A festive Christmas Eve dinner with Brendan and Melissa started off our holiday season. The celebration moved to Montana to Jim and Julie's. And it wrapped up back in Seattle after the New Year when Dan, Dave and Megan arrived. Tomoko stayed in Georgia to care for the ailing pup, Jackson.
L, Dan, Megan, J and Dave
News & Notes
Our family remembered Esther Snyder on January 8th, the day Mom, or 'Babi to her grandkids, would have marked her 100th birthday. We celebrated with one of her signature foods, crêpes. Both Dan and Dave have learned her technique for this simple but elegant food. The "trick" for very thin crêpes is to let the batter sheet along the bottom of the hot pan. Happy Birthday, Mom.
Dave controls the hot crêpe pan so the batter sheets thinly across the surface
One of the joys of living in the Pacific Northwest is the opportunity to behold big trees. We are in awe of their size compared to other growing things, respectful of their great age, and amazed how they wear the scars of a difficult life so stoically. One handy location to see a variety of big trees is the South Whidbey Island State Park. Our hike took us past this giant, a Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii).
Megan takes the measure of a Doug Fir
J's longtime student, Michi Muriyama, and her mother visited one morning.
