News Trend Another Happy Christmas Morn|Actual

Merry Christmas morning!

Here are a few scenes from how the festivities played out around here.

^ The stockings were indeed hung by the chimney with care, though these are substitute stockings. Last year, I vowed to lay aside our red and green collection of stockings from childhood and embrace a more refined, neutral aesthetic.

However, despite my best efforts to comb the collections of West Elm, Crate & Barrel, and other upscale purveyors of Christmas stockings, I came up with zero options. So, on a last-minute Christmas Eve romp through Target - which was surprisingly drama free - I grabbed a set of eight sequinned stockings to get us through the year.

Yes, eight. Six Streicher humans - all of whom were home for Christmas this year - one for Gracie and one for the cats to share. I mean, they're brothers after all. They are used to sharing.

^ Gracie took it upon herself to inspect the stockings almost constantly, a task which I'm sure had nothing to do with the bowls of candy on the mantle, or the pup treats in her stash.

And if you count carefully, you will notice that there are actually nine stockings under Gracie's purview: eight, as previously mentioned belonging to the Streichers, and one more - white with a gold cuff, for our holiday guest. A Vietnamese  friend of my third born is staying with us this week, and it's been delightful to share a typical American Christmas with her. Yay for company!

^ For the first time ever this year, I embraced the concept of a second Christmas tree, and an artificial one at that. I never knew that twenty bucks for an IKEA mini tree would make me so happy, but that's now a proven fact. This little tannenbaum stands in my family room, where I can see it from my usually cooking posts of duty, and I love the festivity it brings to my daily routines.

^ Family room mantle. My two younger daughters had a vision for greenery; I contributed our first nativity scene, candlesticks with lopsided candles - hey, that's life - and a strand of pom-poms from

the dollar section at Target. Feel pretty good about that five dollars too.

^ Okay, breakfast is ready. This year, in lieu of our usual yeasty cinamon rolls, my second-born asked that we try a gluten free version to help her manage her celiac disease.

Well, here's the verdict: gluten free cinnamon rolls are a really nice idea that does not play out in reality. She said, and I quote, "I'd rather eat real cinnamon rolls and deal with the stomach ache than settle for these." Good to know.

^ Now, on to the present-opening portion of our day. We enjoy quite an easy-going, orchestrated routine these days, with orderly decisions about which category of gift of open in what order. Here's our general approach:

Stockings first.

Then gifts between sisters

Gifts from parents to sisters.

Gifts from sisters to parents.

And finally, gifts between parents.

I received a lot of nice gifts. My daughters know me well and don't need any suggestions from me to pick out dreamy gifts: handcrafted soaps, artisan shampoo, artwork, handmade vases, a cookbook and a long-coveted 2020 Stendig calendar.

From my husband, I got exactly the gift I asked for: a new pain of L.L.Bean boots. For walking my dog in the rain. Mhmm. Can't wait to use them.

^ My daughters go all out on gift wrapping. Sometimes it's a struggle to rip open the presents, but eventually I find a way.

By the way, I am a ripper. Everyone else in the family carefully opens the gift wrap but I take great glee in grabbing hold of an edge and letting fly.

^ Over the course of the morning, she stole my seat half a dozen times but I forgive her. Look at those eyes. How could I not?

^ After our present-opening marathon, our energy reserves worn precariously thin, we were ready once again to eat. The Christmas Day lunch menu repeated our quick and easy post-worship Christmas Eve dinner: charcuterie with meatballs in the classic American style of chili sauce and grape jelly and washed down with plenty of sparkling apple cider.

And so, satisfied of heart, mind, and body, we Streichers wrapped up another happy Christmas morn

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Our 2019 Christmas adventures:

What Matters About Christmas

Another Happy Christmas Morn

Christmas Refreshment

News Trend Christmas Refreshment|Actual

For my money, the perfect antidote to the classic day-after-Christmas extravagance hangover is a walk in the woods. My three younger daughters and our holiday house guest headed up to Deception Pass for some fresh air and soul-satisfying views.

We started with a bit of hiking in the woods near the bridge; with really no plan in mind, we found ourselves on the neat and friendly Goose Rock Summit Trail

^ Despite her tropical blood, Nhu was a backwoods trooper. Layered up in plenty of warm weather gear, she happily marched along our wooded trails and gasped at the size of our massive PNW rain-fed fir trees.

^ Grace too was two-thumbs up for a day on the kisi-kisi. As usual, she exuberantly led our group up the trail, periodically circling back to make sure the rest of us were still coming. Bless my patient fourth-born's heart for accommodating this redundant journey.

^ Many photographs were taken.

^ I managed to capture this red pom-pom in the corner of a couple of my shots, which turned out to be quite a happy accident. How can you really go wrong with a red pom-pom?

^ Gracie posed for some contoh shots.

^ And in due time, we had looped back around to the bridge and ventured out into a blustery wind to check out the ever-mind-blowing views.

^ The story goes that British explorers were fooled into thinking that the southern side of this wild passage was a peninsula attached to the mainland. When the captain discovered that he had in fact sailed between two islands, he permanently celebrated his mistake by naming this Deception Pass. She is better know nowadays for her shockingly swift currents and gorgeous turquoise water.

^ The views through the Madrona trees are stunning enough,

^ but the open vistas of land, sea and sky take my breath away every time. I reckon I've visited here a good twenty times in my life, and I never fail to fall in love with this view all over again, every time I come.

However, with the thermometer reading 37 degrees F and a blustery wind sweeping in off the Strait of Juan de Fuca, I fell in love quickly and raced back to the car before the hypothermia set in.

^ See this little tip of land? On the far side lies West Beach, and that is our final destination for the day.

^ My youngest takes a turn with Gracie on the beach while I quickly snap off a stream of photos, then she hands off the leash to me. I switched to Gracie's long leash so she could wander more freely, and yes, she did manage to wade out into the icy water.

^ As my dog and I wandered up and dwon the wet sand, a pale winter sun sparkled across the water. With sunset falling at 4:22 p.M. We did not have much time to linger on our Deception Pass adventure but the time spent in this lovely spot did much to revive our overly-stimulated Christmas souls and thus refreshed, we headed back home for more celebration.

 * * * * *

Our 2019 Christmas adventures:

What Matters About Christmas

Another Happy Christmas Morn

Christmas Refreshment

News Trend Winds Of Change|Actual

The calendar year is a social construct developed by humans to mark time. Therefore, a new year poses no real cause for change but simply marks time in our linear journey of days. Who we are and what we make of our lives is determined not by any new year?S reflection but by the decisions we make on every single ordinary day of the year.

The year represents another journey around the sun, an ebb and flow of seasons that measure our lives with richness and natural changes. Set against the brink of winter, the new year offers a time for quiet waiting as the cycle of seasons begin anew. We rest and reflect, just as the earth lies fallow, and then we move into the cycle with renewed intentions.

Maybe both those things are true.

Maybe neither is true.

I don?T really know.

All I know for sure is that as I nurse myself through the end of a cold and into the first days of 2020, I am keeping the windows open and inviting the cool, refreshing winds of change to wash over me and take me where they want me to go.

I?M game for just about anything, 2020.

News Trend Through The Wardrobe |Actual

Like little Lucy Pevensie who stumbles through a wardrobe full of fur coats and into a magical land of drifting snow, so do I find myself inquisitive and excited whenever snowflakes begin to fall. As they cover my familiar yard and neighborhood with an unexpected blanket of pristine white, I too am swept away.

Come with me through the wardrobe and see the magic for yourself.

^ The view from my bedroom window across my back yard and down the hill toward the sound. I love the little snow-topped brick chimneys that step off into the distance, and the layers of fir trees that grow beyond and beyond.

^ The backyard from my back door. I love how the snow over the stepping stones melts away, leaving little resting places for my kitty cats when they boldly venture out in the white stuff.

^ In just a few months, my front yard flower garden wild be a wild mass of roses, peonies, lavender, and rhododendron. But today, it is blooming in icy petals of white, and that is lovely too.

^ When I was a little girl growing up in Michigan, I longed for snow that would extravagantly cling to trees and shrubs but our dry, windswept snow only drifted into powdery heaps along the ground. This damp and heavy Pacific Northwest snow that falls on me now fulfills all my childhood branch-decorating dreams.

^ On our walk, every tree we pass is loaded down with snow, each in its own particular way. All the branches droop closer to the ground, loaded down as they are with their heavy loads, and along the sidewalk, I stoop and sidestep my way between the sagging branches that are usually high overhead.

^ Gracie absolutely loves the snow. She seems to relish the refreshing frostiness of our outings, and as a highly visual hunter, she benefits of the contrast that snow provides between light and dark. Here, she carefully checks each and every rabbit hole, just in case any furry friend is making an appearance in the snow and up for a good chase.

^ Approaching another favorite hunting ground, she stops and stares, watching every quivering branch or trembling leaf, just in case it's an actual bunny. She is ever hopeful.

"I know you're in there, little rabbit. Come on out and let me chase you."

^ No rabbits are making any appearances on this snowy day, but Gracie is undeterred. Maybe, just maybe, there will be squirrels at the dumpster. A girl can dream.

^ And as we wind our way home, I look up to see more storm clouds gathering to the west, promising to unleash another flurry of snow upon us. Tomorrow, Gracie and I will step through the wardrobe once again and out into the snows of our very own Narnia. I wonder what adventures await us when we do.

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I have shared many, many stories about my adventures in the snow, but this one, written exactly eight years ago today, just might be my favorite.

Snow Makes All Things New

News Trend Smile Mode |Actual

On my way home from the store, I sat behind this truck at a light. Marshawn again. Beast Mode Fever has taken over the city. Goodness, it's so fun to be a 12.

I was picking out apples when I saw her.

She was shuffling around the produce department, clinging to her shopping cart for deal life. Probably in her eighties, though she didn't look elderly so much as greyed out, dried up, and wrung out. She looked tired, this woman, worn from life and stripped of joy.

The eternally friendly produce worker saw her and gave her a grand welcome. Clearly they had a history of chit chat, these two. and though he gave her a cheerful hello and howdy do, she merely grunted an unintelligible reply and slowly stumbled on.

Ever one to rise to a challenge, produce man earnestly doubled down. "Hey, did you see that Seahawks game last weekend?"

Abracadabra.

The tired old woman stopped in her tracks. "Marshawn Lynch is back." Her voice came alive, firm and clear, full of interest.

In the off chance that you haven't heard, let me explain that Marshawn aka Beast Mode, a legendary and delightfully colorful running back for the Seahawks during most of the past decade, has picked up a one-year contract to help the injury-beleaguered team through the rest of the 2019 season and post-season  The team's fans, known as the 12s, have gone berserk.

"Yeah, yeah, Beast Mode!" produce man encouraged her. "He played great, didn't he?!"

She beamed with delight, her previously tremulous voice now rang clear. "Yes. He scored a touchdown. And everyone threw Skittles on the field."

As I twisted shut my bag full of apples, tucked them into my cart, and moved on the next aisle, I listened to them talking and laughing together about their football team. And I thought to myself, I wonder if the Seahawks have any idea how much joy they bring to the people they know as the 12s.

News Trend 910 Days|Actual

For the first 910 days of my dog's life, she lived with other people.

Her breeder and her doggy family in Florida.

Her first owner on a horse farm in Oregon.

Her second owner delivering mail in nearby suburban Seattle.

Then Gracie came to me.

And now, she has lived with us for a second 910 days.

So. As of today she has spent exactly half of her life with me.

And starting tomorrow, she will have spent more than half with me.

Now I have no idea what Gracie might remember from her former lives. I've seen some cute video of her tussling around with her itty bitty littler mates, and some footage of Gracie and her sister romping around in a horses' watering trough that looks purely magical. I hope that somewhere in the depths of her sweet doggy mind, she remembers those lovely moments

But to be honest and utterly selfish, I hope most of the old memories have faded, and all she knows now is 910 days of sharing life with me.

News Trend Seattle Hat Trick|Actual

Seattle is a city chock full of interesting things to see and do. And eat.

There are endless ways to entertain oneself on a day around town.

But there are none finer than the ways we chose to give our Vietnamese Christmas guest a little taste of Seattle on a December afternoon:

First stop: Thai Tom's in the U District

My love for this hole-in-the-wall purveyor of authentic southeast Asian food is well documented. The owners recently invested in a new set of dinnerware but otherwise, their reputation for outrageously delicious food rages on. Pictured here: my #15, Swimming Rama in tofu, with two plates of chicken Pad Thai behind.

Second stop: Starbucks Roastery on Capital Hill

I don't drink coffee. Even so, I recognize this spot as the mecca for all things coffee: beans are toasted, drinks are poured, pastries are provided, and endless bits and bobs of brewing gear are thoughtfully provided for sale. On the Saturday morning between Christmas and New Year's, the joint was absolutely jumping and amidst the mayhem, I was required to use my finely honed squatting skills to score us a table for five. Pictured here is my third-born's iced vanilla latte in my second born's hand.

Second and a half stop: Glasswing Greenhouse on Capital Hill

Walking back to our car from the Roastery, we spied a spiffy little plant store and decided to pop in. Within thirty seconds, we were charmed. Within sixty seconds, I was sent back to the car to wait while my daughters and house guest did a bit of birthday shopping in my honor . I was perfectly happy to obey. Pictured here is a still life I saw on the wall in front of my car: determined blades pushing up in the shallow layer of soil collected on a tiny ridge of concrete.

Third stop: Kerry Park on Queen Anne

Our original plan called for a visit to Seattle Center, where our guest could experience the thrill of standing at the foot of the Space Needle and gazing up at that iconic figure, undoubtedly with camera in hand. But the intermittent rain and brisk winds - not to mention our colds - made us rethink that decision, and instead we headed uphill to capture another iconic view of the Needle. Pictured here is that shot, in the lengthening gloom of a Seattle afternoon in winter; what is not pictured is our hair swirling around our heads in the temperamental breezes, and our red noses as we jumped back into the car, exhilarated and happy and full of Seattle, ready to head for home.