‘Tis the season!!

We’ve decided to take our Christmas letter online this year. This webblog is updated about once a week and is used to share pictures and updates of what we’re up to with friends and family.

With a flash, 2006 is nearly in the history books... looking forward to a bright 2007!

We’re still loving Seattle and all the excitement of exploring a new city. We’ve still got our day jobs: Rob continues analyzing the P-8A at Boeing and Allison still saves the Internet at avenue-a-razorfish. Both companies are doing very well and the projects are keeping us very busy. Most evenings you’ll find us meeting up after work for a fine Seattle dining experience. On the weekends we stay busy with our "project house" where we moved in mid-January. The year has seen several projects completed while still others remain. The rain in January, April, and May encouraged us to work indoors but we did break away and enjoy some fantastic Northwest skiing at Mt Hood, Crystal Mountain, and Snoqualmie Central in January and February. We hope to get in at least as many trips this season as we did last.

With the house in "almost presentable" condition in May, we hosted Allison's parents for 12-day visit. Allison's dad got right to work taking the lead by replacing the storm doors and the kitchen exterior window, as well as cutting out old / adding new wall outlet junction boxes and re-wiring the cable through the basement and first floors. This saved major time for Rob while he was at work during the weekdays. Fortunately they brought good weather with them and had a great tour of the Puget Sound & San Juan Islands. This included a ferry ride to Bremerton to meet Rob & Melanie for dinner, and a “not to be missed” tour of the Boeing 777 factory and Future of Flight museum in Everett. Rob's dad also passed through for a few days in the spring on his way back from east asia. While visiting multiple air museums and even fitting in a quick day trip to Mt. St. Helens, it was a productive stay!

The summer yielded outstanding weather where we enjoyed walks down to the Market, taking in Mariners games, meeting friends for happy hour, playing some beach volleyball, and enjoying the sunlight for the 4 months of fantastic weather in Seattle. The only apparent casualty was the grass in the front yard, due to the lack of rain. Since we both commute to work by bus, we said farewell to the beloved MINI that was sleeping in the garage. Now we even notice ourselves "storing" the Jeep in the garage since our house is near three buslines.

We celebrated our third anniversary on Vancouver Island (British Columbia). Stops on the safari included the surfer town of Tofino, a three-day kayaking-camping journey along the Johnstone Strait viewing the Orcas pods, and a visit to Campbell River vacations. What a nice introduction to camping via kayak! Rob's brother visited in early August to attend and present at a statistics convention downtown, allowing him to witness good weather in Seattle (sans the humidity he’s used to in D.C.). He was here during Seafair when the Blue Angels flew their show over Lake Washington, which was amazing.


September started an exciting football season as we cheered on the Wolverines from Rocksport Bar in West Seattle. Between that and following the Detroit Tigers along a great season finish (almost) in the World Series, the fall kept us busy. Despite the final score of an outstanding game with Ohio State, and the blot from several questionable BCS votes (or lack thereof... yes, we're pointing in your direction, Jim Tressel!), Michigan football gave us a great season. We’ll cheer them on again from Pasadena where we’ll finally watch the Rose Bowl in person on New Years day with Rob’s brother.

Allison's sister visited us this fall, which was great fun that included shopping and live music at the Crocodile Cafe. With the new roof being installed during her visit, we were forced to navigate around all the debris in the yard and asked her to imagine how charming our house would look like without the mess and the dumpster.

We had two Thanksgivings this year. The first was a week early with Rob’s parents in Florida. A long weekend with sunny weather was just what we needed. We had our friends over for the second, on Thanksgiving day, where Allison cooked up a nice spread. We’ll be spending Christmas with Allison's parents and family in Michigan's U.P., and look forward to seeing the rest of the family and take a few days off before heading down to California to ring in the new year!

By the way, the Flickr menu on the right will have our pictures stashed for you to view. Stay tuned for more pictures and updates to start off next year. Pictures from the Rose Bowl will be followed by our escape from the rainy early spring while spending a week in Praiano, Italy. If ever in Seattle (you should visit in May-September, and we’ll visit you in the other months) please drop us a line! We have extra rooms & beds, and we love visitors!

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Love,
Al & Rob