We declared that Laura is to be raised as a child of Christ in front of our church today. It was a golden moment. We joined two other families, the Iretons and the Chens (Charles and Jane) to offer of children to God. Dan Baumgartner lifted Laura. She was dressed in the same white baptismal dress that Sara was baptised in. When Dan drew the cross on her forehead, she gave a cute half smile. What a blessing she is. In normal fashion, Laura fussed and had to be taken out of the service. I took communion and then relieved Wayne so he could take communion. The lobby was quiet and I was able to nurse and listen to the singing. It was a holy moment to sing ‘What Child is This’ while holding Laura. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take photos in the service, so we don’t have much digital documentation. That’s ok; the best photos are in my memory and my heart. Like Mary, I’m storing these things up. What a joy!
December 24, 2006
December 23, 2006
Relative bliss
What do John Wooten and Comet the tom cat have in common? Besides being males, they are both asleep in the living room. Comet is sleeping on my Wisconsin Badger blanket under the Christmas tree. John is sleeping on the couch since his bed downstairs is the site of Zelda gaming on our new Nintendo Wii by Wayne, Sara, Matt, Shirley and Laura (Laura’s sleeping on her new favorite crib-Shirley’s shoulder). The crucial thing with this arrangement is I have a few moments to post a blog.
Life has shifted. Mom and Dad left for their 40th wedding anniversary trip to rainy Ranier. Shirley, John, and Matt have arrived. Snowboarding has been completed.
Sunday the festivities started. We started at church. We had to serve communion at church. Laura ended up being uncooperative. I didn’t see much of the service and missed my cue to join the service to serve communion. Instead, I got to have some relaxed conversations with members of our congregation. Laura got lots of cooing through her fussing.
Wayne picked up his family from the airport. We celebrated Shirley and Matt’s birthdays at Chinooks for dinner. It took a long time to get our food and we spent over two hours at the restaurant. The food was excellent, but more importantly, so was our 3yo. Sara, not always known for good behavior in restaurants, did exceptionally well. I tried the halibut cheeks with vegetable “tempura” (aka fried). The desert was exceptional. Wayne and I split a white/dark chocolate brownie with peppermint ice cream which was heavenly. Shirley had the bread pudding which was reminiscent of fluffy french toast dusted with cinnamon. Mom joined us for this extravaganza waiting for her honey. Sunday was our fullest house.
Monday was unique in that both of Sara’s grandparents were in the same place. Now that the Wootens have moved to Tennessee, that’s less likely to happen. Dad arrived and it was obvious who were best buds. Sara and Poppa ran around like mad kids. There was lots of laughing. I made a pasta dinner and we all had a good time. Mom and Dad retired late in the evening to begin their special trip.
We had a Southern dinner on Tuesday. Jon, Claire, Erica, and Ken joined us. Shirley went all out with spare ribs BBQed and grilled, hush puppies (heavenly), baked beans, and Japanese fruit pie (which is neither Japanese or fruit filled). Everyone rolled out of that dinner. It’s a nice group with lots of good conversation. Matt and Wayne went to Crystal for the first day of snowboarding. Matt did lessons and Wayne warmed up for a killer snowboard season. I expect Wayne will write about this later. I’ll just say, I was impressed with how much prep Wayne put in to giving his nephew a good experience.
Hump day was for resting. Originally, this was to be the second snowboard day, but it was rainy and yucky. Instead, everyone slept late and we ventured downtown to continue a tradition. We hit the holiday carousel first (the line wasn’t as long as last year and Sara wasn’t quite so whiny). We stopped by the trains at the Macy’s window. We skipped the gingerbread houses this year. We walked to Pike’s Place Market. Sara and I warmed up in the Crumpet Shop with a warm crumpet and hot chocolate (Sara actually drank some!) We walked by the Chinese bakery to get hum bow and sesame balls. Everyone got a little snack. Matt liked it. He also got introduced to baklava. At that point, it was cold and rainy and past nap time. Sara sat on the pig and we watched the fish counter (no throwing unfortunately). We then doubled back to the car. I notice that with 2 kids, things are much more abbreviated. There’s always someone needing something.
Thursday seems to be very uneventful. Shirley and I are at a loss to recall the day. My guess is we stayed home, did laundry, and relaxed. It was snowboard day II for Matt and Wayne. Wayne says it was the best snowboard day he’s had a Stevens. Again, I’ll leave that description to him. Otherwise, Thursday is blank to me. (After bugging Shirley, we finally figured it out…we took Sara to the zoo! I got to experience the Zoomazium for the first time.)
Friday, I had trips with sections of the Wooten clan. Wayne, Shirley, and Sara went to finish Xmas shopping. I took Matt, John, and Laura to the University of Washington. We drove around the campus and then parked by the Ave. We walked around Red Square, checked out campus info, saw Suzzallo library, and read about the Suzzallo ghost before Laura started wailing. As we left Suzzallo library, we got more smiles that expected. One woman commented that baby cries were unusual and welcome relief from the silence of the graduate library. John and Matt toured the Ave while I nursed Laura in the van. Then I mustered John and Matt to lunch at Blue C Sushi. It seems that if you’re going to be in Seattle, you should try coffee, sushi and thai food. Two out of three isn’t bad. Even at 2pm, we weren’t able to get seats at the conveyor belt. That dampened the experience a bit. I grabbed some California rolls (yummy), spicy Tuna for Matt, edamame, chicken katsu, and a cream puff. Matt chose a philly sushi roll (disappointing). The California rolls and chicken katsu were hits.
Friday part II…Pagliacci pizza, ’nuff said. Shirley and I explored Xmas lights with Laura. The Times has a list of good Xmas lights. I targeted 5-6 places. Olympic Manor was the best place. It had many and gorgeous lights. It was just difficult driving among cars with distracted drivers and pedestrians in the dark. It would have made a better walk. One place on 10723 Densmore (N turn off n’gate way) was great. It was full of homemade animaltronics. I think it will be a hit with Sara next year. Then I got ambitious. I wanted to see Candy Cane Lane off Ravenna Blvd. I had heard about it, but didn’t really know what it was about. Laura commenced crying for the 20 minute ride there. There was a huge line of cars, so I parked on a side street and nursed Laura again. It turned out to be a nice display, just not worth all the hastle (and not so interesting to Sara). It also is better for walking. So we headed back with a cranky baby. Still, the lights were beautiful.
Saturday we strolled through the Lochs. We saw a king fisher, but no salmon. Sara jumped on all the salmon stamped circles in the walkway. We had fish and chips at the Lock Spot in the dining room per Shirley’s tradition. I walked up from the Lochs with Laura to work off some holiday calories. All this time, I was taking care of Farley, J&C’s parrot.
I’ll end there for now. Xmas is a different entry. Life will shift again tomorrow with the Wootens leaving and the Powers taking up the second holiday act on Thursday.