Final Holiday Preparations

This is the second year we've been away from our families for the holidays. We miss our loved ones tremendously at this time of year. In order to alleviate our heartache, we try to go all out and carry on several Christmas traditions. Here is our holiday checklist:

Tree? Check.

Sugar Cookies? Check.

Ryan's Sugar Induced Headache? Check.

Stockings Hung By The Fire With Care? Check.
Wait a second...

How is it that our dog's stocking is already stuffed with presents?


Well, he has been a good boy this year, and it doesn't hurt to have an honorary Santa title.

We hope everyone has a great holiday and takes a little time to relax and enjoy good company.

I know it's a little early, but here's a look back at 2007... Nonerick style!

First Snow

Seattle has a pretty temperate climate. Famous for its rain, our city rarely gets cold enough to support snow and even more rarely allows snow to accumulate. Today was one of those rare days - take a look at this:

Our balcony with Christmas decorations and our pots of herbs. At this point we were thinking, "oh, it's just a light dusting of snow."

A couple of hours later, Ryan started to get nervous with memories of Syracuse. He told me about his mom's Christmas lights buried in mounds of snow. I think Ryan has nothing to worry about--a few inches of snow is nothing compared to the feet of snow in the 'Cuse.

Soma's Snow Scooping Technique