SEE THE RESEMBLENCE???

While Samantha and her family are enjoying themselves on the east coast, I opened up their blog site and saw this picture. Then I thought to myself, now where did I see this sculpture before??? Oh Yeah!!! It was dad's invitation to last year's Christmas office party at Sam Olympic Scupture Park in dowtown Seattle next to the Space Needle.

NEXT YEAR'S GIFT FROM SANTA???????

Now that Mimi has mastered my cell phone, she decided to try out Joe's Blackberry and she loves it! She had to input all of her friends names into it, there's Samantha F. , Blake, Halliwell, Erin, Zoe and so forth.

AT THE LODGE

While waiting for dad and Joe to finish their runs, Mimi and mom played some cards while enjoying a grilled cheese sandwich snack. Mimi also loves maps and Nicole (not necessarily in that order) so here Nicole is showing Mimi on the map where everyone went skiing and the pictures she took at the top of the mountain.

CRYSTAL MOUNTAIN

Well folks, the Putney's finally made it up to Crystal Mountain for some cold, wet fun. Due to the fact that the bridge to Enumclaw is closed for the season for some repair work, we had to make a detour, then stop at the ski shop for rentals. What normally would have been a one and a half hour trip turned into a two and a half hour trip but we made it. The weather was perfect and the place was not real crowded. I thought for sure Mimi would only last one hour but lo and behold she actually skied for a little more than two hours! What a difference one year makes which was the last time she went skiing. For about an hour Mimi and dad went skiing while I stayed down at the lodge. They then came back for lunch and Mimi was raring to go again. "I wanna go skiing!!!" she would say over and over. So off they went. Meanwhile all during this time Joe and Nicole were somewhere at the top of the mountain taking pictures. You could see Mount Rainier real good. Finally it was time to go home for a short time to freshen up then over to grandma's house for a lasagna dinner.

OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE NEW

Gone are the days when mom has to carry around the clunker of a Olympus camera. Dad bought mom this new Cannon camera for Christmas. Not as nice as a SLR but it will do for now. Mom really likes it because it is small enough to carry around in her purse or pocket.

DECEMBER STORM CONTINUES

Will it ever end??? The newscaster says that this is the worst storm that Washington State has faced in a decade. It has stopped snowing for the most part but now it has started to rain and we

even had a bit of gusty winds today. All of the snow is starting to turn to slush. It was reported that the snowplow industry has been making some big bucks this season. Even some independent plowers did pretty well too. Everyone now is worried about flooding.

SIGHTSEEING

These are a few pictures from yesterday's sightseeing trip around downtown Seattle. Of course no trip is complete without a visit to Pike's Place Market.

HAVING FUN WITH NICOLE

Mimi really loves Joe's new wife Nicole. I guess Mimi decided that she needed a make-over.

MY HOW TIME FLIES

It seems just like yesterday when the whole family arrived. Come this Thursday is when Joe and his new wife Nicole will be heading back home. This morning dad had to go to work and is using mom's car. Meanwhile Joe and Nicole are using dad's car to go do some shopping at South Center Mall and REI's. Tonight we will all go over to grandma's for dinner and then tomorrow we are planning a ski trip to Crystal Mountain. Mimi can hardly wait. She says that she wants to go right this very moment. She has all of her equipment ready to go.

MIMI, MR. BUTCH AND BUTCH

"Mr Butch" (webkin) was given to Mimi this Christmas by her BFF Blake.

FUTURE PHOTOGRAPHER???

Mimi loves taking pictures so this Christmas Santa was quite good to her and brought her a V-Tech camera which she absolutely loves because not only can you take pictures with it, you can also play various games on it too.

PERILS OF MIMI

After coming home from dinner, mom came downstairs to find that Mimi had decided that Joe and dad needed a little dressing up to do.

DINNER AT ROOTER'S

Unfortunately there are not too many good places to eat where we live so that is how we ended up at Rooter's which is not far from grandma's house and is a fairly quiet place and not as noisy as Red Robins. As one can see Mimi really loves her BBQ ribs. She chewed all of the meat right off the bone.

RELAXING AT HOME

Yesterday mom took Auntie Setsue and Uncle David to their usual destination when they come to visit us up here in the northwest. We went to Uwajimaya! Both Auntie Setsue and Uncle David like going to Kinokuniya Bookstore to add to their book collection at home. Meanwhile Joe and dad who both said that they are tired of Uwajimaya went with Mimi and Nicole sightseeing around downtown Seattle. Of course they had to go to the Space Needle and take a ride on the monorail. We all decided to give grandma a break from cooking and met up at our house before heading out to dinner ar Rooter's.

CHRISTMAS DAY

Uncle David and Auntie Setsue arrived safely at Sea-Tac airport Christmas Eve night. Dad went to pick them up after work. Meanwhile mom and Mime were busy delivering gifts via sled then heading over to two neighborhood Christmas parties. Around 7:30 dad came to pick us up and we all headed over to grandma's for some delicious clam chowder soup. One of Mimi's favorites. One day mom is going to look up the recipe and see if she can make it herself. By bedtime everyone was thoroughly exhausted except for guess who? You got that right babe, Mimi. She still had energy to burn. As opposed to hauling all of her presents to grandma's on Christmas and then bringing them back again, we just decided to let her open up her gifts from Santa at home. Santa was quite good to her but then again she is just about the best little girl there is. "Thank you mom. Thank you dad". Plus tons of hugs and kisses is what we received in return. Although you must know this, Mimi everyday Mimi would ask if she could open a present. Of course the answer was always "No, you have to wait for Christmas", to which she would reply "But today is Christmas mom!"

Finally the big day arrived and we all headed to grandma's to open presents and a breakfast brunch. Of course mom had to take pictures and so did Auntie Setsue. When taking the pictures, instead of saying "cheese" or "Merry Christmas!" Mimi would blurt out "Happy Hannukah!!!"

Today mom has a dentist appointment then this evening we will head back to grandma's for dinner. Around midnight is when dad is going to pick up Joe and Nicole at the airport. Tomorrow grandma is planning a nice dinner for us all.

MAKING SNOW ANGELS

HAVE SLED WILL TRAVEL.

Lately this is our mode of transportation around the neighborhood these days. The day before yesterday, mom shoveled the driveway and dad put rock salt on it. Worked great until today. Mom spent all morning wrapping gifts for all of Mimi's friends. Then it was time to go and deliver them. Mom put the gifts in the plastic bags so as to not get them wet. Therefore it is presents that we are delivering and not trash. After delivering presents to Halliwell, Blake and Zoe. mom pulled Mimi in the sled on the way to Blake's house and bring him back home with us. Mom thought it would be a good idea to shovel the snow again and this time since the snow was still new, it was not hard at all. While at Blake's house, we saw Wade out there with the Mac Daddy of them all. I'm talking about the snowblowers. I guess that is one of the pluses about being manager of Lowe's. You can get a discount on their machinery. Wouldn't you know it!? Just when mom finished shoveling the snow and cleard the driveway, IT STARTED TO SNOW AGAIN! Egads! I can't win for losing! By this time Zoe had come to the house and joined Blake and Mimi for some snow fun till it was time to go to Alex's house for a Chrismas party. Then it was over to Coach Derek's for a while. Next thing we knew, dad was there after picking up Uncle David and Auntie Setsue from the airport. We all then headed over to grandma's. While at grandma's, we noticed Mimi was awfully quiet. Come to find out, she and grandma was writing a letter to Santa. After coming home, we let Mimi open her presents. "Wow!" says Mimi. "Santa works quick! I got everything that I wanted!" "Thank you mom! Thank you dad! You are the best mom and dad in the whole world!!!" Kiss, kiss, kiss. Tomorrow we are headed back to grandma's.

PLAYDATE WITH JESS, SCOTT AND NATALIE

So sorry to bore everyone with the news about our snow but that's all we have to deal with now at this time and place. Since the snow stopped for the day yesterday and after mom finished with her errands, it was most definitely some time to sit down and have some fun with our neighbors Jess, Scott and their 8 year old daughter Natalie. A good time was had by all. Just before leaving the girls gave us a concert on the piano. This is something that Mimi really likes to do lately.

DOING ERRANDS WITH MOM

Well today started off to a bit of a late start. However we did leave the house at 10:00. It's a good thing that mom shoveled the driveway yesterday. The only thing is my muscles are quite sore today. Last night after coming home, dad put some rock salt on the driveway which helped even more. Now we can get in and out of the garage easily. Except for the neigh borhood streets the highway and freeway was not too bad. We did make it to the bakery which is about one mile from Uwajimaya in downtown Seattle. They have the best cakes around. Mimi picked out a tres leche cake with bavarian icing (tastes like heavy whip cream) and strawberry filling. The theme is Madagascar. She has always loved wild animals as opposed to dolls. As soon as we were done with the bakery we headed over to Uwajimaya to meet with dad for lunch. Traffic was going at snail pace. What should have taken 15 minutes, took almost one hour due to the snow and ice on the street. Finally we made it. While at Uwajimaya we bought all of Mimi's "treasures" favorites food and drinks. Then it was time to head back toward home and pick up a few more Christmas items for the family. Of course there was an accident on the freeway so that slowed things down. Finally at 6:00 p.m. we made it home in time for Mimi to take a bath, dad will arrive home around 7:00, then Jess and her hubby Scott will come over for a big kids playdate. Their daughter Natalie who is 8 will come too. She and Mimi get along swimmingly. Then tonight it is supposed to start snowing again. It is supposed to snow till the end of the month I think.

DAD'S EARLY CHRISTMAS GIFT

Mom decided that today she would give dad an early Christmas gift and shoveled the snow off of the driveway. Even Butch and Mimi decided to get in some fun in the snow. Mom was thinking to herself today that during her lifetime she has shoveled a whole lot of hullabaloo but this is the first time she has shoveled any snow. Took her a whole half day to do it too. Who needs a gym? Just shovel some snow. I am now feeling every muscle in my body. Mom saw everything while shoveling today. Since there is so much snow, this is the one time Mimi is allowed to play in the street. Not many cars go by however this morning there was a guy driving a snowmobile while pulling some kids in a sled. Lots of people actually walking and one guy did some some cross country skiing. In the meantime a couple of mom's friends stopped by (Janet and Krista) and helped mom by shoveling some snow while their kids Xaunder, Erin and Liam played with Mimi. Mimi also played with the kids kitty corner from us. Mimi did not know who they were but they knew Mimi. Hmm I wonder if that doesn't sound surprising? Later in the afternoon Mimi went over to Erin's to play while mom finished shoveling. We are not scheduled to have anymore snow till Wednesday. Woo Hoo! Mom and Mimi are planning to finish up our Christmas shopping tomorrow and make a trip to Borachini's Bakery to place a order for Mimi's birthday cake next month. Mimi is already licking her chops. Can you believe it? She will be 6 years old. My how time flies when you are having fun.

ALL IN THE FAMILY

What can I say? We love those Seahawks!

MORE SNOWFLAKES FALLING

Oh man did it ever snow yesterday! I went out to measure the snow last night at 9:30 pm and we have at least 5 and a half inches of snow and still the snow was falling all the way until the wee hours of this morning. Dad was debating whether or not to go into work today. Unfortunately he has the kind of job (architect) where you have to go to in order to get any work done and there is a meeting that is scheduled up in Everett where there is even more snow than we have that he needs to go to. Poor guy. Mom looked out the window and saw tire tracks leading down our driveway so apparently he went to work and he just now called home so I know that he made it there safely. Now on the other hand there are a whole bunch of people up here who work for Microsoft (Erin's dad being one of them) and those lucky duckies get to work from home during this bad weather we are having. Even the Sea-Tac airport is having a hard time. Many of the airlines have cancelled their flights due to the de-icer solution shortage. It is a solution that the airlines use to get rid of the ice on the planes and runways. Apparently a short while back there was a strike up in Canada involving the company where the United States get their solution from and now we are dipping into what's left in storage. Since we are pretty much stuck inside mom decided to get her baking done and boy howdy did she ever bake yesterday. May do some more baking today. Mimi spent the day across the street at Halliwell's house playing with Halle. Dad spent all day yesterday putting up blackout curtains in the upstairs bedrooms. In between time we watched the Seahawks beat out the New York Jets 13 to 3. YIPEE!!! Although it is not the last Seahawks game but it is Mike Holmgrens last home game at Q-West field. So when the game was over and the Seahawks won he ran around the stadium to thank all of the fans.

BLIZZARD LIKE CONDITIONS

Our snowfall has definitely turned into blizzard like conditions with the winds going at 25-30 mph. Around 11:00 this morning there was a lull in our conditions so we thought we would try to drive down to the local department store to pick up mom's pictures and check out some curtains for Mimi's and Mei Mei's bedrooms. Then we received a phone call from the guy who was going to come to the house to fix our generator. Therefore we hightailed it back home. While dad was with the fix it man, mom decided to go to Safeway to stock up on more groceries. Fortunately mom stocked up on a whole lot of non-pershiable items last month. Today's groceries were mainly fruits and vegetables and some can goods. Man was there a whole bunch of people there getting prepared for the holidays and snowstorm. The cashier called it "black friday at Safeway". Then mom went over to the hardware store (ton of people there too) to purchase a snow shovel and all that was left were the plastic ones. Egads! Finally she decided that since her nail salon was in the same complex she would go and pamper herself and get a manicure and pedicure before the storm would hit. She got home in time too cause man did it hit! The newscaster Shaniqua Manning says that we are to hunker down for the next couple of days. They also say that this is the worst storm that hit this area in a decade.

GIRL TALK

This evening out of the goodness of his heart, dad went to the grocery store for mom to get her prescription filled. Mimi went along for the ride. Here is a portion of our conversation:

Mimi: Hello mom.
Mom: Hi baby.
Mimi: Mom, can I tell you something?
Mom: Sure, what is it?
Mimi: I love you. (Kissing sounds)
Mom: I love you too, with all of my heart (more kissing sounds)
Mimi: I can feel it in my heart.
Mom: I feel too.
Mimi: Bye mom.
Mom: Ok. Come home soon and tell dad to drive safe ok?
Mimi: OK

These are the moments I live for.

RUDOLPH THE RED NOSE REINDEER

Today when Halliwell come over to the house her face was beet red. Keri asked mom if she got wind burn. It's not really noticable in the picture but trust me there were bright red blotches from the top of her forehead to the bottom of her chinney, chin, chin. Mom did not know what had happened nor did she ask Halle so as not to embarass her. Mom found out later from Halle's mom that Halliwell had taken the lipstick this morning and smeard it all over her face. She was playing that she was Rudolph. That explains this pose and the reason why Blake, Mimi and Halle were pretending that Blake was the reindeer and Mimi was the one in the sled saying "Mush! Mush!". Apparently they all play the game of "Reindeer".

AFTER THE SNOWFALL

This picture was taken about 10 minutes ago. Dad had called to say that it has been snowing like crazy in downtown Seattle and that we are to get around 4-6 inches of snow in our neighboring town.

OUR HOUSE FRONT AND BACK

All day the snow has been falling off and on. After the kids were done playing in the driveway, Keri took them all over to the school to play some more. When they came home mom had some hot ramen waiting for them. A little while later we had some hot chocolate and cookies for a snack. Then around 2:00 was when the snow really started to fall and that's when mom shot these pictures of our house.

WINTER WONDERLAND

This was mom's conversationg with Mimi this morning:

Mimi: Mama, I had a bad dream last night.

Mom: Oh Mimi I'm so sorry to hear that xoxoxoxo. Do you feel better now?

Mimi: Uh huh.

Mom: I've got some good news for you today.

Mimi: What's that?

Mom: No school today.

Mimi: What's school???

How soon they forget.

SCHOOL CLOSURE

Today the school was closed due to the snow but that did not slow Mimi down any. All the day long there has been a steady stream of her friends coming over to the house. First it was Blake. Then he had to go out with his mom. This was followed by a visit with Erin and Liam. Shortly thereafter Elissa showed up. Then when they went home, Mimi took a break to practice her piano lesson. I must say that she is doing pretty good. She is just now learning how to play chords and she is feeling real good about it. Next thing mom knew ole' Blake came back over to play. They must have spent a couple of hours outside playing in the snow riding up and down the driveway on the disc. Then it was time to come in for some hot chocolate. That's always yummy on such a cold day.

DECORATING THE TREE

Although we still had not heard whether or not Mimi has school tommorrow, more than likely mom thinks the school will be closed therefore Mimi is able to stay up late and help her dad decorate the tree. Dad bought the tree last Saturday but everytime he and Mimi wanted to decorate, we had power outages! Good gracious!!!

SCHOOL CLOSURES

We just recieved a phone call from the school district and it was announced that more than likely the schools in western Washington will be closed again tommorrow due to the snow storm that will be ready to hit us around midnight tonight. The weatherman says that it will most likely last until Christmas and that this is the worst snow storm to hit us in a decade. The sad part about this whole ordeal is Mimi's school trip has been cancelled. Not sure if she will have school that day or not. Her class was scheduled to go on the field trip Thursday and the morning kindergarteners were scheduled for Friday. Now everything is on a day to day basis that is until this weekend which is the beginning for Christmas vacation.

AFTER SCHOOL FUN

When school was over Blake came home with Mimi which is always ok with mom. Mimi likes having him over to the house too. They had loads of fun sledding down our driveway along with the rest of the kids in the neighborhood. There was Maddie and Marissa, Janae and Sidney, then Natalie. Elissan and Justin came out to have some fun too. Finally it was time to come in for some hot chocolate and doughnuts. Dad is on his way home with the Costco pizza. It's the best that we have around here in this part of western Washington. After dinner he and Mimi will most likely decorate the tree if the power does not go out again. Mimi loves doing things with her dad these days.

A CHRISTMAS STORY.......

At least in our story Mimi is able to put her arms down however she is still layered with clothes such as undershirt, long sleeved shirt, stocking, pants, scarf, jacket, hat, gloves and fleece lined snow boots.

ICEY ROADS

School was closed for yesterday due to the icey roads. Mom thought that she would take a chance and drive Mimi to see Ms. Celia for her piano lessons only because Ms. Celia lives so close to us and the main highways were not too bad at 10:00 in the morning. Mom was a little scared about driving up the hill that leads to Ms. Celia's driveway. She drove slow and steady and things were fine. When we arrived at the house, David (spouse) was just finishing shoveling their long, long driveway which also is on a slight slope. So therefore he had mom park at the end of the driveway and we walked all the way down to the house because it was not safe to drive on as of yet.

Since our next snowfall is not due till late tonight and early tommorrow, mom thought that she would take the opportunity after the lesson was over and go down to the local supermarket and get some groceries. The parking lot was like an ice rink. Thank goodness I was able to get the shopping done. Mimi and mom finally made it home safe and sound. Mimi then went to play with Erin for the rest of the afternoon. No snowfall but there is still snow on the ground and man is it freezing outside!

The picture is of our street and the school field behind our house. You can clearly see the blanket of snow between the trees. I still wish I had a dime for all those who told me how much it rains up here. Although it does rain more than southern California, we do have gorgeous summers and picturesque Christmases.

SANTA AND HIS REINDEER

Believe it or not we are experiencing near freezing temperature up here in western Washington. After Mimi and dad made their snowman, we started having a flurry of snow blowing around. Dad made a run to the QFC market and said that the parking lot was almost like an ice rink. In the evening he went to pick up grandma and grandpa and brought them to the house for dinner and you might have guessed it already. The power went out again! Therefore we had dinner by candlelight. Finally the power came back on.This is the second weekend in a row that it has happened. After dinner, Santa and his reindeer Mimi put the lights on the tree while the rest of us sat around drinking our egg nog. Although it has stopped snowing, we are having near freezing temperature which makes the roads super icey. Thank goodness mom has learned from grandma that one should start stocking up on non-perishable items in the beginning of the fall season. Also it helps to have a huge freezer in the garage too. Starting tomorrow we will be getting milk delivered to the house by our local dairy farm. By doing all of this, you can be prepared for any kind of weather. I am absolutely scared to death driving out on the icey roads. So many cars have already slid into the ditches including emergency vehicles. Tommorrow 95% of the schools up here are closed due to the bad road conditions including Mimi's school. That should make the kids real happy.

FATHER/DAUGHTER DAY

What started off to be a snowman (left pic) became Mt. Rainier. Dad said that the snow was too soft to pack so therefore it became........ "TA-DA! It's Mt. Rainier!" cried Mimi. Then both Mimi and dad came inside for a cup of hot chocolate to warm up before going back out and changing Mt. Rainier into a snowman.