Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year. The only bummer was that we did so much driving over a 4-day period that it made it hard to relax and enjoy any extended period of time with family.

On December 23rd, we packed up Lucy, Sally, and all of our gifts in our Prius and we headed to Portland. It was the first time Grandpa and Grandma Dog met their new granddog, Sally. We celebrated Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve. The day was full of presents, food, and great company. We were spoiled rotten. It was more fun to watch my family open the presents we got for them and it was so fun to watch Alexis open presents and celebrate her first Christmas. Early on Christmas, we left Lucy and Sally in the wonderful care of my parents and we got in the car and drove from Portland to Spokane. We arrive around 3 pm and headed to Clark's grandma's house to celebrate Christmas with his family. His parents, grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins were there. After dinner and presents, we were exhausted and went to bed. And as luck would have it, Clark gave me his nasty head cold he had the week before. Ugh. The next day, we met Clark's parents for breakfast and then headed back, well...sort of. We drove to Bellevue for my best friend Kirsten's engagment party, then back to Tacoma. The driving was over yet. I had the week off between Christmas and New Year's and on Monday morning, I got in the car and drove to Portland to pick up the doggies. After 4 days, we logged in over 1000 miles. We will never do that again. It is hard not living in the same city as our parents and immediate family and while we want to spend the holidays with our loved ones, it really sucks to spend so much time in the car. We will have to rotate which family we see for specific holidays and at some point, we will want to start having our own family traditions at our house, so maybe it is time for our families to come to us!!!

I love wrapping gifts and loved making each one pretty with ribbons.
My favorites are my red and silver snowflake paper with matching ribbon and snowflake adornment. Almost too pretty to open!

I also loved wrapping with a jingle bell.

Vanessa and Alexis in matching footie pajamas

Our gift to Bryan - a retro Minnesota Twins Kirby Puckett jersey

Alexis loves Lucy

Bryan, Vanessa, and Alexis (in her cute, new monkey hat)

Our niece, Alexis, surrounded by all of her gifts for her FIRST Christmas!!

New Addition to the Peanut Gallery - Meet Sally

Clark and I have only been married a few months, but we expanded our family. No, I am not pregnant...but we adopted another puppy! Lucy has been such a great dog that we couldn't resist getting another one. We have talked about it many times, but never found the right puppy or somehow talked ourselves out of it. However, we came across this cute little yellow lab mix and we just knew she was part of our family.

Meet Sally (named afte Sally Brown from the Peanuts comic strip), our 8-week-old yellow lab mix. We think she is mixed with Pitt Bull Terrier, German Shepard, and Sharpei. She is a shelter dog, so who knows. But whatever she is, she is darn cute.

We brought her home on the Friday before Christmas - Merry Christmas to us! Lucy wasn't sure what to make of her...she wagged her tail with excitement, but after the first day, she seemed annoyed that Sally was still here. Sally is snuggly and very loving, but man, she has a lot of energy! We are reminded how much work puppies are with the housetraining, crating, and constant attention they need. Getting Sally also made us appreciate Lucy that much more...Lucy is such an independent, mellow dog. Sally is a puppy that needs to be taken out every few hours to potty when we are home and can only sleep 4-5 hours at night before whining and needing to go outside. Needless to say, Clark and I are very tired in this first week of parenthood.

Apple Cup

This year, we decided to make the trek to Pullman, WA for the Apple Cup. I had never been to a WSU home football game and was excited to see the game and hang out with friends, but not really excited for the cold weather. Clark informed me that the "Cougar Cruiser" would be leaving at 4 AM on Saturday so we could arrive by mid-morning, with plenty of time to tailgate before the big game. I am SOOO not a morning person, but since I didn't have to drive, it was fine by me. I packed a pillow and a blanket and slept most of the 6-hour drive. We arrived with time to buy some new Cougar attire at The Bookie and Clark showed me around the campus. I have to admit, it is pretty nice.

We met up with friends who traveled over in an RV. We tailgated in the RV parking lot and the drinking began. Despite the cold temps and snow on the ground, it was a beautifullly sunny day, so it was great weather to be outside.

The game itself, was hard to watch. The Cougars held in there, but ultimately came up short and lost to the Huskies. It was harder for me to see Clark so disappointed. At least we got to sit next to our friends, Mike and Heidi, during the game and were spoiled by sitting in the Presidential box. All you can drink and food. And it was covered, so were shielded from the chilly weather.

We ended up staying the night at a cheap hotel in Moscow, ID that night. Clark wanted to drive home after the game, but since we had pre-paid for the hotel room, we stayed and got a good night's rest before making the drive home early in the morning. Well, here's to hoping for a Cougar win next year in Seattle! GO COUGS!

Jeff, his girlfriend, Todd and two of his friends, Clark, me before the game just outside Martin Stadium

Forest and Jenny (who is a Husky, but we love her anyway)

Me and Clark at the game

One of the highlights of the game was sitting next to 0ur friends, Mike and Heidi Plaster

Mike and Heidi enjoying the food in the Presidential Box

"The Grabber" - ice cream made at the WSU creamer sandwiched between two oatmeal, chocolate chip cookies