holidays in seattle

i feel like 2010 completely ambushed me! i had intended to write a christmas post before the whole new year thing, but alas, it just did not happen as i had hoped. and now it's almost february! at the moment i am waiting for the dishwasher repair person, so i figured i had better bang this thing out!

anthony's mom and brother came out for a few days over christmas. it was our first holiday season away from home, so it was particularly nice to have family visiting. we decided to test a new tradition and got chinese for dinner on christmas eve. we headed over to the eastside to szechuan chef in bellevue. it was busy! apparently it's a common tradition up here! we tried some new things, and overall the food was delicious.

i've learned the ballard locks are always open, so we took a stroll through the gardens and watched for boats on chirstmas day.

we also went the the crab pot again and got to visit the woodland park zoo. it was my first trip to the zoo, and i was pretty impressed with some of their exhibits. the wolves and bears were particularly awesome. unfortunately, my camera is not able to capture that level of awesomeness, so you'll just have to imagine or visit for yourself.



we spent nye 2010 at the seattle aquarium. i've been to the aquarium a number of times now, and it's always a good time. this party was o.k., but it was good to get out of the house and celebrate.





with the new year i decided to make some "soft" resolutions. the past few years i haven't made any at all, because i never remember what they were to begin with. this year i decided to "record myself" more often. i want to keep track of my life and remember the little things. so, i've decided to video record myself and blog once a month. i think once a month is reasonable, don't you? unrelated, i have also decided to try to read a book once a month (considering that i used to read 5 in a month, i feel i've got some wiggle room here) and go to a yoga class at least 3 times a month. with my recent vacation and other weekend plans, i don't think i'll make the yoga goal this month, but i've got 11 more chances to get on track. so, there they are. i've got them in writing. we'll check in on those in a few months. :)

the weather is finally starting to get to me. i thought i would manage to survive my first seattle winter unscathed, but the first couple of weeks of january were brutal! almost a week of rain (real pouring rain) and strong wind gusts that made use of an umbrella impossible. i've busted 3 umbrellas now. the amusing thing is that this has been one of the mildest winters they've had in seattle- ever. with record-breaking high temps, the weather patterns match those of late march/early april. that's depressing. however, the rain fall has been much higher than average, so at least i know it's not supposed to be quite this wet!

i now am interning with the voluntary committee of lawyers doing drug policy research, in addition to the league of women voters of washington. i'm still volunteering with the seattle municipal court and the planned parenthood action league. and, i finally got a job doing research with reconnecting youth through the university of washington. oh, and i submitted my application to the uw msw program. i'll let you know in a few months how that turns out.

stay tuned for my febraury round-up of life in seattle.