Snow, No Snow, Gumbo, Christmas, Birthdays and More?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Everyone!!!
We hope that you all had a grand Christmas holiday and will have a fantastic New Year! Here in Idaho we have enjoyed a quiet (?) long weekend at home this past weekend. Having been a long time since we blogged, much has transpired.
We have enjoyed getting together with friends and family. A few weeks ago we made gumbo, Louisiana style. Cobi and I learned how to schuck oysters!

From 12142008

From 12142008

The gumbo was fair, think I'll make my own caribbean style sometime soon, without oysters! The hurricanes were flowing and the company was awesome, Ashley & Lucas, Kirin & Zeke and Eric & Emily! We played the game Apples to Apples well into the wee morning.
Then, it snowed and snowed.

From 12142008

From 12142008

We drove around with hot chocolate to look at lights and get into the holiday spirit on the 23rd. This house is down the street from us and there is not an inch that isn't covered with a light!

From Christmas break 2008

This one is an awesome Christmas dragon! Up the hill behind our neighborhood:

From Christmas break 2008

After a short work week, Kyme got off work early on Wednesday the 24th to bake pies and get the house ready. Paul (Kyme's Dad) came over and we enjoyed burritos before opening gifts and getting into the pie early.
Dad had a little help from Oscar to open his gifts:

From Christmas break 2008

Jordan loved her gifts and especially the PS2 game, she hasn't stopped playing it much since xmas!

From Christmas break 2008

Fire lit and stockings hung with care

From Christmas break 2008

CeeCee opening her gift

From Christmas break 2008

Aika opening hers

From Christmas break 2008

Upon waking the next morning Cobi got to open his birthday gifts in bed to start a fun day! Christmas morning came with full stockings for all puppies, kitties and kids and we enjoyed opening them as well before watching movies.
Oscar opening his stocking

From Christmas break 2008

The girls getting some help from Mom to open theirs

From Christmas break 2008

In the afternoon Kyme made dinner: ham, potatoes and trimmings and afterwards we relaxed. Friday morning Jordan made pancakes for breakfast in bed for Kyme's Birthday, (they were super yummy!). After milling about during a mellow morning at home we went out to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and enjoyed the story immensely. Then home again to hang out for awhile playing Wow until our dinner plans that night. We met a big group of friends at Burger and Brew for big messy cheeseburgers and drinks. It was so great to see everyone turn out to celebrate both our birthdays. That night after bringing home some great homemade mint fudge and one last piece of cheesecake however, CeeCee ate them both while we weren't looking! We were pretty worried about her but the worst of it was a very bad tummy ache for her and some really bad doggie farts for us, Ew!!
Sick puppy!

From Christmas break 2008

Saturday and Sunday we chilled out at home playing new games...
Oscar helping Cobi

From Christmas break 2008

...and just enjoying our house while the snow fell and fell outside. We ended up with over a foot of snow on Saturday and then rain on Sunday so most of it melted away. :( Wish we would have gotten pictures of it but you'll have to use your imaginations, it was white if that helps. :P
Hope everyone is doing great and having a wonderful holiday season. We miss and love you all!!

Two Lies and a Truth

I was tagged by Amber to post 2 lies and a truth. Can you guess which one is true?

#1 At a retail job when I was younger, going to college and living in Washington, my friend and I were the assistant managers. One day one of our co-workers got arrested for cooking the books at our location. She called my friend and asked him to bail her out. We agreed and she gave us her debit card and pin # to remove enough money for the bail, about $500. After getting the money, we talked about it for a little bit and came to the realization that, since our co-worker was 17, we'd be responsible for her getting to court, etc, if we bailed her out. We did not trust or know her well enough to take that responsibility. We ended up picking up 2 other friends and driving to the casino on the nearby Indian reservation, getting a little tipsy on our supermarket purchases along the way. We blew all the bail money at the casino and called the co-worker to let her know that we had informed her parents as to what had been going on and that they could bail her out. Yes, we did end up paying her back for the bail money, but the fun we had was priceless.

#2 This one spring, about ten years ago, I was sitting in Mile Ten hot springs after a long (10 mile!) hike in with a good friend of mine. We had planned to spend the weekend camping near the hot spring for some much needed time away from civilization. We had finished setting up camp and had just settled into the springs when we heard some rustling from the nearby dogwood bushes. We figured it was probably an elk since there were tons in the area and just watched attentively as the rustling proved to be coming closer. We were already trying to be very still and quiet in the hopes to not scare the elk away when to our shock and utter terror, not an elk but a bear came out of said bushes. The friend I was with also happened to be an experienced outdoorsman so we trusted each other’s judgment to continue sitting as still and quiet as possible in hopes this furry terror would move on without incident. After some very excruciatingly long moments where we held our breath and this meandering ursus took forever to finish sniffing the bushes, the bear finally walked on leaving us what we hoped was quite alone. It took us almost an hour before we felt like we could relax and slip out of the springs but it was an awesome story to tell when we got back to work the next week.

#3 When I was 19 I moved to Northern Cali to be closer to my brother. I had trouble finding housing and eventually took a room in a 20 something’s house. He seemed normal, outdoorsy, had two wolf hybrid dogs and a garden, so I figured we’d get on well. A few days after I moved into the house we had a night of roommate getting to know each other drunkenness involving fresh crabs from the coast and way too much tequila. I don’t remember much past about 10pm (yes this was back when I was a lightweight!) When I awoke in the morning, well, when I was awoken at 5am, I was ordered to get in the car. In my still drunken haze I did just that not really knowing what was up and promptly passed back out again once in the passenger seat. When I awoke again of my own accord I found myself in the car of my new roommate about two hours from our home. I was pleasantly informed that I was in control of the situation, as long as I behaved, nothing bad would happen to me as he had guns with him and that we were on our way to a camping trip in the Trinidad forest area of Northern Cali. We arrived at a trailhead, donned packs (he had packed his clothing for me along with boots and extra socks so I could wear enough pairs to make the boots fit) and began to hike. After hiking all day we made camp. I asked how far I could roam and he agreed the nearby creek where he could see me would be fine. I did so, found a nice flat rock and at once began to cry which grew into a wail of epic proportion. Alarmed, my lovely roommate rushed to me and asked what I was doing. I explained I was mourning since he just took me out of my life and couldn’t I at least do that. Oddly enough, he was touched and agreed that it wasn’t fair of him to do so and if I wanted we could hike back out tomorrow. Tentatively I agreed that this was what I wanted to do. I didn’t sleep much, go figure, and was trepidatious the entire next day as we hiked out, got in the car, drove back to the house and went inside. As soon as I was alone for a moment in the house, I left and biked to my brother’s house 30miles up the coastal highway where I stayed until I could get my things and move back to Idaho! My residence in California lasting a whopping 2 weeks.


Post a comment to leave your guess. After a few guesses I'll post the answer. And I tag Nicki!