Bird Feeder

Now that it has been getting colder out and we had to take our plant inside, we turned Eric's rebar globe into a bird feeder. We have had a lot of birds visiting.

We also set out some woodpecker food. We have had daily visits from Northern Flickers. They are very pretty woodpeckers.

We have also had a visit by a Pileated Woodpecker, or what I like to call Woody Woodpecker.

And there have been lots of birds eating the seeds below the bird feeders. We often see a pack of California Quails. There are about 15 of them that travel together. 

We have had lots of other kinds of birds at our feeders as well. The have especially been hanging around while there has been snow on the ground.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/iTbmuBKcPzYLV5fo8

Hanging Out with Cousins

Since we didn't get to see all of the family on Christmas,

some of the cousins got together at our house

before Rebecca had to go back to med school.

We just had burgers and played pool.

It was good to see everyone.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/PpJk9ZFtFbTZjQPK7

Christmas

We had a pretty busy Christmas this year. We went to the Roberts and then the Engels Christmas Eve parties. We got to see a lot of people we hadn't seen in a long time. And the Engels was a white elephant party. We didn't know we were supposed to bring presents, but they had a couple extra. So I ended up with a stuffed animal and Eric ended up with a daily calendar on Africa Wisdom.

Then we spent the night at my parents house. Christmas Day we had lunch at my parents house. It was a seafood feast. Here are some pictures of the kid opening her present from us. It has a little microphone on it. She spent most of the time trying to eat it like it was an ice cream cone. Once she did figure it out all that came out was what sounded like a singer grunting in a heavy metal band. Then we went to my grandparents house for dinner. They had a lot of old family photos there that everyone was looking at. It was fun to hear about the old days. All in all it was a very busy but great Christmas.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/iheS5QUZ8HsvHFLu7

Mt Rainier

This is a picture that Eric took looking over the Burton Marina on Christmas morning.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GDCWesyS8o4MkGVs6

Snow

We did not get nearly as much snow as some other people but we got a pretty significant amount. I think at one point we had 8 inches. Although we didn't get that much precipitation compared to those on Vashon and other places, our snow stuck around a lot longer. It is colder at our house so we had snow on the ground for weeks. We didn't have to do too much driving in it so it was fun to have snow. They plow the roads pretty well around us and actually all the way up to our driveway sometimes. It was a little tough to get my car out of the garage for Christmas after it had been in there for 8 days but we did OK. The coolest thing that we saw during all this snow was the snow drifting off the roof. It looked like ice crystals swirling in the air. I had never seen anything like it. There is a little bit of video of it below but it doesn't really do it justice.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ux2rAFyjNL11iXSV8