It's January already.

Hello all. 

I will once again be writing in Matty’s stead. I left you last at New Years. Wow, that seems so far away, since a good amount has happened since then.
The following weekend I went down to San Francisco with my sisters and my mom for a baby shower for Natalie. We had a great time catching up with our cousins and old family friends in the city by the bay. Natalie and Baby Henry were delightfully showered with presents and love. While I was down there, Matty played in his first flag football game. He was asked by one of my co-workers to substitute for this particular game because they were short on players. Matty was such a fan, he has now signed on for the season. So far, he has played two games.

Later in the week we had Savanna, my little sister, over for dinner. After dinner she was supposed to be working on homework, but could hardly keep her eyes off Matty while he was working on the computer. Savanna is quite an artist and is over the moon with everything Matty produces. She is in awe of him, and I am chopped liver anytime he is doing anything artistic. We had a fun night full of laughs though. 

Also in the week we found out that the house we are trying to buy is becoming more of a reality. In the short sale process, the first step is getting the bank to approve the owners selling the house at such a reduced rate (this is the most difficult step). We got word that we have officially moved on to step 2 now! It looks like it will be another 2 or 3 months until we would move in. Which we don’t mind (more time to try and sell our place).
Matty had some great news last week as well. His internship was set to finish the end of this month. On Friday he had a meeting with his bosses who asked him to stay as an intern for 6 more months! Matty is frothing at the idea of a solid 6 more months of permission to ask a million questions and pick their brains. In about 5 months they will all meet again and asses how Matty will fit in their company in the future. All great news!

This past weekend had a bit of a Christmas vibe to it for us. On Friday we took Grandma for her Christmas gift, which was a trip to the Seattle Art Museum to view the Michelangelo exhibit. It was an amazing collection that blew us all away. Afterward we enjoyed a fun dinner downtown with Grandma. Then Sunday, we collected our Christmas present from Kevin and Christy. They took us to The Triple Door (a live venue downtown) for some delicious food and a great show. The show was in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. since Monday was his holiday. It started with dancing from a ballet school in Tacoma for underprivileged kids (that is actually called the Martin Luther King Dance School). The main performance was by a local woman and her band. She wrote her own music and had quite a good band. It was such a special night and a great Christmas gift! In between these outings I tried snow-shoeing for the first time with a couple girlfriends. It is just like hiking, but in the snow in some special footwear. We had an awesome time, but my legs were a bit sore afterward!
Hope everyone has a lovely rest of the week. Much love, from Team Mitchell.

Craiglist

Here is a pic of the great finds you get with a bad nights sleep, an iPhone and craigslist.


It is an old soda carrier and we also got an old 6 pane window frame.
--Matty3stars--

Happy New Year

Hello blog-world. A different member of Team Mitchell will be running through our most recent events today, as Matty is just too swamped and a bit daunted by the large amount of content to catch up on (and Mango’s fingers are still sore from losing to me at thumb wrestling).
This Holiday season took our household by storm this year. There are no complaints here, being as we had several wonderful parties and get-togethers, but it was exhausting! The weekend prior to Christmas is where I think we shall pick up. Saturday night we went to one of my colleague’s annual holiday fondue party. It was a fun get together full of gift exchanging, drinks, and food on skewers. I would say the most memorable moment for Matty that night was his introduction to Angel Food Cake. Now for the Ozzies, this is kind of like a sponge cake that is quite popular here (particularly in the summer with fruit and whipped cream). The Angel Food Cake was one of the options to be dipped into the chocolate fondue. I think Matty wet himself with excitement. He claims it tastes like monks made the cake from bits of heaven. Either way, we move on to Sunday. We squeezed in a breakfast with Anna (a fellow study abroad student whom Matty has stayed in contact with) and her boyfriend who were in town for the weekend. Then we headed over to my parents’ house to start getting ready for the big Gotz family (my mom’s side) Christmas dinner. We draw names for the whole family, so Matty and I each received one gift. Matty now has a new striped beanie and I have a new beautiful scarf. Lots of food and fun was had by all 33 of us that day!
The next Monday we had our last holiday party. Natalie hosted a holiday dinner for our work friends. We are lucky to work with a lot of people our own age with similar interests. Natalie put together a delicious dinner for the party of 19. We then did gift exchanges (again I got a beautiful scarf and Matty received the Pineapple Express DVD). We also played some pretty fun party games.
Then came Christmas! Matty made his calls to family in Oz on Christmas Eve night since it was Christmas there. On Christmas morning we went and picked up Grandma early and brought her over to our house for gift opening. I gave Matty a new messenger bag for his laptop and everything else he lugs back and forth to work. I also gave him big rubber boots for walking the dogs in the rain and some cologne (he wanted to smell more grown-up). Matty had already bought me a pair of shoes for Christmas, which I have been enjoying for a few weeks. Also, he led me on a treasure hunt around the house which ended with a coupon for a trip to Phoenix! One of my best friends lives down there and I have been wanting to pay her a visit (and soak up the sun). After we opened pressies we headed over to my parents’ house to start on breakfast. Natalie and Hodgie joined as well and we all delighted in a delicious Christmas breakfast. Soon the whole gang started arriving and we got down to business. Everyone was spoiled by each other and we all wound up with thoughtful and fun gifts. Matty was very surprised when we were almost done and he unwrapped his computer tablet (from my parents and me). This is a sensitive slab that he draws on and it shows up on his computer. Very fancy, and apparently very helpful for his work. We gave some exciting presents as well. We were really excited about giving Amy and Brad a family photo shoot, Hodgie a basketball signed by Luke Longley, and taking my dad snow inner tubing next month! After gifts we all rallied and got dinner on the table together. The day was capped off with all of us sitting around the lounge room talking. What a wonderful holiday it was!
The day after Christmas we took my mom downtown to collect her present. We went to The Bodies exhibit, which is a collection of dissected cadavers to show the human body. It was amazing! We then went for a stroll through the market and ended with lunch out. It was a great extension of Christmas.
A quick jump now to New Years! As we did last year, we joined a group of our friends out on the water in a rented house for the three day weekend. There were 15 of us in a large house that included a pool and ping pong tables. We had a blast. We all arrived on New Year’s Eve and got settled in. After dinner we got dressed up and turned on the dance party. We really rang in the new year. However, the next night could have possibly been even better. We did a Murder Mystery night! A couple of weeks prior, we all received our characters and what costume we should come in. That night we then received instructions along the way as to who we really were and who the murderer may be. The setting was a 20 year high school reunion. Matty was a math team captain who turned out to be a financial whizz. I was the class flirt who turned into a bit of a hussy. I kept finding out all these people I had “relations” with. It was so much fun though!!
So that leaves us here, back at work and at the beginning of a new year. This is almost a book, but too much that couldn’t be passed over I guess. This weekend I am going to San Francisco to attend Natalie’s baby shower with family and friends who all live down there. Matty is staying home to help move our friend in to his new house! Wonder who got the better end of that stick?

I hope everyone is having a nice start to their new year..

Peace...