Seabrook, WA

 Dec 25-28 we traveled to Seabrook, WA. It's a master planned community on the beach with cute cottages that are dog-friendly and have hot tubs. We even had a few inches of snow on the beach for 2 of the days! Every day we did a long walk and let Maeby run like crazy on the beach. She is remarkably fast! We played lots of cards games, went to the gym, watched movies, ate take out, and enjoyed the hot tub. It was the perfect pandemic vacation, except for the terrifying snowy drive on the way back (luckily we got winter tires for the first time this year). 

Holidays 2021

For black Friday, John bought himself a go pro and has had fun with time lapse and videos of Maeby. Another exciting present is a more powerful vaccuum to pick up Maeby's hair. Only John has figured out how to use it so far :) John also capped off his "running season" with a self-guided 1/2 marathon. He's now in cycling season.

We did a ton of baking and cooking this season - perhaps biscotti for the first time was the highlight or perhaps the amazing apple pie on Christmas. The kids did their traditional gingerbread houses and we hit up snowflake lane and garden d'lights. The weather was miserable and some of the magic has worn off on those. Perhaps we'll change it up next year. Alex and Mom skied one day at Snoqualmie and we played lots of games (Hearts, Evolution Climate, Exploding Kittens, Scrabble Slam, Taboo, Chronology, Good Guess).

Socializing was limited. Julia went to the mall with her friends and went to Vika's for an outside hot chocolate party. She got an awesome Dwight Schrute hat as a gift from her friends who know her well. She also had a party with her soccer team where she did not fare well in the dancing game. Mom went to a party with her friends and 4 of the 7 came away with COVID (those of us who had the booster shot were fine). And, per tradition, we saw the cousins on Christmas Eve morning and G&G came over for lunch on Christmas Day. 

Everyone got really great presents. Mom got a laptop. Julia got some clothes. Alex got an Apple Watch and nice gloves. John got some clothes and a reminder of all the toys he's bought himself recently. 

 

MN Thanksgiving

 We went to Minneapolis for Thanksgiving. Maeby stayed home with dogsitters. Due to COVID, we only saw Kate, Steve, Jane, Emily, Aaron, Ken, Diane, and Luka, but we had a really wonderful visit. It was sunny and warm 1 day and sunny and cold 3 days. We did some beautiful walks on lakes, played cards with the family, watch some memorable (King Richard) and not so memorable (Serial Mom) movies, helped with the cooking (mostly Julia), played Othello, and went to the gym. Can't wait til next year!