December 2012 – Our Washington Adventure

December 26, 2012

Christmas Day!

Christmas Day started at just after 7am which was nice! It had clearly been a busy night for Toby though who had heard lots of noise on the roof and also claimed to have seen the red of Father Christmas’s coat in the bedroom plus heard him say “ho ho ho”. Despite seeing him when Toby woke he couldn’t see any presents in a stocking by the side of his bed so he thought he’d been naughty this year. As it turned out, the stocking was at the end of the bed and he’d actually been quite good!

The stockings were bought into our bedroom and were demolished in next to no time which could only mean one thing – it was time to go downstairs and see if there were more! Clearly everyone had been particularly good in 2012 as Santa had apparently made a bed out of all the presents he’d left! Nice work Santa!

The first job – aside from opening champagne – was to sort all the presents into piles. tracy takes charge of this and runs a very tight ship:

httpv://youtu.be/fTedyw_49k4

With the presents in piles it was time to start unwrapping. We all took a turn with Harry targeting all presents shaped like Xbox games first. He was desperate to get FIFA 2013 and eventually he found it. He was very excited when he opened it and managed to hit Toby in the face as he waved it around! This was clearly not the season of good will to all and Toby responded with a swift kick in the nuts which poleaxed Harry but he still kept a strong grip on the game!

The present unwrapping went on for some time – far too long for the children’s liking but they did very well with all their gifts (as did the parents!).

httpv://youtu.be/0NwK7jhpA0A

Before long it was all done and all that remained were two happy boys, three happy adults and lots of new toys!

December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas!

There is a carrot and a drink for each reindeer. Some sherry and a mince pie for Santa (freshly baked not a left over from the squirrel – who ate all bar one by the way!). There are two very excited little boys. Everything is set. We are counting down to Christmas! Not long now, he’s on the east coast!

Merry Christmas everyone!

December 24, 2012December 24, 2012

Christmas Eve

Finally Christmas Eve was upon us. We spent the morning on the treadmill, making emergency mince pies to leave for Santa, watching the squirrel eating the burnt ones from yesterday and then making ourselves beautiful for a Christmas lunch at Ray’s.

We arrived at Ray’s at 12:30 and duly stuffed ourselves full of calamari, hummus, burgers, chicken, shrimp sandwiches, cheesecake and cookies. It’s a tough life but we managed to tuck it all away! As we all felt a little on the full side we decided to take a walk along the beach at Golden Gardens – just up the road from Ray’s. After having a quick play in the playground, the walk turned into a wildlife extravaganza!

First there was this rare sighting on the beach – lesser spotted beach bums or something:

Then as we got further up the beach we heard the sea lions barking away in the Sound before we came across this little fella:

He wasn’t dead, he’d just had a big lunch and was having a rest! He had apparently been there for the last 24 hours or so and the seal rescue people weren’t rescuing him because he was ok. Apparently. Anyway, someone had made a sign warning people to leave him alone and he did start moving closer to the water so I’m sure he was fine.

After the seal, we walked back through the park towards the car. On the way we saw a beaver. Well we didn’t see the beaver but we saw all the signs. First there was his house over the other side of the pond:

Then there was a tree trunk that had had a good old gnawing:

And another one. He’d clearly realized the error of his gnawing on this one – it was going to fall straight on his head. The trunk gnawings here were a lot fresher – I think we’d missed him by moments:

After leaving the beach behind we took Aunty A to see the Fremont Troll. The troll is obviously a very popular place on Christmas Eve – there were lots of people there, including a bit of a troll photo shoot – all very odd:

From that popular Christmas Eve location we set straight off for another – Kerry Park and a view of the Space Needle. The top of the Needle has been repainted from the 50th anniversary orange to green trees. It’s not that easy to see the new design but you can just make out the trees on top:

Although the trees on top probably look great from above I think we prefer the orange top for now – certainly from the ground. After leaving the park and the views of the city it was time to head home – it had been an exhausting afternoon – poor us!

Once home, we started tracking Santa’s progress (he’s two minutes from London as I type this) and got nice and comfy ready to ease our way into the Christmas spirit!

One more sleep to Christmas! Whoo hoo!

December 24, 2012

Garden D’lights

Although Aunty A had done well on her first couple of nights, it had been down hill ever since. She was going to bed and waking up 3 times before we’d even reached midnight! By the end of her first week we decided to go take her out in the evening to try and keep her up late and hope that the fresh air made her sleep once she got to bed.

As the forecast looked good for Friday night (good = not raining) we bought tickets for the Bellevue Botanical Gardens light display, Garden D’Lights. We arrived at about 7pm and set off round the gardens. The boys oohed and aahed but Anuty A had the Christmas grumps (or was very tired) and didn’t think much of it all! The next day she claimed to be feeling unwell but we think she was just being the Christmas Grinch!

Either way, the rest of us enjoyed it and the lights looked lovely. Not tacky at all!

It still didn’t make her sleep any better. Oh well, at least we tried.

December 19, 2012

Piano Recital

After many weeks of waking up early on a Wednesday morning and getting into school at 8am for piano lessons, the end of term piano recital was upon us. With some last minute practicing completed on Tuesday evening we were up early and into school.

We went into the school dining area, had a last minute panic looking for Toby’s music book and then we were off! First up they each had to play one song each. Of our two, Harry was first up:

httpv://youtu.be/rAj5-IYmZ64

Followed soon after by Toby:

httpv://youtu.be/Wqu3-BJzETo

The teacher then invited any students up who wanted to play a second song. Harry got up quite quickly but Toby took a little more time to decide. Harry’s second performance went very well:

httpv://youtu.be/OUQsC98BGb8

As did Toby’s:

httpv://youtu.be/3cz_0ueTB1I

At the end the teacher said a few words and gave out some prizes and certificates. First up was Toby who was one of two students who got to choose two prizes for “being inspirational”. Harry also got to choose two prizes as he was in the top 5 students in the class – which was pretty impressive considering there were some two handed piano players on show!

What clever, musical children we have. Not sure where they get that from!!

December 17, 2012December 17, 2012

Chihuly Garden

With the boys on the bus and on their way to school it was time for the grown ups to hit Seattle. As Sally had seen and done the usual Seattle sights it was time to introduce a new one into the visitor schedule – The Chihuly Garden. It was developed as part of the Space Needle 50th anniversary celebrations. It opened earlier in the year and this was our first visit but certainly not our last.

The rain held off for us but the wind was icy cold however that did not stop us from enjoying the glass sculptures. They were very impressive as the following should show.

The Glass Forest:

This boat was my favorite:

Two shifty looking characters:

One of the many chandeliers:

Very, very expensive vases:

Some outdoor creations:

It was definitely worth the visit and makes it on to the “things to do in Seattle” list for visitors!

Lots more pictures here…

December 15, 2012December 23, 2012

Jetlag? What Jetlag?

Aunty A arrived again and the big question of everyone’s mind was “how much chocolate has she bought with her?”. The answer to that question is lots! The drawer has never looked so healthy – particularly considering that I had also just returned from London.

The other burning question is “how is the jetlag/sleeping going?”. Now as Nanny proved earlier this year, there is no such thing as jetlag – it’s all just in the mind! In addition to this, this is probably Aunty A’s 5th visit (or something like that) so she should be used to the whole timezone situation. And that is what we all thought at the end of night 1. Having arrived back at ours at about 6:30pm, having survived a grilling from US border control, Aunty A managed to stay awake, eat some pulled pork and guzzle some wine before heading off to bed at about 10 ish.

After a brief read she fell asleep and stayed asleep until about quarter to 4 the following morning. Not bad at all but there was more! After flooping about for a while she then fell asleep again and slept until 6:45am. That was probably her best nights sleep in about 4 months!

As we all know, night 2 is always the worse and so it proved to be. Despite the sisters stocking up on plenty of shopping and wine across the day (plus a visit to Cheesecake Factory AND Red Robin) the night did not go well. The excitement of the mall made Sally very tired and she went to bed at about 9:30pm. After falling into a deep sleep, imagine her surprise when we she woke up at 10:30! After falling asleep again she then woke for a second time – on the same day that she went to sleep! A night of tossing and turning followed but she did get a decent amount of sleep all in.

Hopefully night 3 will prove more successful and signal complete adjustment to the new timezone but we shall see!