Christmas 2004

Before traveling to Illinois for Christmas, we celebrated our own special Christmas in Scott's apartment in Washington. Neither of us had many decorations, so it was a bare holiday, yet overflowing with love.

Many Christmases ago, Tracy's mom, Kathy, bought a fake tree for each of the Goeppinger children. Each tree was accompanied by the usual decorations: lights, tree skirt, star for the top, etc. Here is the tree Tracy received, now being used as Scott & Tracy's Christmas tree.

Did we mention just how small the Christmas tree was? It was like a Charlie Brown Christmas (even our single ornament made it fall over)!

In Washington, the one thing we probably miss most about Christmastime is snow--that brilliant, magical white matter that catches one's breath with beautiful wonder. Sure, we get the occasional flurry, but to see the real stuff we'd need to drive to the mountains nearby. However, due to some strange occurrence at Scott's apartment, a large pile of snow appeared on the ground just outside his unit. We had no idea how it appeared, or who put it there...did someone in Illinois order a personal snow delivery just for us?

We were in so much awe about the snow that we took another picture.

A picture in front of the Christmas tree

And this is the only picture we took of our Christmas visit back in Illinois...we definitely need to get better at taking pictures when visiting family. Here, we're celebrating at Tracy's mom's house, where "the stockings were hung by the chimney with care."