Fisher Family Updates

Although I am not a stay at home mommy (yet anyways )  I found this to be applicable to all parents, not just those who stay home full time.  Hope you enjoy!

 

 

This was certainly true for us as we thoroughly enjoyed this holiday season ~ our first living in WA since we were married.  What a great feeling to not have to get on a plane to see our family!!!  Turned out to be such a blessing this year as well given the snow storms that hit WA beginning the Thursday before Christmas.  Once it started snowing, it just didn't stop.  We got probably a foot and a half of snow where we live and they do not plow or treat the roads out here, which meant we were stuck for the most part.  Even G was forced to work from home for two days because there was no navigating out of our neighborhood.  Unfortunately for many, the airport was pretty much shut down and very few flights were getting in and out.  Many people were forced to spend the holiday at the airport because the hotels were all booked.  We were so thankful that we were all home already before the snow hit.  I flew in that Wednesday night from Boston and thank goodness, because if I had gotten a later flight (which I tried to do!) I would not have made it home before December 26th!!!  YIKES!  It is so scary to think about

 

We had an amazing time getting ready for and enjoying the holidays.  The biggest excitement and joy for us was waking up in our own home on Christmas Day.  Since were moved to MA the day after we were married and flew to WA every year for the holidays, we never actually spent Christmas in our own home.  How exciting it was to wake up in our own bed and head downstairs with our little Alli to see what Santa left for us . . . Alli was so much fun this year and really got into opening all of the presents.  In fact, in the days leading up to Christmas, she would pick up packages and beg "open, peas (her version of please), open"  Too cute!  Can't wait to see her on her birthday in a couple of months

 

We hope that all of you had a safe and wonderful holiday season as well.  Let's pray that 2009 is good to all . . .

We have been enjoying the holidays here in WA with our family and friends.  This was our first year celebrating Thanksgiving in WA since 1999 and we convinced the family to let us host.  What a great day we had.  My entire family (minus Jenee, my wonderful sister-in-law who had to work ~ nurses don't always get to take a holiday break!) and G's brother Zach were here for a turkey dinner.  We had a great time and the food wasn't too bad, not as good as my mom's cooking but still respectable :)  G's parents joined us all for dessert and Adele was a huge help with the dishes, she even had Alli helping her!  The guys played cards after dinner.  All in all, I would say our first Thanksgiving in WA as a family was a huge success!

 

That weekend, we went and picked out our tree at the family tree farm, owned by G's grandpa and now run mostly by Uncle Greg (www.stockstreefarm.com).  Alli loves playing in the trees and especially loves the candy canes!  With the tree up, the lights on the house, and presents under the tree, we are ready for Christmas.  Remarkably, Alli pretty much leaves the tree alone other than to point at the "baby" ornaments that we conveniently placed higher than she can reach

 

This past week, my friend Cori and her son Cohen, who's 1 week older than Alli, came for a quick visit.  We had a wonderful visiting and the kiddos had a blast playing together.  The are the same age, size and development, which made for a lot of fun for everyone!  Cohen is a little daredevil and Alli a fraidy cat so it was very entertaining.  We have singing/dancing snowmen that Alli loves but was afraid to touch, fortunately, Cohen would do it for her ~ such a little gentleman!  Alli was sad to see him go, as was I.  We love you guys and hope to see you again soon!!!

 

This weekend was full of holiday fun as we enjoyed the Port Orchard festival of lights and chimes, went to a Santa breakfast this morning and a holiday party this afternoon.  Alli wasn't too sure of Santa but loved all of the activity and is actually very good at decorating cookies.  We all had fun, although I wasn't feeling too great this weekend.  I got the flu shot this year but I'm thinking it may not have worked.  Hopefully, I start feeling better very soon as being run down with a toddler is a tough situation!

 

We will try to post some pictures from the past couple of weeks soon!

As promised, we finally posted some pictures of the house.  Granted, they are a little late and I still need to add some more, but it's a start

 

We're off to a great start to the Holiday week.  I'm on vacation this whole week and loving my time as a "stay at home mommy".  Alli and I even went to storytime at the library today, where she had a great time playing with the other kiddos.  We're also gearing up to host our first family Thanksgiving and cannot wait.  It should be quite an experience!  Hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving.

We have so enjoyed being back in WA and living near our families.  With the holidays quickly approaching, we are very aware how fortunate we are to back with our families.  Although we flew back to WA every year for Christmas, this will be our first Thanksgiving in WA since 1999!  We are so excited that our families have graciously allowed us to host it this year :)  Fortunately, they are also allowing us to host Christmas too!  This is particularly special to us because we have never woken up in our own home on Christmas as hard as that is to believe.  We love the holiday season, all of the decorations, yummy food and being with our families.  One thing we are particularly excited for this year is working at Pop's tree farm.  For those of you who do not know, G's g-pa owns a U-Cut Christmas tree farm.  It is so much fun to spend the day up there chatting with happy families and handing out candy canes.  Alli has already had her first candy cane this season and I think we may struggle to get her to give any away as she liked them so much

 

Not much else is new with us.  We had our Open House a couple weeks ago and had a wonderful time sharing our house with friends and family.  We had 9 little ones at the Open House (including Alli) and the kids all had a great time playing in the play room.  Alli seemed so excited to have so many friends at her house!  Must have gotten her over her little "shy kick" because since that day, she's had a blast playing at the nursery at church on Sundays ~ YEAH!  We love having her spend the days with her g-parents but we are always looking for ways to get her interactions with others her age.  We are going to start going to story time at the library and are looking into some dance and music classes so hopefully she will continue to enjoy playing with other kids.

 

We have finally taken lots of pictures of the house and will post them later this week.  On a slightly separate note, thank you for understanding our desire to make this blog private.  It came to our attention that random folks were veiwing it and that made us a bit nervous.  We hope you do not find this too much of an inconvenience and will completely understand if you choose not to visit the site, we just had to put safety first.

Today is Veteran's Day, a very special day to me and an opportunity to thank all of the wonderful men and women of this country to serve in our Armed Forces.  I would particularly like to thank four special men in our family who have served our country:  my Dad, who retired from the NAVY after 26 years of service as a CWO4; my wonderful husband, who proudly served our country in the Air Force for 8 years, separating as a Captain in August; Uncle Greg, who is a retired ARMY Lt Col; and Cousin Brandon, who also served in the ARMY.  We are so fortunate for all of the men and women who put our country above all and protect the rights and privileges we all have.  Thank you!!!

 

Here is a picture of my favorite Veteran from his tour in Iraq . . .

Here's one of the family at Captain Fisher's goodbye party . . .

It will likely come as no shock to anyone that we were less than pleased with the outcome of the election.  That said, we are so happy that it is over and we can move forward and pray that we will be proven wrong.  The majority (in every sense of the word) has spoken and we have to have faith that this was the right decision for our country at this time.  Certainly, in some ways, it is such a proud moment for our country and a true testament that we have come so far.  I personally would still like to see an end to the electoral college, however, I am thrilled that for the first time in 8 years, we will not have to debate whether anyone "stole" the election.  Although he did not receive our votes, President Elect Obama certainly received the majority of the American votes and won this election fairly.  It truly is a proud moment for America!  It is extremely unlikely that I will ever agree with the majority of his policies, particularly when it comes to taxes, but I will support him while he is in office and I pray that the rest of the country follows suit.  The Office commands our support and respect.  I only hope that this country will show him more respect than it has shown our current President.  Love them or hate them, they give up much to serve our country and they deserve our respect.  Okay, I will get off my soap box now!