Fitting in everything around everyone's schedules, we designated Tuesday as cookie baking day.
I had the sugar cookie dough chillin' in the refrigerator and the gingerbread dough ready to go when Jill and the kids arrived a little after 10:00 this morning.
First up - gingerbread cookies. The cookie cutters were sorted because some are for gingerbread and some are for the lemon sugar cookies. There are rules that must be followed. Tradition! Then I roll out the dough in batches and Jill, Irene and Isaac fit all the cutters on, getting them as close together as possible.
Once those are baked and cooling, we moved on to the sugar cookies, which are decorated with colored sprinkles before baking.
By the time we got all of those done it was time for lunch, and then the kids went upstairs to do some secret work in the gift wrapping center.
After lunch Jill took off to go to an appointment and the rest of us made fattigmann, a fried cardamom-flavored Norwegian cookie.
It takes some muscle to roll out the very springy dough and get it very thin.
Irene's nimble fingers were very good at tucking the ends of the bows through the slits.
Isaac manned the dutch oven full of hot oil.
Tom helped supervise and did a lot of washing up.
After the fattigmann cooled the last step was to plunge them into powdered sugar.
We just got that cleaned up when Jill returned and it was time to decorate the gingerbread with royal icing.
Jill and the kids went home a little after 4:00. Tom and I rested and I finally got to read the newspaper.
Then we went out to dinner.
It was a very successful cookie day.
In looking for the gift in each day, they were easy to find this week.
We did need a little R&R on Wednesday after the celebration march on Tuesday, so we were off to a slow start. As I walked out to get the newspaper at the box out on the street, the sun was up on a cold, crystal clear day and the frozen gravel made a lovely crunch under my feet. A gift of a day.
We spent much of Wednesday getting ready for our lunch party on Thursday. There was grocery shopping to do, some spiffing up of the house, and setting up the dining room table with holiday finery.
The McMicken Lunch Bunch, made up of mostly retired teachers who at one time or another all worked at McMicken Heights Elementary School, had not gotten together since last June, so I decided to do something about that. I invited them all to my house for a holiday lunch. I made the soup, and cookies of course, and they brought the rest.
A big pot of corn chowder for a cold day.
Lots of salads and homemade rolls.
And desserts! Thanks, Andrea, for the photos. As usual I didn't remember to photograph my own party.
Having the company of good friends, lots of visiting and laughter and catching up was a great gift for that day.
But then the Seahawks gave us the gift of a victory on Thursday Night Football, and since Jill was at the game, Tom transported Isaac and Irene to their activities, and then we hosted Irene for dinner. She was quite happy about the homemade mac and cheese and broccoli, two of her favorite things.
Friday breakfast was the usual bunch, minus our friend Mavis. She fell several weeks ago and cracked her pelvis, and then in trying to move without assistance, she fell again and dislocated her shoulder. That required surgery. Mavis is 89 years old and we were worried. But she made it out of the hospital and back into the care center at her senior living complex, and when we all went to visit her after breakfast, she was her usual spunky self. She is a gift.
We got in a walk in below freezing temps on Friday and then in the late afternoon we fought the traffic on I-5 to get to Olympia for a holiday dinner with my siblings. My sister Ilene took the photos.
You know Tom and me.
This is my brother Hank and wife Cindy.
My sister Laurie and her husband Arnie.
And since my lovely sister Ilene didn't get a photo of herself, I borrowed one from her Facebook page.
We had a good dinner and a fun evening sharing old memories of times gone by.
This morning, Saturday, was even colder. It was 22 degrees when I bundled up to walk out to the street to get the newspaper.
So on the way back I stopped at Tom's greenhouse, where the brugmansia was in bloom.
It gave off a lovely fragrance in the relative warmth of the greenhouse, a great gift to start the day.
We managed to keep busy, taking care of small projects, finishing up a few Christmas cards, getting in our cold walk, and attending Irene's first basketball game. Now we are very happy to be settled in for the evening.
Tomorrow we tackle gift wrapping!
By now most of you know that we are a soccer family. Tom coached youth soccer for ten years, while our son Jake played on the team he coached. Jill played about five years, and now helps coach Isaac's team. Both Jill and Jake played as adults. Now we watch our grand kids playing. We are also supporters of our Major League Soccer team, the Seattle Sounders. Tom and I are season ticket holders and almost never miss a match.
The MLS soccer season begins the second week of March, and ends in October, when the playoffs begin. This year's season was looking dismal for the Sounders in early August, and then several changes turned the team around. They made it to the playoffs and then three rounds of elimination, and on Dec. 10th, the Sounders played Toronto for the MLS Cup. They won! The Sounders are the 2016 MLS Champions!
Today we all got to celebrate that championship with a victory parade from the center of down town to the Seattle Center. We arrived at the light rail station early so we could get parking.
Yes, Jill and Irene played hooky.
We gathered at Westlake Center along with throngs of supporters, waiting for the team to arrive.
Jill was geared up!
We caught a glimpse of the mayor talking to one of the team owners.
The team arrived and loaded onto trolleys.
We took photos of them and they took photos of us, and selfies, of course.
Coach Schmetzer and team caption Ozzie Alonso hoisted the MLS Cup.
And then we marched and sang and chanted as the Emerald City Supporters - that's us- lead the parade, and the team trolleys followed us through the cheering fans.
There I am, with Tom and Irene, waving my flag along the mile plus route. Photo by Jill.
We approached Seattle Center
and gathered on the lawn to await the ceremonies.
I don't know how many people were there, but I know we were surrounded by masses in every direction.
It was a great lot of fun and a wonderful way to end a long and tumultuous season.
Today we were guests at Becky's Brunch. It is the official kick off of the holiday season celebration.
These are retired teachers connected to Des Moines Elementary School that Tom worked with. They adopted me. Our host Becky is the lovely lady glittering in the bottom right of the photo.
We enjoyed good food and lively conversation with topics ranging from driving in ice and snow to former students to health concerns to travel.
Ice and snow were on our minds because of our current weather. Officially you could say it is slushing - light rain interspersed with big wet flakes falling on the remnants of last night's light snowfall.
It's cold and nasty and a good day for celebrating warm friendships and a cozy evening at home.
This was my baking week. In four days, with Tom's help, I made six kinds of cookies, which are now all tucked away in the freezer, awaiting the filling of cookie tins to give as gifts and for our own family enjoyment when the big day arrives.
This was a photo from last year, but I made the same kinds again this year. They are traditional and each one is someone's favorite.
The decorating is done, the baking is done, except for the cookie cutter cookies we'll make with the grand kids, and most of the shopping is done. We have no plans for the weekend, other than watching the Sounders play in Toronto for the MLS Cup on Saturday and the Seahawks play in Green Bay on Sunday. I have no desire to be in either of those places in person during the weather they are experiencing.
I'll work on our Christmas letter and get photo cards ordered. Next week we have a Christmas shops field trip on Tuesday, and weather permitting, a Christmas lunch here at our house on Thursday. The weather man is warning of more snow by mid-week, so we'll have to wait and see what happens.
At any rate, I have declared that the holiday season has now officially begun. I will find a way to make each day a gift. Today was a good start.
I last posted on Friday. That evening we kicked off the Christmas activities by joining Jill and the kids at Clam Lights.
This is Seattle and we have water here, the salt waters from the vast inland sea we call Puget Sound. Naturally we have lighted boat parades.
I know these are blurry but it is the best my little Canon could do in low light. We were bundled up and hoping the rain would not return while we were out on the dock watching the boats.
Then we walked back into the park to enjoy the Clan Lights close up.
Yep, those are the clams, because this light show is sponsored by Ivar's Acres of Clams Restaurants.
These are not clams. Kinda' cool how the camera blurred the people not in our group, although Isaac is a bit ghost like.
Saturday we attended an arts and crafts show called Tide Fest in Gig Harbor, where conveniently, Irene and Isaac were playing their last soccer matches of the season. We shopped, then went to two soccer games, then finished our shopping.
Fortunately we stayed dry for most of both matches and were well bundled up against the cold. The Mud Dogs ended in a 4-4 tie.
We finished up Irene's game and then took her with us to Isaac's game, where it was the second half and Isaac was playing keeper.
Jill was on the sideline as an assistant coach.
The Rockets won 6-4, a great finish for a team that was thrown together several months ago and lost badly at first. They really improved!
Tom and I went back to Tide Fest to make some gift purchases, and then we set off through heavy traffic and gathering darkness to our garden club party. We were planning to go home, change and get the food we were planning to take, but it was such slow going that we just went "come as you are", arriving only an hour and a half late. But they fed us and we had a good time.
Sunday we got in a walk and then got busy putting up the tree and decorating it. We joked about having 40,000 ornaments, but I can't even guess at the real number. We have stuff on there from when the kids were babies, over 40 years of accumulation.
Many of you have seen photos of this tree before. Each year we add a few from our travels, but I think we must stop even doing that now. Or else get another tree.
Anybody else have bacon hanging near Krampus?
Or a roadrunner and an avocado near a Santa?
How about Mozart from Salzburg or a royal crown from Stockholm or an elf from the Black Forest or a Norwegian flag from Oslo or an Alaskan cruise ship or a skyline of Philadelphia? And so much more.
Sunday evening we hosted Irene while Jill and Isaac attended the NFL game at the stadium. The Seahawks overwhelmed the Panthers 40-7. We watched at home.
This morning we cleaned house while it snowed outside.
It wasn't cold enough to stick around, but now the temperature is dropping again and the forecast is for our first freezing temps tonight, with ice and possibly more snow by morning.
I went through my cookie recipes, wrote my shopping list and went to the store this afternoon. Tomorrow we'll be ready to stay inside and start baking.
'Tis the busy season.
