Faw Family Celebration

The Faw Family celebrated in stages this year as not all of us were home at the same time. Friday we went snowshoeing and had our lasagna feast, Sunday Kevin and Meara were passing through so we had a lovely soup and flatbread dinner and opened presents, Tuesday Brad and Steph were home so we got to go over and see them and they opened presents (shame on me...no pics) and we got to see some of the Cizik cousins and then Wednesday was the big Faw Family (all extended family) celebration (shame on me again, no pics). I think our marathon Christmas might be over, darn, I was getting used to this getting presents all the time.

Here is some of the Faw sibs.

"Tools...how did you know I wanted tools..." Oh wait, that's all Brian ever wants...that's why I love him though, he has the tool to do just about anything I need.

Even Elsie gave presents this year. How cute!

Hunter Family Christmas Extravaganza

The Hunter Family Christmas started with decorating mom's tree. She left it naked so we could all decorate it together.

Grandma Boufford made this angel tree topper along time ago, I love it, always have remembered it as a kid.

The whole Hunter/Stagg/Faw Clan

Stockings! My favorite part of Christmas! Mom made Addy Lou and LindyJean new stockings this year, they are awesome! Addy's is on the left.

Ear warmers!

The mad house of opening gifts.

I have been wanting a garden gnome.....how did Santa know! :) I can't wait to find a spot in the yard for it...any name ideas?

The Feast: Jo the head chef created a menu for a 4 course italian feast. I am sure Jo would describe this much better...it was awesome!

Course number 1: bruschetta (traditional tomato, olive tapenade, and an italian style hummus)

Course 2: Mom made a vegetable soup with bitter greens topped with pesto

Course 3: Jo handmade Gnocci with a browned butter sage sauce (this was especially delicious)

This was followed by a palate cleansing of mango and raspberry sorbet and then a feast of prime rib and asparagus. It was awesome!

I took the liberty of decorating the table, mom and Jo made the napkins and we decided on a traditional red and green schema.

Leavenworth Snowshoeing Adventures

This year the Faw Clan was missing a few bodies from the celebration so we decided to pack up and head to Leavenworth for the day for some snowshoeing adventures. It was amazing, gorgeous, relaxing, and it's always great to breath in some fresh mountain air.

After the snow shoeing we had a wonderful lunch at Gustav's then headed home got ready for the Christmas Eve church service and headed back to Russ and Cathy's for a lasagna feast.

I am not quite sure what Shelley was doin' with her head in the snow but it was hilarious!

Cathy, Jared, Shelley, Russ, Brian and I

We hiked along the Icicle Creek, it was awesome!

We found a little snow mound and decided to do some jumps off of it, each one being a little different. What a fabulous way to spend Christmas Eve Day, totally recommend it!

Christmas Card 2010

Pretty Packages

It's Christmas Eve! I love wrapping gifts. Well Brian wraps and then I do the rest. He is the master wrapper, his lines always match up perfectly. So we have a system, he wraps and I decorate. And I do love brown paper packaging because it gives you so many fun options for decorating.

National Frozen Foods Christmas Bash

Brian has been working at National since he was a sophomore in high school and National has been an amazing company to work for. Some of you may already know this but December 31st will be Brian's last day with National, so this was our last Christmas Party.

At the National Christmas Party, there is always fun to be had. Well this year like each year before we start off in the afternoon at one of their favorite growers Aaron Raap's for some drinks and appetizers. Aaron's appetizers usually consist of something like goose, duck, and or elk wrapped in bacon, always delicious!

Then we always head to Etter and Tower's for some more drinks and appetizers and good company. Since Brian and I are scrooges and have no tree at home we decided to take a picture infront of Bud's tree.

Brian gets to work with a great group of guys. Here they are with Etter and Tower.

Shari (Brian's Boss' Wife and Kim (Kevin's Wife) and I

After hitting up appetizers and drinks with some growers we headed to Pillar Rock for dinner and some Christmas Cheer! Lennette always has fun games to play.

Here is Steve and Brian, Steve is one of the head mechanics.

Randy (his boss)

Lennette (the HR manager)

Gary (the general manager)

and of course Kevin, the life of every party.

Clark W. Griswold Christmas Party

This was a jam packed weekend. I will start off with the Clark W. Griswold Christmas Party. David Woods, one of Brian's friends from high school decided to hold a costume Christmas party, which was a fantastic idea! Brian and I were twin elves.

Here is Anthony, Scott, David, and Brian (who all graduated from HS together)

All the men folk at the party. I was lovin' the gingerbread man.

Seriously, we sang Christmas Carols and it was awesomely off key and terrible, but equally fun. David serenaded us to a lovely rendition of the 12 days of Christmas, everyone at the party was singing, it was definitely comical.

Fall Photo Shoot

Now that my Christmas cards have all gone out I can finally post our fun fall picture session! Each fall Jonda and Dean and Brian and I head off someplace for a little photo session. The boys just love it....it is pretty entertaining though trying to get her two giant danes and Maddy to sit and pay attention. Luckily Maddy is pretty photogenic. This year we went to Cle Elum which is such a pretty place! It was drizzling the entire time, but we made it work.

We found this random bath tub just sitting in a field...

Brian had some sort of weird thing with this tree...he thought it looked cool, so we took some photos with it.

This is my favorite photo...I don't know how Jonda captured all of us looking separate directions but it just cracks me up! we don't usually do well with the serious photos, so this was awesome!

Good things come in packages from Canada

THANK YOU HEIDI!!!! It's the unexpected kindness that makes this time of year so fabulous. Yesterday I got to the office and sitting on my desk was a box full of Canadian goodies, there is even maple syrup tea, which I am very excited to taste! I love maple syrup, love it. Brian and I often have arguments about Mrs. Buttersworth and the real Maple Syrup! I opened it up and new instantly it was from Bruce and Heidi who live up in Jasper, Canada. Remember the awesome red Vancouver 2010 mittens I got, yep those were from her too. She is so awesome!

Also in my fun little package was an inukshuk. (Which Emily had to inform me what it was) I was telling her I got this cool "rock statue" and she knew exactly what it was!

"The Inukshuk, which means "likeness of person" was first used by the Inuit People to mark trails, indicate caches of food, locate nearby settlements as well as good places to hunt or fish. Most of the canadian arctic is dominated year round by permafrost and only has a few natural landmarks which could be used for orientation, thats why Inukshuk are used as directional marker.

The rock Inukshuk embodies the spirit and persistence of the Inuit who live and flourish in Northern Canada, one of the world harshest environments. Inukshuk's represent strenght, leadership and motivation."

HOW CUTE IS MY LITTLE INUKSHUK!!! I love him, he needs a name! I think I am gonna call him Martin!

Cookies and Crafts

This weekend I devoted some time to making some christmas cookies and a craft. Grandma Hunter (dad's mom) was famous for her tea cookies that she made. They are all old tea cookie recipes from way back and they are awesome. This year mom, jo, and I decided to split them up and make them ahead of time and bring to christmas.

In the crafting department...Emily makes the coolest banners out there, but I thought I would give it a shot and make a Christmas Banner to spruce up my house otherwise lacking in anything Christmas related.

Holiday Crescents (these are a powder sugar and pecan cookie) my favorite!

Butterballs (pretty much explains it, butter)

Pfeffernusse (a spicy cookie with cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and most importantly anise seed)