Christmas in Seattle {part 2}

We included in our Christmas plans a trip down to Seattle to see friends.  We loaded up a rental car with snacks and writing material in hand, and headed South.

Our first stop was the Heaviland's home to see my dear friend, Jessie, and her family, who graciously hosted us for the days we were there.  The kids picked up where they had left off when the Heavilands paid us a special visit in 2012.  Time with this wonderful family is always a fun blessing and rich source of encouragement.

We spent a morning at the coolest energy-burning warehouse I've ever been to!  Beautiful Jessie was taking care of her growing twins (due in March!) while the rest of us jumped all around her.

It was fun to re-visit some places I have memories from while living in Seattle.  Rooke and I fed the camel and reindeers at this nursery four years ago.

We also got to share in the Heaviland's annual Downton Day where we spent some time acting as tourists in Seattle's downtown streets all decked out for Christmas.

This entire thing is made entirely of edible products and takes the idea of a gingerbread house to a whole new level!  This one was Rooke's favorite of the six that were on display in the lobby of the Sheraton Hotel.

  Jessie had the perfect plan for our time together in Seattle.  I cherished every minute I got to spend with my beautiful friend.  

Walking around Greenlake lit by luminaries topped off with Chipotle burritos was a great night!

I was thankful for a chance to catch up with my life-long friend, Brit.  We met in sixth grade, but at this point I consider that to be life-long!  She was my first friend when we moved to Oregon and I'm still grateful for her friendship.

When we lived in Seattle, the community group we were a part of felt a lot like family.  We lived two doors down from the Hurt Family, who hosted the group each week, and you could often find my bunch of Paynes hanging out with the Hurts.  Sarah graciously hosted a happy hour in her home so we could get together like we used to on Tuesday nights.  Except this time, instead of just Sarah's three kids and our two kids going to sleep upstairs, there were fourteen little munchkins!  A movie was in order so the adults could catch up!

We put our kids in their pajamas and kept them up late because it was too hard to end the night with goodbye.  Catching up with friends in Seattle was refreshing for our souls.     

Christmas in Canada {part 1}

The flight over felt like a breeze.  The plane was mostly empty, so our five plus my mom literally had multiple rows to spread out on!  We flew during our daytime, and the kids were ecstatic to have their own personal screen  with shows and movies to choose from.  Add snacks, a few meals, and Bridgette finally taking a nap and we did pretty good making our way from London to Vancouver where Uncle Scott was waiting for us at the airport.

One of the things I was looking forward to most on this trip was meeting my two nephews for the first time!  My sister claims that little Leo was a rough baby for the first few months, but you would never believe it from the chilled out, happy, smiling boy we got to know!  He is precious, and Bridgette might even love him more than I do.  She was infatuated with him - a little too much sometimes!

I love, love, loved the time I got to spend in my sister's home with her family.  Yes, it was a bit chaotic with six (seven, once my brother's family arrived) kids ages five and under running around!  But getting to do normal day to day stuff with she and Scott was so great.  Plus, Aubyn always makes me laugh!  She's such a great mom and I was encouraged by how engaged and patient she is with her kids.  We agreed that having our own space again after a month would be nice, but prefer that it be just down the street instead of half the world away.  I miss her.

The McTaggart's home is never lacking in fun!  We had lots of dance parties in their spacious living room where I tried to the kids could bust out some great moves on the slippy wood floors!

Christmas movie night with homemade caramel corn.

It snowed twice while we were there.  Just enough to enjoy the beauty of everything covered in white, make a lame attempt at a snowman, and have a good excuse for another cup of hot chocolate.

Aubyn led the troops in making snow ice cream!

Looking Back at Thanksgiving

We're back home safely, getting settled in and caught up on a month of being away.  So now I'll start getting caught up on here!  I have to go all the way back to Thanksgiving weekend for some photos that I never posted.   We had a quiet couple of days at home with just the five of us, and then spent a couple days at my parents', enjoying another Thanksgiving meal with friends there.

Gretchen helped me make homemade rolls for our meal.

We had sweet potato pie instead of traditional pumpkin this year.

These three keep me laughing! 

We picked Rooke up from school (no holiday for the Brits!) and brought him home to a feast!  The kids are annoyed that I'm asking for a photo instead of letting them dig in and eat!

My mom and dad bought these sweet dresses in Austria for Aubyn and I when we were little.  My mom has a similar photo of her posing with my sister and I wearing the same dresses when we were the same age as my girls are now.   

The Gift of Being Together

If you've been reading, you know that Ryan injured his finger a couple months ago and required surgery.  Today I want to share the full story, mostly so I don't forget how God provided a way for our family to spend Christmas together this year.

Ryan came home from a training trip this past summer and dropped the news that he had been given a deployment assignment.  He was set to leave the first week of November and would be gone for six months.  As far as deployments go, it was a relatively good assignment and could have provided good opportunities for him professionally.  But I don't think I have to explain why the news was still devastating to me.  We always knew there was a possibility of him going and I began to work through knowing that our family would be separated for six months.  During that process, I decided the kids and I would plan to spend Christmas with my family.  We hadn't originally planned to take a trip back to the states while living in England, but being with family during the holiday season seemed worth the effort.  So I worked alongside my parents, who were going to be in North America for Christmas, and made plans for the kids and I to travel with them.  I bought our plane tickets in the middle of September.

A couple weeks later, Ryan injured his finger.  And then had surgery.  And then began the process of finding out how the recovery would affect his job, specifically the work he would be doing while deployed.  Fast forward a few weeks and Ryan got word on the weekend of his birthday that because of the injury, surgery, and physical therapy required for recovery, he would not be allowed to deploy.

After processing the news that our family wouldn't be together for six months and submitting to God's sovereignty in that, it was shocking to hear two weeks before he was set to leave that Ryan wouldn't be going.  And so we started figuring out how to get him on a plane with us.

Fast forward another few weeks and our entire family was sitting on the same flight, with my mom, ready to fly to my sister's home in Vancouver.  Ryan will be with us for most of our stay and for a few glorious days this month, my entire family will be together.  Two grandparents, three siblings, three spouses, and seven cousins ages five and under who have all yet to meet.  So I'm signing off until the new year in order to soak up this amazing Christmas miracle of family togetherness.

Merry Christmas from the Paynes!

Treasure Trails

A couple weekend ago, we bundled up and headed to Cambridge in search of some buried treasure!  We used a Treasure Trails map and had a great morning solving clues and exploring parts of Cambridge that we hadn't seen.  

We solved the puzzle and used the map to figure out where the treasure was buried (though we didn't actually get to see any treasure!).

November Phone Dump (updated)

Collecting colorful Fall leaves

This is the first year that Rooke and Gretchen wanted to write for themselves on their daily thankful leaves.  It's been my favorite Thanksgiving Tree yet!

A weekend date with my gingers!  Peppermint hot chocolate and some chilled out reading at the library.

A fun surprise care package from the Heavilands brought smiles all around!

But I'll be paying Jessie back for this bike horn! =)

Bridgette and I got to have coffee to celebrate a dear friend's birthday.  The barista kindly offered her a little cup of whipped cream!  

A kind friend from church paid Rooke and Gretchen a surprise visit to deliver some treats for having memorized the verses our church was learning last month.

When was the last time you wore your qipao?!  I spoke to a friend's daughter's class about China.  Never mind I'm a white American living in the UK!  

Enjoying a gloriously sunny day with my girls

Feeling very patriotic after finishing this puzzle during Thanksgiving week.  Bridgette only destroyed it once!

We had some minor turkey drama, which sent me back to the store hoping there were turkeys left.  I managed to find two turkeys and brought home two monkeys as well!

Two other American moms and I helped with some Thanksgiving fun for Gretchen's preschool.  We sang, read stories (that didn't elaborate on the first settlers!), did a craft, and brought cornbread muffins, turkey, pumpkin bread and cranberry juice for snack.  Bridgette loved joining her sister for the morning.

My Thanksgiving day helper.

Snuggles with Kaye K during our second Thanksgiving with family and friends.

A little game time to end our holiday weekend.

Gretchen's stories

Gretchen is our storyteller.  She loves being read to, but after someone has read a book to her, she prefers to then read that book to herself instead of moving on to another one.  She usually compiles details from several different stories with her own commentary thrown in.  And my favorite part is when she completely makes up a word - with a straight face - so as not to loose the rhythm of her reading.  It will be a sad day when she starts actually reading the words instead of telling her own stories because I love her stories so much!