Happy Holidays?
October-January just feels like a complete blur! “Happy Holidays!” seemed to be the theme this last year, one moment after the next, a new reason to “celebrate” came up. It was like rushing down a river and right when I could take a deep breath, another wave would hit me in the face.
October
I had asked my parents to host a murder mystery party in October so that my friends and I could dress up and play a murderous game of make believe for a night. IT WAS GREAT! The theme was something along the lines of “Murder at The Mansion.” My parents were G-Hosts (com’on, that’s hilarious!) and decorated the house with red and black roses, skulls, spiders, crows, and flickering candlesticks. It kind of felt like a spooky movie set. My friends REALLY went all in on their costumes and characters too and it was the funniest!! One my friends (who had never met my parents) was so in character that they flipped off my dad with a straight face and walked away. I looked at my dad and started laughing hysterically (mostly because this person is the sweetest ever and would never intentionally do anything to hurt anyone)! It was the most perfect thing to do in the situation! We ended the night with uncovering the murderer (who ironically is always the werewolf, Hitler, etc…) and had some delicious spaghetti and chocolate cake!
On actual Halloween, our friends had a small party where there was a costume and cookie baking contest! Jaason and I dressed up as a beehive and a beekeeper. Our cookies were chocolate with a yellow frosting drizzle on top to look like little bees! Everyone loved how our cookies matched the theme of our costumes! It was so much fun. Also, (this is not news to me, but I always act surprised) I SUCK at trivia! We played Halloween Jeopardy and let’s just say, I don’t know anything about Halloween culture!
November
November 3rd was Tuscany’s 26th birthday! Woo hoo! We’re all getting older… (sad face emoji). Shortly after, on November 9th, the PCTA Permit portal opened to apply for long distance hiking permits. Man, this was such a stressful and exciting day. Like most everyone, it took TWO WEEKS to hear back but luckily, I was approved for a permit for early March. This will give me plenty of time (just under 6 months) to finish in time for Tuscany’s wedding in September! Next came Thanksgiving… Tuscany and I used to be in charge of decorating the dining table with a cornucopia, apples, acorns, twinkle lights, name plates, and tiny pumpkins. It’s been several years now without her here, whether its from being too snowy to drive back from Pullman, celebrating with her boyfriend’s family, or the fact that she now lives almost across the country! Family is a hard thing to do. Our table has gotten simpler over the years. That’s okay. I keep telling myself that it’s okay. Truth is, I REALLY struggle with change. It’s like, traditions used to be something that I looked forward to every year and they were a constant that I knew I could count on. Then those started changing or getting eliminated all together and I felt like my entire life was falling apart just because we couldn’t decorate a freaking table like we used to. If you can’t tell, I’m hating growing up and getting older. But on another hand, it’s SO COOL! My sister is no longer 10 and going to middle school, she’s 26 and getting MARRIED! I am living with my boyfriend of three years and we have a cat and a puppy and are basically adulting hard core and crushing it… I think this year specifically has been a learning curve in the right direction. I’ve had a couple years to accept that our traditions aren’t the same and probably won’t ever be the same again. We have been doing new things that we’ve never done before and it’s opening our time for new traditions (that might also change and that’s okay). Moral of November, I’m learning to accept the CHANGE that I can’t control. Okay.
December
I just have three words for how December started. Gregory. Alan. Isakov. He is my favorite musician. I had a couple friends introduce me to his music in early high school and I have just been falling in love with his music more and more over the years. He has QUICKLY climbed his way to the top of my Spotify listening… apparently, I’m in the top 3% of his listeners. Jaason bought us tickets for Christmas to see him play live with the Oregon Symphony. I silently wept in my chair the entire time while Jaason laughed at me because, of course I’m crying, this is the best concert I’ve ever been to!
Cookie day is the next tradition that we’ve held onto over the years. It used to be a day where we were taken out of class to bake hundreds cookies all day. Our teachers never minded too much because we always brought them some the next day. As Tuscany and I got older and were no longer in school, it became just a fun day to bake cookies. Some years we had my Aunt Shirley join us, others, Grandmama Jill. This year it was just Me, Mom and Grams. We still had a blast listening to Christmas music and eating all of the mishap cookies. I’d say it was another successful day.
Happy birthday to you, and you, AND you! December is our family’s birthday heavy month. First, Cody (Tuscany’s Fiancé), next comes Jaason, and after that, it’s Dad’s turn! This whole week was full of celebration and seeing family that we hadn’t seen in years. For Jaason’s birthday, we went out to a FANCY restaurant called Serratto with his parents. We looked at the wine menu (neither of know anything about wine) and joked that we should splurge and order the $340 bottle of cabernet… The food was delicious! I had a mushroom risotto, and it was so good, it actually reminded me of a restaurant that my family went to in Florence, Italy. I had gotten a risotto there as well, and although they weren’t the same type of risotto, it took me right back. For Dad, we celebrated a “Blue Bastard Birthday.” Every year around the holidays, there is a group of people who have different types of boats, and they decorate them with lights and music and ride up and down the Columbia River in a parade called Christmas Ships. This year, Dad’s friend Dan kindly invited our family to join him on his boat (called the Blue Bastard) to celebrate. We had Chinese food, listened to Christmas music, drank hot buttered rum, cider and cocoa… It was a blast!
Later in the week, my family, including my Aunt Tina and Uncle Brian who I hadn’t seen in years, had a gingerbread house contest. We all had $5 and 2.5 hours to complete our masterpieces. My mom and Brian made a red doghouse with tootsie roll dachshunds and cute little bones all over. My dad and Tuscany made a meditation retreat where gummy bears were doing yoga out front with a koi pond and everything! Jaason and I made a loose recreation of Kennedy Meadows where there were backpacking bears, a tent and a bonfire. We had an odd number of people, so Tina was our “Switzerland” and was allowed to help every group for a set amount of time. All of our houses were so unique and creative, and it was really cool to see what everyone was able to come up with. It felt like a TV show cooking competition!
Once Christmas rolled around, plans changed quite a bit. At first, mom and dad were going to be out of town, and we were going to celebrate with them once they got home after new year’s. That meant Christmas day, we were going over to Jaason’s parent’s house to celebrate with them. Well. My parent’s trip was cancelled so instead we made plans to split up Christmas day, morning at J’s and evening at mine. THEN, unfortunately Jaason’s dad got sick. We postponed until after new years to give him time to recover and feel better, which he has, so we are all extremely thankful for that. SO, this means we have done a full 180-degree turn. We are now celebrating with my parents on Christmas day and with J’s after new year’s… hahaha! No matter where or when, it was lovely to see both of our families for the holiday (even though I was freaking out about the lack of control the entire time)!
January
This brings us all the way to New Year’s Eve. Our friends from California were in town visiting their parents so they hosted a NYE party where there were jackbox games, poker games, and a whole lot of trail talk. We all stood and shouted down from ten as we watched the ball drop in New York City, raising our champagne and kissing our partners, the new year has officially begun. To me, I was no longer “doing the trail next year.” It’s happening THIS year… in TWO months… Happy New Year and here. We. Go!
