This year, for the first time ever, Joann and I spent Christmas together
alone at home (with Zoey). We usually fly down to the Bay Area to visit
relatives and return home exhausted. We made the trip south over Thanksgiving,
and Joann made a second trip down mid-December, and so we were both comfortable
staying home.
Max, Zoey and Joann in front of the tree.
On Christmas Eve, I went to Marymoor park to play pick-up frisbee for a couple
hours, and then I headed to the PRO club to watch the Seahawks. Joann spent the
day reading and doing some last minute shopping. During the frisbee game, I hurt
my finger playing defense, and by the end of the day I thought it was broken;
the finger hurt a lot and had swollen up and turned strange colors. It ended up
feeling a lot better in a couple days. We celebrated Christmas Eve with our
neighbors, the Browns, and their family at The Crab Pot Restaurant.
Max playing with Zoey and her gift from Mom. Note my swollen left index finger.
On Christmas morning, Joann and I woke up and the power was out. Our house
loses power frequently when there is a storm, and the night before it was
particularly windy. Fortunately we have gas appliances, so we could still cook.
After breakfast, we checked out the stocking contents left by Santa Claus. We
decided to wait to open our presents until the power came back on so that we
could enjoy the ambiance of the lighted tree. The main downer of the morning is
that I did not have a good way to make coffee, so we drove into Redmond in
search of a quick fix. Fortunately, there was a Starbucks shop open (it was
packed). We then walked around the dog park with Zoey.
Around two on Christmas afternoon, we decided that if we wanted to see our
presents, we better open them before it got dark outside. We had called the
power company, and they did not know when the power was going to come back on.
We had a great time exchanging gifts. One of my favorite presents is a picture
frame from Joann that displays digital pictures. After exchanging presents, we
went to Seattle to visit a friend in the hospital, and then we returned home to
cook "unturkey" on the barbeque. Joann did not care much for the meal, but I
really liked it and had turkey for lunch the next few days. After dinner we went
to hang out with Tamra and Robert down the street. The power came on at nine
that evening while we were at the neighbors.
With the exception of a quick trip to the office on Tuesday, I took the next
week off from work. Joann and I bought some shelving for our utility room, and
we spent a good chunk of the week getting them set up and organizing our junk in
there. I also decided to clean up the low-voltage wiring in the same room, which
had become a complete rats' nest during our remodel a year ago; that job ended
up being two solid days of work.
On New Year's Eve, we had a quiet evening alone together and were in bed before
ten.
New Year's Day with Buster, Robert, Tamra, John, and Renee.