Merry Christmas from Woodinville

Merry Christmas from Woodinville

Before with dead tree, organic roof, etc.

It was just a year ago that Tot1 took a position with Microsoft in Redmond WA, just outside of Seattle. Yes, that is why we didn’t send out Christmas cards last year.  He got to live the bachelor life for nearly six months. “Bachelor life” really means 12-hour work days, riding shotgun with a Realtor every weekend, and flying home to Texas every 5-6 weeks. He finally got a lead on a nice home in March with some help from a 6th grade friend of mine from Saudi Arabia. (Yes, it is a small world.)




After, with new roof, full paint, new landscapaing...

The house was a foreclosure and required a lot of work before we could move in. And it was ONLY twice the price of our place in Round Rock.  Sticker-shock. It is a beautiful house in lovely neighborhood surrounded by 100 foot fir trees on an acre next to a nature reserve. We even have a neighborhood bear. Once escrow closed Tot1 worked with handymen for six weeks to get the house ready for us to move in. His reward for the new job and all the hard work to get the house ready… a new BMW which he calls Alex, after Alex Forrest in the movie Fatal Attraction.

Tot4 and Tot3 finished school in Texas and then flew to Washington, just in time for two more weeks of school. As parents there was a certain satisfaction of letting them start summer vacation, then sending them back to school. They were able to meet some of the neighborhood kids, get used to riding the bus, and the basic rules of their new school. The kids have been adjusting to life in the Pacific Northwest.  It is an amazingly beautiful state.



When school restarted in September, they were not the “new kids”. Tot 3 joined a soccer team and Girl Scouts, Tot4 joined Boy Scouts and took ice skating lessons. We spent the fall driving to games, practice, meetings, and outings. The girl scouts are very practical. They have had outings to see how marketing is used in the supermarket, how Panera runs a bread store and an historical tour of old-town Snohomish. The boys, well, bottle rockets, pumpkin bowling and bawdy campfire songs.

This summer we went camping with my 6^th grade friend, Laurel, and her friends and family. We camped up at the Chewuch River – everybody in tents, and sleeping bags. The kids got to hike up to a waterfall, and get pulled behind a boat on inner-tube for the first time. It was a lot of fun. The drive was gorgeous. The kids have officially seen mountains (cause you know, in Texas if stand on your tip-toes you can see Houston from Austin). For Thanksgiving the Smith family took us over the river and through the woods and across Stephens Pass, to their family’s amazing vacation cabin in Plain, WA. It was much nicer that roughing it with the scouts. 

We spent a lot time with my family before moving to Washington. The kids also got to meet their Grandpa FC and Grandma MF this last year so that was nice.  In September Grandma JC along with Aunt E and Aunt N came here for a visit. We had lunch on top of the Space Needle. My hands did stop sweating enough to hold a fork. We visited the EMP museum and the King Tut exhibit in Seattle.

Also, the tree huggers up here are not shy about their vandalism. We retaliated with Romney signs on their driveway.

Merry Christmas to all...