Josh noticed that Dad got some photos uploaded on his website that were taken by Armando Gonzalez (here). I snagged a couple of the initial surprise to post here. Our other photos from our one and half day quick trip are here.
Family
28
Mar 10
Dad Allen’s Retirement Party
We flew back to Seattle to surprise Dad for his retirement party. Only Ma knew. So we also got to surprise Becky, Grandpa, GrandDad, Grandma, Uncle Bob and Aunt Dee! We had great fun! We actually needed a place to rest our tired bodies and party prep after we sat on the tarmac that morning for 3 hours (pilot slept through his alarm) so we went to Grandma and GrandDad’s before the grand unveiling at the party and surprised them and Aunt Dee early at the house.
Check out more photos after the jump!
And check out my pop’s new hobby: http://www.daveandjanallen.net/
24
Jan 10
Happy Birthday to Josh!
Happy Birthday to Josh! Thanks everybody for helping us celebrate his birthday, even from so far away!
Josh’s actual Birth Day. (Not really, this is a few days later… after the blizzard of ’78 was over and Josh & Judi could go home.) So this is George, Big Brother Thadd & Josh:
Baby Josh & the Fam:
Here Josh says, “I am 4!” (I wanted to put a pic with Shan in! Jackie & Grandma & Grandpa Mates are helping to celebrate the big FOUR.)
Here Josh says, “I am 4 (x 8)!” Ha.
Becky got this awesome Celtics green tee for Josh!
And now Josh won’t be so cold with these great gifts from Mom & Dad!
And these South Africa guidebooks will be so useful! Thanks again Mom & Dad!
Watch out Dave! Josh is going to beat you in shuffleboard now! (Thanks Mom & Dad Allen!)
Manhattan is thrilled for Josh’s birthday.
As is Magellan.
Thanks again for the gifts and cards and phone calls and texts and Facebook wall posts. It was a great birthday. We finished it off playing Josh’s new Wii game (the shuffleboard and darts are our new favorites!), and cooking a great dinner that was made even better thanks to a Christmas gift from Shan – Argentinian wine, carted across the globe in her backpack! A great way to celebrate 32 years.
25
Dec 09
Christmas
We have had a very Merry Christmas and hope you have too! Spending this Christmas just the two of us was both a bit lonely without our families and also exciting for us.
This morning we woke up early in order to open a couple gifts before services so we could wear new Christmas clothes to church, and then we headed over to Trinity Church. It was a beautiful service with a great sermon. We really enjoy it there.
After church we hightailed it home to continue our tradition-making. We popped a French Bread Casserole in the oven that Jeannette had prepped last night and then exchanged gifts over Skype with the Allen side of the Fiallen family. We had such a great time getting to see Jan, Dave, Becky, Grandpa, Uncle Bob, GrandDad and Grandma! Skyping really helped us to be able to feel like we had a little piece of our back home family out here.
We want to mention that we got the French Bread Casserole recipe from a roommate of Jeannette’s from college from Junior year. And it was so so SO good – the calories can attest to that! It is going on our Christmas morning traditions for sure. If you are so inclined, looking for a goody to bake for a special morning breakfast treat you should check out the recipe here on her blog: eat at allie’s.
In the afternoon we watched the Celtics WIN (86-77) in Orlando, even without Pierce. It was so much better than last year’s abomination Christmas Day game against the Lakers.
AND we got a Wii and games for Christmas (Thanks Moms and Dads!!!!) so we’ve been playing that all night! We love Super Mario Bros. Wii and are already getting into Madden 10.
For dinner, we cooked the traditional Fiallen Green Bean Casserole, with a great Mustard-Maple Pork Loin (using thyme from our still-growing-like-crazy herb garden). It was really good Christmas dinner!
All in all, a great Christmas! We made some great memories and will treasure our first solo, married couple Christmas as a special one.
We hope your Christmas was as blessed as ours!
I’m going to sign off with the Blessing from church today:
May you be filled with the wonder of Mary, the obedience of Joseph, the joy of the angels, the eagerness of the shepherds, the determination of the magi, and the peace of the Christ child. And the blessing of the holy and undivided Trinity be upon you this day and remain with you forever. Amen.
UPDATE Here is a picture of the Skyping session from the West coast perspective!
24
Dec 09
Christmas Eve
This was our first Christmas holiday not spent with our families. We’ve missed our families dearly and been conscious of not having them nearby. As a part of keeping our spirits up, we have been really deliberate with thinking about our first Christmas doing our own married couple thing, getting to start our own traditions. So while we are missing all our family and friends back in the Midwest and Northwest and San Francisco, we are enjoying our first solo married couple Christmas too.
We began our tradition-making with Josh wrapping his last minute gifts that arrived today while we drank Starry Nights and watched White Christmas. We also opened presents with our Fiala half of the Fiallen family over Skype! George, Judi, Shannon and Thadd are in California for Christmas. It was great to be able to see their faces and exchange gifts with them “in person” even though we couldn’t be there with them.
More pictures of our Tree and our Skyping follow the jump!