NOVEMBER
We celebrated our 4th ANNIVERSARY on the 17th! We spent the weekend at a lovely little bed and breakfast outside of Tacoma in University Place on the water. We highly recommend staying there Day Island B&B. Sushi Revolution provided a delicious array of interesting sushi rolls for dinner (also highly recommended). For breakfast we went to one of our favorites, Great Harvest Bread and enjoyed some tasty bakery items. It was the perfect mini get away and we're amazed at how time flies!
We have our splendid friends, the Pickett's, to thank for hosting a spectacular Thanksgiving dinner. Post dinner activities included bracelet making for Seattle Children's hospital upstairs and a riveting game of cue-less pool downstairs (I bet you can guess which gender was doing what).
The day after Thanksgiving the British Pantomime, Pinocchio, I was in opened at Centerstage in Federal Way. "What", you may well ask, "is a British Panto?" Well, in England, going to a Panto with children at Christmas time is as much a necessity as eating a Turkey on Thanksgiving here in the U.S.. A panto is a stylized, fast pace, comedic tale that appeals to all ages and is packed with traditions, such as "The Dame" a middle age man dressed as a woman playing the mother figure. The dame thinks she is very desirable even though she is unappealing to everyone else. Other traditions include ending with a large wedding and bringing small children onstage to sing a silly tongue twister. There are plenty of slapstick and campy jokes to go around. Which takes us into...
DECEMBER
I spent a good portion of December performing as a rebel child turned donkey, governess and cameo as a pine tree in Pinocchio. I also, finished up my first round of children's theater classes. I love teaching and was blessed to have an excellent mentor. I'm very motivated to polish my teaching skills and take on more teaching jobs in the near future.
We kept with a long standing Jones family tradition of making 'bread bears'. Mitch's Grandma Czirr invites all the grand kids over every December to create a bread sculpture out of sensational bread dough. Mitch, Rochelle and I enjoyed fashioning and then devouring these tasty creations.
Rochelle and I saw Pacific Northwest Ballet's Nutcracker. We definitely left filled with the magic of the season.
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| Nutcracker Ballerinas |
The Campbell's, one of the families I nanny for, invited us to Christmas dinner in Silverdale with their family. It was wonderful spending Christmas among such loving and fun people. It helped ease the twinge of homesickness I felt being away from my family at Christmas for the first time.
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| It was a wee bit chilly at the top of the mt. |
Christmas break was scrumptious! After going full-speed nannying, performing and teaching since September, it was heavenly to relax for a week. Mitch was also glad to have a little break from UW campus. We went on a classic dinner and a movie date. (We loved Hugo, coming soon to a redbox near you! Totally worth watching). We also hiked Wallace Falls. The view was breathtaking! Reading The Hunger Games trilogy over the break filled me with the desire to become incredibly fit, climb trees and take up archery. I add it to the long list of recommendations this update offers. The rest of the break was spent playing board games late into the night and checking lots of things off the to do list. We went back to work this week feeling completely refreshed.
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| Wallace Falls |
We kicked off New Year's Eve with some funtastic friends and had a blast playing board games, the Wii and watching youtube. We couldn't be more thrilled for 2012 and the adventures that lie ahead.
We couldn't have wished for a better 2011. We feel blessed beyond measure to have such spectacular friends. We are surrounded by genuine, charitable people who make us want to be better. We thank every friend and family member that visited our home (or welcomed us into theirs) this year and look forward to having you all back in 2012!
Cool. Thanks for sharing. :)
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