mom and dad come to town!

Mom and Dad arrived on Friday to visit for Christmas. We've had a really nice time hanging out and eating together (until today, when dad came down with a cold). 

We started off by having conveyor belt sushi at Sushi Hana, Seb's favorite restaurant.

We introduced them to the mini-series Andor, and they fell hard. They watched the first 6 episodes of season 1 in a single (long!) setting.

On Sunday, the three women went to the Nutcracker Ballet by OBT, our annual viewing spectacular! 

 

On Monday, we visited the Japanese Garden, which was beautiful even in winter.

 

 

Post-garden hot chocolate and treats at Roste.  

 

Tuesday was Christmas shopping and lunch at Dough Zone.

Xmas decorations

We picked out a big tree from Teufel Nursery, decorated it with lights and our many ornaments, and decorated the rest of the house with lights and gnomes and stockings and more. It's very festive.

We went all out on our exterior lights this year.

Liesl has been hiding donkey and the elf around the house for me to find every morning... her version of elf on a shelf (which I never did).

Thanksgiving dinner

We cooked Thanksgiving dinner at home, a mix of prepared foods (stuffing, gravy, rolls, pie) and homemade dishes. It was a whole family affair, which was new and wonderful. Liesl was a fantastic sous chef, setting the table, making the cranberry sauce and the mashed potatoes, and prepping other veggies. Seb was on cleanup duty, washing the pots and pans. Steve fought with the partly frozen turkey (an 18-lb monstrosity from Champoeg Farms; he won, but maybe next year we'll go for a spatchcocked bird.

 

 

 

 

Jasper celebrated Thanksgiving too. 

 

 

After dinner, we played Ticket to Ride. We've had this game for years but have never played it for real, with all of the game rules introducing strategic maneuvering. It was much more fun and challenging to have specific goals/destinations and to try and block each other. Seb won!

Thanksgiving week

We've had a lovely week of fun together: board games, ice skating, pickle ball, an escape room, movie night (Devil Wears Prada), and of course cooking and eating Thanksgiving dinner.

Codenames, boys vs girls. (Steve and I are snuggling, but we're not on the same team.) 

 

Seb's blueberry pie from culinary class.  

I don't get to skate much anymore, but I sure love it. And somehow I haven't forgotten how.

Jasper wanted to get in on the snuggling for movie night.

Everyone loves reviewing the rules before play.

 

Liesl smoked us at bocce.

 

 

An arcade-themed escape room! So fun!