Tag Archives: Family

In Retrospect…

…2010 was a very eventful year for our family!

 

January~

A job interview for Dear in Seattle.

Dan completes the first stage of his training and flies home to Seattle for a week before he leaves again for a 10 month training period in Yuma, Arizona.

 

February ~

Dear and I fly to Seattle to spend some time with Dan before he leaves again.

Katie’s boyfriend Andrew flies to Seattle for us to meet him and spends a week with us.

Dear receives a job offer and gives notice at his current job.

We put our condo in California on the market.

Sad goodbyes to good friends and family in Southern California.

 

Dear’s last day at his California job and we pack up and leave on a 3 day roadtrip with our vehicles packed to the gills.

 

March ~

Arrive home in Seattle for good for now…

Seattle Sounders opening game for the season.

Celebrate my birthday in LaConner and get the amazing experience of seeing Snow Geese.

 

April ~

Easter Sunday meal at our house with Kulich that Lana and I made for the 2nd year in a row.

 

La Conner to meet up with 5 of the Mennonite girls for the first time!

 

Return to California to supervise the condo being packed up and our stuff moved to Seattle.

Katie joins me in California and we enjoy 2 days packed with family gatherings.

 

May ~

Andrew comes for another visit with Katie.

 

June ~

CONDO SELLS and escrow closes!

 

Andrew arrives for another visit before his Bootcamp begins.

 

World Cup begins

Family kayaking trip

 

Katie walks in her graduation from the University of Washington.

 

July ~

Uncle Ray dies ~ we attend funeral in Yuba City, Ca.

Lavender Festival

 

Family visits

 

 

August ~

Trip to Eastern Washington

Mennonite Girls Can Cook Summit in British Columbia to sign contract for our new cookbook.

 

September ~

2 days of nonstop fun with the Mennonite Girls in Abbotsford and Chiliwack.

 

South Carolina with Katie to attend Andrew’s graduation from Marine boot camp Parris Island.

 

Andrew asks Katie to marry him.

October ~

Tendonitis

Wedding Dress Shopping

 

Trip to Dallas with Dear to visit Leonard, Mandy and Miss Hope.

 

November ~

Dan is back in Washington after completing all his hands on training.

 

Early Thanksgiving celebration before Dan heads to his new home and work in North Eastern Washington.

 

Tim and Letty are here for Thanksgiving and the girls continue our Tea tradition.

 

Katie flies to Florida to spend Thanksgiving with Andrew and part of his family.

December ~

We celebrate our 36th wedding anniversary on Whidbey Island.

 

Dan arrives for a couple days for our Christmas celebration.

 

Andrew arrives for 10 day leave from the Marines for Christmas.

Wonderful Christmas with all our kids and future kid Andrew…

 

Celebrations continue with Katie’s birthday and New Years Eve…

 

God is faithful and his goodness to us is always good to consider and reflect on. That’s what I’m doing with this post.

The Lord knows what 2011 holds for us and we trust Him to get us through…

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Katie Strikes Again!

 

The Birthday Girl is a good bowler. She even has her own ball and shoes. The Fiance beat her in one game by 3 points.

 

 

It was a fun birthday celebration and everyone improved on their scores here and there and everyone managed a strike or two. Katie had several strikes. Andrew had several, too.

 

The bowling alley was really hopping with almost every lane filled.

 

Two hours of bowling fun at Tech City Bowl.

Today I’m enjoying an off day with nothing planned. You need those every once in a while. The tree is headed outside today!

Tomorrow Katie is having her bridesmaids over to celebrate her birthday with dinner and a movie.

Thursday is another off day! Whoohoo!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Something Borrowed, Something Blue Monday…

Monday December 6th is Dear and my 36th wedding anniversary.

Here we are all decked out in blue at our Russian Baptist Church Shower in 1974.

This is my maternal grandmother, my babushka,  at our shower wearing blue, too. She really was a wonderful lady who was a prayer warrior. She was widowed while in Iran and immigrated a few years later then my parents to the USA. She lost her hand and part of her arm when she was a young girl and never let her handicap stand in the way. She raised 3 children, embroidered beautifully, and was a wonderful cook, better then most people with two hands.

This is my maternal grandmother, my mother, and me at Laguna Beach, California in the early 70’s.

Through all the ups and downs of marriage, finances and child rearing I am very thankful for the commitment and love Dear and I have shared. I count myself blessed to have married a man with integrity and faithfulness to me , his family and his God.

Thank you Dear! Here’s to many more years together!

To see more Blue Monday posts please visit Sally at Smiling Sally!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Leftovers…

I wanted to post some leftovers from our long Thanksgiving weekend before I head into the “most wonderful time of the year”. I lifted a couple of these photos from Facebook. Thanks Bob and Kristin!

 

Here’s Dear carving the Thanksgiving Turkey. He’s the master!

 

We had to treat our out of town guests to the best doughnuts on earth so a morning run to Frost Doughnuts was in order. We bought the Smokey Bacon Maple Bar, Pumpkin Silk w/Walnuts Bismarck, Marcona Almond & Tart Cherry Bismarck, Salted Caramel, French Toast Twist, Bourbon Caramel Pecan, and Lemon Bismarck.

 

Love this photo of my mommy and daddy that my niece took at the festivities in Southern California.

 

On Saturday evening we were invited to my sister Lana’s house for her husband Steve’s birthday. We had a wonderful Greek meal of Avgolemono soup (Greek lemon soup), lamb, rice, and tabbouleh. Lana had her house decorated for Christmas and her table was set beautifully for our dinner.

Today our Thanksgiving Company fly back to Southern California. Later I’ll see about having Dear bring down the Christmas boxes from the attic. Haven’t had much luck with cyber Monday purchases. We have more celebrations ahead before Christmas, too. What’s up in your neck of the woods?

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Traditions Continue…

 

For the last 3 years on the day after Thanksgiving the girls make their annual trek to Goodwill, Tea, and anything else that meets our fancy. This year after tea at 3 Cups of Tea, we made a visit to Country Village in Bothell and shopped at two of our favorite stores there, Cranberry Cottage and The Weed Patch. I’ll see about sharing my purchases later in the week. This year it was just the 4 of us, Lana, Laura, Letty and me.

Please visit Mary at Little Red House to join in the fun of Mosaic Monday.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Dinner for Forty!

We’ve been sharing a Thanksgiving meal at the Spiro house for many years. They have always generously included any Thanksgiving company we might have. This year with their extended family, friends, and our group there were 40 for the meal.

 

This is the young adult table in the kitchen area of the home with places for 14. You can see the Puget Sound out the window. The older adult table is in the dining area and seated 20 this time around. The kids table was in the foyer with places for 6.

 

My brother Tim and his wife Letty are staying with us for the holiday.

My BIL Steve, Tim, Letty, and my sister Lana.

My friend Jan with my sister Lana.

Two of the 3 Spiro girls, Lucy and Bridget with Bridget’s youngest little guy Oliver.

I missed getting photos of our host and hostess and lots of the other 40 people. Some years I’m on, some years not so much.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

FFF ~ Family, Friends, Food!

Time to look back and remember your favorites from this past week. Visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to join in this worthwhile experience.

My favorites from this past week revolve around our immediate family being reunited for a few days.

 

Here are the guys, my husband with our sons. I love this photo of the three of them.

 

Our girls Katie and Laura with their special aunt Lana.

 

We took advantage of my sister being here so she could take a photo of all of us together. This will probably end up being our Christmas photo this year.

 

Our Thanksgiving gathering on Sunday is definitely a favorite from this past week.

Last but not least our son Dan made it safe over the passes to his new digs in Eastern Washington. He started his job at his new location and is pleased with his surroundings. We are looking forward to my brother and SIL coming to spend Thanksgiving weekend with us. So much to be thankful for.

Psalm 40:16 (ESV)

But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
say continually, “Great is the LORD!”

What are your favorites from this past week?

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Tablescape Thursday ~ Early Thanksgiving 2010

I’ve posted some photos of our early Thanksgiving meal already but wanted to add these for Tablescape Thursday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. If you want to see some great table settings click on over and check all the latest posts.

 

The table was set for 12. Since I only had 10 of my Yorkshire dishes I added these two Johnson Brothers Plates to the mix.

 

These are the Yorkshire Staffordshire Ironstone plates, a country road with a hay wagon. The colors were perfect for Thanksgiving.

 

Wouldn’t you know when I went to pull out my green goblets there were only 11. I scouted out a local Antique Mall hoping to find at least  1 more but there was nothing close to these so when I came across a set of 7 amber colored goblets at a good price I decided to mix and match 6 of each for the table.

 

 

 

 

 

I was real happy to find these bird place card holders last week. It’s not easy finding non-Christmas themed holders this time of year. Our daughter Katie printed the names on each card for our table.

 

We had a wonderful time around the table. We decided to serve Susan’s Champagne Punch while waiting for the turkey. It was very tasty with the hint of cinnamon and cloves.

 

On Thanksgiving Day I’ll be sharing this punch when we join friends for a 2nd Thanksgiving meal. Life is rich!

Looking forward to seeing more Scapes around the Blogisphere.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Thanksgiving Is…

…a time to gather family and friends around the table.

 

Thanksgiving at our house is a very traditional meal with few changes if any. We stuff the turkey because we enjoy the taste of the stuffing that cooks in the bird. We include mashed potatoes to go with the gravy. One thing that would cause an uprising around here is if I left out the the candied yams smothered with marshmallows that get browned in the oven. Cranberry sauce is good for color. This year I added some steamed green beans stir fried with onions and bacon. Dessert always must include a few pies like pumpkin, pecan and a fruit pie. Truth be told I don’t bake pies, gasp! My dear friend Beth volunteered to bring the pies after I asked her to and they were really good! Thanks Beth.

 

We celebrated early this year since our kids were all available on this Sunday.

 

We take time to thank God for loving family and good friends and all His goodness to us. What a blessing to sit around the table with loved ones and enjoy good food together.

 

The girls…

 

The guys…

 

Dan’s friend Jamie since 2nd grade with his sweet family.

 

 

Jamie’s parents, Dave and Beth with Dan. Good friends since Dan and Jamie became friends in elementary school.

 

We tried a fall champagne punch.

 

The sugared rim was fun.

At the end of the festivities we loaded up on the couch to watch the Major League Soccer semi-final between L.A. Galaxy and Dallas.

 

Can you count all the pairs of feet?

I’ll post more photos of the table for Tablescape Thursday.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.