Our niece and nephews

Just wanted to share these pictures - the first because Giarratana looks like a little angel, and the second because it isn't easy to get all four to sit still for a picture!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Christmas at the Crisafulli's

While we were home, we had an early Christmas at Jamie and Richie's. We managed to stuff ourselves with good food, open presents, and spend some quality time together! Obviously, Giarratana outdid us all in her red velvet Christmas dress . . . I'll have to pack smarter next year.

Back to Montana - Merry Christmas

We made an early trip back home to see everyone before Christmas. Our trips home are always TOO fast, TOO busy, but lots of fun. This one was no different . . .

We went to Ekalaka to watch Carson play basketball. Nelson & Basil came along, and (as you can see) they are big "Carson" fans. Brandon said, "I never thought I'd go to Ekalaka again" - well, never say never . . .

Christmas is finally here.

In other words, we finally put up our Christmas tree. We put the stockings up last week, but finally did the whole shabang today - lights, tree, and all. My favorite part is looking at all of the ornaments that we've collected over the years and remembering where they came from - thanks everybody! Have a happy holiday season and we'll see some of you soon!

Happy Thanksgiving

Trying to catch up with our posts . . . my Mom & Dad made the long trip for Thanksgiving this year. It was brave of them, given that there was only ONE DAY in November that it didn't rain or snow in Seattle. We just had the wettest month in history - hopefully December is a little drier.


We ate out for Thanksgiving (all of the food - none of the dishes, or leftovers), watched a Husky game (my mom getting into the Husky spirit), went to the aquarium, and relaxed. Overall a successful trip until Brandon got sick & I had to work on their last day. Too bad, but it was a fun weekend anyway. Thanks for coming to visit!

I usually hate short stories.

I have never really liked short stories. In general, I think they always bother me because they never give you all the information (because if they did they wouldn't be short huh.) Still, I try to read them because I always think, "Maybe I'll like this one." Well, I just got done reading a group of short stories by Dennis Lehane (the author of Mystic River) called Coronado and I really like them. They all had sort of a dark tone, so if you liked Mystic River you might like this (and if you haven't seen Mystic River I would recommend that too).

So I thought I had made a huge grown-up breakthrough. I thought I started to like short stories. The next logical steps were to start reading poetry, wear a cardigan and pretend to be an intellectual. You know those people. The kind that you stand behind on your one trip to an art gallery in two years and your both staring at the same painting and they are saying things like, "you can tell that the artist was painting the pain of a child that lived in a slum, ate newspaper clippings and never got to meet his grandmother" while you are thinking "How can painting a red strip on a black canvas be considered art???" Anyway, I thought I was inching my way to becoming that guy, uber-cultured if you will. Well don't worry, I read some more short stories and hated them. Back to my old self. The short stories collection was called Galletin Canyon (can't think of the author offhand) and about 4 of the 10 stories were set in the Bozeman area. Even that couldn't save it.

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving.

B

Mile High

This post is a little tardy. Karlee had a three day weekend so we took a little trip down to Denver to visit some friends. It worked out pretty well because there are a lot of people in Denver that we don't see enough. Besides the usual suspects in these pictures, Karlee has a handful of medical school classmates that are working in Denver (and we actually got to see most of them). We even went to a UM Grizzlies game when we were there (they were playing in Greeley). Hopefully it won't be too long before we can repeat this trip.

Books everywhere...

I had an idea the other day of a way that I can post a few more things on the blog and keep some momentum between our usual pictures of our guests or Oscar doing something cute/naughty. The idea that I had was to let people know about the books I have been reading. I have a 1:30 to 2 hour round trip commute each day. That, coupled with my love for the Seattle Public Library system, allows me to read a lot of books (at least by my standards). Since I read a lot of books, I am not too picky about what I read. You can think of it as my little book report. The reason I thought this would be interesting to some (read: my sister) is because there are so many books out there, that you can't possible read all the good ones without getting a suggestion from somewhere. So that is where I come in, I will suggest. I know there is a huge disclaimer of my suggestions however because sometimes Karlee thinks I am crazy to be reading some of the books I do. Most of all, I just want to give everybody a name of a book that can read about for themselves.

I just got done reading a book called "The Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life." The is a non-fiction book in which the author just writes short little blurbs about ordinary things that have and/or are occuring in her life. A lot of which are funny, some of which become a little tedious. The books is alright, but not great. I am not professional reviewer (believe it or not), but I would recommend this book to someone who likes reading a book a couple pages at a time. It isn't meant to be read cover to cover in one sitting.

If anyone has any book recommendations for me I would love to hear them.

Brandon

PS. I pulled a really stupid move recently. I usually will put a bunch of books on hold at the library, but depending on how many other holds there are for them it takes awhile for me to get them. That being said, you can put a semi-perminant hold on books so you can make sure you don't get three books at one time and things like that. Well, I did that about 3 months ago on a chunk of books I ordered. However I was unaware that the hold I put on them expired so this last week I received 10 books from the library and only have 3 weeks to read as many of them as possible. My bus ride isn't going to be long enough.

Raider MNF Game

A big part of the reason that my parents came out when they did was so that my dad and I could try to get tickets to the Raiders/ Seahawks game on Monday night. It took a couple days, a few hours on Craigslist and a few phonecalls, but we finally got some. The seats were the best I have ever had and it was the first time that I have seen the Raiders play since my parents took me to Denver when I was about 12'ish. One of the best parts about our seats were that they were undercover. It rained most of the game so it was nice not to be wet. The seats also came with the ability to use the limited access restaurants and bars that the people inthe suites use. The food was much better than your average hotdog and not a lot more expensive. However the beers were still around nine bucks a piece. You win some and you lose some I guess.

The only thing that could have made the game better is if the Raiders could have at least scored.

Whidbey Island

I'm finally getting back to blogging a little. My parents were out during the first part of the month and we had a great time. This picture is during a little day trip to Whidbey Island (an island off the north end of Seattle). You can take a ferry to the south tip of the island and drive the approx. 60 miles along the island where you can cross a bridge that gets you back to the 'mainland'. It is the first time I have been to Whidbey and I was impressed. Very quiet, with a ton of nice views.

I think when this picture was taken, it was probably the only time it wasn't raining when my parents were out. More pictures of the trip to come.

Happy Halloween

I have the day off today so I thought I would work on Oscar's Halloween costume - the best I came up with is a Terry Terrier . . .


PS. That second picture is Oscar's "mad/pouty/won't look at the camera" look - maybe he's more of a Wibaux fan?

It's October

It's officially fall now . . . pumpkins everywhere, it's darker in the morning, you can see your breath once in a while, our yard is filling with leaves. Ah well, summer was nice while it lasted.

Happy 4th birthday to our nephew, Basil. As you can see, he is very manly for his age. Wish that we could have helped you celebrate, Basil!

This week's WYR may disgust some of you, but I want truthful answers . . . WYR lick a stranger's armpit or the bottom of their foot?

PS. Definitely a stranger's foot.

Would you rather- September 17th

A little tardy, but I have a classic would you rather this week.

Karlee and I have this argument a lot. Would you rather be locked in a room with a raccoon or a opossum. I will attach non-biased images.

A Mystery . . .

Oscar keeps finding pears in our back yard (almost daily now). Both Brandon and I have looked on the branches of our trees and can't find a single pear - where are they coming from?

NFL- Here we come.

Well football season is finally upon us, so I have a sports themed WYR. Would you rather be a professional QB, MLB pitcher, or NBA shooting guard? Some things to consider when making your choice... the money you would make, notoriety, chance of being injured, etc...

Home projects

Jim & Jo were here last week - baseball games, golfing, and even a little shopping. I should have taken pictures of all of the projects that they did around our house . . . Thank you for all your help and for the fun week!

Straight from Chelsea:
WOULD YOU RATHER . . never drink another cup of coffee or tea (iced or hot)?

This one is easy for me - I'm addicted to coffee and living in Seattle just feeds that so I'll give up tea!

Quick Hamilton trip

We're falling behind on our updates . . . guess we've had a busy August. Last weekend, we made a quick trip to Hamilton to visit some of my family. Oscar got to come along this time . . he just snores away in the backseat when we're driving. My parents also met us over there so we had lots of people to visit.

The first picture is the three Hall men: my uncle Don, my grandpa, and my dad. It seems that my grandpa is pretty much all healed after the broken hip - back to weekly dances anyway.

Next is my dad & Oscar lounging in the shade. The weekend was really hot and we don't usually have such hot weather here in Seattle. So you can understand why Oscar was so excited when the sprinkler system came on. I don't think I've ever seen him so happy.















I have three cousins from that side of the family and they have a total of six kids. They never miss a chance to get together and we happened to be there for my cousin's bday party. The first picture is Brooke, my aunt Nancy, Jenny and me at the birthday party. The next picture is
Lindsey, my mom, and Taylor (they live in Idaho). As you can see there were lots of people to see, but we managed to cram it all into about 24 hours. Never long enough, but fun nonetheless.

WOULD YOU RATHER . . . be stranded on a mountain-top or on a deserted island . . . AND WHY?

Would you rather?

Karlee and I thought we should go with a non-gross 'would you rather' this week. Don't worry, there are plenty of off color ones to come.

Since most everyone has met our pets (or at least knows of our pets)... Would you rather live one entire month as Oscar or Moka? If you have time, explain why!!!

Going to the chapel ...

OK, now that we have sufficiently grossed everyone out - we're moving on to the main event of our trip to the midwest - Casey & Jodi's wedding!

It was a beautiful event - as you can see. The bridesmaid dresses were aquamarine and the flowers were aqua and orange. (Casey might argue that was for the Miami Dolphins but Jodi may disagree.) I have plenty of pictures but I tried to pick a mixture - more to come soon.

Day 3 - On to Michigan

After our excitement in Chicago, we drove to Grand Rapids for my cousin's wedding. It was great to be able to spend time with everyone, but the weekend went quickly. All of my cousins from my mom's side were there (9 of us) - a few that I haven't seen in years! (which is hard to believe) I'm thinking now that we should have gotten a "cousin" picture - oh well, hopefully it isn't "years" again before we're all together.

Friday night was Casey and Jodi's rehearsal dinner. We had a great Italian meal and lots of fun catching up with everyone.

The first picture is my cousin Jodi's new daughter (Mackenzie) . The next picture is just the group at the rehearsal dinner. Then it is Chelsea and my cousin Jon's fiance, Becky. We have lots of wedding pictures, so stay tuned . . .

P.S. Brandon & I decided to make "Would you rather . . . " a weekly game. SO this Sunday's would you rather is - WOULD YOU RATHER never be able to shower/bathe or never be able to wipe (gross, I know).

Chicago/Michigan: Day 2-Late Night

See all the cool things you miss out when you go home early... Leaving Wrigleyville after the game we got to meet a Chicago celebraty, Ronnie "Woo Woo" Wickers. He is the unofficial cubs mascot. I didn't know a lot about him before we met him, but you can check out his website to learn his story. Don't forget to listen to his audio cheers that made him famous.

www.ronniewoowoo.com

Chicago/Michigan: Day 2

Due to our awesome timing and Aaron's awesome people skills, we got to do something that I never thought I would get to do. The first full day we were in Chicago, Aaron's law firm was having an outing and they rented a rooftop deck overlooking Waveland Ave. and Wrigley Field (or as Karlee calls it Wrigley Stadium). Aaron found a way to hook us up on Uncle Chappy's dime as dates of a couple of the lawyers and we got to watch the Cubs beat up on Cardinals. It was a really good time (free food and drinks were a plus too). That is what all these pictures are of, minus the picture of Karlee and I eating at a completely mediocare restaurant . By the way, the building we were in was called Brixen Ivy and it is the gray one in the pictures. If you ever get the chance to hit a rooftop, it a really good time. PS. Last time Karlee and I were in Chicago, Aaron's lawfirm was having their Christmas party. I am waiting for the newest roster of activities before we plan another trip to Chicago. We are huge moochers