Christmas, Seattle and Family News

The ocean at Ocean Shores from the balcony of the hotel

Our visit with Chris

Our Christmas Eve goodies

The star on the building in downtown Seattle

The caroler's in Downtown Settle Christmas Eve

The hustle and bustle of downtown Seattle on Christmas Eve

The carousel in downtown Seattle on Christmas Eve

On the way to Seattle by the Columbia River (in the distance is MT Hood)

Jennifer's fireplace all lit up on Christmas Eve

Randy with Odin one of Jennifer's foster kitties

We had a wonderful holiday season although an expensive one. We decided to go to Seattle for Christmas and we took the Suburban because it has 4-wheel drive and thought we might need it because of the snow, and we did have snow but not until the way back. That is where our main expense was. The Suburban is a very hungry vehicle and should only be used to take us camping in a not so far away place. But we were glad to have it because it did help with the snow and roads on the way home. But from now on, we will just take our little Elantra and probably won't be able to do Christmas far away from now on. The ride to Seattle was wonderful and clear and we could see MT Hood on the way to Portland.

We did have very good weather on the way there and all the time while we were in Seattle. We enjoyed visiting with Jennifer and Rob and the kids. They were perfect hosts. Jennifer had two foster cats that we really enjoyed. We enjoyed going downtown Seattle for Christmas Eve and people watching. There were many people downtown and there was a Christmas carousel and all kinds of street music and it really put us in the holiday spirit. We also saw Avitar in 3D on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve we enjoyed goodies and the Jennifer's traditional Christmas Eve show of A CHRISTMAS STORY. One Christmas day, we enjoyed a pork shoulder that Jennifer made. While visiting, she also made an Irish stew.

Jennifer also took us to a holiday program in Seattle where we got to celebrate the nativity with a Catholic nun and the program was quite fun since the took people from the audience and made them dress in the nativity clothes and play the nativity characters.

Rob and Sid took off for NYC on Christmas night and so the spent the rest of the time with Jennifer and Zoe and also visited my brother Chris in Kent WA. He has lots of stories to tell us because he travels all over the world for his job. Chris and Elaine gave us a gift certificate for honey baked ham.

One the way home, we stayed on the ocean at Ocean Shores in WA at the Shilo Inn. We were very close to the ocean and could see the waves and the sunset. Our suite was wonderful with three TV's and a balcony. However, the bed was very hard.

On the way home, we hit a bad storm coming from Portland Oregon and it was really bad and wad to stop early and the next day the roads were very slick and lots of cars had slid off. We were lucky with the 4-wheel drive. We made it home safely one day later than planned.

We had many more experiences but it would take many pages and time to tell them all. We wish to thank everyone who helped make our season so wonderful and now it's back to the same old thing but we are glad for our home and the blessings we enjoy and look forward to the New Year and to warmer weather for camping.