Jan 29, 2014

Mele-belated-Kalikimaka!

This past Christmas was full of adventure, surprises, and COLOMBIANS! 
I can't tell you how happy I am to be married to a Colombian family. Everything they do is spicy. 

 Since we were gone for 3 weeks, and we didn't want to pay for airport parking, my brainiac husband decided to ditch the car at the church down the road from the airport. It was a very smart plan, except we had a lot of luggage, we were very late, and it was about a mile from the terminal. We must have looked like we were in some sort of peril (also getting chased by yetti? Maybe? because that's fun and it makes you go THE MOST fast) as we dashed down the road, arms loaded with our jazzy luggage, because a woman pulled over and gave us a ride :) Bless her. 
 We made it across the country and were honored with the privilege of viewing the Mercer Island ward's Primary Nativity. I would pay big bucks to see these primary nativities. Best entertainment I've ever seen. Yep. 
 What you can't see in this picture is me doing the same thing as them and the others doing the same thing on the other couches. Aaaahhhh Christmas break.
 Alas it was time to get off the couches and completely redesign Seth and Amy's house for our Seattle wedding reception! They headed to Utah and we changed everything. This is my husband. I like to call him "have a little Garret with your muscles". 
Connor and his friend showed up to help, so I told them to wash the outside windows. They did a fantastic job! I love little boys. Especially when they are tall and a little bit dumb and really good at cleaning. 
Geet decided to clean the tops of the cupboards. He found many lovely surprises up there, because no one had laid eyes on that region of the house since I cleaned up there in 2010. 
The party was pretty rockin. We had friends come out of the woodwork. (Pretty sure I can say that literally since we were in Seattle and you can't escape the wood. I'm cool.) 
Aaaannnnddd it wouldn't be Christmas in Seattle without some partying on Snowflake Lane in Bellevue! We showed those kids how to REALLY dance. Sorry, parents. (I spy us!)
 We got to try some gooooood eatins. I love the food scene in Seattle. (Don't mind the morning face).
 Aren't my new sisters the cutest?! Sigh. I love them lots. 
 On this particular morning we ate at Portage Bay in The U District with some old Bernal friends. They, too, are half Colombian and they all look like twins. We asked the waitress to guess who belonged to which family and she drowned in the river of wrongness. 
I also love my new brother. He special. 
 For New Year's we carried on our tradition of chillin at Karry Park to watch the fireworks. It's up on a hill that overlooks downtown Seattle, and the view is the best. Except this year a heavy fog moved into the city at about 11:58pm and no one saw anything but a nice glow. The glow was vur pretty :)
(I'm still a little convinced that the "fog" was actually a cloud from all the weed smokin, but no one complained). 
 Since I married a very adorable, thoughtful man, I got very spoiled on Christmas. 
A very dapper, smart human thought it a lovely idea to stick a very large ferris wheel on the pier across from Pike Place downtown. I freaked out a little and we went for a ride :)

 G's face is stuffed with macaroni and cheese from Beechers - my personal favorite food in the whole widest wold. Ferris wheel AND a hott guy AND Beechers?!!?!?!? BEST DAY EVER. 
 The wheel gives a wonderful view of the city and The Sound (I was busy making out when we were on the Sound side so I don't have any pictures of the water. At least none that you would want me to put on my blog. Eh hem.)
 This was Man's favorite part of the day. 
 The rest of our weeks were filled with much happiness. Roller skating, eating a lot of delicious food, sleeping for 15+ hours a day, shopping, and laughing. I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas. 
And for the icing on the Christmas cake...

I found these lovely photos in Garret's 9th grade year book. I'm thinking he needs to play some water polo and grow out that bush again. Sigh. So hott.