ho ho!

Just call me Marshmallow

Here is a picture of my car I took about 5 minutes ago. (At least I think it's my car.) It was cleared off yesterday at 6pm when I got home from work.

Spokane is like a Ghost Town...

Today is the most snow I have ever seen in all of my 28 years. I can not even describe in words how unreal today is. Yesterday we got quite a bit of snow - below is a photo I took last night around 9 o'clock. I took the photo because I just couldn't believe how much snow there was!

This morning, when I woke up I gasped at how much snow I saw. The photo I took below was at 6 o'clock this morning. The same cars are in the shot, it's weird to see how much more piled up overnight.
So far since yesterday we have gotten 20 inches of snow in the Spokane area. That is a LOT of snow! Everything in Spokane is closed. All schools are cancelled, all bus routes are cancelled, all flights at the airport are cancelled, the hospitals have called and said that all non-emergency surgeries are cancelled, garbage pickup is cancelled, and the police have stated that if you do not have an emergency, you must not leave your house. It's a good thing, because I don't think I could leave if I wanted to! I have watched 3 people try to get their cars out of the parking lot, and all of them have become stuck. On the news they are saying that this is the biggest snowstorm since 1968. Oh, and did I mention that it's still snowing? Yes, it is. Were supposed to get more snow today and then another storm is supposed to hit on Sunday. I'm scared!!

Brrrrr.....

It has been bitterly cold here the last couple of days, but when I turned on the 6:00pm news tonight and saw the future weather forecast I about fainted. I had to snap a picture of what I saw on the screen - words just wouldn't have explained it. Did you gasp as I did when I saw it? Yes, you are seeing that correctly. Saturday's high is 2, and the low is -16 degrees!?!?! I think I'll be staying home that day huddled in a ball with my electric blanket.

The photo above is grainy and hard to make out, (cell phone camera) but I was trying to capture the ice skating rink that is my parking lot. All of that shine is pure ice. And it's been there since Friday. I don't think it's going anywhere soon, so I better get used to skating instead of walking.

Is it July yet??? :)

Carousel Party

Saturday night my work held it's annual Carousel Party at the historic Looff Carousel downtown. This is the first year we decided to attend, and it was actually pretty fun. The credit union rents out the whole place, they bring food and cider in, they give away prizes, and Santa's even there for photos! So you just eat, socialize, and ride the carousel. Here's a photo of my friend Andrea and I hanging out.And here's a photo of Shawn and Ellie in front of the carousel. Ellie wouldn't ride it, but Shawn and I just couldn't get enough!Look! Santa's even riding! Fun was had by all in attendance.

Go Zags!

Shawn's niece, Sam, was performing with her high school dance team at half time for the Gonzaga women's basketball game on Friday night. Shawn, Ellie, and I went to the game to catch her performance. She did a great job! Man, the men's Zag games are literally impossible to get tickets to, but the women's game that we attended was general admission! It was pretty sad how empty the athletic center was.

Department Christmas Party

Thursday night was my work's department Christmas party. We all went for dinner out and did a gift exchange. It was a fun time, the food was fabulous, and I ended up with an iTunes gift card from the gift exchange. Could it be anymore perfect?

Christmas Tree Elegance

Shawn and I went on a date to see the Christmas Tree Elegance display downtown on Tuesday night. The display is a bunch of super beautiful Christmas trees all decorated up and then you can enter raffles to win the trees. The kicker is that when you win the trees, you win everything that goes along with the tree. The display, the ornaments, every possible accessory! Some trees came with a laptop, one came with a trip to New York, one with a gas fireplace, it's out of control. Shawn and I bought 5 raffle tickets for a buck each. It was really fun and a great way to get into the spirit of the season.

Seriously! Look at all of that stuff that comes with the tree! You win it alllllllll!

Happy Birthday Hayden

Today was Hayden's 6th birthday, so Shawn and I went over to his house to help him celebrate. We visited with everyone and ate cake. What fun! I'm so happy this little guy is in my family, he brings me a lot of joy!

Teddy Bear Toss Night

Saturday night was "Teddy Bear Toss Night" at the Chiefs game. It's an annual tradition where you bring a teddy bear to throw on the ice when the Chiefs score their first goal. The bears are collected and donated to children who need them. Here's a picture of me and the bear we brought. I quickly named our bear Charlie (he seemed like a Charlie to me). Here's a crazy video I shot of everyone throwing bears. It was crazy, and we were right behind a net so we were getting pelted with bears left and right!

All the bears were gathered off the ice and loaded into three pickup trucks. They announced that they gathered a new record - over 4000 bears! I hope Charlie will be loved for a long time.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Today I spent the day decorating my apartment for Christmas. I just love all of the decorating that comes with the holidays, and was finally to get it done today on a day off from work. I turned on some Christmas music, and set up the tree. I love to collect Christmas tree ornaments. Each time I go on a trip somewhere new I buy an ornament from that destination. My tree has become quite a little story teller, and I just love it. My favorite new ornament this year is my one from Hawaii. I just think it's so beautiful! My tree is small, but it works perfect for my tiny little apartment. Merry Christmas season to everyone!

Black Friday

I spent Black Friday with Shawn and my parents in the greater Seattle area. It was a pretty busy day. We started it off at Waxen Art; a do-it-yourself candle place in Kent. First you start off choosing what shape and what smell you want your candle as Shawn is modeling in the photo below. I chose to make a star, Shawn and my Dad made circle pillars, and my Mom chose to make a 3 wick brick. Next, we all chose some colors from all of the bins of wax pieces.

Here's Mom and Dad scoping out the situation and trying to figure out exactly how to do this...Shawn models how to chop up the wax pieces to make a beautiful mosaic of purples. He was making a lilac candle for his Mom for Christmas.

And here I am gracefully modeling my star mold and wax pieces.

And the finished products! Aren't they just beautiful???? We were all so proud. Mom's is definitely my favorite. Totally a blast to do, I would highly recommend it.

After the candle making, we went and saw the movie "Four Christmases" and then enjoyed lunch at Chipotle. We walked around the mall for a bit and then went to Fry's (neither Shawn or I had ever been) where we spent a long time wandering around wanting everything in sight. It was a fun day, and cool to spend time with my Mom and Dad.

Thanksgiving Day

Shawn and I went to my Mom and Dad's for Thanksgiving again this year. We started off the day with coloring and making our Thanksgiving place cards for the dinner table. Here is Reyan making some.
And the finished product! They turned out super cute.
Here's a cute shot of Julie and her new little baby, Kai. He is just so cute, and was definitely the center of attention on Turkey Day. Everyone was taking turns holding him!
Then we all ate dinner. Hayden was saying all day that he just wanted a turkey leg for dinner, so we decided to plant one on his plate as a surprise. Check out his face when he saw the huge thing on his plate. He was so funny about it - he didn't even want to touch it! It was pretty cute. The dinner was SO good, thanks Mom for making it for us. After dinner the boys did a great job of cleaning up and doing all of the dishes! One of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions is playing a round of boys vs. girls Pictionary. After a couple of rough years for the girls, we came out with a sweet victory this year! I wish you all could have seen my victory dance, it was dang hilarious. Here's a photo of the boys trying to guess a word. My guess is that they didn't get it. :)

High School Musical on Ice

Ellie's mom bought tickets to see High School Musical, The Ice Tour about a month ago, and then she ended up having a conflict so she couldn't go. She asked me to take Ellie and her sister to the show, and we went last night. I don't know anything about HSM; I've never seen any of the movies or anything, but it was a pretty good show. It was fun to see the people skate and stuff. Ellie and Gabbie both said that they loved it, so that's good. I snapped a photo of Ellie as she was intensely watching the show.

Dislocated What???

Last Thursday I went to the dentist for a routine filling. Ever since then, my jaw had been really hurting! I thought it was just fatigue from having my mouth open for a while for the filling, and I just kept waiting for the pain to go away. The pain never went away, and it even kept getting worse! Finally yesterday morning, the pain in my jaw was so bad that I couldn't chew on anything, nor could I open or close my mouth very far. I called my dentist office and asked them what I should do about the pain, and they recommended I come in so my dentist could look at it.

When I got there, my dentist looked at it, listened to my complaints and gave me a diagnosis. My jaw was dislocated!!! Are you kidding me? I had been walking around with a dislocated jaw for a week?!?! He said that sometimes when you're sitting in a dental chair for a while with your mouth open, your jaw just kind of slips out of place! He grabbed it, popped it back in, and I was out of there in no time.

I feel great today! I guess that must have done the trick because I feel like a new woman. I've been eating everything in sight just because I can!

Light Reading, Anyone?

I'm generally known for getting a ton of magazines and catalogs in the mail, but today had to be a record. I opened my mailbox today to find 9 magazines and catalogs in there! Some of it may be attributed to the upcoming holiday season, but dude that's a ton in one day! What's really sad about it is that I probably got like 9 more different ones over the course of last week. I'm definitely going to be reading the mail tonight for a couple of hours...

Holy Gas, Batman!

Man, I got gas today for $1.89! I was so excited that I had to snap a photo. Can you believe it? I filled up my tank for just under $25! Just a month or so ago I was filling up for about $60! This is great!!!