Happy New Year from the Principal's Office!

What a year it's been for us!
Aside from getting some snow time in Spokane over Thankgiving, here's what we were celebrating last night as 2010 clocked out:

• Rusty completing his training as a cabinetmaker/woodworker through Seattle Central Community College (you can admire his finished projects here -- they sure make the rest of our IKEA furnishings look shabby!)
• Dina starting school to become a German-English translator
• We both became first-time aunt & uncle as Dina's brother had his first son in December -- baby Kai John Trageser. (We'll meet him in person in March, when we travel to Germany for a visit.)
• We had lovely visits to Spokane, Eugene, Newport OR, Port Townsend, and Berkeley/San Francisco to visit with family and friends or just to relax
• And still, home is best. We continue to feel very lucky to live in this little community of artists, in a funky little space that feels more and more like home as we continue to tinker with it.
  

We don't have a fireplace, but appeased Saint Nick as follows:


Other tinkering accomplishments:

• We have a functioning toilet! It's small, but it works! (I'll spare you the photo...)
  
• Rusty figured out how to fit the entire sectional sofa into the narrow living room in one piece:

(Hi, mom!)

• More light for the dining area:

Note the daybed under the window -- made by the new craftsman in the house. All we need is a fitting mattress to make it functional!

Happy New Year, one and all! May it be a year full of creative accomplishment!