expirationdates

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Our Christmas tree turned out just beautiful.

I didn't have enough ornaments for this huge tree so I made some by printing out some birds on card stock and covering them with clear contact paper to make them a little stiffer and they turned out great.

I put up our usual tree and polar bears too.

We had a great Christmas.  My folks were here (of course) and Dave's Dad came by on Christmas morning. We had a few friends stop by too.

The dogs got several presents too.  It's so much fun to watch them open presents.  They just love it.

They got plenty of squeaky toys to last them all year.

While we missed being with all the family in California and New Mexico it was nice to be home too.  We had lots of lovely dinners and parties with family and friends that are here.

I find it hard to believe that it is going to be 2008!  It seems like just yesterday that we were worried about what was going to happen to our computers in 2000!

This is the year to really get some stuff done on the house.  A fence, some trim, a master bath.........These are things that top my list but there is really no shortage of stuff to do around here.

I am having serious blogging guilt and I think I am just going to have to give up being part of the house webring. I really love being part of that community and I will miss it but they really want me to do the majority of my posts about the house (and I understand this) and over the last three years that was fine because we were doing so many projects there was no shortage of stuff to write about.  Now that we are living in the house there is so much more going on but I feel guilty about writing about non-house stuff so I end up writing nothing and I miss that too.  So, some changes need to be made in 2008.

A Very Prosperous and Happy New Year to All!!

 

 

Christmas Tree Decorating

Dave finally found his dream Christmas tree.  Now that we have 16' ceilings he really wanted a big tree this year.  I can't even remember how long it's been since we have had a real tree.  I have a little 3' plastic one that we usually use.

This year is different.  We went to cut our own and found this beautiful tree that had already been cut.  It presented a major problem though.  How to decorate a tree this big.  How do you get the angel on the top?

Our ladder is not quite big enough and there is no way I'm dragging in the scaffolding.

Ah! Dave has a brilliant idea.

Let's drag the tree over to the second story landing!

Now putting the angel on the top is a piece of cake.

We put the lights and ornaments on the top third of the tree from the landing.

Now, we just need to drag it back to the front wall.

Beautiful! and the perfect size for this room.

Pilchuck River Update

I cannot believe the scope of this storm.  All in all we were really lucky.  We are 85' above the flood plain so there was never any danger of the water getting into our house.  We do have to worry about trees coming down with all this soggy ground and wind and we are not out of the woods on that one.

As the river starts to recede it is setting up two new log jams.  It will be interesting to see just what happens to it once it is back to it's normal level.

There were many urban areas that had so much flooding due to full or clogged drains and urban creeks flooding.  There are many major road still closed because they are under water or washed out. 

Washington residents and shops are stepping up with clothes, food and cash for all the folks out of there homes.  It's unbelievable looking at all the Photos folks have sent into our local news station.

Strange Weather

Two days ago we had snow.  In fact, it had  been staying around 32 and the snow was  beautiful.  Today?  It's 54 and raining like crazy and the creek has jumped it's banks.

There is normally only abut 10" of water that runs in this creek.

It has completely covered the path.  I barely made it through with my barn boots.  It's about 12" deep here and running pretty swiftly into the river.

Trees, roots and all sorts of stuff (including Mergansers) are racing down the river.

I really love this time of year.  Watching the river change is really quite an experience.