Christmas Day - And the forgotten pictures of the trip from Bend to Seattle

Helen's Comments:
Christmas Day started with a pretty fluffy snow fall here in Seattle. We started our day with brunch at friends, and then home to spend the day with Heather, Leslie and Evan. After a short nap, we opened presents and played with boxes and wrapping paper before ending the day with a wonderful salmon dinner. Fun was had by all... and hopefully a good nights sleep by all. It was great to have spent time with Evan on his first Christmas.

Christmas eve we attended St.Mark's Episcopal Cathedral for the 11pm service. The music prior was wonderful as were the musicians. Huge church, very old with some great history, it was never completed to the Gothic state intended, it remains unfinished inside, just bare concrete walls with the marks of the wood used for forms in the early 1900's. When we went by to check on times for the service, Bill discovered that the artwork he had seen in August when he was here was still on display. I was invited in and given a private showing of "Keiskamma Altarpiece". Amazing work and a powerful story. Go to http;//www.keiskamma.org to learn more.

Here are some of the pictures from the festivities at Heather, Leslie and Evan's:



The Trip
The comments from Kansas seem to be that they think the sun does not shine in Bend! Well it does, usually in the morning and then if snow is coming for the mountains it starts to cloud up as the day wear on. Then the night is clear and there are more stars than you can imagine. So I had to capture the beauty of the mountains for the "dotts" in my life!

It was a pretty drive until we hit Washington, then the rain came, all the way to Seattle, then the clouds broke. However it has rained pretty much every day since we have been here. The snow this morning for Christmas was nice, it didn't stick, which is a good thing because unlike Kansas, they don't have a clue what to do on the streets, it shuts them down. Leslie spent most of the day worring that she would have to go into work if the snow kept up because people would not show up. Thankfully it melted away.

All for now - hope everyone had a wonderful Chiristmas.