2015: The Year of the Underdog

Happy New Year! And Go Buckeyes! Who's proud? What an amazing start to this fabulous New Year!! I could not be more proud of my alma mater. I don't have words to convey my absolute glee at beating Alabama, and I will forever relive that moment when the Big Ten shut the SEC up FINALLY. I am possibly the worst winner when it comes to the SEC teams. I will never stop smack-talking their fans and rubbing it in that they lost to our 3rd-string quarterback. NEVER.

As a matter of fact, the only thing that could be better than beating Alabama is winning the Championship. Playing for all the marbles, being the underdog, and going into that Dallas stadium, kicking ass and taking names. Damn. WHAT A MONTH.

Seattle people were of two minds about the Championship. Those who attended the University of Washington were all about Ohio State beating Oregon. The Ducks are their "Michigan," so anything but a Ducks victory as far as they are concerned. On the other hand, some of these Seattleites are Oregon alums, and some are die-hard Pac-12 fans, so they were cheering for the Ducks. Those people were also arrogant. So arrogant that they reminded me of SEC fans. Very easy to hate these folks. On the morning of the Game, I was in my little Starbucks near work, getting my normal cup of coffee, and the people behind me had the following conversation:

Woman: "I'm so mad I will miss the game tonight. I have to work."
Man: "It's okay, Oregon will kill them. This will be an easy win. Nothing to worry about."
Woman: "I know, there are worse games to miss, but still. It's the Championship."

Oh, how I wish I'd seen that woman and her idiot boyfriend on Tuesday. Yeah, lady, be glad you missed the game. Your team LOST.

Okay, so enough of the gloating. We've been busy! I see the last post was right before Halloween, so I guess there's a lot to catch up on!

For Halloween, Lorelei created her own costume: she was a cupcake with a moustache. Yeah, I don't know. she tells me stuff and I just try to keep up. She went trick-or-treating with some of her friends in the neighborhood. They had fun. Here are the jack-o-lanterns Shawn and Lorelei made - guess who made which one??

And the girls after they got back with their loot.

A little later when the wheels are starting to come off the bus:

They all had a blast.

Next up was Thanksgiving - with Ed and Amy hosting again. Lots and lots of good food and good company. I don't have any pictures of Thanksgiving though. Not sure what happened there. But then, all the pretty lights came out in Seattle and the city dressed itself up for Christmas! I took this picture on my way home from work one evening.

We also put up our tree, which, of course, led to cats making themselves sick by drinking the tree water and eating the needles. <sigh> Sure was pretty though.

Before Christmas, Lorelei had two major events on her social calendar: first up, a belt test in TaeKwonDo. Lorelei was testing for her Blue Belt. She passed, and is now a Blue!

Lots of work being a Blue Belt. She has to take more of a leadership role and learn more complex kicks and forms.

The second thing was a choir concert at Lorelei's school. They had a Literacy Night, and the choir performed holiday songs. It was really great. They roamed the school and sang in different locations - lots of fun.

Word on the street is that the choir may be singing at a Mariners game! That would be super-cool. Fingers crossed it doesn't take place while we are in Ohio!!

And then came Christmas!

Santa even came for Gretel! She got a husky, to go with her bat from Halloween.

We spent a pretty low-key holiday season. Spent New Year's at Ed and Amy's and of course watched Alabama lose to the Buckeyes on New Year's Day. Maya helped us ring in New Year with first, some wildness:

And then some calming inward-focused yoga:

Ha. Those Castanedas are funny. :)

That brings us all up to date, I think! We are planning on being in Ohio in May for Shawn's graduation and William's as well. Definitely looking forward to that. Shawn is working away at his last semester! 13 more weeks!

Oh, and apparently the Seahawks are Super Bowl bound again! Grandma is here, helping us get ready for yet another big game! Until next time, Go Hawks! And more importantly, GO BUCKEYES!!