Merry Christmas

 

Maybe I was thinking about holidays, just having booked some travel for the end of the year.
Maybe Christmas in August is inherently funny.
(Maybe my brain broke after seeing Christmas stuff displayed in the craft store.)
Maybe the vague sense of guilt from having not posted anything in ages reached a tipping point and is now larger that the natural disinclination to report what we have been up to.
Maybe school finally started so I have fewer distractions.
Maybe my iCloud account is full and I need to clear pictures out.
Or maybe, I'm just feeling charitable today.
At any rate, expect nine months of catch-up posts.
Maybe.

Holidays are a good time to spit-roast a bird in the front courtyard.  I'm hoping it will cool off a bit so we feel like doing this again soon.  90 degrees here this afternoon, so not today!

Hiking at the dish, while I was off at a rehearsal.

Kid sleeps during air travel, in this case to WA just after Christmas.

When you sleep, you miss the volcano views! (Shasta, in this case, but I strategically picked seats on the correct side of the plane and saw most of the chain of Cascade volcanoes as we flew north.)

Upon arriving in WA, we got the traditional Christmas cookies.  The theme this year appeared to be synonyms for laughter.  They say one becomes more like one's parents as one grows older.  I am doomed.  (Of course, so are you!)

Car travel is less sleep-inducing than air travel, apparently.

Or, maybe the prospect of hunting for waterfalls inspired more energy.

Hunting the wild waterfall.


 Dabbing in front of the wild waterfall.  This is what teenagers do.

An oddly conventional family picture.  Not sure how on earth that happened.

Chad and I took a side excursion up to Whidbey Island to visit a friend who recently retired to the island.

Somewhere in there, I had a couple of concerts, and the kiddo's flute ensemble had a recital.  Happy upcoming 2019!  (even though it is more than half gone now)