Cold clear days here....

Cold clear winter days here, its been awesome. We've had great views of the mountains from our bedroom and work. This is Mt. Hood from the office window. 

Happy belated New Year : )

We had a busy week after getting back to Portland, but then had a relaxing long New Year's weekend. 

First we had a visit from Jeff (on his way to Bend).

The typical photo of guest and Carmen on the couch.

Ashley had his fill of social obligations the previous weeks, so for New Year's eve we skipped all plans with friends and neighbors and hibernated at home and cooked lots of food.

Made homemade pasta with the mixer (thanks again Doug and Evelyn!) and pasta attachment thingie (thanks Susanne!). It was just like playing with Playdough. : )

 Over the rest of the weekend we tackled some cleaning and organizing projects and did some more cooking. 

Made soft pretzels and mustard from scratch for the first time.

We also caught the Rosebowl of course (bummer...), Ashley trained with Dave on part of his new gig, and we had a short visit from Ryan. 

Dave and Ashley did an energy assessment of our house for training, so we got to find out how ridiculously leaky it is.

I know you all have great photos from the holidays... Would love to see them! : )

Thank you everyone!

There were so many treats over Christmas week that made this trip home seem especially holiday-ey. Here is our week in pictures : )

Monday: Spent night at Doug and Evelyn’s – got to hang out, drink wine, catch up, play with dogs.
Tuesday: Fly. Mom and Charlie pick us up in Chicago. Went straight to the 5 O’clock club for a fish fry.

Wednesday: Slept in, coffee, pajamas, Mom’s Christmas cookies at breakfast, didn’t leave house until we went to Heather’s for dinner where Ashley dragged the girls around in Santa’s sleeping bag.

Ho ho ho!

Watching Santa's videos. Naughty or nice?

Thursday: More sleeping in, a run at Lapham Peak, Christmas errands, a trip to Uncle Dave’s to see the Gillettes.

Friday: More last minute errands and then finally Christmas at the Farm. Spent the night staying up late catching up with Dad and Jean.

I love this photo. The whole series of these photos is hilarious. Dave is laying the law down in the next one : )

Saturday: A morning drive with Dad and Ashley. Errands around Montello, Amish bakery and grocery. An archeological dig through my childhood belongings and photos. A beautiful Christmas mass in Montello. Fabulous Christmas eve dinner and The Sound of Music. Singing Edelweiss while doing the dinner dishes.

Amish orchard

After Christmas mass and Jean's choir

Beautiful church

Before mass

Christmas eve dinner

Sunday: Christmas morning at Dad and Jean's: opening presents, a morning hike, more old photos. To Deb and Dave’s for the first Christmas Day celebration in a long time with all of us there, Packer game.

Christmas morning

Look at all those legos! Early on in assembly...

Monday: Met up with Becky and Scott at their house for a long walk together. Ashley helped fix the mixer. Delicious Indian Feast. Candy Cane Lane.

Visited Becky and Scott in Menomonee Falls one day (horrible picture of me, but cute one of Becky in a sweater vest I knit as a Christmas present). 

How does this work?!

A drive down Candy Cane Lane

 Tuesday: Last minute lunch with Deb and Emily. More packing and hugs with Mom and Charlie. Late arrival in Seattle, but very happy to see Doug, Evelyn and Carmen again!

Emily and Molly had to have their own chair for lunch with the ladies.

More New Years and other photos to come. By the way – this week marks one year for the blog. Its fun to look back on the year and see the highlights. Hopefully there are even more next year! : )