Good Tidings

SEASON OF GIVING: A couple of nights ago, there was a devastating fire at an apartment complex less than a half mile from our house. Suddenly, on Christmas Eve eve,  24 adults and six children found themselves suddenly homeless, with most of their personal belongings a total loss. 

Naturally, we wondered what we could do to help, and yesterday the West Hill Community Association announced plans to accept community donations for the fire victims, by hosting a drive up donation center at the King County Fire District 20 administration building in Skyway. 

So, this morning the kids and I rounded up a bunch of stuff and took it there. We were happy to see a line of cars waiting to drop things off. 

We had a huge bag of men's pants and another big bag of men's shirts. Annabelle donated a few pairs of pants and some hoodies. I put together a big bag of toiletries - including bottles of hand sanitizer and canisters of bleach wipes. We had a few new toys, some brand new pint glasses, some new ballcaps, and even a couple of Christmas ornaments and a cute Seahawks birdhouse that will hopefully brighten up someone's balcony. We also included a grocery bag full of non- perishable food

Our little Fit was packed to the rafters.

The biggest item we donated was a brand new Instant Pot.  It had to go in the back seat.

We hope someone starting over can put it to good use.

BRIGHT LIGHT: Yesterday I was stunned by a mysterious glowing orb in the sky to the south.

The valley was filled with fog, but Rainier was rising above it.

Sunshine and blue skies have been ins such short supply as of late. It was a welcome sight, for sure.

WORDY: I feel like I must record this for posterity. Yesterday, I dropped a 112-point word on Kennedy in our (online) Scrabble game. It was ZONES, on a triple letter and triple word slot, plus it was a combo with three other words. 

I beat him by well over 100 points in that game, which is a Christmas miracle. Kennedy is *such* a good Scrabble player. And then, in our new game, I got to go first - and dropped a 77-point opening move on him. I had an odd assortment of letters, and saw that I could spell BACK, and my other three letters were OGH. I thought, "You don't suppose HOGBACK is a word, do you?"

It is! Yippee! (Turns out a hogback is "a long hill or mountain ridge with steep sides," per the Google dictionary. 

I have to revel in these things when I can, because Kennedy regularly bests me by a ton.

A CHRISTMAS STORY: Given the pandemic, we are home for the holidays this year. I was trying to think of ways to make our stay fun. On Christmas Eve, we watched a family favorite, "Elf." We had spaghetti for dinner (a favorite of Buddy's). We made our usual good stuff, but made it even better by using fresh basil and mozarella.

Christmas night dinner was whole duck. That was inspired by the fact that Christian and the kids somehow have never seen "A Christmas Story." We righted that wrong tonight. They laughed hard and often, especially CJ. And once the final scene came on, they realized why I insisted upon whole duck for dinner tonight. I made a yummy wild rice stuffing to go with, as well as fresh cranberries with orange and pineapple. (Vegans, apologies.)

Graduation Day

MERRY PROCESSION: Saturday morning, I rousted CJ and Annabelle from their warm beds and told them it was time to go to graduation. 

CJ donned his "Elf" onesie and Annabelle threw on a Christmas sweater. We all piled into the Fit and piloted it to the Renton Community Center to gather their Elf Academy certificates.

I'm not going to lie, we were pretty blown away by the scene. As we pulled into the lot, we saw a big snow plow and polar bear.

Christmas carols were blaring, and friendly tree greeted us.

There were reindeer and a jolly Elf, Buddy.

There were cute signs with season's greetings.

As we approached the station where the diplomas were waiting, we saw people in dress uniforms. Turned out the city of Renton's police and fire chiefs were on hand for the ceremonies.

Santa even took time out of his busy December schedule to meet and greet new elves. 

In addition to their diplomas, the kids were given candy canes and complimentary hot chocolate.

All in all, a very nice way to start their Saturday, and to have a little ray of sunshine during these dark days.