So many highlights for us! Tim's hand healed and he was able to fish this summer and start working in a perfect job on the island. We got chickens this year, had chicks hatch under their mom, got goats, planted and harvested a garden, and Tilly went from a new trainee for Search and Rescue to an active K9 search team member, ready to save real lost people and a commissioned officer with the county, ready to help lead the training for becoming a state-wide search team. Grandpa has made good friends on the island, has been playing and even teaching bridge after a 20-year hiatus, and has great health, mastering those stairs and doing a large part of the gardening. I got to spend my first summer commercial fishing in Bristol Bay, we had many visitors, and got to do some visiting of our own. We spent time with family, and met new family. It has been a wonderful year, and it is hard to imagine how next year might top this one, but we have a few things we're looking forward to.
The fish prediction for Bristol Bay this coming summer is twice what it was last year, making for a potentially record breaking year. Our goat, Petunia, seems to be showing signs of pregnancy, so we are still hoping their will be kids on the ground in February, Tilly and I look forward to helicopter trips to remote wilderness for days of camping and saving lives, and we look forward to more of all the joys we have had this past year.
Enough about the weather! It's Christmas! Tilly got to meet 'Santa' as the fire department made a stop at our Search and Rescue Canine Good Citizen training before continuing on the holiday tour through town. Knowing a big part of the fire department has some unexpected perks!
At home, our family congregated as Mom and Dad and Brother Daniel and Amanda and Uncle Dan and Uncle Joel and Alex joined Grandpa and Tim and I. Whew! A lot of family in this house! Also a lot of baked goods! Amanda and Daniel's gift to the family was an obscene amount of baked goods, starting with a pumpkin pie, pecan nutella pie, and lemon meringue pie, then dividing a mountain of sweets among the rest of the family: snowball cookies, ginger snaps, almond cupcakes with white chocolate and raspberry, fudge, 7-layer bars, pumpkin bars, no-bake cookies, and zucchini bread.
We celebrated Christmas Eve by going to the candlelight carol service at Grandpa's church while Tim and Amanda guarded the house, cared for the puppy, and watched their traditional Christmas-themed cartoons. After the service, we came home to play the White Elephant gift exchange before bed.
Christmas morning, Santa Puppy made her debut, helping deliver all the present-madness and flopping delighted and belly-up on the floor with her new orange squeaky toy. Amanda and Daniel had the best-dressed gift with a snow-bunny shaped present. Tim and I worked on hand-made presents for most of the family, including a song book for Mom of all the lullabies from my childhood.
As soon as presents were opened, Daniel, Amanda, Tim and I headed out the door and for the airport as Cousin Min Min headed for the house for another Christmas celebration. Tim and I hopped on the afternoon flight to Sacramento where his dad, Joe, and step-mom, Roni, picked us up in time for a laid-back Christmas dinner with Roni's daughter, Tierney. The next morning we headed out of town and into the mountains to meet Tim's birth mom, Dawn.
Joe and Roni
Meeting Dawn went as well as we could possibly imagine. Her and her family are clearly loving, intelligent, interesting, and welcoming family, just as we hoped they would be. Dawn's aunt, Sandy, and uncle, Troy, who's house we all stayed at are big fans of Alaska after several trips to Alaska and their home was decorated in a way that made us feel more at home than we've been since leaving our home state. Even the Christmas tree had little Yupik dolls in kuspuks as ornaments. We had a delicious Christmas dinner of fresh garden vegetables picked that day, well grilled meat (or so I hear), and the salmon Tim and I brought to contribute. Every one of the many, many dishes Aunt Sandy prepared was so well prepared and delicious. Cousins and other aunts and uncles joined in the feast, and among new faces we were family.
Tim last year from our annual photo album on the left, his birth-grandfather on the right.
In case there was still any doubt that Tim and Dawn were kin, Dawn brought out some pictures of her and her dad. At first, it was hard to see the resemblance she remembered in his face, looking at old pictures of a man with a mustache, then Dawn handed me a picture of her dad riding the lawn tractor and I paused to pull out our photo album from last year and lined up her picture with a matching picture of Tim in the same pose. Tim and Dawn both had blonde hair through their childhood only to turn dark as they grew up, dark eyes, and little ears. In Uncle Troy's 'man cave', we looked at pictures of him and his brother, Tim's birth-grandfather. There we saw the only picture of Dawn's dad as a young man and mustache-free. In his senior school picture, the resemblance to my handsome husband is so striking I forget I'm not looking at a picture of Tim.
Dawn's dad as a high school senior
In the morning after a long and happy night of laughter and talking and hugs, Uncle Troy and Aunt Sandy took us to see the rural community mining museum they run in town. Exploring mining ruins was one of Tim's favorite hobbies in Juneau and something we've been rediscovering in Washington, but not something we expected to find on our trip to California.
California was full of surprises, the biggest being how comfortable we were and the lack of awkwardness at our first time meeting Dawn after only a few weeks of knowing of each other. We were surprised by how familiar and welcoming the family was. We were surprised by the beautiful wilderness and forest, reminding us of home.
Getting out of the big city, away from the coast, opened up beautiful views down the American River Canyon. In the bright sunshine, we explored the small town of Foresthill and enjoyed the special time together.
Too soon, it was time for us to head down the hill and continue our adventure with Joe and Roni while Dawn headed home to southern California. Back in Sacramento, we got to spend nights relaxing and chatting with Joe and Roni about past and future. The next day we had Christmas #4 with Roni's sister and family, including three grand-babies and a fourth on the way.
On our last day in California, Roni took us to some of her favorite places. We went on a hike through Muir Woods and found the quieter trails through big trees and over wild rivers. The park had a huge number of visitors from all over the world, making parking a 30-minute walk from the front gait of the park. It is great to see so many people interested in visiting nature.
While waiting for rush-hour traffic to let up, we went walking through China Town, admiring the many strange and wonderful things. Tim found some ironed-flat dried octopus in a window and Roni got us some salted plumbs, ginseng and ginger candies.
Tim and I said goodbye Joe and Roni after a great visit and flew back to Seattle where Brother Daniel and Amanda picked us up and took us to meet Mom and Dad and Grandpa and his friend Dee at the Space Needle. We found out lunch at the top is only $5 more than a ticket in the elevator and the food was delicious. From our tour of the Space Needle, we moved on to a tour of the Bowing "Future of Flight". After flying in the morning, seeing the inner workings of our airplane and the process of developing and creating these planes had an extra impact.
After a busy, busy week, and an exciting and delightful year, we reached the end of 2014! Dad and Tim went shopping for some special fireworks and Daniel and Tim put on a great show. Tilly hung out indoors and seemed to think we were strange for standing outside while lights exploded over our heads in the middle of the night when it was clearly time for bed.
Thanks, Ariel, for this delightful 2014 wrap-up. I'm sorry to have missed any of it but will see you soon for Christmas #?5.
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