Zoolights on New Years Eve

The last few days have been pretty crazy, so I'm a little behind on my posts. On New Years Eve Walter and I went to Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma to see Zoolights.

Zoolights is a dazzling light display they do at Pt. Defiance every Christmas season. I think we went the first or second year they did it (19 years ago) and have been several times since. I highly recommend it. Of course it's especially fun with little kids, but even as adults we just love it.

This year's display included a large rainbow, a representation of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, some spectacularly lit trees, and to go with the zoo theme many animal scenes - both static and animated.

I took a bunch of pictures including the one above. If you would like to see more, click on the photo for a slide show. By the way, depending on your screen resolution you may find it easier to see everything on your screen if you press F11 for full screen. I know that helps for me.

I'm Going to Be a Great-Aunt!

We got a wonderful surprise in my sister Petra's Christmas card this year. She writes that my nephew Roberto (we call him Boyboy) and his wife (they married earlier this year) are expecting a little one in June.

Congratulations Boyboy and Roxanne!! We are really happy for you. I can't wait to meet the newest member of the family.

Greetings from Jim, Kristina and Elena

Here is another of the wonderful pictures I got in my pre-Christmas mail. I meant to post this one quite some time ago, and the busyness of the season slowed me down.

Not only did Jim, Kristina and Elena send along the greeting card with this photo, but they also did one of those creative family newsletters. I love holiday newsletters. There was something in this one about tater tot casserole. I might have to get that recipe.

Thanks Jim and Kristina!

A Few Pictures

Last night we had a good time visiting our friends Wayne, Michelle and Nikka. This picture shows Wayne, Nikka and Chip (aka "Beastie" the dog).

You can click on the photo to see it larger, and then you will be able to use the Next and Prev links to get to more pictures from the evening and also a few pictures from Christmas when we visited my sister Jozi.

Nikka and Family

As promised, here are some pictures I got in the mail as part of a Christmas greeting from my friends Wayne, Michelle and Nikka. You can click on the photos to see them larger.

Nikka is the little Christmas angel, and Wayne and Michelle are her Mom and Dad. What a beautiful family.

Thanks for the pictures!

Snow Bunny

This is my little friend Elena. She and her folks live up in North Bend where they get the real snow. Last week's weather made for some great playtime in the snow. Thanks to her mom Kristina for sharing these pics! You can click the pictures to see them larger.

Thanksgiving With Pictures

Clay and I had a really nice Thanksgiving spent with my Mom, my sister Jozi and friend Colette.

It was our plan to go out to eat with Mom and Jozi in Olympia. A week or so before Thanksgiving I just happened to learn in a phone conversation with my friend Colette (who lives in Lynnwood, a little north of us) that she was also planning to make a trek south for Thanksgiving. Colette has family in Nisqually, which is just about 5 miles from where my Mom lives in Lacey.

Those of us who have driven the Seattle to Olympia stretch on Thanksgiving know that it can easily take twice as long to drive that distance on Thanksgiving as it does any other day of the year. Colette and I decided it would be fun to carpool. Colette generously offered to drive us in her cushy new van. It turned out great!

As is not uncommon, the weather was quite wet for the drive down. We had one little scare when a car two lanes over suddenly veered out of its lane and hit a car near us. Thankfully we were not involved in the accident. We could only speculate about what happened - was it a hydroplaning mishap? Or did the driver of the errant car have some sort of medical emergency? We hope and pray everyone in both cars is okay.

Colette's dinner plans were later in the day than ours, so we got to have some visiting time with her at my Mom's before heading out to eat. Jozi brought pumpkin pie and we had a little pre-meal dessert. Colette helped us take some pictures. If you click on the photo of Clay and me you can use the Next and Prev links to see the rest of the photos from the day.

Colette went off to her family celebration and Clay and I went out to a local restaurant with Mom and Jozi. The restaurant we chose didn't take reservations, but we were fortunate not to have to wait too long before being escorted to a table. The food was good, and we all ate a little too much. Isn't that required on Thanksgiving?

Colette picked us up at Mom's in the evening and we headed back home. All in all it was a fun and satisfying day. Thank you to those who shared it with us!

Who's Crabby??

My friend and co-worker Angie is a very talented photographer. At our office each year we have a silent auction to benefit United Way. Employees donate items to be auctioned, many of them made by the donor.

This year's auction was on Friday. I purchased several things including a set of notecards which Angie made from photographs she took at Pike Place Market. There were many beautiful pictures in the set of cards from flowers to fruits and vegetables. But for some reason this one caught my eye.

Can you say Yumm!!