Christmas – Pellegrini Page

Merry Christmas, 2023

Our 2023 Christmas break was centered around home this year, with frequent dining out, family movie nights, batting cage visits and ice skating, ample video game sessions, and a delightful visit from Grandma and Grandpa Martin.

In contrast to last year’s trip to Colorado, our family opted for a low-key December at home this time. It’s been a lively and eventful month filled with shopping, dining out, video games, batting cage fun, ice skating, and cozy family movie nights. The kids eagerly anticipated their school holiday break and while they may not be fully prepared to go back next week, it’s clear that everyone has relished their time off.

After Ava’s softball season ended, we decided to start frequenting a local batting cage with her teammates during the off-season. We found it so enjoyable that I opted for a monthly membership, granting us unrestricted access to the facility. Our visits often include Ava’s teammates and their families, but we also go on our own at times. I’ve even introduced Jessica and other friends to the experience, and they all seem to love it as well. Even if you’re not into baseball or softball, using the batting cage is an excellent way to stay active and improve hand-eye coordination. Our goal is to keep going throughout the off-season so that both Ava and I are fully prepared for our upcoming seasons starting in March.

Ava’s Christmas this year had a strong softball theme, with her receiving a new gear bag and stylish batting gloves. She also got a variety of new clothes and an extensive book series from her favorite Anime, Demon Slayer. One of the most thrilling gifts was a trip to a tattoo shop to get her ears pierced a few days after Christmas. We made sure to go to a specialized shop instead of getting it done at the mall. Since then, she has been fixated on them, worrying that they might fall out, but she is delighted with how they look and happy to have them.

Elise’s Christmas revolved around fashion and skincare products. Lately, she has been very interested in taking care of her skin, regularly using various masks and creams. She has also started wearing a bit of makeup and is very passionate about keeping up with the latest fashion trends. It’s amusing to see that one of her beauty products is an anti-aging cream, even though she’s only 10! I don’t think she needs to be concerned about aging at this age. It’s been delightful to witness her growth into a remarkable young lady.

Enzo was thrilled with his Christmas gifts, especially the two new pairs of shoes. One of them stood out as the most vibrant and colorful tennis shoes I had ever seen! In addition to the footwear, he received a collection of clothes, a new football, wide receiver gloves, and an assortment of toys to keep him entertained. Jessica and I couldn’t help but laugh at his confident demeanor when he’s wearing something he loves.

Jessica and I are big fans of the TV show Survivor, and one thing that always stands out to us is the contestants’ signature accessory called a Buff, which is essentially a type of neck gaiter. When we threw Enzo’s Survivor-themed birthday party a couple of years ago, we gave everyone in our family custom-printed Buffs featuring designs from season 41 of the show. While I still regularly wear mine, Jessica doesn’t wear hers as much because she finds the print too bold. This Christmas, I decided to surprise her with a merino wool Buff in her favorite color, teal, so she could enjoy wearing it more often. Along with that, I also got her a sleek Yeti travel mug and a Henderson Hawks t-shirt for her to wear at Ava’s softball games. In return, Jessica gifted me a set of wooden chopsticks and something I’m really excited about: she signed me up for a beginner’s sushi-making class in January!

Even though we continue to consume plant-based foods regularly, sushi has significantly impacted our lives in recent months. Jessica and I found that it was the one thing we truly missed after eliminating meat and fish from our diets in 2020. Luckily, there is a fantastic sushi restaurant just down the street from our house that we all love to visit, and the kids also enjoy going to a few revolving sushi restaurants around town.

Last Saturday, we took my Mom out to watch the new Willy Wonka movie, which was fantastic. After the movie, we enjoyed an amazing sushi dinner at a relatively new restaurant called Taru. It was the best sushi meal we’ve had in a while and we can’t wait to go back. I’m really excited for the beginner’s sushi-making class in January, where I’ll learn to make sushi rice, California rolls, spicy tuna rolls, and vegetable hand rolls. I’m already looking forward to taking the advanced class later on. I’m sure the kids will be delighted to have homemade sushi for dinner at home soon.

Apart from the various gifts we received for Christmas, I upheld our yearly custom of gifting electronics by buying a PlayStation 5 for the family. Both the kids and I had been eager to have one, and after being hard to come by at first, I managed to snag a great deal on Black Friday this year. Additionally, I bought five games and customized PS5 controllers for each of the kids.

This year, as Christmas Eve coincided with a Sunday, Jessica and I decided to let the kids unwrap all of their PS5-related presents early in the morning. We then dedicated the entire day to playing video games. Additionally, I surprised them with the new Super Mario Wonder game for the Nintendo Switch and set up an extra TV in the family room, making our gaming session even more exciting! Our gaming marathon extended into Christmas Day as well.

After Christmas, Grandma and Grandpa Martin made the trip from Colorado to visit us for a few days. It worked out perfectly because we visited them last Christmas, and this year they came to us. They took the kids shopping for Christmas gifts and even went to the Las Vegas strip one afternoon. Ava got some new shelves for her bedroom, which Grandpa Tom installed, making it look incredibly organized. Elise found more skincare products while shopping with Grandma, and Enzo got some new clothes, including a couple of Boston Celtics hats. One evening, we took them to dinner at our favorite local sushi restaurant. Unfortunately, today is their last full day with us before they drive back to Colorado tomorrow.

Jessica and I decided to give the kids a special gift that we’ve all been eagerly anticipating. After brainstorming ideas for Spring Break 2024, we realized that we all share a love for attending concerts. So, we made plans for a road trip to Denver to see one of our favorite bands, Moon Taxi, perform on the first Saturday of Spring Break. We quickly secured tickets and are excitedly looking forward to the drive in March. Their music is a staple in our car rides, and although it’s a long journey, we’ve made it before and are now planning other enjoyable activities in Denver during our stay. While we’re no strangers to Colorado, most of our time has been spent in the mountains, so spending a few days in Denver will be a refreshing change of scenery.

The Christmas break for this year is almost over. We’re excited to visit Devin’s house on New Year’s Eve, and shortly after that, Jessica and the kids will be back in school. I’ve been working throughout the break, but I enjoy having everyone at home with me all day. It’s been a wonderful break, but returning to our usual schedule is also beneficial. Below are some of our cherished family photos from this holiday season. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!

Jessica getting ornaments picked out for the tree

Peach and Spencer love laying under the tree

Elise getting new press-on nails for Christmas

Mom and Elise with her new Stranger Things shirt

Christmas in the desert

Yesterday we celebrated our first Christmas in our new home, but this whole month has been full of holiday activities for our family. Although the weather here in Southern Nevada may not align with traditional views of the holiday season, there’s still a lot of activities to do and plenty of Christmas spirit all around. Most importantly, we’ve been lucky enough to spend time with several family members (some of whom don’t live here) this holiday season, so things don’t feel too different after all.

I know I talked about it in my last post, but having Kristy, Beto, and Madi here for Thanksgiving and Ava’s 10th birthday was a great way to kick off the holiday season. We did a lot of fun and memorable stuff that weekend, then a week or so later Grandma Amy and Grandpa Tom made a bit of a surprise visit. Tom surprised Amy for her birthday by taking her to a couple shows in Vegas, so we met up with them one night and had an excellent dinner at Border Grill in Mandalay Bay. Jessica and I were excited to eat there because we’re big Top Chef nerds and the two chefs who created that restaurant were on multiple seasons of Top Chef Masters. The food was excellent and luckily for Jessica and I they had a Vegan Relleno on the menu so we didn’t even have to cheat. Elise then knocked it out of the park by ordering dessert for the table to share.

Another fun activity for us this month was our visit to Enchant at Las Vegas Ballpark. We actually had the pleasure of visiting Enchant in Seattle a few years ago, so we knew what to expect, but it was still really fun. We brought my Mom along and enjoyed checking out all the lights, displays, and finding all of Santa’s reindeer. Oddly enough we ran into our neighbors there, and they’re one of the families we’ve become closest with since moving, so that was a nice unexpected surprise.

Speaking of neighbors, there have been a couple of neighborhood gatherings this month and we continue to feel so lucky to have landed in such an awesome neighborhood! There’s so many friendly people around, the kids have made friends, and overall the little community we landed in is great. You never know how that’s going to turn out as a home buyer, so it’s a bit of a gamble, but things have worked out better than we ever expected.

Devin has also hosted a couple get-togethers this month, and luckily his brother Brian, along with his new fiance Jane, were able to come out here from Europe for a visit. They’ve been living in Berlin for several years but are currently in the process of moving to England, so it’s been cool to catch up and hear about that whole process. We’re planning on hosting a dinner at our house before they take off in January.

Last weekend Jessica and Elise ran the Henderson Holiday 5k race. They had been training for it by running in the neighborhood, and the rest of us came to watch and cheer them on. It was really fun and Elise was so proud of herself; she carried her medal around the entire next week.

The kids had a holiday fundraiser event at their school this month, which they enjoyed very much. I wasn’t able to make it but Jessica took them and of course ran into so many other families from the neighborhood. Apparently Enzo didn’t stop dancing the whole time, and he’s got his little red leather jacket on so he looks like Michael Jackson. I wish I could have seen it but Jessica said it was amazing. We’re trying to get him to check out a dance class and he’s not sure but I think he’s willing to try at least once. Hopefully soon…

The kids have been enjoying their 17 day break from school via various activities. Yesterday for Christmas Ava received a softball glove, bat, and ball, so we went out to the park in the middle of the day as a family to play catch and practice hitting. Ava actually commented at one point, gesturing up towards the beautiful sunny blue sky, saying “can you believe this is Christmas Dad?” There was a foot of snow at our old house in Snohomish, so 60 degrees and sunny is a pretty big change for us.

Earlier this week we took the kids to see “Sing 2” in the theater, which was our first family trip to the movie theater in about 2 years. Then on Christmas Eve we went over to my Mom’s house for dinner, presents, and a movie. She surprised us by having Chef Kenny’s delivered for dinner, which was amazing, but there was so much food that I literally haven’t had a non Chef Kenny’s meal since then. It’s really nice to be able to regularly spend holidays with Nana again so hopefully Christmas Eve at her house can be a tradition.

Christmas morning started early for us – the kids rudely awakened us at 6:30am and the madness ensued moments later. As they get older it becomes more difficult to shop for them, but I think they were all happy with how Christmas turned out. Some of the bigger presents include:

A new mountain bike for Elise
A hoverboard for Enzo
A new bed for Ava – she will get to pick it out

Additionally, we finally got to break the news to the kids about some shows they will be going to in a couple weeks. Before even moving to Nevada, we found out about Katy Perry’s upcoming Las Vegas residency at Resorts World, and Jessica was able to get tickets. We’ve been holding onto them for 6 months now, but Saturday January 8 is the day. The theater at Resorts World just opened a month ago and it’s the biggest stage in Las Vegas. It’s supposed to be an amazing show and I’m so excited for Jessica to be able to take Ava and Elise to see it. Talk about a memorable first concert!

Since the girls already had plans for Saturday, January 8, I figured Enzo and I could go out and do something fun that same night. There’s obviously no shortage of options here, and he said he wanted to see a magic show, so I got tickets to David Copperfield. It’s the biggest magic show in Vegas, and I still have great memories of my Mom taking me to see Copperfield at the Paramount Theater in Seattle when I was a kid. I feel like it’s coming full circle now with me taking Enzo to see him.

We’re looking forward to the shows big time, but before that (actually in the next hour or so), our niece and nephew Anna and Kallan are coming for a short visit. They were in Southern California for Christmas visiting with Dana and Brad, but wanted to make the drive over to Vegas for a couple days. Anna turned 21 this month so it makes sense that they would want to come check things out. Kallan just made his first trip ever to Las Vegas about 4 months ago, so it’s nice to have him back so quickly.

I’m working on heating up the swimming pool so we can all do a little Christmas swim. I figure if I’m going to maintain the pool all year long, then I might as well heat it up a couple times in the off season. As long as you’re in the water you’re fine, it just takes forever to get it warm enough. It’s fairly chilly here right now, but when I look at weather around most of the rest of the country it puts things in perspective.

Although the kids are missing snow a bit, it’s still been a great holiday season, and the first of many in our new home. We’re really thankful for how things have turned out in our lives this year and looking forward to seeing what 2022 has in store. Wishing all of our friends and family a very happy holiday season and new year! Here’s some recent pics.

Visiting Santa at the school’s holiday event

Posing with our first ever fake Christmas tree! Get used to it…

The star wouldn’t actually stick on top of the tree, but Elise still insisted on posing for the photo.

Enzo’s face is healing nicely after his latest accident. His smile still kills me.

Merry Christmas, 2020

A quick update our 2020 holiday season

Well, we’ve pretty much made it. The most unforgettable year of our lives is now coming to a close. While many people will look back at this year with distaste, and for good reason, I’m planning it to remember as the year I spent almost entirely at home with my family. Gone were the days of hectic schedules and fighting traffic, replaced with a lot more quality time, home cooked meals, and some much needed simplicity. Certainly I could find things to complain about if I wanted to, but I don’t really see the point. My Mom always used to tell me as a kid, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”, and this year, more so than any other, was my chance to utilize that philosophy.

Before I get into our Christmas activities, I feel like I need to pick up where I left off in last month’s post, which was written the day before Thanksgiving, on Ava’s 9th birthday. My Mom was visiting us for both occasions and we had ordered Purple Carrot’s Vegan Thanksgiving meal so that we wouldn’t have to worry about dealing with grocery stores or figuring out what to make for our first Vegan Thanksgiving. The menu looked great and we were excited about it.

Normally our weekly meals were always delivered on Wednesday night and we had never had a problem before this. For this particular week, not only were we receiving our Thanksgiving meal, but we also had our normal week’s worth of food, which was 3 entrees (each for two people), so we’re talking about a lot of food heading our way.

Right around the time that our food should be arriving, Jessica receives an email from the shipping company saying our shipment was delayed and that we would be receiving it by the end of day Thursday. I assume they didn’t know that our Thanksgiving meal was part of this shipment, but from our perspective this wasn’t going to work. We tried contacting them, as well as Purple Carrot, immediately but had no luck because everyone was already gone for the long holiday weekend.

This meant Jessica and I had to do the thing we didn’t want to do, which was go grocery shopping for Thanksgiving, and we were now doing it the night before Thanksgiving. I had already been planning on making Vegan Eggplant Parmesan that weekend for my Mom and was going to need a grocery run anyway, so I decided to get everything that night and have that dish ready to make on Thanksgiving day if necessary. At this point I was still holding out hope that our food would come early enough on Thanksgiving day that our original meal plans would stay intact. So Jessica and I made a big grocery run that night, preparing for the worst but hoping for the best.

Thanksgiving Day comes around the following day and we were just hanging around the house all day, snacking, playing games, watching football, etc. About every hour we would check the front porch, as well as Jessica’s email, hoping for either our food delivery to be there, or for some update from the shipping company. I held out on cooking as long as possible, but finally around 3:00pm I could tell everyone was getting hungry for a real meal so I gave in and started preparing the eggplant dish that I had been planning for later on that weekend. I kept thinking that our food would arrive while I was in the middle of cooking but it never came to be. The eggplant dish ended up being our Thanksgiving dinner this year, and in some ways felt very indicative of the year in which we ate it. The food itself was great, just not what we had in mind.

Sometime after dinner Jessica received a new email from the shipping company saying our delivery was now going to be another 24 hours late, and that we would be receiving it by end of day Saturday. Now we’re really angry because there’s so much food in that delivery and I was expecting to be able to make our Thanksgiving meal on Black Friday. I sent Purple Carrot an angry message on Twitter and Jessica did the same on Facebook, but again, no one is around to receive our messages due to the holiday. Turns out we weren’t the only ones experiencing this very unfortunate shipping delay, and they were getting blasted from quite a few customers.

The next day we both got responses, and of course they were mortified to hear about what had happened. Obviously we were refunded for our purchase, and they offered us quite a bit of extra meals to try and win us back over, but we ended up canceling our membership. Although the food was always great, this was too big of a mistake for us to accept. We entrusted our family Thanksgiving with them, and regardless of whose fault it was, we were too disappointed to carry on as customers.

In the end we never did receive our food. According to the shipping company it had been delivered to us on Saturday, but that was not the case. We hope some family who could have really used it got the surprise of a lifetime with all this food magically appearing at their doorstep, but who knows? The thought of all that food going to waste is such a shame so hopefully it’s not the case. Either way it carried on our recent tradition of memorable bad luck on Thanksgiving. We had Turkey-gate and Stuffing-gate in back-to-back years not so long ago. I guess we can call this one Vegan-gate.

With Thanksgiving behind us, we transitioned straight into Christmas mode, and although we wouldn’t be able to do all the usual things like family gatherings and Snowflake Lane, we were still excited for the holiday season. I worked the week after Thanksgiving, then (like last year) began a three week vacation which actually ends today. I would have rather started and ended it a week later, but I’m on call for my team starting tomorrow so that’s just the way it goes. It should be a really quiet week as most of Microsoft takes the week between Christmas and New Year off, so hopefully it will be an easy way of transitioning back, plus we have Friday off because it’s New Year’s Day.

As expected, my time off this month has flown by, but it’s been great. I was able to help out with the kids’ homeschooling, I designed a new logo for our Jiu-Jitsu school, rebuilt our family recipes website, and nearly finished recording a new instrumental song. I like staying busy during my free time, and consequently each day flew by quicker than the one before. Hopefully this is just a sneak preview of what retirement will be like someday, but I’m sure I’ll be keeping just as busy then as I am now.

Last week the holiday spirit kicked up a notch for our family as Grandma and Grandpa Martin came out to visit, and although our options for activities are limited this year, we’ve still been having a nice time just relaxing and hanging out. There’s been plenty of Christmas movies, baking, games, and naps. We even got about 3” of snow the night they arrived, so that was timely and fun. They have a couple more days with us, then head home on Tuesday afternoon.

Christmas morning was obviously fun and exciting, as it should be with three young kids in the house. There were tons of presents under the tree and I think everyone got what they wanted. Some of the stand out presents this year included Kindle Fire tablets for each of the kids, a Nintendo Switch from Grandma and Grandpa Rudd, the SuperDeker Advanced Hockey Training System (something I’m enjoying as well), fitness tracker watches and dolls from Nana, and a ‘Glamper’ camper for their dolls from Grandma and Grandpa Martin. My Mom got Jessica a really cool table to do jigsaw puzzles on, plus Jessica got all kinds of workout clothing and cat paraphernalia, and I got some great music and Jiu-Jitsu books, plus a countertop herb garden allowing me to grow my own parsley, basil, etc. Even the kitties got presents – a cat house that looks like a stack of Christmas presents and a little indoor grass growing kit with a special kind of grass that they can eat. Hopefully now they’ll leave the rest of our plants alone!

There was a lot more than what I just listed, but those are the highlights. Overall everything was great, and I even heard the kids saying amongst each other yesterday afternoon that this was their best Christmas yet. I don’t know how non-biased they can be when compared with previous ones, but it was still nice to hear.

With Christmas now complete, I think we’re all excited to see what 2021 brings. Certainly the kids will continue homeschooling for the remainder of this school year, but we’ll have to see what comes after that. Although I’m generally not one for New Year’s resolutions, as I always prefer taking a ‘do it now’ approach over waiting for a day on the calendar to arrive, I was speaking with my Aunt Norma (who is 94 and sharp as a tack) on the phone the other day and I told her in Italian “Voglio ti vedere a presto”, which means “I want to see you soon”, and we made a promise to start doing regular phone calls in Italian starting in January. Neither of us has anyone to speak with, and although I’m not yet conversational, I think I can hang in there and look forward to learning from her. I recently reached 950 consecutive days doing Italian lessons on DuoLingo, leaving me in the top 2% of all users worldwide. Keeping that part of our heritage alive would mean a lot to both of us, and I know Dad and Gigi would be proud.

I suppose that’s about it for now. While we don’t send out annual holiday / new year cards, I like to think the monthly updates on this website make up for that. The kids are aware of all these blog posts and look forward to reading them someday, which is all the fuel I need to keep writing them. To all of our family and friends, we love you and wish you a very happy new year. For those of us that haven’t been able to get together recently, hopefully that will all change sometime soon. Here are some recent photos from our holiday season.

What a decade!

As we get ready to transition from one decade to the next, the main thing on my mind is the fact that, although we have so many great things to look forward to, both long-term and near, nothing will ever compare for our family to the life we’ve experienced over the past ten years. This decade started off with Jessica and I getting married, then a month later we were off on our journey to San Diego. We spent the first two-and-a-half years of our marriage there, Ava was born there, I made my career change there, and got back into school.

A job opportunity at Amazon brought us back to Seattle in December 2012, and soon after Elise was born in July of 2013. June of 2014 was huge for us in the sense that we bought our house and I received my bachelor’s degree, then about 7 months later, in January of 2015, Enzo was born. Even if we stop right there, the events I’ve just listed could never be matched or replicated, and we’re only half-way through the decade!

The second half of this decade for us has been mostly about hitting our stride as a family – in school, work, and activities. Hockey made an unexpected entrance in our lives, and now takes up a good chunk of it. Jessica has been working at El Gaucho for 7 years as of this month, and as of next school year all 3 of our children will be full-time students. Certainly there have been challenges along the way, but overall Jessica and I feel so lucky to have the family and lives we have. I don’t see how things could have turned out any better.

We’ve got a lot to look forward to, but for now we’re focusing on the near-term, meaning our 10 year anniversary in April. If you’re reading this, chances are you already know how we’re going to be celebrating, but if not, out of respect to the kids I’m not going to say specifically what we’re doing because it’s still a surprise to them. All I’m going to say for now is we have something big planned, and that we wanted to go all out for such a major event in our lives. Much more to come on that in the coming months.

So where does that leave us right now? Well, obviously we just celebrated Christmas a few days ago, and it was our first one at home in several years. We had an excellent family dinner at El Gaucho on Christmas Eve, which included King Crab legs, filet mignon, baked potato, scallops, wicked shrimp, roasted beet salad with burrata, and more. We probably overdid it on the dessert course by ordering sorbet, banana bread pudding, and key lime pie, but that’s okay. It was a special night that we won’t soon forget.

After returning home from dinner that night we put on our pajamas, opened a couple presents, and proceeded to not leave the house or change our clothes for two whole days. The biggest Christmas present this year was a Nintendo Switch, and we literally spent all day on Christmas, as well as the day after, playing Mario Kart and Super Mario Odyssey. It was exactly the type of experience we were hoping for, and everyone loved it. We made plenty of phone calls to family members, ate some nice meals at home, watched every episode of The Mandalorian on Disney+ (thank you Nana), and just enjoyed spending time at home.

Finally on Friday, which was two days after Christmas, we got back into a normal routine and started taking down all of our Christmas decorations, but those two days were pretty epic. That night we had a great time at Kristy and Beto’s house doing a family Christmas with them, Madi, Uncle Jim, and Aunt Brenda. I made a big pasta dish for all to share while Kristy took care of the salad and told us all about their honeymoon in Italy and France. They have a brand new German Shepherd puppy named Maximus who was about to turn 7 weeks old the following day, so everyone enjoyed holding and playing with him. It was a great night with family and reminded me of Christmas as a kid.

Yesterday our good friends the Jodi, Leon, and Miles came over to spend the afternoon with us. The kids played upstairs while the adults hung out downstairs talking, eating, and watching the College Football playoffs. Leon and I have been good friends for nearly 20 years, but our relationship has evolved since both of us had children. Now it goes so much beyond just the two of us, as our families have become the best of friends. Five hours of hanging out with them goes by in no time, and it’s so fun (as well as reassuring) to compare stories about life, and the various difficulties brought on by parenting. We snacked for a while, then for dinner I made filet mignon, roasted garlic risotto, and green beans. They brought pie and cake for dessert, but the biggest hit for the kids was the cotton candy machine.

Overall spending Christmas at our house this year has been really nice and relaxing. We’re making memories at home and avoiding all the holiday travel hustle and bustle. Although we haven’t yet formalized plans for next year, I think we may be in for more of the same, but we’ll see.

Since my last post was for Ava’s birthday, which was right before Thanksgiving, I should probably touch on that holiday as well. We were visited by Grandma and Grandpa Rudd from Iowa, and had a really nice week with them. The kids went swimming at their hotel a couple times, we all went out for lunch and shopping more than once, we made cookies, and Rick helped us decorate our Christmas tree. Thanksgiving day itself was spent at home with Grandma and Grandpa, as well as Uncle Butch and Aunt Carol. Rick took care of the turkey this year and I did all the sides. Overall it was a great meal, and a very relaxing day at home.

The week after Thanksgiving Enzo started his Learn to Play Hockey class, which was something he had been asking for. One of the families we’re friends with at Ava’s hockey has a little boy named Gray, who Enzo has become friends with, and when Enzo found out Gray was going to be in this class, he really wanted to do it with him. It’s through the Seattle Juniors Hockey Association, and their class meets every Saturday morning at 8:00. We found out that older kids are welcome to attend and help out on the ice, so I’ve been bringing Ava along for every class, and both of us are out there assisting. The first two classes went okay, although Enzo was having a hard time with all the gear, getting sweaty, falling down, etc. He would break down in tears and need a breather, which was totally fine, but always wanted to get back out there. He turned a corner on week 3, meaning there were no tears, no issues with being sweaty, and really had a great time. Then yesterday we were there for week 4 and he did great again. By the end of class he was saying “Daddy, I love hockey so much!”

Not only is it great to see him out there having fun, but it gives Jessica and I so much joy to watch Ava helping other little kids on the ice. She gets down on their level and encourages them, showing them the proper way to do something. Although she may not yet realize it, she’s getting so much from teaching them; after all, to teach is to learn. After class last week, a man came up to her and thanked her for helping his daughter so much on the ice. Obviously we were quite proud of her.

Miss Elise has been doing great and is getting more and more into baking these days. Winning that cupcake competition really got things going for her, so she’s super into it now. We’ve started watching the TV show ‘Chopped Junior’ and I can see she’s getting inspired by all these young chefs. She and Mom made cookies decorated as ugly Christmas sweaters for the neighborhood holiday party, and we’ve got plenty of other baked goods on the agenda. As with all the kids, I’m just happy to see them trying different things and finding ways to invest themselves. She, along with Ava and Enzo, are committed to trying out Brazilian Jiu Jitsu next month, and there are actually 3 different schools within about 10 minutes of us, so we’re hoping to do a class at each one and see what they prefer. I really hope it sticks because martial arts would be good for each of them in their own way, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in particular is such an effective and non-violent form of self defense.

December has been a very busy month for Jessica, as it’s their busiest season at El Gaucho, so she has been working a lot of extra shifts. It’s been the exact opposite for me. As we entered December, I checked my vacation balance at work and saw I had 206 hours of unused vacation, plus another 8 unused sick days. You can only carry over 120 vacation hours into the new year, and you lose all your sick days, so I decided to take the final two weeks of the year off. I didn’t mind forfeiting the sick time, but it seemed silly to do that with the vacation time, and my manager was super supportive of me getting this break. All together it adds up to 20 calendar days off, which is the most time off I’ve had since we first moved to San Diego 10 years ago.

I’ve been really enjoying all the time with the kids, and doing my best to accomplish something almost every day. One day it might be Christmas shopping, while another day it was getting their passports, or going grocery shopping. As long as I felt like I accomplished something I had no problem going home and relaxing with my guitar or video games for the rest of the day. It quickly became clear to me that a day at home goes by a lot faster than a day at work, but that’s okay, as I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.
One of my goals during the break was to record a new instrumental song featuring the 7-string guitar I bought in Japan, and I’ve done that. I decided to call it ‘B Sting’ because the 7th string on a 7-string guitar is an open B note (assuming it’s in standard tuning), and the opening riff I wrote for the song reminded me of a swarm of bees, so it’s a play on words. I spent more time than ever on this song (at least 20 hours) and am really happy with how it turned out. Recording my own music this year has become my primary musical outlet, and I’m definitely seeing progress with each song. The one I finished before this, which is called ‘Riverslide’, was recently used as the intro music for the Cascadia Hockey Podcast.

Once January comes around things are going to slow down for Jessica and she won’t be working nearly as much, however she is staying very busy at home becoming a reading tutor for Ava and Elise. As we learned a few months ago via extensive testing, Ava is dyslexic, meaning she doesn’t learn to read in conventional ways. It’s much more common than I ever realized (1 in 5 kids is dyslexic), yet the public school system where we live doesn’t have a curriculum meant specifically for dyslexic children. After a lot of research, we purchased a home tutoring system that teaches dyslexic children how to read, and Jessica started working with Ava on it during the holiday break. It’s been almost two weeks now, and we’re already starting to see improvement, which is really encouraging. Although we haven’t had Elise tested for dyslexia, we think she would benefit from the tutoring as well, so she will begin soon. This is not meant to replace their education at elementary school, but simply to add onto it, however it looks like Ava will be going to school a half hour late most mornings to allow time for her tutoring sessions at home with Mom. We’ve already met with the school about this and they are completely on board.

As we have learned, dyslexic minds are fascinating, and there are some very well known people like Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Walt Disney, Richard Branson, Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Tom Cruise, and Jim Carrey, who are/were all dyslexic. This is something we’re embracing, and we’re excited to see what comes out of this more specialized form of education. I have to give so much respect and thanks to Jessica for all her hard work and dedication in this area. She dove into this head first and is doing such an amazing job! I hope when the kids get older they realize how hard it is for a parent to take on something like this, and recognize what an amazing mother they have.

I think that’s about all for now. The kids have one more week of break before going back to school, while I go back to work on Thursday. Jessica will have a busy night on New Year’s Eve, but things should settle down for her after that. Obviously the clock never stops ticking for anyone, and the decade we leave behind will never be matched in terms of major life moments, but we’re ready and excited for all the good stuff yet to come. I can’t imagine what we’ll be talking about when the 2020’s come to a close, but I can promise one thing – I’ll still be writing.

Elise wearing my t-shirt from Robot Restaurant in Tokyo

Saying hi to Santa in downtown Snohomish with Grandma and Grandpa Rudd

Visiting the Bellevue Botanical Gardens with Auntie Dana

Elise’s Christmas dress was one for the ages

Getting Enzo to pose for a picture can be tough

Ready for the neighborhood holiday party

Christmas in Colorado

The 5 of us recently returned home from the winteriest and snowiest of Christmas vacations one could possibly imagine. We spent a week at Grandma Amy and Grandpa Tom’s house in the mountains of Colorado, and were joined by: Joel & Melanie, Emily, Derek, and their son Cole, plus Tom’s son Trevor. Although the house was full, Amy and Tom went out of their way to make sure everyone had what they needed, and we ended up having a great week to remember. Before getting into it I just want to thank Amy and Tom again for everything – we had a great time and will remember it forever.

Although the week was good, it started out a little rough. We would normally fly out of the small airport up in Bellingham, but that wasn’t an option this time, so we were stuck with SeaTac. It was a work day and traffic was unreal, so it ended up taking us two hours just to get our car dropped off and shuttled to the airport. On our way down, a metro bus shot a rock into the windshield of our new van, leaving a decent size crack (repair coming tomorrow).

Luckily once we made our way into the airport, things started getting better. Although I generally try to avoid SeaTac airport whenever possible, I have to give credit where it’s due – they did a great job with security. No one had to take their shoes off or pull any electronics out of their bag, you just had to go through a single-file line and allow a dog to sniff you. It was really efficient and they got everyone through security really quickly.

Emily and family had flown in an hour or so before us, so Amy and Tom were there in a big 15 passenger rented van to pick everyone up. It was Thursday the 20th, meaning it was the first day of Winter and the shortest day of the year. By the time we had a quick bite to eat and started pushing through Denver traffic towards the mountains, it was already getting dark. It was pitch black out by the time we reached their house, but Trevor had a fire going and every light in the house was turned on, so it kinda glowed like a beacon in the night.

This was our first time visiting their house, so they gave us a nice tour. It’s a very unique house because it was hand built with logs, and the logs weren’t local, they’re from British Columbia. The house was initially built up there, then deconstructed and transported to Colorado, then reconstructed. Every log had to be sanded and treated, and the house is pretty huge, so the amount of work that was put into building this place just blows my mind. The main living area downstairs is really open, and there’s windows everywhere, so during the daytime the views are gorgeous in every direction. There’s also decks going around the whole house, so you can sit outside anywhere (including the hot tub) and soak up the mountain air. Upstairs is mostly bedrooms and a tv area, but they also have a pool table up there, which I enjoyed.

Just across from the house is Tom’s garage/workshop, and it’s incredible. The RV is parked in there, along with the motorcycles, four wheelers, dune buggy, and pickup truck. There’s a nice full-sized bathroom, kitchen, and laundry. There’s a woodworking shop, an office, a huge closet, a loft with couches, tv, and workout equipment, plus a full ski shop with everything you’d ever need for a day on the slopes. There’s two bedrooms: one full of bunk beds for the kids, then one for Jessica and I, then the RV ended up being Joel and Melanie’s bedroom. I’ve never seen anything like it, but it was very cool. Kinda like the ultimate mother-in-law meets the ultimate home garage.

Their house is somewhere between 8,500 and 9,000 feet elevation, and that type of elevation is no joke, so we intentionally had no plans for the first two days we were there. You basically just need a bunch of downtime to allow your body to acclimate. For me I couldn’t sleep at all the first two nights because I couldn’t shake these splitting headaches. I was drinking a ton of water, but it didn’t matter. The difference for me came when Amy gave me a canister of pure oxygen to breathe from. That thing saved me and killed my headaches. After a few days your body gets acclimated and you don’t need the air, but it was crucial during the early part of our trip.

Anyway, Joel and Melanie weren’t going to be there until Saturday, so the plan for Friday was to take it easy around the house. The kids went out sledding that morning (the first time of many), and proceeded to get spoiled by having an adult on a four wheeler there to tow them back up the hill each time they went down. Then later that afternoon Jessica and I decided to take the truck down into town and experience some real pond skating. We went to the community pond, which was right across the street from Silverthorne elementary, and ended up sharing the ice with kids who were out there playing around for their P.E. class.

I had never ice skated outdoors before, and didn’t really know what to expect. What I quickly figured out is that ponds that aren’t groomed with a Zamboni are quite bumpy and hard to skate on. It soon became a game of just trying to stay on your feet and not run into any of these kids, who were all just running around the ice in just their boots. Since everyone in our family now owns ice skates, we just brought all of them along for the trip, and this was the first of multiple times using them.

Saturday was the day Joel and Melanie arrived, and it was also the beginning of all the activities Grandma Amy had planned. We started at the sleigh in Frisco, and were unexpectedly greeted by horses (and riders) who were there doing photos. After meeting the horses we all took turns doing photos on the sleigh, then headed over to this cool little art/pottery shop in town. Basically we had a reservation in their studio to do any kind of painting/glass etching/wood burning activity you could want. Jessica, being the professional art teacher she is, was quite at home in this environment and dove right into helping the kids, as well as making stuff of her own. I’m not quite as comfortable in this type of activity as she is, so I stayed back to take photos, help wash hands, and compliment the various pieces being created.

As things were winding down, Ava and I took a chance to go for a walk around downtown Frisco. There was so much snow everywhere, so Ava kept stomping her boot and yelling “Footprint!”. I’m not sure why I asked, but for some reason I said “So what do you think Aves, you really want to play hockey in the Olympics someday?” and without hesitation she responds “I’m never giving up on my dream Daddy. I’m never giving up.” She had this dead serious tone that was so genuine, it must have brought a tear to my eye because she later told Jessica she made Daddy cry on our walk.

Sunday was without question my favorite day of the trip. Basically most of us headed out to the Keystone resort that morning, then split up. Tom and Trevor went skiing, while our family, Amy, and Emily’s family stuck together. First we visiting the “Chocolate Village”, which is exactly what it sounds like. It’s probably 25 feet long and 5 feet deep, featuring a chocolate waterfall, a working railcar system, tons of famous characters and superheroes, huge nutcrackers, and all kinds of random things to try and spot. Everything was made of chocolate and it was unbelievable!

After that we headed down to the Keystone ice rink, which is this enormous outdoor skating area on a frozen lake, but unlike the free pond Jessica and I had visited a couple days earlier, this one is constantly being groomed by a Zamboni. All I can say is it was the best ice I’ve ever skated on. You’re looking down and it’s actually kinda scary because it’s clear straight down. You can’t help but worry for a second about falling through, but when that huge Zamboni drives by without any issue it gives you a little peace of mind.

I ended up renting a hockey stick and puck, just to skate around with, but when we got out there I saw they had an entire area set aside just for hockey. It didn’t take long before I made my way on over there and found myself getting into a pickup game with a bunch of random people. Besides my skates the only gear I had were elbow pads, but it didn’t really matter. No one was geared up, although I quickly figured out that most of these guys I was playing with were much more experienced than myself. It took all I had just to keep up with them, but when you play with people better than you it elevates your own game. The pinnacle for me was scoring just a single goal in the game, even though I’d been out there nearly 90 minutes. You’re up there playing at like 10,000 feet, on the best ice you’ve ever skated on, with unreal mountain views in every direction. As our kids like to say, I was living my best life out there.

My second favorite part about playing hockey that day was breaking my rented stick, which was just a cheap wooden stick. Before getting into the game I was using it to practice slap shots, which probably wasn’t good for it, then after playing in the game for a while, I was battling for a puck, and snapped it like a toothpick. I came skating back into the lodge with the stick in two pieces and Amy busts out laughing. Then Jessica gets this worried look on her face like we’re going to be responsible for it. I just went to the counter and asked for a new one and it was no big deal. After another half hour of hockey, Jessica had to come get me and say she knew I was having the time of my life, but everyone else was hungry and ready to go, so I had to call it a day. It ended up being a day of skating and hockey that was so unique and memorable, so I’m very thankful we were able to make it a part of the trip.

After skating Amy took everyone out for pizza, which ended up being delicious even though our server was clueless. We were able to meet up with Tom and Trevor, then head back up the mountain. Later that night, Tom made a deep fried turkey outside, and I swear it was my favorite thing we ate all week. Same for Jessica. We couldn’t believe how good it was, and if I wasn’t afraid of burning my house down, I’d do it at my house as well. Either way props to Tom, because that turkey was the bomb.

Sunday was Christmas Eve, and we woke up that morning to a heavy blanket of new snow. It must have been going all night because we had gotten dumped on. The plan for that day was to go on a Christmas train with Santa down in Georgetown, which is about halfway down the mountain towards Denver. The problem was that due to all the fresh snow, we didn’t have a safe route down the mountain towards I-70, which is the main freeway you’d take to go towards Denver. So we had to go the long way, with all 13 of us in the rented van.

Jessica and I sat in the furthest back bench seat, which was stupid on our part. There’s no suspension back there, so every bump is jarring, and the good ones make you wonder if you were minorly concussed. The heat was blasting back there, the windows were all fogged up so you couldn’t see out, and it was so bumpy, that for the final 20 minutes of that trip I was just trying to concentrate on not throwing up in the van. It ended up taking 2 hours and 45 minutes to get there, and I think everyone was a bit miserable when we arrived.

As we walked down towards the train station, they had all these fires burning. There was even a guy roasting chestnuts on an open fire, which was incredibly authentic for a Christmas train. It was all quite picturesque, but when the smoke from those fires reached my nostrils, my nausea battle went into overtime. I held it together, but was miserable for the next 15 minutes. Once we got on the train and I was able to sit down and drink some water, and things started getting better. But between that and the altitude sickness earlier in the week, I was hurtin’ a little bit.

The Christmas train ended up being a big highlight of the trip. The kids got a bunch of interactions with Santa, and the views were incredible. It was a bummer trip getting there, but worth it in the end, and something we’ll always remember. We ended up getting a family photo on the train to signify it, then we lucked out on the way home because we were able to take I-70 back up the mountain, meaning the trip home was much shorter than on the way out.

After we returned home from the train, we all had to put it in gear to get setup for a little holiday gathering we were hosting with the neighbors. Everyone started working on putting food out and getting things together, and within 30 minutes the place was ready. It actually felt like we were running a little restaurant together for a minute there.

Their neighbors (and associated family who also came) were all great and I found myself in multiple engaging conversations. We didn’t end up seeing them again during the trip, which was a bummer, but that night was so much fun and we had plenty of delicious food to snack on.

Christmas morning got started early, which was by design. We all met at the tree at 7:00am, which for Trevor (the college kid) was borderline torture. The plan was to open presents early, then have the rest of the day to play, nap, and just hang out. We ended up never even leaving the house, which was fine with everyone considering how busy we’d been. Christmas Day was the sunniest and warmest day we had, so the views that day were insane.

I knew Tom was doing a prime rib that day, and since I had nothing else to do, I decided to basically take on the rest of the holiday meal. It wasn’t that much, but I made a ton of garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, and a vegetable stir fry. It ended up being a really nice chill day, capped off with a nice family meal.

Wednesday was our last full day in town, so Jessica and I decided to get away that morning and do a bunch of outlet shopping in Silverthorne. We ended up getting a bunch of clothes, shoes, and a new suitcase, before enjoying a delicious lunch at Sauce on the Blue. That evening we all made pizza’s at the house, then went out for our last group outing (which ended up being another highlight of the trip) – the Ice Castle in Dillon!

The Ice Castle is this huge castle made entirely of ice, filled with ice slides to go down, tunnels to climb through, enormous icicles hanging in the air, and light shows being shown on ice backdrops. It was cold, but so cool and unique. Everybody enjoyed it, and it was a really cool way to punctuate the trip. After exploring the castle for over an hour, we all went inside to enjoy hot chocolate and compare photos.

Thursday was our travel day, but our flight wasn’t until 9:15pm. It certainly wasn’t ideal to have such a late flight, but the only other option was early in the morning, and we didn’t feel like we could make it. So we basically just hung out that morning and let the kids go sledding one last time. We ended up leaving in the early afternoon, and obviously that was tough. Leaving is always emotional, but in a good way because we really did have an awesome week.

We left early that day because we wanted to head down to Denver and explore a bit. Even though this was my 4th or 5th trip to Colorado, I’d never been to Denver. We took our time driving down the mountain, then started our Denver evening by having dinner at an awesome diner called Steuben’s. I had found this place online and it looked like the perfect place for us, which ended up being the case. It’s a classic American diner originally from Boston that had been redone to have a cool modern feel. The food was excellent (Jessica had the fried chicken and I had meatloaf), great service and atmosphere, very reasonable prices – it was perfect.

After dinner we decided to drive around downtown Denver so we could see as much as possible. A bunch of the buildings were still decorated for the holidays, and there were tons of lights, so we really enjoyed checking everything out. Overall my impression of Denver was that it’s a really cool town with lots of good restaurants and lots of cool stuff to do. I’d like to spend more time there next time if possible.

We ended up arriving early to the Denver airport, which was good, because unlike SeaTac a week earlier, they had us pulling everything out of our bags and taking our shoes off. It’s all typical and makes getting through security with kids a bit hectic, but to their credit, the kids did very well. Unfortunately we found out upon arrival that our flight had been delayed until 9:50, which was a bummer, but there’s obviously nothing you can do.

The flight home was smooth and uneventful, but waking the kids up at midnight to drag them through the airport and wait for our bags was not fun. The bags were delayed, and we were all getting a bit grumpy. Including our ice skates, we had 7 checked bags, plus our carry ons, and we had to catch a shuttle to take us to our van. By the time we got home it was nearly 2:00am and the kids were zombies. We were hoping that they would sleep in the following day, but that simply wasn’t the case. By 8:00am they were all up, because that’s just normal for them.

Friday we were all pretty out of sorts due to sleep deprivation, so we just stayed busy unpacking, cleaning, and trying to get things in order. We went to the gym in the late afternoon, then Costco after. Poor Enzo was so exhausted that he was passed out and drooling all over Jessica’s coat in the shopping cart. Needless to say we were in bed early that night and everyone slept for about 12 straight hours.

Then the following day we drove up north to the Palmer’s house and enjoyed a day of relaxation and football, while they treated us to an incredible holiday meal. Talk about a nice homecoming! By now everyone is officially back to normal, but we still have a few more days to enjoy at home before getting back into our routines.

As expected, it has been an excellent winter vacation that we are very thankful for. Overall I’d say 2018 has been a great year for us. Unlike some recent years, there have been no surgeries or broken bones, we’ve picked up some good healthy new habits, and have had a lot of exciting firsts. If we’re lucky 2019 will go about the same, but I hope it doesn’t go too quickly. To all our family and friends, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!