Happy Holidays!

Our holiday party invitation read: be sure to come clad in your favorite Christmas sweater, ready to decorate the tree, sing some classic carols, and enjoy bringing in the season. All was accomplished. 

Many people over time have asked me, "Do you like having your birthday so close to Christmas?" and my response is, "Yes, because everybody is in a cheery holiday mood--so what better time to celebrate your birthday?" This year I got to share the celebration with my friend, Soren. I turned 27 and Soren turned 8. Together we blew out our candles on our Dairy Queen ice cream cake.

What's a holiday party without an assortment of white elephant gifts? (Did you know the the term "white elephant" comes from the story of the kings of Siam that used to give a real white elephant to their obnoxious courtiers. The white elephants were considered a gift that was more work than pleasure and therefore intended to ruin them because of the required investment.) We did not intend to ruin anyone...except for Annie who accidentally got rotten apple sauce, sorry Annie! She seems pretty happy about her corn, though.

Remember our fabulous neighbors, Kathy and Bill? They hosted our Chelan wedding reception that was part of a post. To give you a glimpse into their kind of wonderful people they are, they have basically adopted Cassidy, above as their grandson. Cassidy is 3, lives with his mom in town, but spends his days playing with dinosaurs and keeping Kathy and Bill youthful=). Over winter break, I brought over one of the valuable white elephant gifts Anders and I acquired, and Cassidy and I had fun  building this delicious house. That afternoon, with Kathy and Bill, we drove up the hill, directly behind our houses and up to 3,000 and some feet, and enjoyed the view below.

For Christmas Eve service, Lake Chelan Lutheran Church was dressed in its finest. This is our cozy place of gathering.

After flying over night on Christmas Eve, we arrived home to Minnesota, had a wonderful Christmas with our families, the Petersons, the Clarks and our California family=). We celebrated Jill's birthday at Erte in Nordeast.

And the addiction continues...luckily we got my family into it too! Settlers saw a lot of action over the break. Whether playing the game at home or at a random bar until 2am, anywhere works. Brick, anyone?

And the fun continued on New Year's Eve. On the only night of snow in MN, we drove out to Cottage Grove, to hang with the Gusties. Eventually we returned to the Rasmussens' house. Below we are promoting an exciting new, microbrewery in Minnesota called, Olvalde Farm and Brewing Company. Check them out!

 A late night walk in the snow=).

The Gruber gang reunites. 

A pleasant surprise. As Anders and I were en route back to Chelan, we ran into Aaron and Amber, who were on their way back to DC. It was great to see a few more of our California friends.