Christmas in Seattle 2013

The kitties have had an interesting year with new kitty Obsidian (Siddy for short) becoming a lap & snuggle hog, and throwing a wrench between siblings Ebony & Onyx. The boys are best buds now and will play and cuddle, but Ebony is only just beginning to tolerate Siddy a full year after he moved in. Siddy likes to tease her, but she overreacts, causing crazy loud and sometimes destructive chases through the whole house. Here’s hoping for household harmony in the near future, but at least they were all sharing the sunshine in the window for about 15 minutes while I could run and grab the camera for this photo!

Thankfully I’m overall healthy, but this year I’ve made it through plantar fasciitis heel pain, a broken toe, and a foot sprain so bad I had to wear a fancy removable walking boot cast for 3 weeks and wasn’t fully healed for about 3 months. Then after I had recovered from those, summer Cinema Brittahytta movie nights, and Halloween chaos, I tried implantable contact lens eye surgery in November, which has left me in glasses for a couple months while waiting until I can have LASIK that will hopefully bring me to acceptable vision without external aids. That would be a dream come true since I was 6 years old, so please wish me luck!

We wish everyone a happy holiday season, and may you have a fabulous 2014!

We spent Christmas 2013 in Seattle again by Grandma’s request, which required me driving to my parents’ house late Saturday night, then getting up at 4am to get to the Sac airport for our flight at dawn…ugh! I tried taking a family sunrise selfie, but Mom had to stand on her tiptoes and Dad had to scrunch down for us all to fit in the same photo! haha…

My grandma is the Clouston side of my family, but it was fun to some of the Peterson cousins on the 22nd, especially the kids who are growing up so fast. I played a couple carols on the electric organ while little Alan and Abby sang along, then they each insisted on a solo turn on Rudolph, with Abby even doing a Santa voice in the middle like I did. I think she might become a diva! 😉

It wasn’t a full house, since Carol & Doug were in the desert, and Christine & her family were in California, but Monte’s family came from Bend for Christmas. I snapped some fun photos especially of 99-year-old Grandma having a great time, like insisting on having pomegranate martinis this year. I know I inherited my party proclivities from her! 😉

Christmas Eve is the Scandinavian tradition, with opening presents after the big family dinner. Since my dad and grandma both love it, my grandma splurged on lutefisk for Christmas Eve. My mom and grandma spent the afternoon of the 23rd making fresh lefse to go with the lutefisk. For those of us who are not lutefisk fans, my parents hauled a frozen salmon in their luggage from my dad’s Alaska fishing trip last summer.

Lutefisk is cod that was preserved in lye (usually sold these days with the lye already soaked out so no one accidentally poisons themselves), boiled to mush in cheesecloth while it stinks up the whole house, then served with melted butter. It’s a big joke that either you love it or hate it. My dad and grandma love it so we had it for Christmas Eve dinner. Even my dad agrees it stinks while boiling. 😉 The only flavor I taste is the butter, but the texture is like wet paper napkins or fish jello, so I only took a token portion on my plate. 😉 At least we all enjoy the lefse, like a thin potato tortilla eaten rolled up with butter and sugar.

Josh & Alex saved most of their presents to open Christmas morning so we watched them have a great time. Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays as much as we enjoyed ours!