Christmas Morning with Mom and Dad

On Sunday, we had Christmas morning with my parents. See, we are spending Christmas with Joe's family this year, so my parents decided to come up early to celebrate. And since my dad is leaving on a ten-week trip to California and Texas on Friday, this weekend was the chosen weekend. We pretended it was really Christmas - wishing each other Merry Christmas and opening presents. :)

First, the dogs got to open their presents. Since we have had the dogs, they have received presents. But until this year, they had never actually had any interest in opening them themselves. But Jackson was totally into it this year!

I think he thought he might be doing something wrong.

Ava required her servants to open hers. (Jackson ended up serving her, lol)

Then it was our time to open our presents.

Mom made me some amazing granola.

Jackson actually even helped my mom open her gift of two DVDs. :) (Yes, that is my mom's gift he has in his mouth. My mom thought it was soooo cute.)

And he helped Joe open his gift of an ipod dock.

I received a handsfree device for my phone. (I guess my mom got annoyed with me calling her all the time on the road, when it's illegal to do so.)

One of our gifts for my parents was tickets to the Gold Glass Cinemas in Redmond. And we headed there right away to watch the movie "The Next Three Days". (P.S. Super stressful movie. Seriously. But good.)

At the theater hanging out in the lobby.

Perusing the menu...

Kicked back, waiting for the movie to start.

Best. Theater. Ever.

My mom had to leave shortly after the movie ended, but it really was a great 'Christmas' morning. My dad, Joe and I all headed back home to relax. My dad left Monday morning.

Christmas in the Country and Snowflake Lane

On Saturday, Joe had to go to work, so I had the whole day to spend with my parents. First, we took the dogs for a walk.

There was frost on the ground, so Ava had to wear her pajamas. :)

Then, we took the ferry to Bainbridge Island for 'Christmas in the Country'.

On the ferry with my dad.

Basically, there are a bunch of shops that you can travel to around the island who show off their wares. We know one of the shops (owned by my uncle's brother) and we hit a few more while we were there. We bought some wine, jelly and homemade dips. It was pretty fun.

At a winery.

My mom buying wine.

An outdoor fireplace at one of the shops.

Inside one of the shops.

When we got back from Bainbridge Island, we picked up Joe and headed to downtown Bellevue for dinner and Snowflake Lane. We got there a little late, so Joe got us a table at ZTejas while my parents and me watched Snowflake Lane.

(FYI, Snowflake Lane is a nightly performance in downtown Bellevue where a band plays Christmas music, there is a light show, and fake snow falls from the sky. It's awesome.)

My mom and dad in the middle of the crowd.

A drummer on stilts.

Me in the middle of the crowd.

Then, finally at dinner at ZTejas.

It was a very busy but very fun day. When we got back home I totally crashed. I was exhausted!

The One Where I Dedicate an Entire Post to a TV

My parents drove up on Friday for our Christmas weekend, since we will be going to Joe's family for actual Christmas this year. And they brought with them the big-ass TV that Joe bought on Black Friday. Joe was a happy man.

We set it up as soon as Joe got off work Friday night.

It's a beautiful thing, isn't it? We don't have cable still, but we did set up the DVD player and watched The Hangover that night. It's a big TV, for sure, but it's not as obnoxiously big as I thought it would be in our tiny apartment.

AND I set up the Wii, so I can play Tennis and Bowling with a practically lifesize avatar. haha.

Definitely a worthwhile purchase, don't you think?

SNOvember

I have no idea how December will shape up, but boy, was November cold and snowy! There was a snow storm in Seattle that led to the scariest and most trecherous commute home ever. Then a snow day home with the dogs. Then a snowy drive to Wenatchee for Thanksgiving and an even snowier and colder drive back home.

While a lot of it was a little scary, we all ended up safe and warm, so really, looking back I can say it was all pretty exciting too!

Snowy walk with Jack.

It was very cold, but you wouldn't know it by Jack's reaction. He couldn't have loved it more and refused to take time away from his SNOploration to look at the camera.

Snowy roads.

Ice waterfalls on the way to Wenatchee - I have always loved these!

More ice waterfalls - ice falls?

Beautiful snow covered woods at the top of the pass.

Five Favorites for Friday

I've decided to start a little weekly blog thing called "Five Favorites for Friday". Every Friday I'll post five of my favorite things. I figure it'll be a good way for you all to get to know me a little better. Let's see if I can remember to actually do this every Friday! (Get-to-know-Heather Fact #1 - I'm forgetful.)

1. The Starbucks Red Cup
I don't know what I love more - Starbucks coffee or the red cup it comes in this time of year. I get very excited for Christmas and the red cup is just one of the many things that reminds me that the holidays are upon us. It just makes me happy. I also love the fact that Starbucks brings out their peppermint flavoring this time of year. A peppermint soy latte just tastes like Christmas.

2. Sparkling Water
I have always thought that sparkling water was for those uppity people that thought they were too good for regular water. I remember going to Europe for the first time and the waiters always asked if we wanted water 'with or without bubbles' and my family and I would laugh and request it without. But when I was on my honeymoon, I drank a lot one night and was sick of alcohol after that. I ordered sparkling water on a whim and loved it. I've been buying it ever since.

3. Gold Class Cinemas at Redmond Town Center
Joe and I discovered this gem one day when we were trying to find a place to take his nephew to see a movie. We weren't allowed in because it was for 21+ only. So we made a point to go back ourselves a couple weeks ago and oh.my.god it has changed the movie watching experience forever. You sit it huge comfy recliners and waiters serve you alcohol and real food. I honestly can't think of a better way to watch a movie, unless you actually had a theater in your own home.

4. Christmas Lights

I usually hate the fact that it gets dark so early in the Winter. But during the Christmas season, it's actually kind of cool because as I'm driving home in the dark I get to see all the beautiful lights on people's houses. They make the street glow and no matter what kind of day I've had, they always make me smile. I can't wait to get lights for our own deck!

5. Wedding Photos
I know, I promise to post some wedding photos soon. It's just that I'm being selfish and exploring them slowly and repeatedly on my own before picking the ones to share on here. But I will say that I absolutely adore the photos I received from our photographer. They turned out beautifully, even though she didn't have a whole lot to work with (we were forced to take most of our photos in the lobby of our hotel). I'm seriously so thankful to her, and for my cousin (a bridesmaid) for recommending her and getting her to give us a deal. :)

What are your favorite things this week?

Black Friday

Ahhh, Black Friday. Black Friday is actually one of the (less noble) things I am thankful for. To me it is a firm start to the Christmas season, and I'm on board with anything that has to do with Christmas, especially when it also has to do with shopping and spending money (two very fun things to do!).

I haven't always been a fan of Black Friday. I think it's only been the last few years, but now I'm crazy about it. Everyone in my family thinks it's the weirdest conundrum ever, since 364 days out of the year I am the girl who loves her sleep and won't get up early for anything. But on Black Friday I'm up and out the door before the sun comes up.

This year was the earliest I've ever gone. My alarm was set to 3:00 a.m. and Joe, my dad, and I were in line in the cold at Sears by 3:30! But we had a good reason. Joe wanted a T.V. And while I also wanted a T.V. I didn't want to spend the money for the 46"-er Joe had picked out. But on Black Friday, we could get that T.V. for $300 less, so there was our motivation.

There were only four of the T.V.s we wanted in stock when we got to the register, and the woman in front of us in line as well as the man in back of us in line all wanted the same one. Somehow, we all walked away with one! Unfortunately, the huge box wouldn't fit in the car WITH the two dogs and while Joe was (almost seriously) thinking about leaving the dogs with my parents so we could take the T.V. home, we ended up leaving the T.V. with my parents instead. (They will be up this weekend for an early Christmas celebration, so we don't have to wait long.)

Anyway, that was our big purchase, but we also went to Target, JC Penny, and Shopko for littler things we wanted/needed. It was definitely a successful trip!

Do you do Black Friday?

Trip to the Vet

Last night Joe noticed a small red bump on Ava's eyelid. I started over analyzing it (surprise, surprise, I know) and did some heavy googling on red bumbs on dogs. I saw a lot of gross things and some cancer-related things, which definitely didn't help my anxiety. But then I saw some very similar bumbs that were diagnosed as stys, and they were no big deal. Joe then managed to talk me down off the ledge and I agreed to wait and see what it looked like in the morning.

This morning her eye was completely swollen and the bump was bigger, with a red dot in the middle, which looked like exposed skin. That was that - she was going to the vet! Now, my problem was that my vet was an hour away in the area where I worked, and I technically wasn't supposed to bring Ava to work with me anymore because she wasn't vaccinated for kennel cough.

I tried finding a vet close to where we live, but they opened at 9:00 a.m., the time I needed to be at work. My two choices - take Ava to the vet we had already been to, and bring her to work with me for the day, OR wait for two hours until the new vet opened, hope there was an early appointment available, and hope that the exam didn't take too long. Well, I know the exam would take forever because Ava has serious issues and vets need to know EVERYTHING before they diagnose anything (at least, good vets should). So, I decided on option A. I emailed my team and told them the situation then headed to work.

I took her to the vet at 10:00 and wouldn't you know it - the swelling had disappeared. Seriously, it was like that one time we went to the ER for a swollen eye only to have the vet ask us which eye was supposed to be swollen. Embarrassing. But the bump was still there, so she definitely still needed to be seen.

I swear, it looks a lot worse in person than in this picture. The bump is on the top right corner of her eye.

The vet was very sweet and even though Ava was so unhappy, I felt really good about the visit. The vet gave us ointment to be put on and in her eye twice a day and said it should clear up soon. Fingers and paws crossed!

She spent the rest of the day lounging on my desk at work, happy to be back with her mom.