What I did on My Christmas Vacation (part 1.)

My Christmas vacation was like a double vacation in one, and I suppose since tomorrow is Sunday I still have one more day to enjoy before heading back to reality!!

I flew up to Washington the Wednesday evening before Christmas, and not much happened that night besides the usual plane trip, drive to the ferry, ferry trip over to BI and the quick car ride home. We were up rather late if I recall (we were up rather late every night) though I'm not exactly sure what we were doing!

Mom knitted the resident Flat Bat a Santa Hat

Thursday (a.k.a. Christmas Eve) Mom, Bill and I headed out for a yoga class followed by a trip to Doc's for a delicious omelet breakfast . . . one can never go wrong with Doc's for breakfast! After coming home from breakfast mom and I both decided that we needed pedi's so we dashed out for an impromptu pedi excursion. We went to a little place in town that was celebrating their 2nd anniversary (unbeknownst (sp?) to us before hand). They had a full on buffet feast laid out, and though we tried to escape without partaking the owner caught us as mom was paying, so we sat down to some fried rice, noodle dishes, spring rolls with a mystery meet inside, cookies, pork, etc. The two funniest parts were . . . first when I was coming out of the bathroom in the back I noticed a full on whole pig on the floor (in a pan of course) that had been roasted for the event; not something you see in a nail salon everyday. And second, one of the guys working there asked mom if she wanted a pop and proceeded to open the cooler that was FULL of beer!!!!! We cracked up; fortunately we are a family that finds joy and humor in these types of experiences. After that we grabbed a few things from the store and headed home for a pizza dinner and sugar cookie making. We deccorated the Christmas tree (I think we actually did this before pedi's) and I finished my first ever scarf (also something I think we did before pedi's but I can't remember)

Bill Modeling my Scarf

Placing the Snowman atop the tree with care

Trying to get Luke to wear the Santa Hat
Sugar Cookie Baking

Bill ordered the pizza (which the delivered wrong so we ended up with an extra!) and Mom and I made sugar cookies. I opened my traditional Christmas eve present of PJ's which included a new hoodie!!! Mom was dying to open presents so she not only managed to talk me into opening our little presents from Timbra, but also talked Bill into opening a present . . . which was our new Christmas game . . . Yamslam; tricky lady!! We played a few rounds of Yamslam which is apparently the it game of the year (the it game of the year for those who play real games not of the video variety!) Very fun. Then we headed to bed and the Christmas elves set about their various activities . . . mine included wrapping all the presents I'd brought along with stuffing Mom and Bill's stockings! Oh, and how could I forget, we also watched White Christmas . . . a Christmas must in our house!

The Stocking were placed in their spots with care

The Tree all ready for Christmas morning

Christmas morning I was up around 8, thought Bill was up first Mom apparently decided that it would be a good morning to sleep in . . . at about 8:30 I came up with the idea to put a little snoopy playing a piano on her bed to play a song to wake her; Bill took it in, but it didn't work. Around 8:45 I put the singing snowmen outside her bedroom door and that finally worked . . . she thought that Bill was trying to wake us both, ha if only she knew! We opened presents, had a delish breakfast, showered and headed out to the local hunters club (forgot the actual name) to help prep and serve a lunch to some of the elderly people on the island who wouldn't be spending Christmas with family. It was quite a fun experience, though there were way too many helpers, and only about 25 people who ate lunch we still had a blast. Mom and I picked up a couple who were a total crack up!!!

Bill playing the role of Santa

Mom got an Atlas Book

Ahh the annual greasy hair Christmas morning just woke up picture

Bill with the hat mom knitted him

Christmas morning breakfast

The three of us at the lodge before the lunch

Tables set and ready to go

Yeah I'm picking his noes, it's what you do when there's

too many helpers and not enough work!

The dessert table, never mind the moose

(seriously the guy serving dessert kept whacking his head on it!)

No caption necessary

Christmas evening we saw Invictus, at the older theater on the island, which was awesome and totally makes me want to learn more about Nelson Mandela! After that we headed home and had a delish Christmas dinner of brie, prosciutto and chicken wrapped in phyllo dough, twice baked potatoes, tasty bread and salad . . . yum!! We finished out the evening with a few more rounds of Yamslam!

Saturday we headed over to Snoqualime Falls with mom and Bill's friends Rich and Betty. We had a wonderful brunch at the Salish Lodge and then hiked down to the falls. We were hoping for nice big icicles, but it was fairly warm . . . fear not the view was still beautiful, it's neat to get that close to the waterfall! On the ferry ride home we opted to stay in the car, and much to our luck (not so much for the people in front of us). The couple in front of us managed to lock their keys in the car, and our "in ferry" entertainment (like in flight, get it???) was watching the ferry workers attempt to get into the car. It seriously took 3 guys and almost the full half hour; they managed to pop a door open as we were docking . . . nothing like waiting till the last minute! The rest of the evening was spent hanging out and playing Canasta!

The falls

Sign, what sign?

(yes we went over and down)

We had brunch up there (and you can see the moon out)

Mom and I on a rock on the river

Action Shot

(does he remind anyone else of a spider about to attack?)

Me and the Waterfall

Sunday we had a nice morning at Church, and came home to make our delicious homemade street tacos (I like to think of them as famous now as well!), and after that Mom and I headed into town for me to pick out some yarn for a new scarf and then we saw Avatar =awesomeness! I cannot remember what we did the rest of the evening, but I'm sure it was lovely. Oh, I remember, we watched Secret Life of Bees, mom knitted, I worked on laundry and Bill slept!

Luke all curled up with his Christmas Ball

(he loved it)

Monday morning mom drove Bill and I to the ferry, we rode over together, we had my driver drop him close to work and then it was on to the airport.

The second half of "What I did on my Christmas Vacation" begins once I landed back on the ground in Sacramento . . .