Up, up and away

I got to sit right up in the cockpit and enjoyed every moment of the 40 minute trip around Puget Sound. Can you believe how awesome this is? The photos just don't it justice. Thank you, Peter for a truly magnificent experience!

We live here

Mt. Rainier right above Kevin's ear.
Downtown, looking south.
The Olympic Mountains.
Downtown looking north.

Flight of fancy

Our good friend Peter is a pilot for American Airlines and has his own little plane that he can take out with family and friends. This morning was gorgeous-- sunny and clear as far as the eye can see. What a perfect day to take a flight around Puget Sound!

More Christmas pictures

Train set from Grandaddy.
New clothes from Grandma.

Christmas Morning!

Fire chief hat and scarf and gloves! Maybe now the teachers at Jesse's school will stop sending letters home insisting on warmer outside clothes. Can I help it that my kid hates clothes?
Gift frenzy.
A new little sister for Katie (on left-- the naughty doll), named Laura. After naming Laura, Elena immediately proclaimed that Katie was jealous of Laura and wanted her to go away. Then they fought. Then Katie got put in timeout, and Laura decided Susie (another doll) was her best friend and she didn't like Katie. Holy moly... can you say "relational aggression"???
Elena's best present was a new Rainbow Pegasus. She lost her old one, and only Santa was able to find a new one! The cry of sheer delight upon finding the new Rainbow tied to her stocking was perhaps my most favorite moment in the entire year.


Inspired by Emory's guitar, I found an old beat up child's sized guitar at the consignment shop for $14 and got it for Jesse. He loves it... like sleeps with it and carries it around with him everywhere kind of love. We are not actually trying to teach him how to play it, but he can heft it around with him and strum himself to sleep until he has enough of an attention span for a real lesson. Kevin tuned it to a nice major chord so that it always sounds sweet.

Christmas Eve

Lots of cookie-making with Grandma.
After the Family Christmas Eve Mass, we lit the advent wreath and had a lovely standing rib roast.
I read the Nativity story to the kids.
We wrote letters to Santa, and left a snack. It is so crazy to have children who believe in Santa Claus! Neither Kevin or I remember ever believing in Santa, so it is a little bit hard to act the act for the kids. Honestly, I kind of feel like I am lying to them a little bit...seriously, a big fat man coming down the chimney? Elena already started asking the hard questions: "What if the house doesn't have a chimney? How does he know if I've been naughty?" It is hard enough trying to explain the fantastical complexities of the Christian narrative without throwing in a handful of secular magic to complicate things... ("Why did King Herod want to kill the baby Jesus? Did Santa bring presents to baby Jesus, too?") When and how do we tell her that Santa isn't magic, or real, but Jesus did perform miracles and came back from the dead? Huh? Until that time comes, we are embracing all of the stories whole-heartedly. Bring it on, Santa.

Ursi's trip to Tucson

I had a conference in Phoenix last week, and I managed to take a couple days to go see my little sister Rachel and her new digs in Tucson! She is in a Speech and Hearing Sciences program and her beau, Alex, is in an Electrical Engineering (I think? Geophysics?) program. They are both terribly clever, attractive, and fun. I am really proud of the little home they have made for themselves, and how hard they are working at school. They are truly living the graduate student life-- lots of work, lots of ambition, lots of fun, and no money! Looking back, I think being a free-spirited graduate student was one of the best times of my life... I think the first couple years, it took some time to get used to being a real grown-up, but now I do miss those years of no mortgage, no *real* job, few commitments, and little responsibility to anyone but myself. I sang in choirs, took yoga classes, played ultimate frisbee, took a pottery class, wrote poetry, went backpacking, learned cool stuff, and met wonderful people. And all my belongings could fit in the back of a Honda Civic hatchback! I also managed to write a huge paper, get a useful degree, and start a Roth IRA. So to Rachel and Alex, I hope that they enjoy this time of freedom and challenge. They have the added advantage of having each other-- and I am thrilled that they are on this adventure together.

Rachel and Alex (and Ben)

A day in the life of Rachel's saguaro cactus

 I

The Great Tucson Chicken Massacre 2010

 Alex and Rachel decided to only eat local meat while living in Tucson. Since they both actually love meat, and local meat is hard to find and expensive, the logical conclusion was to raise their own meat chickens! (They also have 8 egg-laying hens)

 The day of the great chicken massacre of 2010 was beautiful-- dry, sunny, and warm. Alex set up a slaughtering and gutting stations (yuck!), Rachel took charge of  plucking (so hard!!), and I did the most of the butchering (by far the easiest job!)

Six hours and eight dead chickens later, the guests began to arrive. Alex BBQ'ed the birds using traditional BBQ sauce and a vinegar marinade, a dry rub using orange peel and clove, and Kevin's famous Jamaican jerk marinade. Their neighbors made chicken Marsala. What a feast!! Everyone was terribly impressed and very well fed. What a lot of work for a little meat-- It makes me that much more appreciative of my local grocery store's mean department.

Ingredients for a happy husband

 Homemade EGGNOG made with fresh eggs, whipping cream, milk, sugar, and whiskey. I have a feeling we'll be making a lot of eggnog this season...

O Christmas Tree

Adventures of the Krentz Family: Operation Christmas Tree

 Success! And right before it starts to get really dark.

 Kevin jumps out and cuts it down. Are we allowed to take a tree so close to the road? Who knows? After 4 hours of looking, we don't really care.

 Then we see it! The perfect tree by the side of the road.

  Then we drive too far, and the car gets stuck in the snow. After some spinning and swearing, we are free, but still tree-less. Kevin hikes up another half a mile to find a nice sunny plateau (apparently pine trees need sun) and one skinny little Noble. We start to drive back, defeated.

 Our spirits stay high, playing in the snow and climbing through the forest in search of the perfect tree.

 Second major problem: 99.5% of all the trees we see are SPRUCE. Where are the Christmas trees???

 First problem: There are no trees under 12 ft!

 We climb into the mountains near Verlot. The ranger tells us that we can have any tree, except stay away from Cedars and Spruce because they lose all their needles after being cut. Snow!! What fun.

The story starts at the bottom: The Krentz Family piles into the minivan for an adventure. This year, we are going to not only cut our own tree, but find one in the State Forest! You can get a permit for $10 to cut down any tree under 12 ft. What a deal!