A huge pile of leftover Turkey looms in the fridge as the Christmas lights twinkle and sketch their colorful patterns on the lawn in the pre-dawn twilight.  With the family still nestled snugly in their beds and the Ventures Christmas CD playing softly in iTunes painting the mood, it’s the perfect time for drafting this years’ annual Christmas letter … so here goes.

Last Christmas was spent with my brothers, all their kids and grandkids in Orlando with all 7 families together for the first time in many years.  With Dave and Nan opening their home on Christmas Eve to the biennial Steffens gathering, a great time was had by all and was all the more special by the addition of Matt and Kristen’s Charley and Zach and Amber’s Scarlett to the mix.  The next generation of Steffens so far is all girls, 8 female next gen cousins now for Shannon and Hailey.  Nora and I started the estrogen path the family tree is now on after both of my older brothers had a pair of boys.  With all 4 of my nephews producing daughters, the family name in our segment of the tree is very likely to fade away …

After a halfway decent ski season at Steven’s Pass this year, we strapped the boards on the roof of Jack (our trusty SUV) and made the trek eastward to Idaho for a week of skiing, drinking, and board game play at Schweitzer with a half dozen other Monte Vista families in mid-February.  For the three of us with high school juniors at the time, the return home included stops at the University of Idaho and Washington State University for group campus tours on the way back.  So began our college and scholarship planning adventures that would shape a big part of our year.

Our original backyard landscaping included leaving dozens of tall trees in a center island and around the back fence line with flagstone paths, playset, playhouse, shed and firepit nestled underneath and between them all.  Last August we had a tall maple snap about halfway up in a freak summer windstorm, take out our new covered deck steps and cause some damage to the house.  In December we had another incident with a hemlock uprooting itself in the wind, coming down across the yard, taking out a large hook branch in the cedar next to it, falling across our fence and it slamming into our neighbor's house.  Luckily no one was hurt.  With Shannon, Hailey and our bedrooms all within striking distance of the remaining trees it became a priority to mitigate that risk, so in March we had 13 of those trees removed.  After grinding out all the stumps, spreading the piles of sawdust around and barking everything, the profile of our backyard now looks completely different.  Selling the playhouse was next and with the same fate planned for the playset, after 20 years Nora and I will sharpen our pencils and start over, a water feature and landscape lighting have been discussed so far.  We’ll see how much money and energy we want to put into it this time.

For Mother’s Day weekend, the girls and I took Nora on the Camano Island Studio Tour of all the artist’s homes and studios in this unique island artist’s haven, many of national and world-wide acclaim.  It was cool to talk with them and see the inspirations around some of their work … and bring a few pieces home to add to the walls.  The following morning Hailey and Nora would do “The Color Run” 5K with some of the neighbor families, getting doused with a spectrum of colored powder as they ran the course, followed by us all meeting up for a color-smattered group breakfast at an eclectic restaurant nearby.  Quite a fun annual tradition to share with everyone.

Summer kicked in our concert season with a splash of Paramount musicals added in this year. Nora and I saw the Silversun Pickups and Joywave at the Showbox.  Winery concerts included the Gipsy Kings (salsa dancing mandatory) and Ray LaMontagne, the girls saw Twenty One Pilots downtown, and who could forget the Neil Diamond tribute singer at that dive bar in Totem Lake (I threw that in for you Lisa☺).  So I hate musicals, but the girls dragged me to see Jersey Boys and Beautiful (story of Carole King’s amazing career) as a precursor to seeing Hamilton in NYC next year.  We rounded out the year with Dan and Phil’s “The Amazing Tour Is Not On Fire” - a Shannon and Hailey choice from their off-the-wall comedy YouTube video fame, the show was hilarious and quite entertaining!

Our main vacation this year was a road trip with Chloe (our Cavalier puppy) through Oregon. Loading up the SUV, we headed to Portland for a couple of days and stood in the long line at Voodoo Doughnuts (crème-filled glazed goodness), did the tourist thing around their Rose Garden and Saturday Market, and wandered around the town and shops at night on MAX (their transit system).  Chloe took to navigating the street traffic and hotel elevators with wide-eyed fascination of all the exciting new experiences.  Our next stop was Eugene for an admissions talk and tour of the University of Oregon.  Their “rec center”, fresh off a $50 million dollar renovation, was unbelievable with hundreds of new workout machines in polished metal and glass rooms in a first class athletic facility with every sport imaginable under that roof available to the students and staff.  We took the scenic route from there to majestic Crater Lake (Christmas Card picture) for a few days staying at the nearby Aspen Inn with its unique separate A-frame apartment/rooms.  From there we headed back to the coast and camped for 2 days at Honeyman State Park celebrating Hailey’s birthday there, surfing the sand dunes near Florence, checking out the local hiking trails and ocean beaches, and visiting the Sea Lion Caves and a cool cliff-side lighthouse on the way to Lincoln City before heading home.

With her new stand-up paddleboard under arm, Nora, Hailey and I did a few SUP stints on Lake Washington with me (of course) being the only one to fall off their board.  Perfect balance on stable surfaces, but add in the motion of the water and I’m like a drunk taking a sobriety test.  One sunny morning in August we headed into Seattle and did the local Segway Tour which proved to be a very fun, engaging adventure.  Hailey, a little apprehensive on her Segway at first, after about 30 minutes had quickly developed Paul Blart Mall Copish maneuvering skills.  We also had a great time betting on the ponies with the neighbors at Emerald Downs, sipping along a Leavenworth winery tour (sorry … girls only, Alan☺), and a long weekend group camping together at Lake Wenatchee State Park.  We had some family visits this year, with my cousins Keith and Lynn from Wisconsin in June (the grandiose glass art of Chihuly Gardens among notables with them) and we enjoyed breakfast with Nan’s sister Judy and husband Eric on their trip back here in October.

Nothing says “fall” like college football, so Nora procured us tickets to the UW – Stanford game at the end of September, and we greatly enjoyed tailgate partying and watching the Huskies completely dominate their first real challenging game of the season.  That win boosted us up in the college polls and over the course of the season they ascended to the #4 spot in the National Championship playoffs, but the Dawgs must face the daunting Alabama Crimson Tide before their dream season comes to an end.

Commencing the whirlwind family summary: Hailey is 12 now doing well in her transition to Junior High and spends her time with friends and building grandiose structures in Minecraft still … our budding architect.  Shannon is a senior at Woodinville and is searching for the perfect college fit to further her education and forge a career.  With a very high class academic ranking, great ACT scores, her National Honor Society volunteer hours all filled up for the year along with taking some Running Start classes at Cascadia earning college credits, we have high hopes for her.  The college application essay writing stress now behind her and many of her applications already submitted, now all we can do is wait and continue the scholarship submission game.  Nora has been a fixture at Universal Avionics managing their regional IT department and all their many projects in Redmond for what seems like forever.  I worked half-time most of the year along my semi-retirement path at Applied Technical Services in Everett.  The coolest thing I did this year was to design and develop their new website with the web dev skills I hope to use in retirement … check out http://www.atscorp.net.  I am hoping to wrap things up there in July of next year.  2016 just flew by!