Merry Christmas, Part 2!

Hello Everyone! I thought I would fill you in on the rest of our Christmas Day (before and after the previously posted sing-a-long!). It was a terrific day! Great food and great fun with family. Christmas morning was great in our pajamas with mom's famous sticky buns.... they exploded overnight as usual, but that makes them so good. A funny moment happened when Dad and Bryan each got each other a bottle of Chivas!

When the rest of the family showed up around 2, we let the merry-making begin! Here are a few pics from present-opening time:

Grant got Mom and Blitzen a snuggie (WSU for Mom and blue for Blitzen), but Aunt Sue hijacked it:

What a great day! Merry Christmas! Here's a link to the rest of the pictures I took....

Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas!!

A quick Christmas video from us in Gig Harbor....

Here are the words (written by Kristen!!)

By now in Washington D.C., there's snow on the ground

And out in Arizona, the sunshine's falling down.

And maybe down in New Orleans, the Big Easy's all in lights.

And in Eugene Oregon, there's peace on earth tonight.

Christmas in the Harbor; it's sunning on the pines.

Merry Christmas from Gig Harbor, to everyone tonight.

You can visit Olympia, to see a shining tree.

Or travel north to Bellingham, where the snow might actually see.

And even up in Bellevue, is our family on a hill.

And in Clear Lake Washington, fried turkey's there to fill.

Christmas in the Harbor; it's sunning on the pines.

Merry Christmas from Gig Harbor, to everyone tonight.

It's windy in Yakima, everyone's out of school.

There's magic in Seattle, the city's on the move.

In Sand Point Idaho, to Charlotte Caroline',

And all across the nation, it's a peaceful Christmas time.

Christmas in the Harbor, it's sunning on the pines.

Merry Christmas from Gig Harbor, to everyone tonight.

Twas the weekend before Christmas

Hello! We had a wild and fun weekend this past weekend! Saturday, I went to a baking class/lunch at the Flying Fish Restaurant in downtown Seattle. Bryan got it for me for a Christmas present and I took Lauren Grote with me. It was so much fun! The pastry chef for the restaurant showed us how she makes five recipes (Truffles, coconut macaroons, french almond nougat, caramel pot de creme, and chocolate peppermint pudding cakes) and then we got to eat them! A great lunch with good wine followed- it was fantastic!

I then went up to Grandpa and Georgette's house to do a good bye visit with Brett, Georgette and Grace. Grace is sooo dang adorable and loves her feet tickled! So cute. Brett and I tried pretty hard to get her to roll from her back to her stomach- she's so close, but not quite there yet :-) An added bonus was some good old-fashioned hang out time with Grandpa, Georgette, Grant and Jill too.... So great to see everyone!

I then picked up Bryan from work and we went to a birthday party.... for Axel, the four year old son of one of Bryan's (old) co-worker, Maria. It was my first experience at a Mexican Fiesta, and I was absolutely amazed! The hospitality was out of this world. Once we walked in, Maria shooed her relatives off the dining room table, sat us down and began to put plate after plate of delicious food in front of us. Oh so good! I know Bryan really enjoyed seeing Maria and some other ex-coworkers who made it to the party.

We left the birthday party and headed to North Bend for the Mount Si High School class of 2001's annual Christmas Sweater Party (9th year.... woah). I got to catch up with some old friends, which was really nice. It was a late, late night, but good nonetheless!

Sunday, Kristen, Mom and Dad came over for a feast! Bryan cooked a yummy cioppino and we overindulged! It was great! Kristen helped me bake chocolate peppermint pudding cakes (recipe from the cooking class) and they were soooo good! MMMMM. Oh yeah and the Panthers beat the Vikings! WAHOO! (this means that Bryan was in a super mood!)

It was a packed weekend, but so good! I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season- I know we are! Merry Christmas Eve Eve!!

Love, Lauren and Bryan

(PS- I'll post pictures later.... I wanted to get this up before I had the chance to do pics... sorry!)

The Christmas Spirit...

Lakewood police officer pens Christmas story

Another weekend update....

I left out some important weekend information....

- Sunday morning, Bryan and I went to brunch with part of the Venn clan! Thanks so much Uncle Mark and Aunt Sue for a fabulous brunch at Ettas! I meant to take a picture for the blog but totally forgot. We then went through Pike Place Market because Devin hadn't been there before (crazy, I know!)

- Saturday night, we went to a really fun holiday party down near Eastlake. A friend had rented out a space, had a band, holiday movies playing and an open bar.... very fun and festive!

- Oh yeah, and the weather was really, really cold. Then, the precipitation came, giving us hope for snow, but then the temperature jumped 15 degrees and all we've had is rain. Ugh! But, the cold weather was fun for awhile!

O' Christmas Tree, O' Christmas Tree....

Last Sunday, we went hunting and found the Hamilton Christmas Tree 2009! We found it down in Gig Harbor on a snowy afternoon, came home, and trimmed the tree! We then capped off the evening by watching Christmas Vacation- a perfect ending!

Happy Festivus 2009!

Happy Festivus everyone! Bryan and I had a great, great, great trip to the Carolinas for a festive Festivus. We really had an action-packed three and a half days! We flew the red-eye Thursday night, and arrived very early Friday morning. Linda with a dead car battery was waiting at the airport (had to say it, sorry!) and we headed back to the Hamilton household for a morning nap.

Friday was filled with much merry-making! Hanging around the house, wrapping presents, yummy butternut squash soup for lunch and a ridiculously good Bruce/Bryan/Garrett creation of Cioppino. Dinner was followed by a pound cake creation by the girls and gift giving time! Yes, we all got "Festivus for the rest of us" T-shirts! You really should be jealous!

Yes, that's a festivus pole in the backround.....

The whole point of the shirts was so we would get up and run a 5k with Linda in the morning, but Garrett was the only one who held up on his end of the bargain....

Saturday was a great day, too! We spent a lot of the day prepping ourselves for the big party to come that night! Erin and I got our makeup done at Nordstrom's by Chris.... Chris is possibly the coolest makeup lady you can imagine. She's really, really good (understands that "I don't usually wear much makeup and don't want to really look like it" look for makeup) and tells you how dang good you look. Erin and I then splurged a little with lemon cupcakes and champagne.... a perfect start to the evening!

Matt (Erin's boyfriend) picked us up and we headed to meet up with the others at the party. The rest of the night was wonderful! Lots of dancing and catching up with family and friends. AND, there's a drink called a John Daly (as opposed to an Arnold Palmer): Sweet Tea Vodka (no joke, really actually tastes like sweet tea) and Lemonade. Goes down quite easily and is super yummy! The band was awesome and we all had a great time dancing the night away!

Bryan, me, Garrett, Mackenzie, Linda, Bruce, Erin and Matt at the party waiting for guests to show!

Sunday, we got up and headed to the Panthers football game. The tailgate was awesome as usual with Carolina Blonde beer and leftover cake from the night before. Bryan and Garrett got a very special picture with a very special man. So, with that, on top of a Matt Moore Panthers win it was a blast :-)

Garrett and Bryan with Cat Man! A special moment, indeed...

Sunday night was Pizza-N-Wings (a Hamilton household tradition- the two always go together like it's one word...) and more football, of course! Monday, we had the morning to relax and recap a fabulous weekend!

Happy Festivus to all and to all a good night!

More Festivus Pics

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Hi everyone! We hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving... ours was great! A day filled with a turkey trot run, family and fantastic food really can't be beat.

Our morning started out in Gig Harbor at an early hour (too early for Bryan and Kristen....) with getting up, facing the nasty rain and heading to downtown Gig for the Gig Harbor Turkey Trot! Blitzen was a little too tired to join in on the fun, but everyone else trotted! It was pretty wet when we started, but by the end, our rain jackets were not all that necessary any more and were only dragging us down. Everyone pulled through and finished the trot with a run across the finish line! The only bummer of it all was that we parked WAY up a hill and had to hoof it up after the run (we couldn't talk Dad into going and getting the car for us....). But, what a great way to start one of the most gluttonous days of the year!

The crew pre-race.... even Bruno's looking at the camera!

We did it!

After we got back from the run, Bryan and I headed up to Seattle and dropped off our pies for charity at the Hall at Fauntleroy (see last blog...). It was fun to help out with that and we got to meet David Haggerty (Kevin's brother) who I saw and knew they had to be related! What a neat event and we were so glad to be able to help out.

After that, Mom, Dad and Kristen picked us up and we began the trek up to Clear Lake. The rest of the day was fabulous and filled with family and wonderful food. Bryan and I brought some appetizers to complement Georgette's great cheese spread. We did veggies with ranch, cream cheese/cocktail sauce/shrimp dip, and fig jam/carmelized onion/gorgonzola crostinis (or what we had hoped for was crostinis). Unfortunately, due to the traffic, our appetizers were a little late, but it all worked out in the end!

Dinner was terrific- we were supposed to have a deep-fried turkey and a traditional turkey, but... um.... the timing on the deep frier was a little off (I won't name names... Uncle Mark!) :-) But there were great sides, salads and even a turkey-shaped butter to complete the meal!

What was supposed to be a fried turkey... oops! :-)

Bryan and Devin getting the turkey out of the pan- Devo gets splashed in the eye!

The turkey butter about to be beheaded

Dinner was followed by the usual chatting, giggling, baby cooing (oh wait, that's new!), and yummy pies!

Daddy Brett and Grace

Devin, Scott, Sarah and Kristen

Sarah and Kristen messing around post-dinner.... flying an airplane!

Mom and the Oregon Duck!

If you want to see all the pictures I took, you can follow this link:

Thanksgiving 2009

Anyway, thanks Venns for a great Thanksgiving! It was so great to see everyone-

Next on the holiday list.... FESTIVUS!!! Yay! See you all on the east side of the country soon!

Love, Lauren and Bryan

For the dog lovers out there...

Thanks for finding the link KLB!

Tonight Lauren and I decided to stay in and relax after a big day of piano moving yesterday. (for those of you wondering, we just strapped it to my back and I carried it out the door and into the u-haul myself). No big deal... So to celebrate I made braised short ribs over saffron risotto for dinner, which apparently I'm just finding out 8 years into the deal, is one of Lauren's favorite dishes. We attached a few pictures below. This dinner was also a way to say thank you to Lauren for her catching a cold while standing outside for 3 hours last week to get my signed copy of Bill Simmon's new book. It doesn't sound like there were a whole lot of other women there, so I know how lucky I am!

$18.00 for that little jar - it's a good thing she liked it so much...

Wow, $18.oo? Sprinkle some of that on my kibbles!

The process is kind of slow and painful, but it is well worth it in the end.

The finished product

In other culinary news, we are baking pies for a thanksgiving meal for the needy that is being offered down the road at the hall at Fauntleroy. The caterer putting on the dinner is called Tuxedos and Tennis Shoes, and to prove what a small world it is, that is owned and operated by the brother of one Kevin Haggerty (some of you may remember him as the dancing preacher from our wedding).


Plant update: they are still alive.


Congratulations to Lauren on becoming Senior research associate this week (i guess you do have something in common with her dad!) senior, get it? I'm sure her AARP birthday card will be arriving any day too.


Well, that is all from sunny Seattle for now, can't wait to see everyone soon, some for Thanksgiving, and others soon after for Festivus. Hope all is well, and enjoy the short week.

Keep on fighting, little plants!

A few weeks ago, while cleaning our house, I took a look at our plants around the house and realized that most were in dire straights and I was headed for the well-deserved label of having a black thumb. Here's what the heat this summer did to what was supposed to be garlic:

Nicely enough, when Sarah was last visiting, she thought this might still survive...

Then, I found some hope. Just over a year ago, Bryan and I went and visited Kristen in AZ. I was a typical Phoenician tourist and bought a mini cactus to take home. Well, my, my, my, in a year this cactus has sprouted some new horns and I am SO PROUD!

Those three spindles coming off the main stalk have appeared in the last year- yay!

My proud little cactus resides on our bookshelf in the main room, yes, propping up Desert Solitaire. Not by accident, by the way.....

There are two other plants I consider myself responsible for (indoor plants, at least): my little succulent/bonzai garden and my "family heirloom" spider plant. Two weeks ago, both my charges looked as if they had spent a year in the desert, like Edward Abbey. So, I did what any reasonable gardener would do and cut those suckers WAY back. I only left really a main stalk or anything that looked like it might live one more day. I am so pleased to report that today, after re-examining the plants, I think they are well on their way to recovery! I am quite excited that I haven't placed myself on the list of those who have killed the spider plant (Mom and Sarah, ahem), and I think that given enough time, I will finally have some plant to pass along to Kristen and whoever else may want some! Below are some photos of my triumphs.... Now, I know that they may not look like much yet, but you should have seen them before!

The mini-garden's home is in our hallway window- plenty of light!

Look at that- NEW GROWTH!

The recovering spider plant calls our office home. This room gets a lot of sunlight and has wide-open windows (mainly because we haven't put down the money for blinds in the room yet....)

New growth on the spider plant.... keep on going!

Well, that's about enough for now on my musings on houseplants. My big goal: nurse them back to life. Wish them luck! :-)

Sunday Brunch

Hi all- hope you had a great weekend!

Today we had a bunch of friends over for a Sounders playoff game brunch. Our friend, Ryan, brought some fresh crabmeat and smoked salmon (that he caught himself!), so Bryan made smoked salmon hashbrowns and a crab scramble.... soooo yummy! In case you're wondering, coffee with Baileys goes along GREAT with smoked salmon and crab! And Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale does too. :-)

Homemade breakfast potatoes with smoked salmon

Our friend Gavin admiring the smoked salmon-cream cheese setup

Unfortunately, the Sounders lost in overtime. Oh yeah, and the poor Panthers looked as if they might beat those stinking New Orleans Saints, but alas, they fell a little short. At least the Seahawks won (but they played the Lions, so thank goodness they won).

Some of us were more interested in the game than others.....

So, a sports-filled day for the two of us, with a great brunch with friends!

(Blogging action shot)

Lots of love, Lauren and Bryan

I saw a drowned rat at the dog park

Or maybe it was just a really, really wet dog......

Happy Halloween!

Happy November everyone- hope you had a great Halloween! Bryan and I are (finally) feeling a lot better- almost like new! Still lingering coughs, but not enough to keep us in on Halloween :-)

We were trying to decide what to wear and I just looked at my trenchcoat in the closet and...

Yes, we were flashers- complete with tennis shoes in order to run away.... Here's a picture from the party we went to. When we walked in the door, we were a hit- the party stopped to watch us :-)

Look at those legs!!!!!

Others were celebrating the day:

(Bruno claims he is both a Seahawks fan and a Panthers fan... but he has a new Seahawks scarf and decided to wear it for Halloween)

The weather in Seattle these days is basically wonderful! It hasn't been raining too much and the air is cool and crisp. Leaves are turning too, it's great. This morning we all went for a walk to the "Junction" nearby to get coffee and a pastry from the famed Bakery Nouveau- yum!

Hope you all didn't forget to "fall back" last night (except for you crazies who live in Arizona) and we really hope all is well with everyone!

PS- HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM/LINDA!

Love, Lauren and Bryan

news from bryan's work

As mentioned previously, we had to demote my sous-chef at work due to his long hours impacting his ability to drink successfully.... Then, this week, the big boss let go the corporate / executive chef for other reasons... (i feel badly he was let go, but i hated the son of a bitch!!) Long story short, as if I didn't have enough to do, I am now in charge of recipe and menu development at the restaurant(s). So, they seem to think I'm doing something right apparently, which is good. Also, I will put this out there to any who read: if you eat something you like at a restaurant send me an e-mail or give me a call and tell me about it. (It doesn't have to be italian). I need some new ideas that make us a little different or exciting than the rest. And it always helps to have opinions from people that eat different things than me. Hope all is well with all of you, go Panthers, and talk to you all soon.

This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home....

One little piggy got swine flu, then the other little piggy did too!

On top of that being a new children's rhyme, yes it's true. Bryan and I have both come down with the nasty flu this week. Trust me, nasty doesn't start to explain it. Bryan, the king of going to work when he's sick, missed two days (and only is working a half day today), while I'm on my fourth day out of work. So, yes, we'll take your pity right now. Unfortunately, we timed it pretty poorly and really couldn't take care of each other (although before he got sick, Bryan made a smashing chicken noodle soup for sickly me). But, thanks so much mom and dad for stopping by to cheer us up, drop off groceries, and take Bruno for a walk. Somehow, the dog didn't get the memo that we don't feel like taking him for long walks.... One of the biggest bummers is that my long-planned trip to visit Kristen in sunny AZ has to be postponed. Boo!

However, before we got sick, we got to go to the Seahawks game on Sunday (Lauren's first at Qwest)- and we had so much fun (although I think my fever had just began to show up)! The 'Hawks obliterated the Jaguars 41-0! Here's a pic from our seats from Bryan's phone:

Well, back to resting and chicken noodle soup....

Exciting Day!

Hello everyone!

I hope things are going great with you all... Today was quite the exciting day for us! My (Lauren's) company, Omeros, officially went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange (ticker: OMER). It's been quite a wild ride for that to finally happen. It's really a proud moment for my company, whom I have worked for for over four years now. With the way the market is, it was quite a feat to be a "development stage" company (i.e. non-revenue generating) and go public. We are the first to do so in just about two years. This morning when I went into work, we had an e-mail saying it was official! We then had an impromptu celebration this afternoon at the lab space (where I work) and tomorrow at our fancy corporate offices we'll have another party. It's already been funny to hear stories from our CEO of the ups and downs he's had the past three weeks traveling the country trying to sell our company!

There is coverage in many newspapers now (Wall street journal, ny times, seattle times, etc) and I'm sure the press will be good and bad. Now that we're publicly owned, we will be publicly scrutinized, too; it'll be an interesting ride, that's for sure!

Well, not much else is new for us right now- Bryan's been working even more than usual, and last night we even did work together when he got home (I'm really good at computer/math stuff :-) )..... He lost his souz chef (fired-ish) and is now the only one who can do all the orders, inventory, scheduling, etc.

Hope everyone is doing well and hope to hear from you soon!

Love, Lauren and Bryan

Even non baseball lovers will love this...

It's really true- not a joke!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b494dinhd4Y

Company news

Hi all,
Exciting happenings with my company, thought you'd like to know in case you haven't seen it yet...

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090916-714149.html

a great weekend, until the 2nd half of the football game

Well, a great weekend here in Seattle, where fall is in the air. The mornings are getting downright chilly and the wind has been picking up lately. We're both big fall lovers, so it's been quite an enjoyable week.

In the past week, two of our friends have gotten engaged (congrats Beth/Joe and Meghan/Dylan!), so it is looking like next summer will be a busy one again.

On top of that, a great weekend, but not too exciting by some standards. Highlights include: Bryan worked (a lot), and Lauren started her grad school applications. It is highly likely that in 7 years or so (hopefully less!) all letters will be addressed to Dr and Mr Hamilton....

Other momentous occasions: on our saturday night walk, Bruno snapped his extendo leash and broke for a cat... almost got him. We've also really enjoyed going through the pictures from the big wedding weekend. Went on a date to

the brand new grocery store, and then made crab and roasted corn chowder.... excellent. Monday night, we made steak fajitas with a honey, lime, roasted red pepper glaze, and invited a few friends over to watch the Panthers go for their first win. It was a good first half at least, but unfortunately, the result was the same as last time we had these same friends over to watch the panthers game (about 8 months ago....). Let's just say Billy's not exactly a good luck charm. In good news, as long as we have to watch them lose, it is nice that it is on national tv so we don't have to go to a dirty, grimy bar...
And lastly, an interesting tidbit about the restaurant industry. If you cannot get a hold of an employee and they are missing from work, the first thing we do is check the local jail registry online! Do people do that in other lines of work? Lauren says not in the biotech world... Teachers? Alas, I found him and did not have to work on Sunday...

Now, we are getting dangerous - just figured out how to post our first video. Hope you enjoy, hope you are all doing great.

Love, Lauren and Bryan

PS- Congrats to our new DUCK!

A start!

Welcome to our blog. We thought that this would be a great opportunity for friends and family to follow our every move.... But seriously, we'd love to stay in better touch and think this is a great way to share our day-to-day lives. For instance, many of you may be intrigued to know that Bryan witnessed a high speed chase on the highway driving home tonight. See, if you weren't reading our blog, you wouldn't know that!

Bruno had quite the fun trip to the park today. He'll be back to his normal dog food again (not super-powered food for large breeds anymore!) and will hopefully not be as crazy as he's been since I bought the wrong dog food....

Bryan came home early tonight and we've been cooking dinner together for the past hour and a half! Which means we've made quite the mess, but have had a great time doing it. Vegetarian lasagna is now baking in the oven...

And lastly... I took Monday off of work to spend time with my dear husband. Sometimes we just need a day off together and Monday was wonderful! We went for a hike in North Bend (Rattlesnake Ledge), took Bruno out to the homeplace so he could graze like a cow (which he really did) and then to Scott's Dairy Freeze for burgers. Below are some pics from the hike.

(hey Mom, I got in a picture!)

Well, lasagna awaits!

Hope you are eagerly anticipating our next entry!

Love, Lauren and Bryan