Christmas Week 2012 in Pictures - Part 1

I'm back.

I made a conscious effort to steer clear of my laptop for the week and am proud to say I did a pretty good job of it. Aside from the fact that I needed a break from work, email, and all my many online diversions, I really wanted to focus on spending quality time with the family. Mission accomplished.

I'm glad to be back to blogging. Too much has happened since my last post to recount it all, so I picked out a handful of pictures and will use them to tell (some of) the story of the week. It's probably going to take me a couple of posts to get caught up.

Karri's parents, Donna (aka 'Mimi') & Bill (aka 'Pop-Pop'), arrived Tuesday from San Diego. They jumped right into family activities - Karri took them straight to Thomas' basketball game at O'Dea - Prep's biggest rival. Exciting game and Prep came out on top. Wednesday was a blur for me as I had a huge proposal to finish up and send off on Thursday morning. Once that was done, I was finally ready to settle into holiday mode...

Thursday night Thomas had another game which we all went to, then went out to dinner at an upscale pizza restaurant in trendy Capital Hill - Via Tribunali. Things were a little shaky at the start - they squeezed 7 of us into a booth for 4, maybe 6, and the music was a little too loud for easy conversation - but we ended up having a fantastic time. Our waitress was amazing - attentive, friendly, and fun.  And the food was delicious.  Here's Karri with her parents:

Dinner at Via Tribunali

We headed home for dessert and a nightcap and everyone was off to bed early.

Mimi & Thomas saying goodnight

Karri's parents kept the kids occupied on Friday so Karri and I could get out and do some shopping & run some errands. We rarely get time together like this and really had fun. It helped that we had a good idea of what we were after so shopping was quick, efficient and not stressful - just the way I like it.

Friday night we headed to our friends' Jana & Roy's house for our annual 'white elephant' gift exchange and dinner, which is always a great time. After a delicious prime rib dinner, we all gathered for the gift exchange. We had 24 people (I think) and so 24 gifts to be opened, 'stolen' and/or bartered with. There were some very funny gifts (including the 'Yodeling Pickle' that I came home with) and everyone - adults and kids - really enjoyed themselves.

The white elephant gift exchange

Saturday morning, Karri and I got out for a walk with Jack - something we hadn't done (together) in a couple of weeks. It was overcast (what else is new) but great to get some fresh air and enjoy the water and views.

Waterfront trail at Lincoln Park

Saturday afternoon was spent decorating cookies - a fun tradition that we all participated in at various times throughout the day.

Some of the many beautiful cookies

We also started a Christmas puzzle that was a fun diversion for the rest of the week.

Edges done!

Sunday, we all headed downtown to ride the Seattle Great Wheel ferris wheel on the waterfront (no camera = no pictures) which was very fun. Donna & Bill stayed downtown for some shopping and dinner together, while Karri, the kids and I headed to a holiday open house at our friends' (Mark & Denise) beautiful waterfront home in West Seattle.

I think that's enough for one post. Plus all of our Christmas day pictures are on our 'good' camera and I haven't uploaded those yet, so I think I'll call it a night and pick-up here next time.