Christmas is Here!

Nick likes his Nautica gear

Miranda watches her sister play Guitar Hero

Ward opens a gift from Nick

Ben opens a gift from Nick

Nick opens his XBOX 360

We had a positively wonderful Christmas. We started out on Christmas Eve visiting a friend's Open House up in Issaquah. Then we went to church at Valley View and sang many wonderful Christmas songs, some were old favorites and some were brand new. Then it was over to Pink Grandma' house for ham dinner. We met up with Ben and Christina there. Then at about 9:30 at night, we all went back to our house to open presents and play games. Nick got an XBOX, and he and Ben ended up playing some war game until 2:00 am! I crashed at about 11:30. We awoke Christmas morning bright and early at about 10:00 am. Santa brought Nick the bb gun that used to be Papa's. Nick was pretty thrilled to get his first bb gun. Just like "A Christmas Story"! Next, it was off to Laurece's where we do a kid's gift exchange, a white elephant gift exchange, we had a wonderful roast beef Christmas dinner, and then a "Happy Birthday Jesus" party, which included a "Find the Missing Reindeer" treasure hunt for the kids (Thank you Laurece!!) and Christmas-theme Pictionary for the grown-ups. We all had a really fun time. Pictionary was hilarious. Guys against the Girls. One guy even guessed the word before the picture was even drawn! No kidding. It was too funny.

Now it's the week in between Christmas and New Year's and we are just taking it easy. Nick has a friend over and Ward and I are trying to relax a bit before the busy new year starts.

Enjoy the pictures!!

Guitar Hero

OK, we have found an AWESOME family fun game - Guitar Hero!! This game is made for Playstation, Wii, XBOX that I know of. You press positional plastic keys on a special guitar when corresponding notes appear on the TV screen. What a hoot! It's much more difficult than it looks, even on the "easy" setting. It's fun to play along with classic songs from yesteryear like "Feebird". Of course, Nick is the best in the family (so far, that is!) I actually woke up early this morning, snuck in and practiced for one hour before anyone else woke up! Now that is sick. Hmmm. Extra sleep vs. Guitar Hero. Lemme think! I actually chose GH! I have ventured up to 'medium' on "Message in a Bottle". My goal is to beat my 11 year old son! (and this was a great way to pass the time while we were sick...)

Anyway, if you are looking for a Christmas gift that the whole family will enjoy, try this toy/game. It costs around $90.

Here's a picture of Nick jammin' away.

Ugh! It's the FLU BUG

All three of us have managed to come down with the flu at one point or another over the last three weeks. Nick started out missing a whole week of school and had to struggle to make up all the missed work before Christmas vacation. Then I got sick, then it took down Ward. Just nasty, and with a whole array of symptoms! We all are doing better now, but still with remnant coughing and congestion. We are hoping to be completely back to normal by Christmastime!!

Port Townsend

Ward and I celebrated 16 years of marriage in Port Townsend during the long Thanksgiving weekend. We had a wonderful time. However, on Friday, I was still 'sick' from too much Thanksgiving fun and was horizontal most of the day and evening. I was soooo green and we even had to cancel our lovely fireside dinner reservations at the nicest restaurant in town; an unfortunate consequence for the previous day's activities! I was feeling better by Saturday, which enabled us to salvage two days of fun. We went to the local arts and crafts fair and did our best to stimulate the local economy. The pictures of the bowls are from a local food bank project where you paint a bowl, then later they fire it and then sell it at the next event. All proceeds go to the local food bank.

Ward reserved the penthouse suite of the Swan Hotel, which was absolutely amazing. it had a "crows nest" that opened up to the roof and you could see a 360 degree view of the sound and downtown. I uploaded a picture of the spiral-staircase crows nest access. We just love to hang out, relax, look at the water, shop, read and drink beer & wine. That's a perfect weekend for us!

Thanksgiving Day Bash

Well, Thanksgiving was a HUGE success. I think everyone had a really good time. I must say that the food turned out "pretty good". Not great or amazing; just pretty good. All the anticipated dishes were represented and nothing was ruined. As you know, I am not an excellent cook, so I will take 'pretty good'. The timing worked out well, the presentation was lovely and everyone had a seat. That is what is important to me. Then we proceeded to drink and be quite 'merry'. Much 'Guitar Hero' and pool was played. There were several wine-glass casualties, and people stayed up until they finally crashed. A good time was had by all.

Preparing for Thanksgiving

We have been busily preparing for a rather large crowd of friends to join us for Turkey Day. Ward and I used to host a big Thanksgiving par-tay with all the friends who did not otherwise have families in the area. We stopped doing it awhile back because of a few reasons: We both actually DO have family in the area, so it becomes an unpopular trade-off. Also, neither Ward nor I are very good cooks. Ward is actually better than I am, so cooking often becomes a joint-venture. Thanksgiving certainly will be that as we plan to feed about 20 people. So offering to cook an important dinner for a large crowd is daunting at the very least. And finally, neither of us are very big meat eaters, so we are rather clueless when it comes to roasting a turkey. Luckily, the whole meal is not that complicated. The difficulty mostly comes with juggling dishes in and out of the oven and, of course, the gravy. So by now I have learned to buy a jar or two of turkey gravy base from Harry & David. One aspect that I do love is decorating the tables. I enjoy picking out the placemats, napkins and dishes. So, why do we do it? Because we love our friends and we have all the dishes ;-)

Here it is Wednesday night and I am feeling pretty good. My house got cleaned, I've done all my shopping, and as much prep work as I can. Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile!

Happy Turkey Day everyone!!

Love,
Chris

An Evening with Erwilian

We had a wonderful evening last night listening to Erwilian play at the Renton Civic Theater. Erwilian, Irish for "William", is a multi-faceted band playing music from celtic, renaissance, medieval, and even latin genres. They were fabulous and definitely got everyone in the mood for the holidays. World renown harpist, Bronn Journey and his vocalist wife, Catherine joined them for several songs. Check out their website from my favorite links.

Chris

What's New?

Ward and Nick in Maui (October, 2005...I just like this picture)

Well it has been a few hard months since my dad passed away (August 14th, 2007). The journey has not been easy and I miss him terribly. Some days and weeks are better than others. He was such an amazing man. He was funny, smart, and just flat out loved us all to pieces. Some day I am going to write down as many stories as I can remember about him.

Since "My First Post", a lot has happened as we've tried to pick up our lives. The most exciting thing is that we got a group of very good friends together and purchased 5 acres of beautiful camping property in the "Big Bottom" valley, located between Randle and Packwood on highway 12. It is a beautiful and somewhat remote valley between Mt. Rainier & Mt. St. Helens. Our property is on the Cowlitz river. We nicknamed it "Shady Bottom". Check out our website at: http://web.mac.com/ward.kaatz/BBIB/Welcome/Welcome.html We hope to make many wonderful memories there throughout the years to come!

Nick has started the 5th grade at Valley Christian School and has had a wonderful year. He loves his teacher and has a great group of friends. We are so proud because he made honor roll (3.7 GPA) woohoo! He is a typical 11 year old boy with lots of energy and plenty gross jokes to tell you, most focusing on bodily functions. Good thing he is cute! (he really is)

The holidays are coming up fast and we are kicking off the season with a holiday concert. We are taking the family to see Erwilian at the Renton Civic Theater. Erwilian is a wonderful primarily string band that has a great 'world beat' sound. You can check them out at http://www.erwilian.com. Then we are hosting a Hawks vs. Bears football game, where several of our Bear-luvin' friends are coming over. Then, the following week is Thanksgiving and we are hosting Turkey Day at our home for several of our friends. Last I checked, there are 25 folks coming over! Wow! The thing that is so funny is that neither Ward nor I really like to cook, and we are recovering vegetarians and don't eat a lot of meat. But we will be cooking up possibly two turkeys! wow. I guess I need to also go shopping this weekend!!

Ward and I both have been really busy with our jobs. But Ward manages to find some free time to participate on the Auburn Little League board.

Well that is about it....

Chris

My First Post

Our very first blog posting... stay tuned for more GREAT stuff!