Christmas in Washington

After a very nice Christmas Eve service at Calapooia FMC, we loaded up luggage, gifts and dog and headed for Washington.  The roads were perfect - bare and dry the whole way!  We arrived in Edmonds, at Vaughn's parents' at 3am.  The kids fell right to sleep while Vaughn and I tried to get Klaus (the dachshund) to settle down in new surroundings.  This didn't really happen as he yelped, cried and whined for several hours.  We were so glad to have a relaxing Christmas Day with Vaughn's parents, sister and brother-in-law, and nieces and nephew.  The next couple days were filled with shopping, a lot of eating, visiting and a fun movie at the theater. ("Parental Guidance")

We then journeyed farther north to Marysville to stay at my parents' house.  The next day we had our Wiley Family Christmas after a tasty brunch.  Attending church at Marysville FMC was a highlight!  We loved getting hugs from so many special people!  While in Marysville we also went to see "The Hobbit" with David and Debbie and spent New Year's Eve evening with Brian and Kris and their kids in Snohomish.  We had to practically pry Faith away from Delaney, her beloved friend and our "other daughter". :(

New Year's Day we celebrated Natalie's 6th birthday at Erik and Candace's house and then were treated to dinner at Lance and Shaana's.  I tried to savor every moment with our nieces and nephew because they are growing so fast! 

The next day we headed home to Sutherlin.

I have to say the ONLY thing I truly miss about living in Sutherlin are the friends and family who are six hours away.  So thankful for skype, facetime, Facebook and email!