A Visit from Dad

Dad came for a visit for Christmas. We decided to invite him because Cooper turned 12 on his birthday and that meant he was ready to be receive the priesthood in our church and be ordained as a Deacon which means he would get to pass the sacrament during church services as well as other responsibilities. Dad has ordained all the other boys so it was a tradition. With mom's passing in August I figured Christmas at home might be a little tough so we asked him to come from Cooper's birthday until after his own birthday on the 29th. A nice long visit. We took him on the Christmas ship cruise his second night here.We got to eat dinner and cruise Lake Washington with a flotilla of all sorts of boats decorated with Christmas lights and listen to very nice Christmas music. Despite his expression in this photo, he DID enjoy the cruise.

When he visted in September, Dennis let him wear this nice brown leather jacket that he bought at Value Village. Dennis decided that it looked so nice on him that he gave it to him to keep when he came at Christmas. We gave him the gray scarf for a Christmas gift and he is wearing one of Cooper's baseball hats.

We visited Pike Place Market (towards the end of his trip actually). It was very crowded and he decided that he really didn't need to visit it again any time soon. We also wandered through one of the few remaining antique stores near the market. He DID enjoy that.

One of my favorite things at the Market are the flowers that are sold by the Hmong people. A big group of them settled on farmland near Carnation and they grow flowers and sell them at the market. The arrangements are always unusual/interesting and fairly inexpensive as flowers go. Spencer took this picture (in fact all the pictures except the 1st one of course) of some of them. Not sure it does justice to the flowers, but the different colors give you a little idea.

This is Dad & I coming down the stairs from the Market. I think it's funny because we almost have the same mouth expression--except I look happy and he looks grumpy.

Okay I know this is random, but I threw these two pictures of Cooper in because they were in the same folder where Spencer had uploaded the pictures from Dad's visit. They cracked me up so I just thought I would throw them in for fun.

They are from this summer at our friends the Guidos' cabin in Riggins, Idaho. Cooper is a regular fish when we visit and spends all his time in the pool. Spencer was testing his photograpy skills. It think they are hilarious.

This last picture I like to think of as the Three Wise Men. This is from the Chandler "Little Christmas" on the eve of Christmas Eve. Dan & Lisa throw a big Chandler gathering at their house where Swedish pancakes are served along with all kinds of other yummy food. When everyone saw these guys sitting on the sofa we had to get a picture. The Wise Men are (left to right); Lisa's dad Philip Wickstrom, Dad and Dennis' dad Dwight. Dad & Dwight are both 82 and I think Philip is a little younger but close in age. It was so funny to see them all sitting together on the sofa!

Dad had a great time at the party talking to everybody there and everyone loved having him. Kacee's older sister wanted to adopt dad. Doug almost started crying when he saw dad (didn't know he was coming). We had a white elephant gift exchange and one of mine was a container of Cox's Honey (best honey in the world straight from Rigby Idaho) which dad had shipped me in the mail before coming up. It was meant for Lisa but Doug ended up stealing it for his wife. I thought they might come to fisticuffs. (I did give Lisa her own container on New Years' eve when we got together).

I wasn't sure what to give dad for Christmas (always tricky and even trickier thinking about him taking it home on a plane). The scarf (mentioned earlier was an easy one cuz he could wear it. I also got two picture frames and put in a couple of old pictures I had scanned from his slides back in 2004. This first one cracked up all the "boys" because I look just like Spencer did when he was a baby--same semi-crusty expression (without the bonnet of course).

The next one I also love because the of the dreamy, faraway look in mom's eyes and they were so young. Of course both of them made him cry, but then so did pretty much any conversation with anyone--including waitresses, shop keepers, random people in the store, etc. Though these did make him cry, not just choke up so that probably wasn't fair of me. I just thought he should have it.

I also made him filled cookies (thanks to Inkom Crazy Lady for the recipe). He put them in a big baggie, packed them in his soft luggage and checked that bag on the plane. I asked when he got home how they survived. He said great. Not sure I believe him but then he says "they taste the same" no matter whole or crumbled!