NYE w/ Friends

We really didn't have any plans for New Years Eve.  I know someday I would like to celebrate it in Seattle near the Space Needle to watch the fireworks.  I am a sucker for fireworks.  A few weeks ago we all decided to have a NYE party at Lindsay and Justin's house.  We all talked about the time, the food and the games.  I brought garlic bread, a pie Erika bought and left in our freezer during Christmas, a large bottle of champagne and a few bottles of sparkling cider.

Lindsay made some lasagna because I thought we needed something more substantial for dinner than finger foods, chips and dips.  She actually agreed but we had no idea how many people were going to come to the party.  I told her I would bring garlic bread and she said maybe two pans of lasagna.  I'm pretty sure that would work with all the desserts and finger foods people would be bringing. 

I  had to stop at mom and dad's house for a quick second before we went to Lindsay's. We all arrived at her place around 7ish.  There were a lot of cars in the driveway.   Who all came?  The usual people were there, Issac wasn't there and Lance brought one of his friends, Becca and I brought Suzanne because I didn't want her to hang out at home by herself.  When we got there I had forgotten Lindsay's two nieces were also going to be there.  She also invited April, someone I haven't seen in years.  She went to high school with us and she also went to WSU.  Megan and Matt brought their two kids as well.  There were tons of people there.

We spent at least an hour or eating and visiting.  Then we played some games.  The first one we played was Red Flags.  You basically are making a date for the player whos turn it is.  You are trying to get them to pick your cards because you get points.  Those cards are positive like, your date loves to cuddle and owns tickets to your favorite team.  Then the person to your left adds the but card.  So your date loves to cuddle and owns tickets to your favorite team but they never shower.  That person has to choose one set that isn't that bad.  We went around the table twice.

The last game we played was Werewolves and Villagers which is similar to a game we played in high school called Mafia.  Each player got a card and basically if you weren't a werewolf you were trying to kill the werewolves.  If you didn't you lost and the werewolves win.  It was a simple game so we played many rounds of it.  I was a werewolf every single round and I never lost.

It was getting close to midnight and we all had to prepare our wishes, our marzipan pigs, our champagne, the lentils, the beans, the grapes and had perfected our routine.  We had less than 15 minutes.  I wrote down my wish on the tiniest piece of paper I could write on because we had to light it on fire, throw it in our champagne and drink it.  Then precede with the rest of the routine.  Of course I had to slip a smooch in there with Ben before the midnight minute was over.

Megan and Matt brought sparklers.  I was stoked!  We handed them out and lit them making sure Mason and the two girls were holding them safely.  Ben and I did dances with them.  I need to remember to buy some extra fireworks next July and keep them for NYE. 

Shortly after playing with sparklers we decided to gather our stuff, thank Lindsay and Justin for hosting and head on out.  I heard it was going to snow later that night.  We got our stuff in Ben's car and headed back home.  It snowed the entire way back.  When it's snowing at night it totally looks like Star Wars in hyper drive.  It's awesome and hypnotic at the same time.

We got home and we ended up passing out around 3 a.m.  Happy New Year everyone!

Next Adventure:  Weekend in Bonney Lake

Back Home for the Holidays

I woke up around 9 to the sound of Doug talking to Jen on the phone.  He sounded like a broken record.  He kept telling her the same answer over and over again and she kept calling him every 5 minutes after he told her he would talk to her when he got back to mom and dad's house later.  I was actually getting a little bit annoyed. 

I went downstairs to find out mom and dad went out for a walk near the marina.  I called to see where they were and asked me if I could start making breakfast.  I was kind of upset because I knew no one was going to help me make it and we had to be out of the place by 11.  I started with the sausage and got the hash browns going.  I asked Erika if she could help and she said no.  Grandma ended up helping me.  About twenty minutes later mom and dad got back from their walk.  I got mom to make the scrambled eggs because she makes the best ones.

We all sat down at the table and ate our breakfast together.  Immediately after we started cleaning and packing up our stuff.  I wrote our experience down in their guest book.  We washed all the dishes we used, put all the towels in the bathtubs, took the garbage out, boxed and bagged up our groceries we brought with us and finally made sure we had all of our clothes, computers, phone chargers, bags and keys.  I spent some time taking pictures of inside the house...because people were going to ask us.

We piled most of the stuff into the Escape and a few bags into dad's car.  He told us to meet him at BiMart in Hoquiam.  Basically the only time we go to BiMart is when we are in Grays Harbor county.  The last time we were here was back in March when we took a day trip to Westport.  Dad ended up getting more ammo because it's a great deal here.  We wandered around the store for a while.  I came up with some good next years Christmas presents.

We parted ways.  Dad, Doug and Erika went to Dave's Harbor guns on the way to Westport and mom, grandma and I went into Aberdeen in search of some food.  I really didn't want to spend a lot of money mostly because December was pretty bad to us financial wise.  We hosted Christmas, probably went through more water and power than we usually do.  I really wasn't looking forward to the bills.  For some reason McDonald's sounded good.  I know it's not very good for you but it's been a while since I've had it.  After lunch I wanted to go to the Goodwill across the parking lot to see what kind of stuff Grays Harbor has to offer.  I really didn't see anything that great but it was nice to look.

We got to Lacey and I dropped grandma off at her van and put my stuff in the house.  We told her we would meet her at our house so she could get her stuff.  On the way to the house we stopped by Grammie's house to drop off the cookie pillow.  We stayed a little too long because grandma was patiently waiting in the driveway so she could get her stuff and leave.  I helped grandma put her stuff in the van and then helped mom put her stuff in the house.  I told her I couldn't stay very long because I have dinner plans with Amber while she was home for the holidays.

I got home and motivated Ben to get ready to go.  We were going to meet up around 7 at Hopjack's.  I guess Lindsay and Justin were going to join us.  The Holiday Bowl was also going on around the time we got home.  The past two games the Cougars just played awful.  I had hoped they got the bad games out of their system but we ran out of time with Minnesota and lost the bowl game 17-12.  It was really hard to watch.

It was fun catching up with Amber again.  The last time I saw her we met her boyfriend Josh at Brandon and Victoria's wedding back in October.  I had no idea they were going to come.  I was so surprised when I saw them walk through the door.  Ben finally got to meet another one of my childhood friends.  We talked about our jobs, moving into our house and other random things that came up while we talked and ate.  We stayed for an hour and a half.  I had to get home, get cleaned up and head to bed.  I knew the next day would be pretty brutal at work plus I hated getting up at 5 a.m.  I told her it was great to see her again and that we would have to save up some money so we could come visit her in Colorado some day.

Next Adventure:  NYE w/ Friends

Ruby Beach II

Ever since mom, grandma and I went to Ruby beach a few years ago mom has wanted to go back as a family.  Every time Erika comes to visit it's usually winter time and there is really not a lot to do in the wintertime as far as outdoor adventures.  We don't know what the weather will be like or we never know who has what days off from work.  Honestly, it was really hard to plan stuff.  This is why mom just took the initiative and rented a beach house...mostly for something different than we always do during the holidays.

She found a place that sleeps 7-9 people and just hoped for the best.  I told her I would pay her $100 just to help out with the cost.  Originally, about 9 of us were suppose to go but Ben couldn't, Jen couldn't and her sister didn't end up coming up from Mississippi like she was going to.  That left just the five of us and grandma.

I got up the next morning around 9:30 and came downstairs.  I really wasn't sure what was happening or what we were going to do.  I knew mom wanted to go to Ruby Beach but that was almost 100 miles from where we were staying but she didn't care...she wanted to go.  Everyone got up and mom made breakfast.  We had scrambled eggs, toast, sausage and bananas with coffee and orange juice if you wanted any.

The cookie pillow is in the picture because it was left at my house the night before by Grammie and Tracy.  I didn't get the message in time that they wanted it back before Tracy left to go home so it came with us to the beach.  I thought it would be funny to photograph it on our adventures at the beach.

Shortly after we all got ready to head out.  Mom didn't want to take two cars so we all piled into my Escape.  Mom sat in the back.  I knew the weather was going to suck but I didn't know it was going to suck that bad.  I have never driven to the Olympic Peninsula from Ocean Shores so I was about to embark on some new roads.  It would be pretty hard to get lost so I just followed the signs because I didn't get the GPS ready that fast.

The road we took brought us to the small town of Humptulips.  Yes, every time I come through here I giggle.  You just can't help it.  Erika was complaining about having to use the bathroom and everyone wanted coffee.  Dad had mentioned that he used to work with a lady that lived here and she traveled all the way to Olympia for work.  That is at least an two hour plus long commute back and forth.  Ugh, that would kill me.  I found a place to pull over and everyone but me, grandma and mom got out.  Meanwhile, I plugged in the GPS just to see how far we had to go and I wanted to stop at Amanda Park for a cache.  I needed to get to 10,800 before the end of the year.  I figured since I was the driver I was going to stop and they had to deal with it.

When we did get to Amanda Park it was still dry.  We did pass several places with snow on the side of the road but not enough to cause an issue.  I parked and only mom and I got out.  She wanted to take pictures and I came for the cache.   I walked up to the stump overlooking the river and Quinault River - Rockin;' in Quinault [OPG] (GC6T2K7) was really easy to spot.  I signed the book, took a picture of the code word and got a picture of me, the cache and the river before putting it back for the next set of cachers.  I went back to the Escape and headed the rest of the way to Ruby Beach.

Halfway between Amanda Park and Ruby Beach it started raining.  I was really hoping it would hold up until we were done.  It didn't because the rain hates us.  Ugh, we were going to be soaked! 

We finally got to Ruby Beach and I saw the giant mud puddle but didn't realize it was that deep.  The Escape bottomed out hard.  I sure hope I didn't ruin the back end of it.  I was surprised to see that many people in the parking lot.  Rain or shine people travel about.  Some of us used the restroom before we headed down and.  We made sure we brought our stuff with us.  I wore my rain jacket, made sure to bring gloves and a hat.  I charged my selfie stick so I could get everyone in the pictures we took.  Mom had her camera and everyone else just made sure to dress warm. 

We wandered the beach for at least an hour or so.  This time there were a lot more logs on the shore than when we were here over a year ago.  It's amazing how much the beach changes from day to day with all of the erosion and weathering that goes on.  We enjoyed the sea stacks, the rocks and the logs.  Dad and Doug walked south a ways while mom, Erika, grandma and I just meandered around taking pictures and enjoying the very rainy and windy view. 

Once everyone got cold and wet we headed back up the hill to the Escape.  Along the way I decided to walk along the logs and I actually found a commercial fishing lure!  It was pretty rad!  I'm going to try and use it for something.  Everyone used the restroom again, took off our wet coats and piled in.  Mom also insisted that we stop at Kalaloch so we could see the tree.  I've been there so many times I was not excited to go back into the yucky rain but we had to, to make mom happy.

When we got there we were the only ones there...not surprising.  I wanted a snack and I was really happy I kept that Snickers bar in the console.  I ate that and then joined them on the beach with my soaking wet jacket.  We spent a good half our or so there and mom got her picture of us with the tree.

I am really glad I brought the selfie stick or we all wouldn't have been able to get in the pictures together.  Everyone started getting cold again and was pretty much done so we convinced mom to head back to the Escape.  We got in and followed Hwy 101 south back towards Humptulips.  Of course we stopped again to use the restroom.  We took the same roads back and along the way we all decided we needed to stop at the only grocery store in town before going back to the beach house.

When we got there we all spread out wandering around trying to figure out what we wanted for dinner.  The consensus was fajitas and tacos mostly because they were easy to make.  I wanted some chips and salsa and grabbed a few drinks to tie me over until I got home the next day.  I also bought a Seahawks pint glass because it was cool and it was only $4.50!  Most pint glasses were over $7 or $8!  It was very interesting loading the Escape.  Basically mom got in the back and we filled the voids with grocery bags.  Haha!

We got back to the beach house and I got cleaned up ASAP.  I was cold and wet and wanted to be clean and warm.  I put on some fresh clothes and helped mom make dinner for everyone.  I grabbed the laptop, ate some chips and salsa and enjoyed my tacos.  They continued to make some balloon animals and then dad got the Yahtzee and we played a few rounds of Yahtzee.  We got the TV to finally play a movie and dad was happy.  We ended up watching Young Frankenstein.  Then the wind and rain got worse.  I really thought that the power would go out but it didn't.  It was considered gale force winds out there which is 39-54 mph of sustaining winds.  It was loud the whole night and I went to bed around midnight-ish.  Overall the day was fun spending time with the family we don't get to see very often.  Hopefully next year it will be more organized and the weather will be much better.  Maybe we will got to Mount Rainier for some snow adventures?

Next Adventure:  Back Home for the Holidays

Hosting Christmas for the First Time and Ocean Shores

Our alarm went off around 8.  We had less than an hour until everyone arrived.  I don't think I got out of bed until 8:15.  I made Ben get up too.  He actually put clothes on and I just wore sweatpants.  He grew up wearing nice clothes while me and my family wore pajamas or something casual like jeans and a sweatshirt.  It was mostly because we weren't going anywhere and most of the time we hosted Christmas.   It was a good thing mom had the breakfast casseroles ready the night before and we were able to take it home and pop it into the oven the next morning.  It would take roughly a half hour to cook.  I threw them both in the oven around 8:30.

In the meantime we did last minute things before the first person came through the door.  That first person was grandma.  She said she would have been here earlier but they had the road closed due to an accident by the train station and they were detouring everyone around it. I called mom and dad and told them about it and tried getting a hold of Grammie and grandpa before they left.  By the time they all got here the road wasn't closed anymore.  I had Ben go get Erika from her hotel.

The casserole was almost done and everyone was arriving close to 9.  Grammie brought oranges and bananas and Roscoe.  I cut the bananas in half and put them on one of my decorative Christmas plates.  Everyone settled in and we chowed down.  Kevin and Karla brought their own food, we had orange juice, chocolate milk, hot chocolate and coffee.  For food, it was mom's breakfast casserole, Trish made cinnamon rolls and we had fruit.  I wanted to make it as simple as I could.  We ate, talked about weird stuff and laughed.  I believe everyone was having a good time.  The tables were packed on both sides.  I think we had 16 people for breakfast.

We finished breakfast and I went in the kitchen and started washing the pans we used and all the plates, silverware and cups were put in the washer because dinner wasn't too far away at this point. I spent a few minutes cleaning. Everyone gathered into the living room and arranged themselves into a circle.  Ben decided to be Santa and handed out presents to everyone.  A few years ago we decided to pick and name and buy a gift(s) for that said person because of money, lack of time and just not knowing what to get anyone. 

We all ripped into our presents and a huge pile of paper built up in the middle and of course the balled up paper bombs started being thrown around.  Mom took pictures and Kevin and Karla video taped some of it.  We all had fun.  After we all destroyed the wrapping paper and picked up some of it before we took a family picture with the GoPro.  I wanted to get everyone together because everyone wouldn't be here for dinner.  A lot of people gave me compliments on how nice of a time they had and how hard Ben and I worked to make sure everyone had a great time.  Everyone gathered their stuff and headed home for a few hours.  Trish and Amy would be joining the in-laws for dinner in Puyallup.  Kevin and Karla wasn't going to come back for dinner but they decided that they would to play games and such.  They weren't going to eat dinner. 

I washed dishes, started the dishwasher, started the food that would take awhile to cook and sat and relaxed for a bit.  The few hours went by really fast.  Erika borrowed grandma's van to stop by the hotel to pack for the beach and ended up bringing home a bunch more food we really didn't need but she wanted to contribute I guess.  Mom, dad, Doug and Jen headed back to the house.  Sadly Ben couldn't come with us because his station did not give him Monday off from work. 

The day was going by really fast.  Luckily I took Tuesday off from work to recover from Sunday and Monday.  I was going to need it. 

Everyone came back around 2ish but the food wasn't done yet so everyone sat on the couch and watched whatever Erika put on the TV.  I was exhausted and hot.  Cooking food for people was a lot of work.  The turkey and ham were done, the mashed potatoes were finally done, Ben carved up the bird and the pig, grandma was making the gravy and mom was putting food on platters and bowls.  We had just the right amount of bowls and plates for everything. 

Everyone sat down with their piles of food, ate and visited.  Kevin and Karla showed up around 3 but we didn't really start eating until about 2:30.  About an hour of eating and visiting, we cleaned up the table and decided whether or not to play a game.  Everyone knew about us going to the ocean so everyone was kinda weird deciding to stay or to go.  Dad got a little weird and wanted to be at the ocean house right away so he, Erika and Doug left as soon as we were done with dinner.  They all piled into his car and headed out.  Mom, grandma and I stayed behind cleaning up after dinner.  I packed my stuff as quick as I could making sure I had enough warm clothes because the weather would be subpar while we were there.

We got everything cleaned up and put away.  I got my stuff packed up into the Escape and grandma put her stuff in there as well.  We took some of the food with us and headed out to Rainier to pick up mom's stuff and to put the chickens and ducks away for the night.  Megan was going to take care of them the next two days.  Mom threw some stuff into a bag and we put some more food into bags to take with us.  Mostly for breakfast the next morning and some snacks to nibble on.

We packed up everything into the Escape and left around 6ish.  Traffic wasn't bad and neither was the weather.  Since it was Christmas nothing was open to stop and grab a couple drinks.  The convenience stores were the only place that was open.  We stopped really quick and I got out and bough a few drinks to have with us at the beach house.  I haven't driven to Ocean Shores in years.  I think the last time I was here was probably in 2013.

We got there just before 8.  The place was clear down the peninsula by the marina.  We rolled in and the place looked small on the outside but when we walked in it was pretty spacious for the amount of people that were able to stay in there.  When we walked in there were animal balloons on the ceiling.  This summer dad bought a package of how to make balloon animals with the balloons and I told him to wait until Christmas when everyone was here to enjoy them.  He remembered to pack them.  That and a really old box of Yahtzee.

Mom, grandma and I unpacked the Escape and I brought my stuff upstairs and claimed a bed.  They continued to make more animals and they ended up on the ceiling.  I did some stuff on my computer, ate some snacks and dad put on a movie.  I was tired.  I got a shower and went to bed around midnight.

Next Adventure:  Ruby Beach II

Christmas Eve

We got up knowing we had a lot to do today.  I basically had to finish getting the house ready because that afternoon the Seahawks were playing the Cardinals and mom wanted us to come over to watch it.  I asked if she could come to our house to watch it so we could work on the house as we watched it.  She didn't want to do that.  Lame.

We gathered up our nacho making stuff and headed over to the house.  I don't ever remember the Seahawks ever playing on Christmas eve...at least as far as I could remember.  We got there just as the game started because we had to pick Erika up at her hotel on Martin Way.  We watched the game and about halfway through Erika and dad headed to Grammie and Grandpa's house to go visit because they are really not into football. 

The Seahawks played the game more like not to lose than playing to win the game.  The Cardinals had already played themselves out of playoffs so they really had nothing holding them back except winning their last two games to make it look good.  Our offense struggled...again, the defense was softer than I really wanted it to be and to make matters worse if we lost this game we could kiss the #2 seed goodbye.  That meant we would lose a first round bye and home field advantage.

We had a lot of key players with injuries and it showed.  We gave up some pretty big plays and allowed the Cardinals to do whatever they wanted on offense.  It wasn't until the second half we found some light and started chipping away at their lead.  Unfortunately like most of those games, we weren't able to take the lead away, we did erase a 13 point lead to tie it up with end of the game desperation plays.  I really didn't want to tie with them again.  They ended up marching down the field with seconds to spare destroying us with a game winning field goal.  Ugh!  We lost 34-31.  We had so much on the line and I knew that tie from November was going to hurt our post season alignment.  I was mad.  I knew we were better than this!

I ended up making the nachos during the 3rd quarter because I didn't know if dad and Erika would be back to share them with us.  I didn't hear when they would be home exactly so I just went ahead and made them anyway.  After the game, we gathered our things and told mom we had some more cleaning and arranging to do at home and that we would be back around 8...when Doug and Jen were supposedly suppose to be here.  We always have Christmas Eve so late. 

Ben and I got home and started arranging, cleaning and putting stuff where we thought it would make sense with how many people were coming tomorrow.  We moved the couch, borrowed tables, set up the chairs, moved our tables into the kitchen to hold the food, washed plates, silverware, swept, mopped, moved stuff into the "computer" room.  We were busy the entire time.  I told Ben it was almost time to go back over there for our gift exchange.

We headed back over and again, waited for Doug and Jen to arrive.  When they did, they brought all their stuff in and we settled into the Christmas room. 

We handed out gifts and watched people open theirs.  I got a few cool things.  We took some group pictures and hung out for a while before it was time to take Erika back to the hotel and for Ben and I to finish everything so we could get showers and go to bed.  I was kinda dreading the next day just because I know it was going to be stressful. 

Merry Christmas Eve!

Next Adventure:  Hosting Christmas for the First Time and Ocean Shores

Ho Ho Homicide

We loved our murder mystery dinner so much last spring we decided to do it again.  Nicole was going to host our Christmas holiday party.  A month or two before she asked us to let her know if we wanted to be a specific character or if we wanted to die or be the killer.  I got to her and asked if I could be murdered but I didn't care what character she assigned to me.  She thanked me for getting back to her quickly.  We also usually did a white elephant gift exchange and had some yummy food.

I thought about what I wanted to bring for my white elephant gift.  I always liked bringing unique gifts.  I remember bringing a cat statue one year and that was a big hit and a few years ago I bought the 50 Shades of Gray trilogy and that was also a contender for the coolest gift.  I was shocked that those gifts received that much attention.  Haha.  This year I saw a hot dog pillow and thought it was funny.  The person who chose it didn't think it was that funny.  I ended up going back home with it.

We all got there around 5 because we knew we had a lot to get through tonight.  We brought lemonade pies...this was the first time I had made these, one gluten free and one not.  I wasn't sure how they would taste but I hoped they tasted as good as when Bev made them.  Nicole provided the ham and the scalloped potatoes, Megan and Matt brought sweet potatoes and a cranberry bliss bars, Celeste brought a dill pickle dip, Lance brought deviled eggs, Lindsay and Justin brought something with mozzarella and tomatoes and Lacey brought another side kept warm in a crockpot.  We all brought our own drinks.  The food was pretty good but we always make good food.

While we waited for the ham to finish Nicole had us play some of the minute to win it games.  They were all catered to a Christmas theme.  Our first one was we had to put candy canes in our mouth hook side down and hook as many candy canes as we could.  The second game was sucking mini marshmallows with a straw and gathering as many as we could. 

The third game was without using our hands, in groups of four, try and unravel a streamer roll before everyone else or until a minute is up.  The final game was to try and make the best "antlers".  In groups of two we blew up balloons and put them in panty hose.  There was lots of laughing.

We ate food and right after we got into character and started our murder mystery, Ho Ho Homicide.  This year I was Santa.  Nicole was pretty creative with this script.  All of the people who worked with Santa was pretty salty about the direction that Santa was taking the workshop thus making everyone a suspect.  A sly businessman was trying to convince Santa into boosting production by selling it to his company so they could increase toy production.  There would be no elf slave labor and it would put a lot of Santa's staff out of work.  The plot thickened.

Santa was found dead with some pretty revealing clues that were left behind.  I became the detective and everyone started pointing fingers at everyone.  It turns out Lacey who played the sugar plum fairy was the murderer.  She got off scot free.  We cleaned up the table and got ready to play Christmas Jeopardy.  The questions are different every year and my team ended up winning.  Both teams got the final jeopardy question wrong but we had fun anyway.

Next, we all went into the living room to do the white elephant gift exchange.  It was getting late and I knew Lacey had to go home and Megan and Matt had to go home to their kids soon.  Some of the gifts this year were hilarious...from unicorn farts to old Aladdin McDonald's toys to a banana holder to alcoholic shoots and ladders set.  There was some giggling.  We took some pictures with the selfie back drop Nicole put up and a group photo before everyone had to leave.

The people that stayed for a little while longer ended up playing Christmas Cards Against Humanity until about midnight.  We gathered all of our stuff and headed home.  It was a pretty epic Christmas party this year,  I think this was the most people we had show up at a game night ever.  We had 15 people.  Usually we have anywhere between 5-10 show up during the rest of the year.

Happy Holidays To All!!

Next Adventure:  Christmas Eve

Getting our Christmas Tree!

In the four holiday seasons that I have been dating Ben we have not been able to go together to pick out a Christmas tree.  This year was that year.

My family and I have been going to Gerrits Greens for as long as I could remember.  We grew up with their kids.  We got up, ate some breakfast, put some warm clothes on and headed to my mom and dad's house to get mom motivated to go get one.  Every year my Christmas present to grandma is her tree.  Sadly, it decided to rain and I hate picking out a tree in the rain.

We got everyone into the Escape and headed to grandma's to get her.  Gerrits Greens isn't that far from grandmas house or our rental.  In fact it's less than a mile.  We found a parking spot and got out.  Lynn was the first one to greet us. 

I introduced Ben, we chatted for a while and grabbed our saw and started walking to the trees to pick out a good one.  Last year we had a hard time finding Douglas Firs.  Greg told us there really wasn't a whole lot of them to pick from because they were pretty popular over the past few seasons and he had just planted new ones which will take a few years to mature.  We collectively decided to pick a new type of tree this time.  The range for their trees were $18-$32 which is pretty good compared to some of the other tree farms in the area.  I heard that Hunter's Farm off of Yelm Highway charges $10 a foot for their trees.  If you got a 7 foot tree, which is pretty typical, it would cost you $70!!!  We could get a tree of the same size at Gerrits Greens for less than $45, depending on which one you chose of course. 

$70 for a Christmas tree is outrageous!!  I have never paid more than $25 for a tree ever.  The most expensive tree I've purchased was in Pullman with Fitzy while we were in college was $25 because they didn't have trees or Christmas tree farms and they had to be shipped in.  We bought ours from the Dissmore's parking lot from some of the high school kids who were raising money for their team.

We walked around looking at all the trees and trying to figure out our preference of tree.  Did we want one with a nice top?  Or one that wasn't that bushy?  Or had more of a trunk to it so we didn't have to saw off a bunch of the limbs?  We critiqued most of the trees we thought would fit in the spot we chose at home.  I had Ben pick out the tree since he hasn't gotten to the last few years.  Grandma found one she liked so we helped her cut hers down  Then Ben found one he liked and he cut it down while I helped hold the branches out of his face.  We helped mom find a tree and I had to cut it down for her.

We carried them back to the Escape and then chatted with Lynn and Greg for a while in front of the small bon fire they had going.  We ate small candy canes and drank some hot chocolate.  I asked Lynn how much we owed her and she just said $18 for each of them.  I know we all didn't get Doug Firs so all of us just gave her an even $20, and I spent $40 getting grandmas tree as well. Ben and Greg went over to the Escape and we tied grandma and mom's trees to the top.  We told them we would be back for ours once we dropped theirs off.  Lynn and Greg said that was okay.  We dropped grandma's tree off first.  I helped her bring it into to her house.  She said she would do the rest tomorrow.  Then we dropped mom off with her tree.  Later I found out they didn't put the tree up until a week after we got it.  It looked pretty sad since it sat out of water for too long when they actually put it up.

We drove back over there and loaded up our tree.  From there we drove back out to Lacey towards home.  We really didn't feel like doing anything with it so we took it out to the shed to dry off.  It was pretty wet from the rain.  Over the next few days I took it out of the shed, got the decorations out, the tree stand and even got it in the tree stand by myself.  Granted it took two turns but I got it in straight and it didn't lean!  Now is the biggest challenge...keeping my cat from eating the tree and barfing.  He has been the only cat we've ever had that eats the tree and then barfs somewhere in the house.  I kept a sheet in front of it with chairs and boxes to keep him from doing it.  He won at least 5 times that I know of.

A lot of the stuff we had to buy.  The lights (both the tree and the house), some of the garland and the rest was little decorations I got from the dollar store and the Goodwill.  I found out last month that Ben and I were hosting Christmas this year.  Mostly because mom and dad's house wasn't going to be ready to host everyone plus they really weren't going to attempt to try.  I shrugged my shoulders and said okay because there really wasn't an alternative since Ben and I have our own place now.  We were kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place.  Plus, working full time now was really going to help us financially with this extra expense.

I got the tree topper, the lights and the garland on the tree.  I even started putting the ornaments on. Ben got a box of Christmas stuff from his mom and I had him add those to the tree.  I had the tree decorated in three days.  It made the house look pretty cool with all the decorations and the tree in the corner of the room we never use.

Until the next time!

Next Adventure:  Ho Ho Homicide

SNOW

We rarely get snow in Western Washington but when we do all hell breaks loose.  We don't even have to get hardly any and schools are either on a late start or closed all together.  We were estimated to get somewhere between 2 and 5 inches depending on where you lived.  They warned us all week that it would start on Thursday between 2 and 5 p.m.  It was about when I got off work.  I wasn't worried but everyone else seemed to be.

I got off of work at 2:30 and walked out to the Escape.  No snow.  Not even any falling yet.  I was disappointed.  I continued on my drive and just before Yelm Highway meets Boulevard it started heavy snowing.  You could actually see the line where the snow began.  It was weird driving through it.  It started accumulating fast.  I got home and took a picture before I took a nap and after I took a nap.  It was a long day and I needed at least an hour to make it through the evening.

I had a little bit of time since Ben worked until about 6 and Suzanne, a co-worker who was staying with us for a week, who got off at 4.  Plenty of time for a nap.

When I got up there was a bunch of snow!  Holy cow!  To be nice, I told Suzanne I would take her out for her birthday.  She wanted to go to Mexican so we looked up the closest Mexican restaurant and called to ask if they were going to be open with all the snow coming down because you just never know.  They told us they were going to be open until closing time.  I thanked them and then we called Ben and told him to meet us at the restaurant.  The snow at this point was at least 3 inches.  I love my 4-wheel drive Escape because it drives so nice in the snow. 

We pulled in as he was parking.  Perfect timing. Don Garcia's was tucked away in the corner of the mini mall off of Yelm Highway and Ruddell Road.  The only reason why we even knew of this place was because of Ben's co-workers who lives nearby.  We threw snowballs at each other as we were walking towards the door.  Suzanne got hit in the butt and I had some thrown at my back.

We sat down and ordered some drinks and at chips and salsa.  We nibbled on that until it was time to order our food.  It was actually pretty good.  My enchiladas were delicious.  We hung out for at least an hour and it was time to head back home and I wanted to make a snowman.

On the way back Ben slid around the corner and his tire hit the curb hard making his car drive funny.  Upon further inspection it turns out he broke the control arm and had to have it replaced.  We brought it in and it took almost a week to fix it.  I also had to get up at 4 a.m. to take him to work on Monday and then I had to pick him up.  I was so over that I borrowed the car from my grandparents and he drove the Escape.

Ben and I went outside for about a half hour and made a tiny snowman.  It was hard to ball the snow together because it was so dry.  We ended up making mounds and shaping them into spheres.

We went inside and started getting ready for bed.  Ben and I had to get up early for one more day of work this week.  Suzanne had it off due to her birthday week.  We got our showers and I put my stuff together so I didn't have to do it in the morning.

Next Adventure:  Getting our Christmas Tree!