I don't know how it happened, but good gravy last month was a whirlwind. I tried something I have never tried before this holiday season...I took off the whole week of Thanksgiving and two full weeks at Christmas! Wow. 100% worth it and I look forward to making that a tradition! Huge thanks to our friend Lexie who came over to be out photographer for our family pics. We made our holiday cards this year and ordered through a local place so they were only $0.09 each! We also learned that in every picture, Savvy is camera ready.
We made it to the first Saturday workshop early in the day and built some sleighs with reindeer. I like that the girls can use real tools and I wish they were different tools that fit their hands better. Alas, it is an event that is free to us, so I did not complain to anyone about it.
I got my nails done and tried a matte finish for the first time to get in the holiday spirit! So cute! They lasted almost 3 weeks. And were a delightful lift to my spirit when encountering work challenges, child tantrums, spouse nonsense, and/or the tragic mess that is our country at the moment. It's the little things that remind me to be grateful for the bigger things like a fantastic staff, very sweet girls, a loving partner, and a hopeful spirit things will eventually get better here. Who knew a manicure could be so deep?!
The zoo lights had some new animals this year! Our fave was the sea turtle, marking the opening of their new aquarium.
Our schedules aligned to bake cookies with friend in Gig Harbor! Getting to know Mollie, Pete, Anna, and Kat (and Daisy Dog) has been a real blessing this past year. The older we get, the harder it is to make friends. Not just because of schedules and time, but we are finding that if we have to explain or educate potentially new friends on why racism and oppression are real and how these systems impact our family and those we love and care about, it's too much emotional labor. So when you meet folks who get it, who you don't have to convince that the very real experiences and fear you feel are...well, real...it relieves anxiety and hesitation and frees you up to have honest conversations, explore ideas and issues together, and bond on a level that is authentic. Then add on the layers of your kids get along with each other, you have similar tastes in hobbies but different enough to keep learning things from each other, and you can laugh together? Those are friends you want for life and are excited to spend time with. Hence, our excitement at cookie baking.
One of my staff members sings in a local choir. (Sneak preview of a blogpost to come, Matt auditioned this past week to join this choir!). This is our second year attending their holiday concert. It's a fun night to get dressed up and head downtown to the theatre. Bonus, Jodi had a solo! There was a kids choir who sang a couple of songs, a teenage violinist who clearly was gifted a talent meant to be shared with the world, and the addition of fun with technology. We downloaded an app called jingle and suddenly we were part of the show! If you are interested in having a phone that when shaken turns into jingle bells, drums, maracas, and other percussions, download jingle. It's a good time.
Our staff potluck theme was Bougie Salad: Holiday Edition. First, bougie salad potluck has served us well over the past 18 months. It's a salad but you buy the pricey, fancy toppings. Pickled asparagus, vinaigrettes whipped by angels, salmon smoked for hours, sparkled water...you get the drift. Inspired by both my friend Laura and the Great British Baking Show, I made a pavlova! We invited others to join us this year and a fab time was had by all....
Our roadtrip was coming up fast. Part of prep included cleaning and organizing the house. Which of course necessitated a trip to IKEA for things to organize things. Their 75 cent hot dogs are a real treat. Unbeknownst to us, they have a lovely holiday picture taking areas set up. Guess where next year's picture will be taken?
Christmas crab has become a tradition for us. It. is. so. Cheap! We literally stalk the seafood person weekly asking when the dungees are coming. We boil them for maybe 7 minutes in a pot with lemons, garlic, and ale.
As the girls wrapped up school, they came home with endless arts&crafts, papers, paintings, sweet corn on the cob y'all know we didn't keep half of what they brought home! We did keep this pinch pot Savvy made. Her first kiln experience was a cute success! We also kept a book Cass wrote, which led to some dramatic reading by Matt.
The first time I saw the Lion King was with my bestie Jon B. in 2002. We were in San Fran on a programming trip I organized (yes, I was that annoying RA with a people-pleasing perfectionist complex) to take people to see the famed city and our free time found us at the Orpheum Theatre with $25 limited view seats that were not limited at all. It was magical. Well, I can say the show is still magical and maybe even more so now. The costumes have been updated, the cultural references have been updated and watching the girls awestruck expressions made the overall experience even more magical. We hit the city of Seattle early, thanked SpotHero for our parking spot, ate at the Cheesecake Factory, and watched a show. Going on a Thursday was a trade off; cheaper tickets and less traffic in exchange for tired people the next day who went to work and school. Totally worth it!! Also, the drink of the evening was a Hakuna Matata. A delightful libation of grapefruit juice, wine, and other yummy stuff.
Whew! Ok, we are about midDecember now and almost ready for the road trip. It was to be a long trip, so we needed to figure out what to do with our car Stormy. Stormy has been so fun to drive. Stormy is a newRAV4 that we had been leasing, we rolled a lot of bad debt into the lease and the lease is almost up. The dealership had been calling us and sending emails and letters about needing to renew. We had been to the dealership a few times to see what was on the lot and decided to take another peak one weekend. While cumbersome, we usually take the kids so if we test drive something we can see how they'll respond in the back. We play with, ahem, test all the buttons, locks, windows, seat belts, radio and speakers, and brakes. When we found a 2005 Highlander I was surprised how much I liked it! It was under $10k, had over 150,000 miles, and was so comfy! A smaller version of this car, I liked how it handled and most importantly I liked that it was not over budget. As a family car for a family who likes road trips, we were super excited to say goodbye Stormy (and goodbye bad debt!) and hello Bagira (and cheaper insurance and lower car payment)! Aptly named for the black panther in Jungle Book.
Now, we were road trip ready. First stop was Aunt Emily's house. We missed seeing Genevieve and Uncle Chris, but we were able to swap presents and leave a birthday present for G-Dub.
Next stop was the Tillamook Creamery. Sooooo good! The tour is a delight and we learned a lot about making cheese...and eating cheese! And ice cream. Lots of ice cream.
We made it to the Oregon Coast and the ocean! It was a bit windy, but we got out of the car at some random parking lot anyway to hear the waves. It was beautiful! I know I am an Aquarius, but I swear water speaks more to my very being than air. As a challenge, we decided to try not to eat at fast food places on the trip. Matt drove and I navigated us to out of the way, off the beaten path eateries. We stayed in Coos Bay on day one. Then on our way to the Redwood Forest, for lunch we had seafood at the cutest little place on the water where we listened to seals then took a walk on the beach.
We were so lucky, we hit this national park one day before the shutdown. We would not make it to our second national park, but we did stop at a few smaller state parks. After the Redwoods, we were to leave the 101 for the 1, and make it to Fort Bragg. The only thing people ever told us was that it was a beautiful drive. And indeed, it is beautiful. Let me tell you what people conveniently forgot to tell us....it is a death trap. There is no amount of warning that can prepare for you the type of driving that must happen to survive this part of the trip. Matt Smith deserves a medal. White knuckling does not even begin to describe the treacherous road that leads to the 1 and the 1 itself. Sheer drops into gigantic waves with no rail guards. Two lanes sometimes becoming only one and you pray the drivers coming towards you follow the lights and wait. Sharp, tight curves around mountains and rocks with low visibility. Animals who don't care about dying, as long as they can cross the road to get to whatever it was they saw on the other side. Speed limits that go from 45 to 10mph with no transition because of hairpin turns around blind corners. Scraps of dirt called turnouts. Do y'all remember hearing about that mudslide in northern California last year that closed the 1? We drove on it. It's still not completely repaired. Yellow tape, cones, and unfinished rebar coming out the mountain are what greeted us. It is one lane still. And don't look at the drop down to the unforgiving beauty of the ocean waiting to claim its next wayward traveler. Now imagine all of this....in the dark cold of night with fog.
Hear me. I. will. never. take. that. road. again.
And that's all I'll say about that. :-)
We did wake up to this view
We also made the decision to get off the 1 and head back to the 101. Praise Jesus and thank you mother Earth we survived! And a few hours later had a delicious brunch in the bay with our cousins Jen and Danny! When we go to places like Oakland, we really question our life's decisions that have landed us in a place that is not like the rich urban colorfulness of a place like Oakland. But, then again, the cost to live there, and the traffic remind us we did alright! And visiting is a blessing :-)
Post lunch saw us safely to San Jose! And to a lovely, quirky little air bnb graciously hosted by our cousins Matt and Maria. We checked in, headed to their place for dinner, and headed back down the street where we crashed into blissful sleep. The next day we joined my galpal Romi for her birthday brunch and the girls experienced their first Dim Sum in Alameda! Sooooo delicious. If you have never had Dim Sum, I highly encourage you to try it. I hadn't been in YEARS and the girls and Matt had never been so while it was a bday celebration for Romi, it was a real treat for us too! After lunch, we took a stroll down to the state beach park to enjoy the sun and catch up. Romi said, "J we've been friends almost 20 years!" And I was like, "wow, we are grown!" Cheers to having long life friends who you can love and laugh and not see on the daily, but when do you get together it is nothing but joy. Our kids look like cousins by the way.
There was a park near the rental house, the girls and I left Matt so he could catch up on some work from afar and played for a bit in the sun. Those emails pile up quickly and it's less stressful to take an hour during vacay to address them, then to wait till we return and not know what we're coming back too. Once we had our fill of parktime, we scooped Matt back up and headed to Alex's for dinner and games. I love me some Alex! And was so jealous that she was Matts' co-worker at NDE (LOL). So fun to catch up with her and her family!
The next day was an adventure for sure. The kids made treats with the Bornskis, we had lunch with our mentor and friend Idonas and Savvy got sick. Like, sick all over the restaurant. Idonas was such a great sport about it. I took Savvy back to the house and they all followed later. We did the chat online with the doc and eventually we headed to the urgent care. Urgent Care on Christmas Eve was quiet so we were seen quickly. Thankfully Cass hung out with the Bornskis while we got Savvy settled. Nothing was staying down. And she had no other symptoms. The next day, she was fine! Like it never happened. We were not to be unscathed though....later when we would get home, Cass would get it, then I would get it, then Matt would get it. As quick as it was ferocious, we had no idea what was in store for us when we got home! Luckily, our trip continued uneventfully :-)
Christmas Day was beautifully sunny!!! There may have been mimosas and a dip in a hot tub. There were definitely homemade cinnamon rolls. And a night time visit to the Christmas in the park event downtown. So much fun!!!!!!
That evening we said goodbye to our family. I got one more squeeze in with Oliver and Theo! So fun meeting little Theo, he is adorable. The next morning we were up early and back on the road. It had always been the plan to take the 5 back. And we were reeeaalll glad that was the plan, because remember, this girl is NEVER taking the road that shall not be named ever again. On our way to Medford, we stopped at a wonderful mediterranean place for lunch. I do think this will become a tradition for us when possible, to find a place to eat on the road, off the freeway, that is not Mickey Ds. It was delicious, filling, fresh and not at all expensive. Our hotel for the night was walking distance to Harry & Davids where we had ALL the samples and bought up the holiday foods that were not on clearance. Moose munch and pears! Yum....A stop near Ashland is always a time to see our friend Staci B. We had dinner with her and checked out the holiday windows on our way.
The next day we were home! What a trip! What a month long celebration of family and festivities :-)
Someone asked me how managed to fit so much in and not feel tired. I don't know about that, writing this up I feel tired! But in hindsight, everything felt spaced out with time for breaks and spontaneity. Some things that helped included...
- Staying at hotels that had a pool and a free hot breakfast. The kids could burn off energy in the pool and we never had to worry about what we were doing for breakfast. Plus, depending on the spread, we would take some fruit and snacks for the road!
- Getting a cooler and stopping at the grocery store long the way was great for those long stretches where there was nothing but nature ;-)
- Planning some things head but leaving room for the unexpected. We had a general idea of places to see on the road, and then found ourselves at cool rest stops too!
- Looking for the deals, coupons, and cheaper travel days. Hotels.com and Groupon are apps I use for sure. It can take a lot of time to find the good deals. Good thing I dig research.
- Starting in January, we put $ aside in a holiday account that is separate from our normal spending and then we add to it each month. By Thanksgiving , we have an idea of what we're going to spend and we only spend from that acct for all things holiday related.
- Pack light and use your family's washer and dryer (Thank you!) We also bought a small pack of Charlies Powdered soap for traveling.
- Manage expectations as best we can with the kids. We have always placed an emphasis on experiences and family time over gifts. We have a 3 gift rule at home, 1 from Santa, 1 from us, and 1 the girls get each other in remembrance of the 3 gifts Jesus was given. Santa's gift cannot be the "best" gift. And now that they are older, we started making our gifts for other people and volunteering. Last year we caroled around our neighborhood in exchange for donations base don a list of needs we got from a local shelter. This year I could not get my stuff to organize it and it rained so much that we did the giving tree at their school instead. This year we asked for pictures from people and made snow globes with those pictures and we liked to include a small something from where we live (since it seems we move a lot! But we're on year 2 here!) And then they just know that we're going to have lots of fun doing things together, so don't ask for stuff and don't make long lists and letters to Santa. It works for us, for now.
- Always have a pack of cards!
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