NYE 2022

We have reached the end of 2022.  Two years we've endured our new reality with Covid and stuff pertaining to Covid.  Life was so much easier in the 1990's and 2000's.  Life now is dumb, annoying, expensive and people are getting stupider.

We got up, made some French toast, sausage, cut up some bananas and poured some chocolate milk.  I prepared three plates, turned on some bowl games and then got ready to go into Rainier to drop off the recycle and fill up some water jugs. 

I threw on some clothes, stuffed the recycle into several bags, tossed them into the back of the Escape, made sure I had everything and drove out to Rainier.  I got to the recycle and was very disappointed that the cardboard area was closed.  I really hate that people have no clue what corrugated cardboard is.  They stuff paper in there thinking that it's cardboard.  Pop boxes, cereal boxes and stuff like that is NOT cardboard, it's paper!  Plus, they can't read either.  They don't break down their cardboard boxes so more can fit in the bin.  I wanted to punch people in the face!  I hate taking recycle home with me...I shouldn't have to because of dumb people. 

I drove over to Mom and Dad's house to fill up water jugs and visit for a bit.  I also paid Mom some money for my phone and part of the trip we took to the east coast in October/November.  We hung out a bit, talked about random things and how we were going to celebrate the new year.  I told them we were going over to Nicole and Del's house for baked potato bar and to play some games with friends.  Mom said they were going to stay up, say happy 2023 and then go to bed.  Haha.  I noticed no one had decorated the tree yet and it was after Christmas.  Mom said it's hard to because Kirby takes all the ornaments off the tree. Haha.  What a turd cat.  I loaded up the Escape with the water jugs and told them I had to make another stop in Rainier before heading home.

I drove over to Bob and Bev's house to deliver their Christmas present that I've had in my car for about a month.  I just could not find the time to drive into Rainier to drop it off before Christmas.  I knocked on the door and Bev answered the door.  Of course, Bob was outside doing something.  He just can't relax.  I gave Bev their present, she opened it and saw it was an ornament for the tree.  I had seen it several weeks ago while shopping and thought it was the perfect ornament for their tree and she found perfect place for it on the Christmas tree.

We sat at the table and chatted for about an hour about random things.  She gave me some fish to take home and Bob gave me a couple bags of chips that he gets from one of his bowling buddies.  I had to go get ready for New Years Eve at Nicole and Del's house.  I thanked them for the goodies, and I drove home. 

I got home, saw that Wade was bad, showered really quick, dried my hair, got our food we were supposed to bring together (we bought cheese and made chili the night before for our baked potato bar) and headed out.  My friend, Alicia, was out of town spending the holidays with her family in Sunnyside, so I've been checking in on her dogs.  We stopped by her place first before we went to Nicole and Del's. 

I made sure we were the first ones to Nicole and Del's house so we could get that coveted front yard parking spot on the street.  It makes it easier to bring stuff in and we weren't forced to parallel park.  We grabbed what we needed and headed into the house.  I told Nicole I couldn't find gluten free chili mix so I bought a gluten free can of chili just for her.  She was delighted.  

We helped get the kitchen oriented so it would be easier to navigate once everyone got there and the food was ready.  Ben and I got comfortable and visited a little bit before Nicole's mom, Barb, and stepdad, Darren, arrived.  They got all situated, engaged in some conversation and we all waited for Lindsay, Justin and Wes to arrive so we could eat.

The arrived shortly after texting us that they were on their way.  They were still late but not super late.  They brought in all of their stuff and took Wes upstairs to get him situated for bed in one of the extra rooms.  They came down and we dug into our fabulous potato bar. I only like cheese chili and bacon bits on mine.  We all sat around the mega table, ate and carried on.  It was fun seeing everyone again.  It's been a while.  

We cleaned up and Nicole brought some games down.  We decided since we had six people Code Words, Puns Against Anarchy and Jack Box would be our games we compete at.  I haven't played Code Words since before Covid.  We split into two teams and played two different games three rounds each so everyone would get a turn giving clues and guessing. 

Puns Against Anarchy was a new game we've never played.  It was set up like Cards Against Humanity and Apples to Apples.  You have a judge and people trying to get the judge to guess their card. Basically, you would get a card that gave the topic and the people playing would have to alter the card to fit the topic.  Say if the topic was food.  You picked a card that said, "House of Cards" or "Post Malone, or "Another One Bites the Dust." You would have to change one part about them, "House of Carbs" or "Toast Malone" or Another One Bites the Crust."  Then the judge would pick the best one and that person would win the card.  There were a ton of good puns and lots of laughing. 

"Duck, duck, OUCH!"

Then we decided to play Jack Box before we brought in the new year.  Del got it all set up on the TV, we got our phones logged in and played a few games that I've never played before.  I've always enjoyed the drawing games.  

As 2023 drew near, we got all of our NYE traditions together.  We made our marzipan pigs, got them baked up, counted out 12 grapes, wrote down our wishes on a small piece of paper and set those aside until it got closer to midnight. 

Nicole made sure to tell us what order we were going to do everything in.  As the clock struck midnight, we:

Stepped on the right foot, ate 12 grapes, lit our wish on fire, threw it in our champagne and drank it, at our marzipan pig, ate black eyed peas and depending on what color your underwear was, is what kind of luck you'd get in the new year.  All of us had our significant others with us so of course we smooched each other at midnight.  I didn't have any fireworks that year, so we didn't do those like we have in the past.

We stayed for a little bit longer and played a couple more Jack Box games, gathered up our stuff, thanked them for hosting and went home around 1:30.  We unloaded the Escape, put everything away, got ready for bed and passed out around 2ish.

Happy 2023 everyone!

Next Adventure:  Seattle Kraken vs. New York Islanders

A Merry Christmas Four-Day Weekend and Some Snowshoeing

Friday, December 23rd

There is always a lot of stuff to do during this time of the month.  Christmas always seems so far away but then it's like tomorrow when you least expect it. Time is going by way too fast.  I had the tree up, the house decorated, the food purchased, the presents wrapped and under the tree...now it was just preparing for the day of, which in itself, was a marathon of a day. I will always appreciate and thank my grandparents for working so hard to give us a great Christmas day when we were kids.  Back then, I just didn't know all the preparation and effort that went into making the day seem so flawless.

I worked up until about 1...the Friday before Christmas at work is usually slow and I got all of my work done, asked my boss to leave early and she granted it.  I put in my leave and dismissed myself for the day.  Doug also came home early from work.  That early morning, our region experienced freezing rain and it kept a lot of schools closed and a lot of people at home.  We were supposed to go to Grandma Karen's that night for a Christmas celebration with our aunt and our cousins but was cancelled because the roads were dangerous.  

Instead, I went for a walk with Doug and Charlie out in the freezing weather, put my Christmas and birthday stuff into bags so they were ready to go over to Erika and Zac's house the next day and worked on some of my scrapbooking pages that I discovered weren't done.  While I did that, I watched the Cougars play basketball in the Hawaii Christmas tournament.

We all stayed up way too late.

Saturday, December 24th

On Christmas Eve, we got up around 9:30, got cleaned up and started getting everything ready to take over to Erika and Zac's house for our family gathering.  We were going to have Erika's birthday party, since she didn't want to do it earlier in the month and decided to do it with Christmas Eve instead.  I spent the next couple hours cooking the Spanish rice for our taco party and watched a very sad Seahawks game.  We had the early game against Kansas City, and we played like crap. 

As time got closer to noon, I Ben helped me pack up the Escape, everyone got their stuff ready, and we headed over to Hawks Prairie.  Doug wanted to stop at PetSmart, so we stopped there for a few minutes so Doug could get what he needed.  We drove over to the recycle so we could get rid of it and start over new for Christmas Day.  It rained the entire time, but I was glad I had a rain jacket on.

We made it to their house just before noon and the tables, chairs, food, presents and birthday stuff was unloaded into the living room.  We spent some time getting it organized and I went in the kitchen to finish preparing the taco bar.  Mom, Grandma Karen and Dad showed up with their presents and food for the taco bar.  We helped them unload everything, got the rest of the stuff set up and went in and made tacos to scarf down.  We watched an episode of The Santa Clauses (2022)--we didn't realize it was a show instead of a movie.

We cleaned up and I set up her living room for a Baby Yoda birthday party since she didn't want to do it earlier that month closer to her birthday as I mentioned earlier.  I had her come into the living room and she was excited to see the Baby Yoda decorations.  We sang, she opened her presents, we cate unicorn cupcakes and ice cream.  I got her a Baby Yoda mug and a cool remote controlled Baby Yoda car I found at the Goodwill.  I just couldn't say no to it.  She thanked us for the party and the gifts.  We cleaned up the decorations and set the living room up for Christmas Eve.

I was chosen to be Santa for some reason, so I handed out presents to people.  I got some cooking items from Grandma, two photos from NYC that Mom made into black and white canvases, Ben got me a silicone ring and a non-physical version of a CD that I wanted, Erika and Zac got me a personalized penguin mug with my name on it and some random things from the Dollar Tree and Doug got everyone a $10 gift card that Mom helped him with.  It was fun opening presents and seeing what everyone got. 

We watched Albert the Christmas Tree (2016), which was a cute movie, cleaned up the paper mess, picked up our stuff, thanked Erika and Zac for hosting and went home.  We were over there for about four hours or so.  Erika knew we had to go home to start getting ready for Christmas Day.  When we got home, we unloaded everything out of the Escape, put it away and finished cleaning, putting things away and getting out the serving stuff, plates and glasses.  I made sure those were run through the dishwasher. 

A little while later, we ate some of Erika's leftover taco stuff she sent home with us, I continued cleaning, we watched football, did a couple loads of laundry and Doug and Ben cleaned the bathrooms.  

We stayed up way too late cleaning until about 1:30. I got in a quick shower and went to bed super late in my jingle jammies.  

Sunday, December 25

The alarm went off around 8, but we did not get up until 8:15/8:20ish.  I washed my face, used the restroom and prepared for the Christmas chaos.  I went out to the living room to get the tables, chairs, decorations and plates ready.  I would have all of this done the previous night, but Wade would destroy the tables and decorations.  Ben worked on getting the ham figured out.  I cut up the muffins, grapes and bananas. 

Mom, Dad and Grandma showed up first with the casseroles and then Erika and Zac showed up shortly after.  Trish, Amy, Jean and Ed got there just after 9ish.  I finished up the loose ends of breakfast and Ben got the ham going since it was going to have to cook for a while.  I thought I had a can of pineapple rounds in the pantry but apparently, I didn't.  I asked Mom if she had some and she did, so she brought them with her.

We sat down at the table and ate food.  We chatted about weird things and visited.  The food is always good and most everyone, enjoyed their cups of coffee.  

This was my first Christmas without Grammie and Grandpa, and it didn't feel real.  The overall feeling of Christmas was forever altered.  It kinda felt lonely even though I was surrounded by 12 other people.  Grammie and Grandpa were one of a kind and I miss them so much.  It's amazing how quickly life can change in just a few short years. 

We cleaned up, loaded the dishwasher and then got ready to open presents and stockings.  Ben was designated to be Santa, but I ended up helping him. 

I got some goofy things in my stockings, we got a pair of gnomes from Trish, a battery pack from Trish, a stained glass of Wade and Oliver from Trish, we got a gift card from Ed and Amy that Ben and I shared, some penguin pens from Amy in Pennsylvania and a baby Yoda action figure from Wade. Doug had me this year and he still owes me a present.

They played with the SpongeBob Legos, and they seemed to enjoy them. 

We got the laundry and dishes going while the ham cooked throughout the afternoon.  Erika, Zach, Mom, Dad and Grandma all went home, Trish, Ed, Amy and Jean stayed, they played one of Ben's games while I took an hour nap...Christmas wipes me out.  Football played throughout the day.  We were hoping Tom Brady would lose for us.  We were disappointed. 

I got out the dinner plates, the napkins and set the table for Christmas dinner.

Once the ham was almost done, I started getting the rest of the food prepared.  Doug and Ben helped with the mashed potatoes, and I got the stuffing, beans, gravy and everything else going.  When the ham was done, we noticed that it looked a little...albino?  Did I get the right ham?  Ben cut it up and we were a little weary when we each tasted it.  It kinda tasted like turkey more than it did ham.  Was this a fresh from the farm ham?  Did we win some weird ham contest?  We didn't understand.  Next time I will not buy a ham like this again.  

Mom, Dad, Erika, Zac and Grandma all showed up again around 5ish.  Dinner wasn't quite all the way ready but when it was, everyone pigged out. We were still weirded out by the ham though.  

We took family photos before everyone left and then Ben and I spent some time cleaning up.  It was his turn to do dishes since I did during Thanksgiving. I put away chairs, tables, ran the dishwasher with plates and silverware in it, he handwashed the rest of it.  We took out the garbage, vacuumed, mopped and I sorted out the boxes and wrapping paper.

I posted pictures on Facebook, worked on my blog for a little bit, ate popcorn and watched some TV.  It was nice to relax a bit before bed.  I was so glad I had a four-day weekend.

Monday, December 26

It felt so nice to sleep in.  Yesterday, was a very long day...as it usually is, every year.  Everyone had the day after Christmas off, which was nice.  We ate some breakfast and then decided to go run some errands.  Doug hung out for a while and then went to the movies with Spencer since he was in town due to the holidays. 

Ben had purchased some tools a few weeks back, so we decided to take them back as our first stop.  Ben managed to find a hammer he needed.  I saw it was a nice dry day, so I talked Ben into going and getting two caches with me.  Both were along the Chehalis-Western Trail down by the 14th Street trailhead...yes, the same one where a kid with Down Syndrome told Trish to wear her helmet while biking some years ago.  Yes, we also called her to remind her of that.  Haha!

We parked, made sure our "stealables" were hidden, locked the door and walked up to the trail.  There were a bunch of people walking, jogging, walking with kids and dogs.  We walked about a half a mile south before we came up to our first cache, STW First Cache (GC9PRN3).  That one had us going for a bit before we figured out that there was only one possibility of where it could be.  We made the find, signed our names, got a photo and put it back.

We continued walking south on the trail to the next one, Faux Grow (GC9ZBDE).  Once we got to ground zero I knew what we were looking for.  I scanned the bushy area for fake leaves.  It was very easy to spot plus it looked like the cache owner had done some maintenance recently as well.  I wrote our names on it, Ben got a photo and we put it back exactly how I found it.  We received our geocaching badge for the end of the year.  We walked back to the trailhead and got back into the Escape.

We drove to Target so Ben could use his gift card.  He didn't find anything he wanted to buy but I found some Christmas cards for next year since they were half off.  Christmas cards are getting harder and harder to find at a decent price.  Walmart doesn't sell the large box of 32 cards for $3 anymore. I knew I should have stockpiled those.

We went over to Office Depot to get more ink and then Value Village to browse. I found a Seahawks Christmas shirt for $4 in which I plan to wear next Christmas.  

We went home and started some albino ham and potatoes for dinner.  We had corn with it too, we watched part of the MNF game.  I worked on my blog and got ready for the next day's snowshoeing adventure.

Tuesday, December 27

Earlier in December, Mom had asked me if I wanted to go snowshoeing with her and Rhonda.  I told her, sure, we've been trying to go snowshoeing since 2016 when we didn't get to.  That Wednesday, I bought my snowshoes from Costco, and she bought hers on Thursday when we went out to take care of our last shopping run before Christmas and before the freezing rain came on Friday.  We are very glad we took care of it before Friday.

I dug through the house to find my gloves, snow pants, boots and ski mask.  I wanted to have all of those just in case I needed them. I stuffed them into my day pack. 

Mom found out where we were going to go and called Rhonda to finalize plans.  We were going to meet at her house at 8 am and she was going to drive.  We were going to the Nordic Center at White Pass.  They have groomed cross country and snowshoeing trails which is good place to go for first time snowshoers.  

I got up early and drove over to Rhonda's house.  She lives off of Spurgeon Creek Road, so I didn't have far to drive.  Mom was really terrible with directions to her house, so I was hoping I made it to the right place.  Luckily, Mom's red Expedition stuck out like a sore thumb, so I knew I was at the right place. I went inside and Rhonda was running around getting the last part of her stuff together.  We left just after 8:20.

It was rainy and windy on the way up Hwy 12 and then it turned into lightly falling snow.  We stopped at the Bevin Lake Pit Rest Stop so we could all go pee.  It's been a while since I've stopped here.  I drive this road at least twice a year.  It was a quick in and out and we were back on the highway.

We got to the White Pass summit a little bit after 11 a.m.  We found a place to park in the lot, grabbed the stuff we would need and walked over towards the Nordic Center huts.  None of us have been there before or knew what to do.  We went inside the hut and the people working the desk were very helpful.  We bought day tags, so they knew we were out there just in case something happened...they were pretty inexpensive.  We thanked them for the information and went back outside to put our snowshoes on.

I told everyone we should do the practice loop first and they agreed as they got ready to walk in the snowshoes for the first time.  It was surprisingly easy to walk in them, but you had to pay attention to where you were walking.  If you walked too close to an edge or a hole, you fell down and everyone laughed at you.

We ended up doing the Leech Lake Loop, which was a 1.5-mile trek around an alpine lake. I've been out this way once before while doing the Mount Rainier GeoTour several years ago.  There was a geocache on this trail but has since been archived.  We followed the groomed trail and were careful where we stepped.

I found that snowshoeing was very peaceful and quiet as we started around the loop.  We talked about random things as we walked.  We caught up with one of the trail guides who was making his way around the loops on his cross-country skis just to check on people.  He asked how we were doing and replied with, doing good.  He smiled at us as he continued on.  We took a couple pictures along the way and collectively decided to add to our trek with a short loop.  Mom fell three times and Rhonda almost fell.  I didn't fall and rubbed it in to both of them, haha! 

We turned the corner and hit the hardest part of the trail, slightly uphill in elevation.  We took a wrong trail and ended up at a dead end and had to turn around to get back onto the correct trail.  All we did was add a quarter of a mile to our trek...no big deal.  We continued uphill slightly, and we could tell while we walked.  I was huffing and puffing, and I knew Mom and Rhonda were too.  We passed several other cross-country skiers as we made our way up.  We took a couple breaks to catch our breath...I did realize we were at almost 4,500 feet above sea level. 

We reached the peak of the hill, and it flattened out overlooking Leech Lake.  We took a few pictures here as the snow started to fall.  I really enjoyed snowshoeing and I hoped that we had some time to do it again this winter...if not this winter, definitely next winter. 

We got back to the Nordic Center and I took off my snowshoes and went inside to purchase some stickers.  Afterwards, we took our snowshoes back to Rhonda's car and went inside the lodge.  I've been past this lodge hundreds of times throughout the years but have never been inside until then.  My main goal was to use the restroom and then visit the gift shop for more stickers.  The place was super busy, and we all had to wade through people just to get downstairs to the restroom.  

After the crazy bathroom experience, we went to the gift shop to browse around.  Mom wanted a shirt for her quilt, and I was after stickers for my scrapbooking.  I found a couple, paid and we went upstairs to see if we wanted to eat food or not.  We browsed all of our options and decided that we should eat there before heading home.  The snow started falling harder.

I got some chicken strips and shared some fries with Mom, while she enjoyed a grilled cheese sandwich and some chocolate milk.  Rhonda got some nachos without the cheese.  We ate our food, that hit the spot after our snowshoeing hike, and people watched.  I couldn't believe these families with multiple children could afford snowboarding, skiing, lodging and food!  Some of these people do this every weekend!  

We cleaned up our area, grabbed our stuff and decided it was time to head home before the snow piled up higher.  I used the restroom one more time and met them out at Rhonda's car.  The snow was really coming down!  I hoped that it didn't interfere with our trip back down the mountain. 

We started our way down and had to drive slowly but it wasn't that bad.  The snowplows were doing a great job keeping the snow off of the highway.  We chatted about a bunch of stuff as we made our way back down to Packwood and Randle.  I am so thankful I get a personal leave day from work, and I finally got to try snowshoeing.  I really hope we can find some more time to go again soon.  We got back to Rhonda's house around 5:30. We unloaded her car, used the restroom and thanked Rhonda for driving.  Mom went home and I went home.  

I got in a shower, updated my blog, ate some popcorn, did a load of laundry and got ready for the short work week.  

Next Adventure:  NYE 2022