Holiday Cookies

Ronald and Sarah came over for cookie baking. Ronald showed off his expertise from working in a bakery. Sarah suggested that Matt write a computer program to optimize the cookie cutter layout.

We had two batches of Kate's fabulous recipe and an assortment of decorations.

Clockwise from the top: The headless bleading reindeer, grapes, Cooper, snow man, black sheep sleigh with pressents, happy face, wooly mamoth, green rhino (note the creative horn), Earth, Sarah's soccer ball, Santa, teddy, wreath, and in the middle, a pear tree in a partidge. Last, but not least, the New York City snow man, and the house that Ronald built.

Decking the halls

Happy Holidays! Tonight we put up our Christmas decorations. Behind Nile is our mini tree named Sprig. It came off of the big tree they have at the Conservatory. Nile didn't have the heart to throw it out because it smells so good.

new curtains

Matt made us curtains for our bedroom this weekend. We braved the after-Thanksgiving sale and got this really pretty fabric that matches the color of our bed.

Thanksgiving in Anacortes

We went up to Anacortes to celebrate Thanksgiving with Nile's grandmother, mother, step-father, and his children. Matt taught Jim's grand daughters some origami. Here we are making bunnies. We also made about 3 other things: crane, a swan, and a heart with wings. We were all impressed with the attention they gave it, especially since the youngest is only 6.

We went on a walk around a nearby park and saw some otters. One of them had a fish in his mouth, but you can't see it in the pictures.

Matt's newest origami creation is this elephant which joins his african animal collection. It is folded from some paper he got when they visited Vancouver and is a design by one of his favorite artists, David Brill. The paper was more than 18 inches square and the resulting elephant is only about 8 inches from trunk to tail. Half the paper went into the head so he had to add paper clips to the back end so that he won't tip over.

Pizza!

We made a really fabulous pizza tonight. It had carmelized onion, boursin cheese, yellow bell pepers, and mini tomatos. If you are making pizza any time soon, you should give it a try. Remember that you can never carmelize onions too long. Start on a medium high heat until they are seared, and then turn the heat down to low if you have a lot of time.

Louise visits

Nile's grandmother visited us in Seattle. Nile, her mother, and her grandmother went out to our favorite restaurant for lunch. Nile also took them to the conservatory.

Louise turns 90!

Recently it was Nile's grandmother's 90th birthday. She flew to Anacortes for the event and so we baked a cake. Matt applied a marbling technique that he learned in his cake decorating class.
After arranging the sandwitches of color, they are rolled out and the marbling apears.

Sarah helped with the roses. She was better at it than we were even though Matt was the only one who took the class. Didn't she do a nice job?

On our way up to Anacortes, we saw this really cute fire truck.

Matt put too much icing under the fondant, so it got droppy over night. Nile's grandmother was impressed nonetheless. She didn't realize that we had made the cake until Anita told her; she was very surprised.

Trip to Vancouver

We went to Vancouver this weekend.


Our first stop was the Granville Island market. They have beautiful produce and meats there. Sarah bough a lot of chorizo. Nile got persimmons, champagne grapes, and clementines

Sarah got really excited when she saw Cooper boating. Her dog's name is Cooper.
Nile got really excited when we went to the best Gelato store in Vancouver.

The next day we went to the Vancouver Aquarium. They had frogs too. All the kids were screaming "See Nemo!"

There was a beautiful jelly fish exhibit. We want one in our house one day, but maybe not now. We saw a beluga show. Our favorite beluga anatomy is the bulging melon and flabby fat. This sea otter is sleeping

Haloween and Nile's b-day

Matt got Nile a blow torch for her birthday. We made banana brule. It's simply bananas dipped in sugar and then torched. It was very quick and very tasty.

We went to Katie's haloween party as the 3 blind mice with Sarah. Here is our beautiful hostess... a devil, and the winner of the costume contest - the flasher.

We had friends over for Nile's birthday the next day. Matt made a cake using his new skills from the cake decorating class that Nile gave him for his brithday.

Fire season

Fire season has started in Seattle. (Or at least in our apartment.) Mmm... Marshmallows are tasty.

Cooper at the park

Cooper likes to swim. swish swish. He had a little trouble getting in to the water, so Nile gave him a litte push.

Queen of the Night

The Queen of the Night is a beautiful and fragrant flower that blooms at night. We made a special evening session at the conservatory with a few friends. Sarah came over to see it with us.