I don’t think it’s a secret to anyone that I love the holidays. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it’s all about food. As someone who loves to cook and loves to eat, there’s nothing about this holiday to dislike. I was lucky this year to get a couple of Thanksgiving dinners under my belt (my pants are the only thing about me that isn’t thankful. Oof.)

Christmas is a close second, though. I absolutely love the Christmas season. Mindy and I have all sorts of traditions that we’ve developed over the years, and I’ve been looking forward to observing them for the first time at the Cabbage. There’s the baking (and we just got our stove on Monday!), the storytelling (internet gets installed up there soon!), eggnog and autumn bottom, Yuletide and guitar playing on Christmas Eve. Together we’ve built some beautiful memories and I’m really looking forward to adding more.

But one problem — all our Christmas stuff was still in my parent’s basement on the other side of the state. We were lucky, though, because Mindy’s sister Katie and her boyfriend Mark were able to save Christmas for us. Mark went up to my parent’s house in Snohomish County, grabbed our Christmas box (the box with all our ornaments, the nativity, and our tree stand,) and brought it over to us for Thanksgiving. Thanks, guys!

Mindy, Me, Katie, and Mark. Photo courtesy Sheryl Templeton

I haven’t opened it up yet because we’ve both been sick and busy. The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is notoriously busy for teachers — they earn their break at the end of the year. I’m wrapping up the class I’ve been teaching at Spokane Tribal College for the past three months. And I recently took a position at a local economic development/human services agency. As busy as things are, though, we’re looking forward to taking the time to string Christmas lights up at the Cabbage and (finally) move the rest of our stuff up there.

We’ve been getting light snow and I can’t wait to see the Cabbage lit up like a gingerbread house. Pictures soon.