Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Christmas, New Years and Visiting Family

We were blessed this year with being able to visit both of our families around the holidays. First we flew up to KY to see Joe's family. All of his extended family (well except for Cassy and Paul) live in KY and so they always have a big family get together to celebrate the season. This year it was at Carrie and Steve's house. They are great party planners and we had a blast. These are all buy 2 of the cousins. Bottom l to r: Joe, Tom, Andrew, Nick; Middle l to r: Carrie, Cassie, Katie; Top l to r: Jamie, Cameron, Allison
The Brown side of the family: Greg, Joe, me, Tom, Jenny, Katie and Jeff.

Carrie and Steve have a great basement where we hung out and played games including the infamous "Japs on the roof" (ask Joe about that one). In picture is Carrie, Jamie and Johnena
After spending Christmas with the Browns we headed to WA to spend New Years with the Drake family. Here we got to have some snow! It was great to get to spend time with Joshua and Daniel, especially since we don't seem them too often.

We went up to Point Defiance Park one day where we toured around Ft. Nisqually, checked out the logging museum and took in the sights around 5 mile drive. Joshua, Joe and I went ice skating another day. The guys showed me up. I hadn't been ice skating in I don't know how long. We also got to go see Daniel and his band, The Bombadil Project, perform up in Seattle. It was the first time Joe and I have seen them in concert. We were pretty impressed.
One morning my Dad, Joe and I went on a nature walk in Graham. We learned how to identify types of trees, brush and berries. This isn't a great picture because I have my eyes closed, but I wanted to include it because of the size of the leaf I'm holding. The area was full of Douglas Fir trees and there were leaves from them laying all around. We don't get nature like that around here.For New Years Eve we went to First Night in downtown Tacoma. The city shuts down the main streets for pedestrians and has all kinds of entertainment all night long from street performers, jugglers and musicians to a viewing of short films. I think the highlight was the juggling act we saw. They were entertaining and really good jugglers.
It was COLD that night. This picture was to capture how bundled up I was in particular. I had gloves, a scarf, a hat and my sweatshirt hood up. I think I had about three layers on as well. FL has thinned my blood out.
Last, but not least, was Christmas for Joe and I. We actually celebrated in the middle of the month, since we'd be gone through early January visiting family. This year we upgraded from the 3 foot tree we'd been using to a 7 1/2 foot tree. It is pre-lit, which made it quite easy to assemble, but a bit tough figuring out how to get it back in the box!

1 comment:

Lindsay said...

Hey! Nick used to play "Japs on the Roof" too, but I've forbidden him from doing so now- I even hate when he mentions it! Glad the Brown family is doing well!

Lindsay Simmons