I Don't Want A White Christmas!

Ahhhhh! Seattle doesn't deal well with snow. Some things you just don't really believe until you see it. So, last time I blogged, I was smitten by the romance of being snowed in and ecstatic to have a white Christmas. Um, not so much anymore! Between last Thursday's storm, and another one on Saturday, we had accumulated at least a foot of snow, if not more. That was enough!

The weather caused us to cancel the kids' Christmas Program on Sunday, rescheduling for this Sunday. Jon and I made it to church along with the 10-20 people who were crazy enough to come to each of three services. We usually have hundreds of people at each service! They pulled two rows of chairs up into the alter area, and we just sang carols on request with the piano, and the pastor gave a sermon from his chair, wearing his jeans, holiday sweater, and wool socks. It was intimate and memorable, at least.

Although the snow stopped after Sunday, only the main highways and roads get plowed here. What does that mean? Well, we haven't gotten mail delivery, or UPS packages including gifts from our families and a honeybaked ham for Christmas dinner. The garbage guys just quit and didn't pick up. NO ONE has a plow or shovel, so driveways and sidewalks and parking lots are a nightmare. I got up the huge hill to work, only to get stuck in the driveway. Last night at the grocery store, some poor woman took pitty on me and helped me pull my huge, heavy cart through the snow and ice to my parking spot.

Here are the Stefanski twins Jenna and Kaitlyn. A high point of the week was that I was able to be at their house on Monday to give them their Christmas gifts. Check out their new outfits. Mom said they look like candy canes! They also each received a princess phone. See the Ariel one in Kaitlyn's hand? It was nap time for Andre, but before he went to sleep he opened his Candy Land game and Spiderman sweatshirt.

Ok, so none of this is really the end of the world, but it started snowing again today, on Christmas Eve! It's been coming down like crazy all morning. I tried to go down the hill to Target this morning. When I was driving down the Sunset Hill cars coming up were sliding back down, so I hurried through Target, and got on 405 North to get off at Exit 6 to try to get home, but the hill up Edmonds was complete ice and no one was making it. I turned around and tried to get back on the highway, in the meantime sliding off the road on the on ramp, but by miracle alone straightened it out and got back on the road. Everyone was INCHING up the Sunset Hill and it is by sheer luck that I actually was able to make it home. SCARY! Ok, this is enough for me. Apparently, it isn't snowing in Redmond, because I can't convince Jon it's bad and he needs to come home!

Christmas Eve Day: Our Street

The other bummer in all of this is that I plan and lead a Children's Christmas Eve Worship service. We're scheduled to present a program called, "The Very Opinionated Chrismas Tree" tonight. We made an awesome tree costume, and several teenagers have learned and rehearsed the show. I'm pretty sure barely anyone will make it to church tonight, and we are already discussing just canceling church; on Christmas Eve can you believe that?! So once again, all our work and preparation will go to waste. BOO!

Gretchen and the Very Opinionated Christmas Tree! Trevor is inside!

All will not be lost if Jon actually makes it home from work for Christmas Eve and if his family makes it into Seattle from Michigan safely tomorrow afternoon. In the meantime, I'll try to look on the bright side and find the romance of being snowed in with my wonderful husband on our first Christmas together as husband and wife.

Our House 10am Christmas Eve Day

Next time you see a snow plow or a shovel. Thank God! Merry, Merry Christmas to all near and far. Our love to you today, and always!

Snow Day!

Jon and Nicole here, coming to you from our first official SNOW DAY in Seattle! Yesterday, almost all schools were closed and there wasn't even a flake of snow in the sky, but the warnings were worthy today! We woke up to freezing rain pelting our bathroom skylight, and soon after the snow began to fall. There's probably only a few inches, but ice underneath no doubt. Jon takes two major highways to work, one is closed, and the other is at a standstill. Everyone is abandoning their cars in the middle of the road! We're both staying at home. Jon never did figure out a way to get to work. I probably can make it up the hill to church eventually this afternoon. I have SO much to do! We've enjoyed lounging in bed, a french toast breakfast, working on Christmas cards, laundry, and making a pot of chili for dinner tonight so far today.

Jon insisting that I don't help him with the laundry. I have the best husband EVER!

Looks like more snow/ice/freezing rain for Saturday night and Sunday, which I am sure will make for a dramatic and stressful Sunday School Christmas program performance, which is scheduled for 11am Sunday morning. If you want to meet a state full of people that have no clue how to handle winter weather, move to Washington!

Oscar Meyer's First Snow

Yes. Those are people sledding in the STREET, just a block from our house.

A Painting Project

Look what I found! Pictures from the day the moving truck arrived at our new home in Washington. We were so excited to have our belongings so Jon's mom could start helping us unpack and settle in and we could all stop sleeping and sitting on the floor. Unfortunately, our gigantic dresser that Jon packed full was quite a challenge for even the strong, experienced moving guys to move up the stairs to our bedroom, and two holes were punched in the wall in the process. I couldn't blame those poor guys and was just thankful they managed to get the dresser upstairs to the bedroom. The moving company even paid us to cover the damage. In the midst of wedding craziness, we didn't do anything about the holes for the entire first year we lived in the house, but finally this fall I asked Jon to fix them, which turned into a much bigger project then we expected! Patching was no problem, but we soon realized we didn't have extra paint and we have no idea what the color and brand is to try and match it. You can see our effort to buy something similiar was pretty poor! I decided rather than try to match the color, which in the end would probably still be obvious that it wasn't quite right, that we should just paint the entire wall a new, bold complimentary color, so it looks like it was "on purpose", plus it would add a little pizazz to our little rental house. We decided to go for a warm, light, caramel brown, which we hoped would compliment the other earthtones used throughout the house. You can see our first choice of paint here. It was more peach, gold, baby poop brown than we had hoped for, so back to Lowe's it went. I would totally recommend buying paint from them! We hoped they would just be able to remix the paint in a darker shade, but instead they just took the bucket back and mixed us a whole new gallon. Awesome! Our second try was right on! I absolutely adore our brown wall, which sounds funny, but it's warm and bold and cozy. My wonderful husband was kind enough to tackle painting the most challenging wall in the house, balancing on a two story high ladder on the staircase. Hooray! Finally the patching and painting project is complete! You'll have to come see it in person to really appreciate how it turned out. We made a yummy homemade dinner of parmesean chicken with a nice bottle of wine to celebrate, and then it finally snowed for the first time this year! Look how beautiful! Not me, the snow! It was definitely a lazy day without a shower or contacts, our favorite! What a productive, fun, and romantic Saturday, although we wished we could have been with our families at Jon's parents' holiday open house! We're expecting another huge snow storm tomorrow, which will most likely bring chaos to our Wednesday night Advent activities and Christmas program rehearsal.

Meet The Stefanski's!

Last March, I received a phone call at work from a member of the congregation looking for a referral for a babysitter. Unfortunately, for liability reasons, I cannot suggest people to offer private childcare. Just because I think someone seems like a nice person and they hang around St. Matthew's, doesn't mean they aren't a child molester in their spare time; a sad, sad truth. The caller was Leya Stefanski. She and her husband Jason were looking to hire someone a few hours a week to act as a mother's helper and occasionally babysit their children, which include Andre who is now 3 years old and identical twin baby girls, Jenna and Kaitlyn, who are 18 months. Leya who was staying at home alone with her kids everyday was looking for some extra support and someone who would give her a little extra time to devote to her (amazing!) family photography business, Little Monkey Photography. She wanted someone experienced and competant, but also someone who wouldn't judge her parenting style or her messy house.

With moving debt and wedding expenses beginning to pile up at this point, I decided that although I couldn't refer anyone to Leya, that maybe I would be a good addition at the "Ski's" house a few hours a week. I would help her, get my baby fix, and make a little extra money. The rest is history! Ever since, I have spent Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon falling in love with the Stefanski children. Jason, Leya, and their extended family and friends have warmly welcomed both Jon and I including us in family birthday parties, summer bbqs, and even the kids' baptism. Leya even took some fantastic pictures of Jon and I for Christmas. Watch for your card in the mail, and we'll reveal more of her shots after the holidays!

On two occasions, Jon has helped me babysit for the family overnight. The last of which occurred last Saturday night. I'm so lucky to have married a man who is both skilled and passionate when it comes to little ones. Doesn't he look like he's having a great time? Despite the look on Jon's face, he really does enjoy it. We're playing parents for the evening again this Sunday, while Jason and Leya go to the ballet! The baby girls, Kaitlyn and Jenna, especially love to bat their beautiful blue eyes at Jon and cuddle in his lap. They are very identical and Jon struggles to tell them apart. Jenna wears gold earrings and Kaitlyn has silver, but he says he can't tell the difference! Luckily for him, they weren't dressed identically last weekend and Jenna had the barette in her hair. Andre also reported that, "Jon smells good". My hubby even tackled caring for the three kids on his own Sunday morning for a few hours after I left for work at church. From what I heard, he reasoned with a difficult three year old, made oatmeal, and changed diapers like a pro!

The Stefanski family is has become our family, and they are truly one of the things about Seattle that we enjoy the most. You will most definitely be hearing more about them!

The only downside is that both times we have babysat overnight, we seem to both catch horrible colds that leave us under the weather for the next week. Thus, we have gone through boxes and boxes of kleenex and spent the past week looking like this most evenings... Great birthcontrol, RIGHT!?!?!

Bundt Cake Bake-Off

St. Matthew's is having it's first annual "Bundt Cake Bake-Off" tonight as a part of dessert after the first Wednesday night Advent meal of the season. The idea was born by a woman who volunteers in the church office and brings a bundt cake for the staff every Tuesday. I'm not a big fan of baking, but someone signed me up anyway. I'm especially not a fan of bundt cakes! Too much pressure to keep it in one piece! I decided if I was going to do it, I might as well do something fancy and FROM SCRATCH! So I tried a recipe for Heavenly Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Cake with raspberry orange sauce.

"Was there a murder in here?" -Jon

See the chocolate splatters everywhere, the wall, the trivets, the bread bag? I was really proud of myself for keeping it to a minimum. :) I told Jon the problem is that we don't have the fancy stand mixer, so I have to use the hand beaters.

The finished product!

So, the pan was too full and it rised higher than the edge, so when we turned it over it did crack in places, but luckily the fancy topping disguises the flaws well. The recipe said to bake for 75 minutes, and I only left it in for 60, but I still think it was too long. Maybe I'll make this again...with a chocolate cake mix! I'll let you know if I win first prize!

The beginning of Advent not only means baked goods but also the beginning of rehearsals for the Children's Christmas Program that I direct, which means the beginning of my insanity! Stay posted...

Oh Christmas Tree!

Here she is in all her glory! The VanderMeulen's Christmas tree. It really has been fun to blend all of our ornaments and decorations together. Jon has so many meaningful ones from his past. I'm hoping my mom will pass down some of my childhood favorites soon too! I love that our tree can be seen from outside through our big front window. Hooray for the holidays.

Moving On

My initial intent with this blog was to make it somewhat of a complete record, the story of Jon and I from our first beginning together and the details of everything from our first date to our big wedding day and everything in between. However, as I try to document how far we've come, I seem to be missing the breaking news of our every day life. Jon has encouraged me to dive in and just start typing about where we are today, trusting that most of our family and friends who are far away, our primary intended viewing audience for this blog, already know how it all began. So moving on...you can see the first update of our most recent adventures below!

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and dawn
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return we con only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game.

A Day of Thanks a Weekend of Fun!

Turkey Day festivities began on Wednesday night with my debut performance as the "desert flower" in St. Matthew's Thanksgiving Eve Worship drama. I SEWED that cactus costume myself, and I don't sew, so as you can see, I was pretty proud. Jon recently took the time to be trained on the sound board church and did some research on his own to figure out the fancy light board that no one new how to work, and was able to help run the lighting for the play.

We have SO many thing to be thankful for this year, like our beautiful wedding and officially becoming husband and wife! One of the other things on the top of our list of thanks, is our kitten, Oscar Meyer. We adopted him from the Humane Society almost exactly one year ago, the day after Thanksgiving 2007. Jon absolutely adores the cat, but he swears it's only because he's really a puppy. I have to admit he does have quite a few dog like qualities, including letting us tie him to a post out in the backyard, coming when he's called, and always looking for a lap to cuddle on. We feel so blessed to have his affection and companionship.

We celebrated Thanksgiving Day with our dear Seattle friends Gretchen and Ryan. Maybe you heard her sing at our wedding in September! We stuffed and roasted a 21 pound turkey and provided the wine, and they brought tons of yummy side dishes and dessert.

There was so much food it barely all fit on the table! With only four for dinner, there were a lot of leftovers, but we like it that way! Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, red cabbage, asparagus, crescent rolls, and cranberry salad, plus the best pumpkin pie I've ever tasted. It was exciting to use our beautiful new dishes, silverware, and table linens too. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing games, Catch Phrase and Cranium, and we watched the movie, Wal-E. It was such a tasty relaxing day with such wonderful friends. We definitely missed family, but if we couldn't be with you, this wasn't a bad way to go!

Jon and I rarely get two days off in a row, so we decided to take advantage of the time and made a short overnight trip to Yakima Valley, Washington. Our Mission: wine tasting! We got to drive east over the mountains, which I had never done since I flew to Washington when we moved, and it was neat to see the different landscape, very desert, desolate, and bare compared to the lush coast. We visited ten different tasting rooms in two days, turned our teeth purple, and purchased 11 bottles of wine to bring back. Success!

Above you can see "Wine Glass Cellars", one of our favorite stops last weekend. The tasting rooms are either literally in barns or strip malls in Yakima. The wine industry is really starting to tap into the tourist industry in Washington, but you can see compared to what we saw in Napa on our honeymoon they still have a ways to go to catch up.

Here I am in front of the fancy buildings, fountains, and gorgeous vineyards of Robert Mondavi Vineyards in California. Look at his barrel cellar where he insists everything is lined to perfection creating a beautiful and impressive photo opportunity for guests!

Wait...there's even more! Our weekend fun wasn't even over. We came home on Saturday night, and found enough energy to put of the Christmas tree. Hooray! It was work at church for me as usual on Sunday morning, and then our usual Sunday afternoon nap, and more work at the decorations. On Sunday Evening, we went to see a band in concert, Over The Rhine with Gretchen and Ryan, one of there favorites. The show was great and the venue was fantastic! The Triple Door had dinner theatre style seating and we dined on yummy Asian fusion food. I think we'll be back someday!

Phew! We did make it to Monday, and it was back to the grind. Definitely not fun to get out of bed and go to work after such a wonderful weekend!