Winter Wonderland!

It's beautiful! It's amazing! It's different!

The backyard... hmm maybe it's time to go in the hot tub!

Suddenly my laundry room feels like a warm coat room in a ski lodge.

The weather outside is frightful (yay) and the fire is so soo delightful!

Neighbors are saying "hi" and everyone is a kid sledding down the biggest hill around.

My mom made home made cinnamon rolls.

The nights are silent with falling snow.

B makes a wicked vodka tonic with tons of lime around dinner time and we chill out.

We have a mini piano (pictured behind Muppet here) that plays carols and D presses the button and dances around the tree. She can't stay away from the Christmas tree. She knows she's not supposed to be in the living room by herself (sorry Elaine, your gift is almost unwrapped!) so when I go in to get her, D hops over to her child-sized piano and starts pounding away. We sing to the mini piano and we look at the ornaments and lights on the tree. Last night Dahlia snuck behind the tree and scraped her face on a branch. The battle scars of Christmas.

The snow smells cold!

The Christmas shopping has grinded (ground?) to a halt, but since I'm a planner, I'm set. B is risking a drive into town for gifts to put under the tree. Even if he makes it in his FJ, the stores will probably be closed. Our Starbucks up on the hill never ever closes and it's closed today. Lucky for us, the QFC has a Starbucks inside. Our lives are simple and getting coffee is an important part of B's routine. I just like caffeine. While we were at QFC, we watched as people tried to plow their grocery carts through a foot of snow. I wonder how the Eskimos bring their groceries in.

My beverage du jour is a grande, split shot, light whip, peppermint mocha. It's like drinking chocolate toothpaste, but I like to mix my drink selection up.

I've cleaned the house, prepped the guest rooms for Brody and Em. Brody was supposed to arrive tonight at midnight, but we're not even sure if SeaTac is letting planes land. He said that if he gets in by Wednesday, we'll be good.

Since I've started writing, the snow has started falling in flurries again. I am so mad at myself for not having a sled! D would totally love to go sledding! So much for being prepared. We have tons of groceries, I've been feeding the adorable little birds out in the yard. They hop right onto the feeder while I'm filling it now. Must be the only game in town.

I got an email from my auntie Pam on Vashon Island and she was filling a hummingbird feeder and a hummingbird came right up to her.

Hungry Hummingbird and my Auntie Pam

Emelyn arrives on Tuesday. This girl is from Seattle and moved to Colorado for college. She loves mountains, outdoorsy stuff and said she'd never live anywhere she couldn't see the mountains. Then she got a job in Texas. Houston, we have a problem, there aren't any mountains (that I know of) in Texas. So, when Em heard that we have over a foot, she was jealous. Don't worry Em, it will still be here if you can be home for the holidays. Looks like we're having a whiiiite Christmaaaass.... just like the onnnnes we used to knowwww...

The house is ready for visitors and I don't have anything else left to do. I guess it's time to work on one of the many projects I've been procrastinating, scrap booking.

I am still thinking of getting some chickens in the spring. What a riot that would be! D would dig it. Mups would be on full terrier alert and B would want to kill me.

Chickens, cuddly and delicious!

Making Cookies at Granny and Papa's

Last week, Dahlia was invited to make Christmas sugar cookies up at Granny and Papa's house. Elaine does this annually with her grand kids.

At this point, D doesn't have any cousins to speak of, so it's nice to "borrow" Elaine's grand kids.

The big girls made the cookies and we arrived just in time to frost some (eat some), play out in the snow, read a book on Granny's lap and drive home safely.

Frost some cookies. Eat some cookies.

The big girls.

Me and Dahli "Brrr"!

Play out in the snow!

Thanks for the awesome playhouse Papa!

Thanks for the sugar cookies Granny!

Still Thinking About Up & Leaving

My summer reading has consisted of books on reincarnation and traveling/ living in France. It's an interesting combination, but it works for me.

For the first time in my life, I am now perfectly comfortable with my spirituality. This is a touchy topic for me, as I grew up in private, Christian schools and was always trying to make sense of the world through the Christian lens. No one could ever answer when I asked, "What about the dinosaurs?! Were they real? Because if they are real, (and this was a black or white issue for me) then Christianity is not!"

As I attended Seattle University (Jesuit/Catholic), my curiosity resurfaced.

I contacted Uncle Peter, an older friend who grew up in Seattle's suburbs in a middle class, Caucasian home and became a swami at an early age. A swami? What the heck is a swami?

Wiki says:
Swami (Sw.) (Sanskrit: स्वामी, Svāmi, [sʋáːmi]) is primarily a Hindu honorific title, for either males or females. It is derived from Sanskrit and means "He who knows and is master of himself", "owner of oneself", or "free from the senses". It is a title added to one's name to emphasize learning and mastery of Yoga, devotion to the gods, and devotion to the swami's spiritual master (a guru or another swami).

This is a Caucasion Swami, but it's not Uncle Peter

Uncle Peter wore an orange sheet and tried to help, but his teachings were a little too abstract for me. He gave me a book on meditation, which I never had the time to read since I was an English major. I might fish it out now and see how it jives with my new beliefs.

To get back to my point... I think I had one... a soul's raison de etre is to learn new things with each lifetime and relationship, try to contribute to the well-being of mankind and to become enlightened. Part of that is learning how to deal with hardship, grief and learning to forgive.

This kind of frees me up from my previous life goal, which was to be PERFECT.

I was done being perfect when I had Dahlia. I did "perfect" and it worked out fine. I checked the boxes and I was happy, but was I fulfilled? Now I want to learn stuff. I don't want perfect to be an end-all for my daughter. My new goal is to provide her with opportunities for eternal learning.

Learn more, do more, be more... not have more, accumulate more and wait for retirement.

Now, onto the most recent book I read; "C'est la Vie" by Suzy Gershman. I know, cheesy title, but I laughed my ass off. It's about considering the typical life cycle of an American and then making a new life in France. As a former resident of France, while studying abroad for 5 months in 2001, I could relate. The French make everything more difficult, simply because they can. Naturally, it's a wonderful place and I'm considering moving back.

Here's Crazy Caffeinated Alyssa talking again, but I'm thinking that it would be great to live in France, Japan and Australia all for a couple years at least, before Dahlia hits high school. Then, we return to Seattle, enroll her in a private school (cuz that's what I want for my kid) and chill for a while.

What about maintaining a US residence? What about the dog and bird? Visas? Paying for all this madness? Uhh, according to my psychic, "ask for things from the angels and they will come". I'd better have a rock solid back-up plan.

In other news:

We are going to Orlando in a couple weeks. B will already be there, so I have the "opportunity" to travel alone with my toddler for the first time. It's a six hour flight. We decided to get two seats in coach, rather than one in first class. D will have her car seat and I will have my own space. I haven't found any real information on how to travel with an 18-month-old, but people do it all the time. I'm learning a lot lately... as they say, necessity is the mother of invention.

After a few days rubbing elbows with fabulous folks in the wakeboarding and water skiing industry in Orlando, we'll take a much needed and well-deserved vacation in hurricane central (my idea), the Bahamas.

I can't wait to plop my little water-loving toddler into the kiddie pools at Atlantis! The pools are wide and shallow. We opted for a kitchenette and washer/dryer in our unit, so we don't have to eat out and we get to have clean clothes! The best part yet; the hotel has babysitters and while I was always afraid that my parents would leave my siblings and I with a hotel sitter, I am looking forward to it! Husband and I deserve to relax. Daytime with Dahlia is awesome, but it's fun to wear a pretty dress and not have her on my hip, pulling my neckline down and looking into my top. Thanks kid.

I'm going to hire a photographer to come to the hotel and take family pictures of us on our vacation. B doesn't know this, so it will be a surprise, even though my big secret is now posted forever on the Internet.

Dahlia is still napping, so I guess I'll keep spilling the beans.

Since my little sis didn't come up to Seattle this summer (boo!) Dahlia and I are going down to see her in Houston in October! I have been wanting to go visit her since Christmas and now that I feel comfortable taking D along, we're going. My dad has decided to join us, so that will make traveling much easier.

Damn this economy and damn the housing prices in Seattle. It's a buyers market, which isn't good for us.

oh, hey. It's raining. Must be Augtober.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

I'm not one of those people who always complain about the weather.

I talk about the weather often, not in an "I don't know what else to talk about" kind of way, but more in an "am I going to get drenched in this sweatshirt?" kind of way.

Seattle weather reporters don't complain when it's 70 degrees and clear. If there's anything other than that going on, then it's too rainy, too hot, too cold, too snowy, too windy...

Seattle natives expect overcast clouds and rain, so whenever there is a variation, we're happy. The weather reporters are typically transplants and constantly hold out for the same weather they got "back home" (wherever that is).

I don't complain, or at least I try not to. I'll scorch in the sun and relish the sting on my back after a couple of hours at the lake. When I can see my breath in the air, I'll bundle up in my favorite cozy sweater. I admit, I started wearing my knee high rain boots casually this spring, since it was so very wet. I hate cold, wet feet. No fun at all.

So here we are in the early suimmer. One day away from July and finally, we have some hot weather! Everyone is out at the lakes and pools, anywhere they can go to cool off. Few Seattleites have air conditioning, so sometimes a walk in the mall, or jaunt over to Starbucks for some A/C is in order. Not only that, we can get a nice, iced beverage.

I took a photo of our thermometer yesterday at 130 degrees. Wow! Watch out for those Seattle summers. Quick everybody, move to California!