A Perfect Week

The best thing about the last eight days at home was how perfectly natural and normal everything felt. Even though it was brand new for everyone!

Before the beautiful evening walk on the 22nd, we had a lovely morning too. Took it nice and easy, as most of our mornings, having eggs and toast, and sometimes oatmeal... so nice! The only scheduled event was to pick up Meg & Jason from the airport (they were returning from visiting family in North Carolina). So we were back at the airport the very next day after Mike arrived! On our way home this time we stopped at the Padvorac's house and visited with Jason's mom (and had some great cheese sandwiches) and played with their dog Trixie. We went home separately, and took Spiffy on a jaunt around the block before heading out on a walk of our own. While still floating on clouds, we visited Meg & Jason's apartment nearby and then went home and broke the news to the family. They were both excited and had reservations... a very expected response.

The next morning after breakfast Mom, Dad & I had a good, long conversation together, and I was very glad that Meg was able to keep Mike occupied, playing games and talking. What could be more nerve-racking? I found out a little bit as Dad and Mike had a long talk together the last night on the 28th. :)

After the talk, Mike and I went to Fred Meyer to pick out a ring at their jewelers... and also did a little Christmas shopping. I always thought I'd only want a plain band (hard to lose a diamond that's not there - or catch it on anything), but the saleslady showed us something less expensive that we liked more! It needed resizing, so we would get it the next morning. Mike tried out driving my car with me later as we went to Taco Time for lunch, and back at home we watched "Letters to Juliet" downstairs with my brother Zac and the rest of the family on his projector. But that wasn't all to the day! Zac and my Mom had arranged to have longtime family friends over that evening for a lasagna dinner. They're church friends of ours that used to come over every Saturday night after evening services... sometimes they'd watch Remember WENN with us... yeah, it was that long ago. :O So Mike didn't only have lots of my family to meet, but also lots of friends! They have seven children, so it was a full house!

Christmas Eve we picked up the ring (and I think it's perfect - it's my first time wearing any kind of ring regularly... I think I play with it too much) :) and then we went to North Seattle to stop by and see my friend Julie. She knew about Mike, but the ring was a big surprise and she shrieked and wished us happiness :) We really couldn't hang out because her mom was sick, so I took Mike to the University of Washington (nearby) to show him where I spent several years. He loved all the trees and grand buildings... it was really lovely because there was a bit of sunshine again that day as well.

We had to get back home though, in order to go with my parents to the candlelight Christmas Eve service at my church at an early 4:30. We met more friends there and afterwords went out to our traditional Mexican dinner in Woodinville. Tom and Bette were very happy to see me... Tom is prior service Navy, so that was neat to talk about as well. And then back home we had our traditional carol singing in the living room (Andie & Nathan & family and Meg & Jason came over for this), with reading of the Christmas story and putting all 24 ornaments on our advent wreath... we got a little behind this year. :) What a beautiful evening! We sang all my favorites.

Christmas day was very normal! Except for my Aunt & Uncle's friends that decided to spend the day with us... ! We had our traditional breakfast with everything, including fresh waffles... and presents lasted until around 1pm. My 96 year old grandma was very moved to see the day when I got engaged. LOL! She was very sweet! I showed everyone my dress white uniform and had a picture with her. After everyone left, we settled down with some cookies and hot drinks and watched the BBC "Lion, Witch & Wardrobe" (very Christmasey and very fun! haven't seen it in a very long time!) and later on, Andie & Nathan's copy of "How to Train Your Dragon", which I had seen in the theater a while ago and wanted to see again.

Sunday the 26th was Mike and I's day together. We both got up sort of early, and went to the 9am service at church. It was a great little unexpected sermon given by one of the associate pastors... all about working on areas of our lives that we know need improvement. But as is the tradition with the services around New Year's, we had an extended time of prayer, literally getting on our knees and talking to God individually (yeah, we held hands though :) The whole morning was just lovely. Later on we drove out to Carnation to take a look at the horses, enjoying the long drive and carefully avoiding the mud in the pasture :) I picked their hooves and we brushed them a little, but it was too cold to think about getting on. We went back a different way over Tolt Hill Rd, and then stopped by my old house in Redmond, where I grew up.

Not long after we got home, we got ready for our "New Year's Eve" date in downtown Seattle. I had mentioned on the phone that I've always wanted one, so Mike thought it'd be fun to have one anyway, although we'd be back in our respective places on the 31st. Drove to the waterfront and enjoyed a fantastic, fancy dinner at Ivar's, a famous Washington-only seafood place that's been operating since 1938. We had a window seat on the lake with a view of the city's fireboat and the ferries to the peninsula coming and going all evening. The table was candlelit, and we had a lovely conversation... the whole evening was of the stuff that dreams are made of. :) And then we realized we would only have less than an hour for the Space Needle... lol! So we had a little drive, and ended up enjoying the night-time view, despite the low clouds, intense wind and little kids running around. :) Got home around 11:30, but stayed up to bring in the new day. LOL!

December 27th was a little more relaxed. We enjoyed walking the dog some more... this was Zac's last morning with us. He had to fly back to Yuma in the afternoon, so we had a nice lunch at Olive Garden together and then a nice talk with everyone back at home in the living room. Later on that night, Mom, Mike and I went out to our favorite Chinese place for dinner. I think I'm going to need to hit the PT pretty hard when things get back to normal. :)

Our last full day on the 28th we took a day trip to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island with my Mom and Dad. An hour plus drive north, and then an hour plus ride on a ferry. We were a little worried as we drove through the pelting rain in Everett, but not long after that we came to the edge of the clouds and the rain stopped altogether, with even blue sky on the horizon. The ferry ride was breathtakingly beautiful like usual... the blue mountains surrounding the rings of bright green evergreens above the blue waters and below the bright sky. You should have seen the sunrise! Wow! The goals in Friday Harbor itself were simple. Meg had gotten me something there for Christmas that I already had (so we returned it for her - the trip was her plan in the beginning, but she was sick and they didn't go) and then they have the Whale Museum there that I've been interested in seeing for a long time. There were neat specimens... lots of skeletons... and a neat video on scientists observing Orca Whales. Because of the ferry schedule, we decided to go to lunch first. It was another fancy restaurant on the waterfront called "Downriggers". I had an incredible mushroom and onion burger and Dad tried the chowder in a bread bowl like Meg did when her and Jason were here. We had a bigger ferry on the way back with a second passenger level with a deck that wrapped all the way around. Between sitting and chatting with my parents, Mike and I took the tour around it, enjoying the views. It was dark by the time we got back home... I think I slept more than half the return drive. :)

Wednesday morning, the 29th, we woke up to a light dusting of snow! It was a perfect parting gift. After breakfast, Mike and I took the dog for a walk. As we were out, it started snowing heavy flakes again! So fun! This winter is much different from the kind I had seen in Chicago! :)

We were able to spend our last minutes together even! Our flights were originally at the same time, and our gates were only a couple numbers apart! We had time for a lunch at the bagel place I love, and I had time to say goodbye as he boarded, because my flight had been delayed due to that good ol' Chicago weather. :)

It was a Christmas to remember! :)
As you can tell, I am all smiles.
Jp