Milestones...

First of all, thanks for your words of encouragement.  They are appreciated and will be what I choose to focus on when negative words find their way my direction....


It was a whirlwind weekend!
Beginning with Friday - half day of school and then faculty Christmas party here at our home.  It was fun.  The food was amazing and its always fun to get together and not talk about teaching issues but just enjoy each other.

Josh had his first solo excursion with his girlfriend and the car...they went Christmas shopping at the mall.  Heaven help me...

Sabbath morning we had SS brunch :)

But this post will focus on our anniversary...

Saturday afternoon our kids headed over to some great friends home and we headed out to celebrate our 23 wedding anniversary

We went from this...to...this in a blink of an eye!

  We began our meal at Meriweatherlewis restaurant.  We had the fireside table with a lovely Christmas tree nestled next to it.  The food was yummy and the company perfect.  We like to brag to each other about how long we have been married when we overheard the couple behind us celebrating their 45th...and suddenly we felt like newlyweds :)

I struck up a conversation with the wife in the restroom and she told me that they were engaged during the Vietnam War.  She knew him two whole weeks before he gave her a ring and then shipped off for 10 months.  He came home and a week later they were married! Can you imagine!  45 years later they are enjoying retirement as traveling grandparents.  I love a happy story! :)

After dinner we headed into the city.  For our anniversaries we tend to do one of two things (since moving back to the NW) We head to the beach or we head downtown.  This year we stayed local and just enjoyed an evening in Portland with all the Christmas decorations and protesters...

 This guy was serenading us as we left the parking garage.  He was very talented and it was amazing all the different tones he was getting from his various buckets and the light pole next to him :)

Pioneer Square

 The window from a Haberdasher shop

One of my favorite night scenes from downtown..



And then because my husband knows I'm a freak this way, we found the protesters and I took some pictures...

FYI - I am in no way endorsing any of the messages portrayed in the pictures above :)

Have you ever had a drink from these fountains downtown?

We headed to the waterfront to take pictures of the Christmas ships.  I didn't have a tripod so it was a bit challenging...



We then proceeded with the rest of our evening :)


I am so thankful to have Jeff in my life.  He is a gift that I celebrate each year.  He is my best friend and an amazing father!

I'm a lucky girl!

Happy anniversary to one of my bestest and oldest friends Jo, who celebrated on the 17th and to my dear friend Suzanne who celebrates the same day we do!  So thankful friends are also celebrating their love!

Frychik