Our visit home for Christmas

For Christmas, we were able to come home to Washington. It was so nice to be home with our family and friends. We were there for 11 days but it felt like we were barely there. We weren't able to see everyone that we wanted to, but for the few that we did see it was so nice to be with them.

Chloe did a wonderful job on the plane. She didn't sleep much, but loved looking out the window and playing with Brett. The only problems she had were during take off and landing because of the pressure on her ear drums.

While we were in Washington, we had Chloe's 4 month check up.....she is very healthy at 17 lb 11 oz. Her doctor asked me if I was feeding her fertilizer...ha ha ha very funny Dr Goodman! But she is doing well and is right on track with her development.

We also made a trip down to the UW where Brett and I both worked. It was nice seeing everyone again and it was fun showing off Chloe to them. I was asked AGAIN to come back to work by the clinic director, but I told him that it would be a rather long commute for me. I really miss it there.

My parent shave some friends who are Jewish, and to celebrate their traditions, we held a Hanukkah dinner in their honor. We had wonderful food including latkes (potato pancakes), matzo ball soup, cous cous, a chicken dish, green beans, and olive rolls. It was very delicious. It was nice to be able to experience another religious tradition around the holidays.

Brett and I were both able to see our friends while we were up there, although we didn't get a chance to see everyone. For the people who we saw, we only got to see them once.

We were able to get in a few games of Settlers of Catan in on this trip. My dad got an expansion pack for Christmas for the game and next time we are up here, we need to figure out how to play it.

Christmas eve was spent at Brett's parent's house. It was a really nice evening with the family. There was so much wonderful food to eat, we left stuffed!

Brett's Grandma Mary was there and it was fun talking to her and hearing her wonderful stories about her childhood in Iowa. Apparently she grew up not too far from where Tracy is now. Chloe got in some good Grandma and Grandpa time as well. She really likes them.

Chloe didn't quite know what to think of her very rowdy cousin Nolan who was all over the place. It was very nice that she took a long nap in her Auntie Stephie's arms. We were able to talk to everyone and not worry about her the whole time. We met Eric's girlfriend who seems like a sweet girl. David joined the crowd for a brief moment as well. All in all it was a wonderful visit.

Christmas morning started later than it had been in the past. Previous years, Tracy and I would wake up at about 7am if not earlier and would try to wake up our parents so we could open up our stockings from Santa. We woke up so early some years, our parents made a rule that we couldn't wake them up until 8am. Now that I am older and have a kid of my own that likes to wake me up every few hours, I really enjoy sleeping as long as I can. On Christmas morning she actually let me sleep in until 10am!!! Never have I slept in that long on Christmas morning. So with our late start, we opened our stockings and went strait on to the presents. Normally we do breakfast in between. It was nice not having to wait this year.

We had my Aunt Sydney, Uncle Lee, and Cousin Amanda and Nathan and Joshua come over later in the day. Man was that fun! Chloe LOVED Joshua. I think she might have scared him with her excitement over him. He is so adorable and is rolling all over the place.

It was good seeing him roll everywhere, it made me appreciate the fact that she can't roll yet. I am so glad that Manda and Nathan could come up for Christmas, I wish we could see them more often.

Later on in the day, my sister and both nephews joined in on the festivities via the Internet. I love having a web cam. It makes the holidays easier when you can bring everyone together. However next year they better be here in person!

The rest of our time seemed to fly by very fast. On our last day in Washington, we had brunch with Brett's parents and Aunt Gerry and Uncle Jim. It was so good seeing them again. The food was wonderful, but the company was even better. Everyone was doing well and seemed to be healthy and happy. Chloe got to have more Grandma and Grandpa time, and even fell asleep with Grandma which she wouldn't do for me.

Before the plane trip, we were able to squeeze in a visit with my Aunt Elaine, Uncle Denny and cousins Kyle and Courtney. It was really nice catching up with all of them. My cousin Courtney got her drivers license - way to go! My Cousin Kyle is going to the Art Institute of Seattle and working at what sounds like a very fun and wonderful job right up his alley. Uncle Denny is back at Boeing and Aunt Elaine is working with a new law firm. All seems to be going well for them.

We realized how much we miss it up in Washington, being with our friends and family and can't wait to come home. The only thing I know we will miss here in California is the wonderful sunshine. While we were in Washington, it was overcast, rainy every day and cold. It even snowed the day after Christmas. That was nice to have, but we did miss the nicer weather in Cali.

It is nice to be home but can't wait to see everyone again. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!