عيد ميلاد المسيح

This is basically an excuse to post a plethera of pictures from Christmas. It began with seeing Kentrina on their annivesary. They took a ride around downtown, and then we found a French Cafe in the Pike Place Market. Bonus- the waiter was from Rabat, Morocco! When he found out I wanted mint tea, which the cafe didn't provide, he sent someone downstairs for fresh mint to make the tea for me. Sure, they couldn't find any, but still...


You can see here Kent was glaring at the horse with laser eyes. He really wanted that carrot.

After getting appetizers at the French restaurant, Trina was going to surprise Kent with a dinner reservation. Unfortunately, she couldn't quite remember the name of the restaurant. Fortunately, she looked at the menu and realized that their reservation was for the downstairs Italian portion of the same cafe we were in.

That evening I went to Candycane Lane for my church's Christmas party. Carol Ann's food was of course excellent.

Candycane Lane is a place in Seattle with extensive lights and decorations. Not a whole lot of focus on the real Christmas, but still, pretty lights.

Evidently, Ensign Chekov has many famous thoughts about peace, as you can see in the hovertext below. Who would have known?

I spent Christmas down in Portland with Steve & Julie, and it was great to spend time with their family, and yet more juicy food. My mom and sister came up for a party the day before Christmas Eve, and we went out with my mom's husband, Larry, to relax and open up gifts.

Well, actually that's a lie. Larry was tired and wasn't able to make it. We went to a restaurant that Steve recommended, and couldn't find it. We kept turning around, trying to find where the place was, and ended up crossing a curb, and in a freak accident, bursting the tire. Seriously- I've never seen a cloud of air come out of a tire before. I love Christmas adventures!

.

It actually turned out to be a great evening. Me and my sister went to the local Irish Pub to play darts, which was only two blocks away. Larry and Steve came out to help my mom with the tire, and so were able to be there with us at the pub. And there are few finer places to be on Christmas Eve Eve than an Irish Pub.

The next day I got to see Adam & Kattie for lunch. I don't know why, but last time I saw them they seemed to be too busy to talk. This time we got to spend a good amount of time catching up on gossip at a local German restaurant, in honor of Kattie, who evidently knows how to sew the softest and warmest blankets. I found my time with them greatly encouraging, and it was really neat to hear how God is meeting them.

.

Christmas Day was fairly simple. Get to the bus station by 8 PM, so I could catch the 9:00 Greyhound to Seattle, arriving at 1 in the morning, to catch a municipal bus to my house, to drive down to Kentrina's, where I'll be house-sitting. But Greyhound decided to start charging different rates than what they have listed on their website, so I had to pay extra for luggage first.

And then it snowed. Yes, it was wonderful, having a White Christmas and all. Except on the roads coming up. So we got in at 130 in the morning. Then I carried three very heavy bags present with books for half a mile, just in time to wait for the bus for half an hour. The driver was kind enough to let me defer payment, as I'd forgotten to get change, and I was able to get home, and move the stuff into my car without brakes, to drive home on the wet streets to my brother's in SeaTac. It amazed me how empty the streets were- much like Ramadan in Morocco when everyone has just rushed home to eat after fasting all day. It was even lighter than during a snowstorm in Seattle. You could almost roller blade on the streets without fear of being hit by a car.

.

I got to my brother's by 230 this morning, completely exhausted, to greet the Palozoo of three dogs and three cats, and stay up and catch up on blogs.

Merry Christmas, and as Mr. Lombardo says, Happy New Year!