Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas to all my family and friends, may your holidays be filled with magic and lots of love and memories.

Christmas in Seattle

Roger and I at the hotel before leaving to go to a Christmas party. The party would be well attended, mostly people I did not know, but still fun. The event was a party for all the Liquid Concrete people, whom Roger works with, along with a fund raiser for the heartbeat for warriors organization.
The setting for the party was at the 909 Coffee and Wine bar in Burien, Washington. KC aka Liquid Concrete made arrangements for a shuttle to bring us to the party and back to our hotel. The Christmas lights and garland, the music set the mood for this celebration.
The restaurant was closed for this private party. It was billed as a Liquid Concrete Christmas party/ benefit for the heartbeat warriors organization. I had not heard of them before this, it is on our list of providing donations to from now on. Have you heard of them? Check them out.
My choice for dinner was Sambuca prawns, oh my, I had to ask for a spoon to get every morsel of this entree. I paired it with a moscato d'Asti wine from perrone, Italy. Um!
The music was awesome. KC on sax, along with his brother Steve Sullivan on piano, formerly playing with such greats as, Seals and Crofts, Dionne Warwick, Marilyn McCoo and The Pointer Sisters to list just a few. JV Collier on bass, also a long list of great musical artists he has played with. On vocal was Sunny Wilkinson, one incredible voice. Stuart Nyren on drums, whom we have heard at previous parties. I would say KC knows how to bring a great group of musicians together. Smooth Jazz was the music of the evening.
My desert for the night was Affogato, (espresso, gelato and whip cream) a perfect ending for the night.
Roger and Larry Davis, Larry is in charge of the road repair department of Liquid Concrete. That moss looking stuff that you see on some of our major highways and bridges, yep that is Liquid Concrete.
KC, the man in charge of putting on this event. Although this is blurry, I still wanted to post it. KC has a heart of gold and knows how to put on a party, bringing together some wonderful people. Thank you KC was putting on one incredible party.
After the party it was time for "Sweet Dreams." We both slept in until 10:00 am, which is unheard of for us these days.
In order for Sunday morning was this Maple Spiced Coffee. It was smooth with just the right amount of sweetness. Do you have any special holiday getaways? I think I wouldn't mind doing a getaway just before Christmas every year, even just for one night.

Celebrating The Holidays

The Muma household was all decked out for the holidays, I love this time of the year, as soon as I walk in my home after being gone all day, the holiday lights go on, jammies next and then just ahhhh comes into play. I will leave everything up until the end of January, as I have several activities in January of which I love to share with my family and friends. Enjoy the view!
These lights went on the weekend before Thanksgiving to be ready for turning on Thanksgiving night.
A wind storm came in with 66 mile an hour winds, so I had to re-think my sidewalk area, as I lost a lantern holder, that held three lanterns due to the storm. Change is good, it gets the creativity flowing.



I have chosen to have a tall slim tree, love it, it is artificial and works really well for us. I add some fresh greens to bring out the Christmas smells.

As you can see I lean towards a more primitive theme in my decorating, that carries on to my table as well.
My holiday dishes came from Meir and Frank many years ago, this was my first time using plate chargers, I am thinking that I really like this look. How about you?
We always get a family shot at the table, it was so nice to be able to have all the kids at our same table, a small group for us this year. Heather and Jason came earlier in the month, to avoid the holiday travel snarls, that always seems to happen. We missed them dearly, you'll see later in this post, how we were able to see them on that day after all.


Here we are using my lap top with skpe, talking with Heather and her family while they are in Montana and we are here in Brush Prairie, Washington. The technology so amazes me.
Jordan and I sharing some olive time.
Each one of my girls received one of these from me, now we all have one.
Jennifer and Julie enjoying some down time, what were they talking about? Secrets? This is a really good photo of them together.
My son-in-law Jeremy enjoying some I- phone time, notice the log cabin quilt, it is one I made over 12 years ago, it is one of my favorites.
A little wine and some candle ambiance. Um!
I love receiving Christmas cards and most certainly send them out, that is close to 100 of them, it has been a tradition since I got married 39 years ago. Do you keep up that tradition?

A silver angel, a gift from a friend, she adorned my tree perfectly.
Love this heart with all it's sparkle.


Now is the time for some relaxing and enjoying some tea. Happy New Year Everyone!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

Getting Ready for The Holidays

Getting ready for the holidays, had Roger and I out getting the garland on the fence, hanging the Christmas lights on the house. With the whole family getting together right after Thanksgiving, the lights and some decorations had to be up. Heather and Jason and the babies would be traveling over the three mountain passes to get to us for a week long visit. Heather's sisters would be getting their homes ready for Christmas as well, our sort of pre- Christmas with Heather. Our week was full of activities, of which I plan to share on my blog, but in my mind I have to do this is some order, so you are getting a little smitten of some of what has been going on around here.
Here I am getting the lighted garland on the picket fence, I love it when the snow falls on the day I am to hang the garland, it just sets the mood for the holidays, don't you think? This was the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I remember all those years in Hood River, Oregon, when we would always have some sort of snow on Thanksgiving day, setting the mood for Christmas to come.
Our holiday season started off with a great experience, my first 5K walk, and what better way to start your holiday, there were about 1200 people for this event, I just can't imagine one with many thousands of people, yikes!
Kristina here with me, is one of my co-workers, she has been a real source of inspiration to get me moving, she has some high expectations for me, I just keep saying, I will only be walking, she runs marathons, walking is my choice of exercise, I keep telling her.
This was our first 5K walk together, Yahoo!! Baby it was cold, thanks to walking and Roger's very warm down vest I kept very warm

After the Turkey Trot, Roger and I raced home, cleaned up, then went to the Senior Baker's for dinner. This was the year our girls do this holiday with their in-laws, we were invited to Jennifer's in-laws. Thank you Tim and Janet.
All of us women working in the kitchen getting the Thanks Giving dinner prepared. Janet, Apolina, Jennifer, Michelle and myself. This week went so fast, getting ready for Heather's family to come, it felt like a whirl wind of activities.
Heather's family getting to come right after Thanksgiving and just before Christmas, created a lot of family bonding time. There is more to post on our activities, I will just start here to begin with. What a great photo of ALL my Grandchildren. I was so pleased to get this photo.
Our sweet Talea, she was determined she was going to go for a ride on Papa's four wheeler, so the rule is any of the kids have to wear helmets, so if you look closer she has a helmet over her hat. Cute!
Jennifer having some girlie time with Talea, Jennifer has three boys and wants a girl really bad, so when she gets around her two nieces she spoils them to pieces.
These Trojan soldiers were a hit with my grandsons, you would of thought I found a gold mine. Honestly I did not really know what I had found at a garage sale this last summer. anyway this grandma made some brownie points with these boys.
My bribe to get the family photo and all the grandchildren together for a photo was fresh baked cookies. I think it worked.
The extended Muma family. This was a milestone to get everyone in one photo. Yahoo.