Christmas weekending

Nick and I decided that we would have Christmas at our house this year and we were delighted that my family joined us! I was determined that this year I would not spend all day on Christmas cooking dinner so Nick and I pre-made our casseroles on Wednesday and the pies Thursday afternoon, therefore making the rest of the time as relaxing as possible. Christmas Eve we had our traditional Garlic Soup dinner which was absolutely divine and Christmas evening a traditional dinner (complete with squash casserole thanks to Sandy's wonderful recipe!!). The weekend was interspersed with fun events such as: the exchanging of gifts and un-stuffing of stockings, board games (completely sucking at Trivial Pursuit), eating way too much including lots of left-overs, Garden D'Lights at Bellevue's Botanical Gardens, walks in the cold sunshine, building Legos and other good fun.
After my family left yesterday Nick and I cleaned the house and then went for a fantastic 16 mile bike ride in the cold sunshine and finished off the day with going to see the most epic movie of all time - AVATAR, in 3D of course!!! So fantastically amazing - if you haven't seen it yet, GO! GO NOW!!!
Hope all of your Christmas celebrations were as wonderful as ours!

Santa Claus is coming to the Tomczek's!

Last weekend we went to a Santa Claus parade in our little town center. It was small, but cute and fun to walk around looking at everything sipping on hot coffee from our favorite local coffee shop, Spotted Cow.

The Christmas spirit finally hit me Tuesday evening this week, after attending my work Christmas party, and I started to drag out the Christmas bins, set-up the Nativity set, the Christmas books and my card holder while listening to Christmas music. Our work group went to The Ram in Seattle (a local restaurant and brewery) and had a grand time eating and having a gift exchange. I ended up with a plush, white throw and it's so warm and cozy!


My contribution to the work Christmas party (movie night "in" basket)

Thursday we finally went and picked up our Christmas tree, put up our lights and finished decorating. Our Christmas ornament this year is 3 links of chain - it represents strength; breaking free from debt, fears; and that a strand of three is stronger then a strand of two.


We had a wonderful time Saturday night going to Bellevue and visiting Snowflake Lane. There were hundreds, upon thousands of people, but the music was wonderful and it even *snowed*. We did some light shopping afterwards and then headed home.

Sunday morning started bright and early at 8:30 a.m. and we were on the road by 9:30 a.m. for a day filled with shopping. We started off with coffees from Spotted Cow and arrived at Costco right as they opened. After a couple more shopping stops we finished right at 2:50 p.m. (I promised Nick we'd be done before 3 p.m.!). The evening was finished up with wrapping, unpacking and laundry. We are ready for Christmas to arrive!!

Weekending in Walla Walla

We traveled to Walla Walla the weekend of December 10th for my mom's tonsillectomy surgery. We had a wonderful, relaxing weekend and my mom's surgery went beautifully and we're just waiting for her biopsy results.


We spent the weekend taking care of Mama, the animals, playing games, building Lego's, cooking and eating lots of Potato soup, and watching the snow fall.

A few inches of snow

Nick's trebuchet

How to freeze otter pops in Walla Walla

My adorable burglar sister!

Despite the reason for the trip to Walla Walla we had a good time and it was nice to visit with family and friends. It never ceases to amaze me at how blessed we are to have such wonderful friends and family in our lives to make life so much more rich and full. Thank you to everyone for all your prayers, well wishes and support for my mom and our family! We are so blessed...

Tennessee Thanksgiving

The holiday season is upon us and so Nick and I made our biennial journey to join our Tennessee family for Thanksgiving. We were reminiscing of how we came to be included in the Simmons' family festivities and realized that we've been traveling to TN for Thanksgiving for about 5 years now. It all started when Tim found out that Nick and I couldn't make it home for Thanksgiving in 2000 and invited us to join his family for the festivities. We fell in love with their family and have made it a tradition to return pretty much every other year since then. We've also gone down for spring break and a wedding. I love traveling to TN as it is where Nick and I lived for about 3-1/2 years.

We arrived in Nashville, TN, on Wednesday, November 25th and immediately started filling our pieholes with Sandy's wonderful cooking. Thursday a couple of us girls went for a 2.5 mile walk to burn off some calories and make room for our huge dinner. T-Day was spent watching the Macy's Day parade, football, playing games (new game - Bananagrams - a must buy!) and more stuffing of our bellies. I've never seen as many casseroles - besides at potluck - then when we go to the Simmons'! Green bean, asparagus, squash, sweet potato and more... Yummy!!
Several brave souls did rise at some obscene hour to purchase specific items on Friday morning; those of us less crazy, slept in and then us girls treated ourselves to a spa day and shopping later in the morning. We met the guys for lunch and then went and saw Old Dogs. A silly, but cute and funny family movie.
Saturday we were spoiled by one of Sandy's fantastically huge breakfasts before Nick and I headed for Chattanooga to visit Tim and Emily. Tim picked us up in the afternoon and Emily greeted us with another Thanksgiving feast for dinner! We went for a walk and then built a bonfire that night and sat around telling stories and talking with Tim, Emily and Emily's parents. When we couldn't keep warm any longer, we adjourned to the house and played some more games. Sunday we went for another walk along the Collegedale Greenway Trail. It was fabulous weather while we were there and I so wish the trail would have been there when I was going to SAU. After our walk we went and saw The Blind Side; I would have to say that this is one of the best feel good movies I've seen in a long time. Take your family and go see it!!
Monday we returned to Nashville, ate lunch and then headed to the airport. We arrived to freezing Seattle at 11:30 p.m. on Monday night, enjoyed Tuesday off and then noses back to the grindstone on Wednesday.

Hope y'll had wonderful Thanksgivings wherever you were and whomever you were with!! Thanks Simmons Family for adopting us and letting us come spend Thanksgiving with everyone; we are so blessed to have you in our lives!! Looking forward to the next time...