Beach house

We went to the beach house today, meeting our real estate agent as we wait for our end-of-January closing. We picked up Grammy and Grampy, then met Mike and Mary on the side of the road (quite literally). Janel and Ryan met us in Port Townsend, then we eventually met up with Randy, Sary-Jo, David & Daniel for a Ethiopian food in Seattle. It was really nice to be able to visit the house again, and our excitement is building. The more time that passes, the more we are confident we made the right decision to buy this house. The beach is so marvelous. In a matter of two hours it went from serene:

to blustery:

We tend to just hang out at the beach, throw rocks, walk and talk. You can't tell it from how Ermias is dressed, but it was very cold. Perhaps this picture better shows it:

Here is a view of the community on the point. You can start to get a feel for the layering of the mountains. As the day went on you could see the snow-capped Olympics.

We are excited! :)

Averill Christmas

About a third of our clan was sick today, but we still had enough to fill three tables and one very full couch. 

It was fun to have two babies, Odin and Whitney. This family continues to grow!

Mary Did You Know

Kenzie and Lauren sang a duet in church tonight, "Mary Did You Know?"

Christmas Eve

Both boys still believe. Ermias is very excited for Santa to show up tonight and was anxious to get everyone in bed. On the way home from Carol and Clyde's they were talking about how Santa stays in his sled as he flies. Mason tries to deny that he still believes, but in his heart he still does. He told Grammy that he's going to get up and put out 8 carrots to see if Santa takes them.

Touchy Tessa

Remember Tessa who Ermias' teacher said he was annoying by touching her all the time? We have since met the mother, and Tessa has invited him over for a play date. Ermi is her favorite person in class. 

So how's that "no touching" rule going? Not so well. 

Heavy hearts

This was a rough week for us. Within four days we attended two funerals, both parents of two different friends of Mason. The first was a suicide of the mother, a woman who struggled with depression but was happy to be at our house for the soccer party. We spent many soccer games beside her and her 7 year old daughter, as our sons played together. The second was a dad who we (mostly Cindy) spent many long baseball games beside. Cindy and Phil were good buds, chatting away the boredom of the games, and sharing their pride in their kids. He got cancer and died within a month of diagnosis. As hard as this was for us, we are adults and have more perspective. As a 10 year old, however, Mason has seen two of his good buddies experience one of his greatest fears. He has a lot of questions about death and sickness, and we try to answer them all. But he is extra affectionate with us, and worried. Cindy went missing (to the store) for about an hour and he was worried she got in a car accident. He asked me "what, am I going to wake up one morning and one of you will be dead?"

But even though we knew it was hard on him, we took him to both funerals. We felt it was important for him to show his friends he cares. He gave hugs and did his best to crack a joke (even if not totally appropriate). He took it all in, and probably grew up a bit. Our hearts are heavy for our friends who will now grow up without one parent. Somehow this seems especially cruel the week before Christmas.

Thoughtful

Mason bought a present for Casey. It never was going to happen. 

Cute and ugly

Kinsey had an ugly sweater party tonight. With about 10 minutes to spare we realized we didn't have a Christmas sweater. She "borrowed" grandma's red sweater and we got out a couple of squares of felt, my hot glue gun, and a strand of battery operated lights. The still photo doesn't really do it justice.

Mr Clean

Everybody was gone tonight except for Ermias  and me. I worked a bunch and he was perfectly happy entertaining himself. At first he drew his letters, which lasted about 30 minutes. Then, without any prompting he went over to the sink and said, "Mommy I'm going to wash the dishes." There was quite a bit of banging, extreme running water, and a few near misses, but the pile of dinner dishes seem to be going down every time I checked. I certainly did not want to micromanage this and risk in anyway deterring him from remebering this as an incredibly awesome experience.

At one point I heard counting "eight, nine" and I looked over and he was pulling out tissues one at a time. It was then that I realized he had used all of the paper towels and it found a box of Kleenex to continue wiping up the minor flooding that had happened. I was still committed to playing it cool and rewarding the positive intent. So I said "how about you get a towel out of the drawer?" He did that, more running water, another dropped lid or two, and I retreated back into my work happy to hear the sound of cleaning in the background.

The next thing I knew I heard the dishwasher running. I got up in the sink was completely empty! I gave him enormous hug and thank him for doing such a great job. It wasn't until Cindy got home that we opened the dishwasher. We had a good laugh. 

Beach Casita

Our offer was accepted today! We are all very excited to have a place on the beach that we can call our own. Now let's just hope that our schedules are generous enough to allow us time to enjoy it. 

Pageant

This years pageant was put on by the kids. They were birds. Ermias didn't care. 

The other two...not so impressed. 

House hunting

We have been talking about a second home, one that we could escape to on the water, for about 20 years. We have found a house that we are interested in and today made our second trip out to Port Townsend to check it out. We haven't decided for sure, but we are seriously leaning in that direction. 

All Mason cares about is the fact that there are fish. My biggest concern is that he would never stop talking about fish ever again. Ever. He said his top reason for wanting the house is it there are fish. His second reason is that there are salmon and his third reason is that there are halibut. Final reason: rock fish. That's all it takes, he's sold. 

Ethiopia Reads

For the second year we all attended the auction that benefits Ethiopia Reads. And, for the second year, Ermias made his share of friends, mostly girls. Mason got to hang out with his cousins while Kenzie and a few of her friends worked the entire evening. She was happy that she got six hours of volunteer time for school credit.

Grammy almost won an iPad by touching her head. 

These two in particular are hilarious:

All the volunteers:

Basketball

For some reason Mason likes to be point guard and convinces his basketball coach that's a good thing. He plays hard, as with everything he does, but they still are 0-2. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that their name is "Purple Hippos."

Crystal voices

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aad660DcdW8

Gunners party

For the second year in a row we hosted the end of season gunners soccer party, also known as 10-year-old madness. We had a houseful of parents, soccer players, and siblings. It was as loud as our house ever gets. It was a great time and almost everybody stayed the full three hours. The boys love "Conchie," their coach. after they took a few pictures Mason lead the pack asking "can we take him down now? And they all turned on him. Somehow he stayed on his feet and escaped. 

Notice that Ding and Dong are positioned on either side of Conchie, of course. 

  

Santa via Train

Diane and Eric took Ermias on his first train ride. They went to see Santa in Snoqualmie. In what we are going to take as a positive sign of his full adjustment to American life (and possibly grooming by his big brother), he asked Santa for a new iPad and a phone. Well, that's not happening.