A Fairhaven Christmas Story

      Last Saturday our family went on over drive and really got into the Christmas spirit.  Nana came to town for the weekend, and she shared in on the festivities.  At least the inside activities, she is from Arizona and all.   Last year found me in Wyoming -surrounded by family, but not with my kids and wife.  There is something extra special about sharing the holidays with kids.  It puts you in the spirit very quickly.   We have been watching Christmas movies on Netflix, but can not find two movies that do it for me *make me far less Scrooge-ish* every year.   Those are --National Lampoon's, Christmas Vacation, and A Christmas Story.  The 2nd plays 24 hours straight on cable TV each year. 

     On this day---and next weekend, Fairhaven was full of activities.   Most at the best price of free!   Also don't forget that the Farmers Market is going until the 22nd -Downtown Bellingham.  An easy way to buy local for the holidays and stay away from all the box retail giants.

The newly lit trees in The Village Green

Horse rides.

Both through Fairhaven and down near the bay from the Bellingham Terminal

Downtown Fairhaven from inside the wagon.

Waiting for the ride to start!

Time to thank the horses.

Of course Santa & his wife were present!

On to explore the Bellingham Cruise Terminal. 

Full of activities!

Including a sail in boat light show.  Something we sadly did not attend.

Events include---more horse rides

A huge gingerbread house display.

A family favorite was the Larbee School house---with two of our kiddos attending the school.

Although the crowds to view --were massive!

                                        Much dancing and music---hot cider and cookies

      

And fire truck rides!     Everything was free!!

The majestic Zodiac is docked here.

Undergoing some massive repairs.

By early afternoon it was time to return home. 

And prepare the house for Nana's visit!

We ventured just up the road to purchase our family's first real Christmas tree. 

A far cry from going out in the cold and snow to cut down a tree---something I have done before.

But this method proved just fine.

Nanny pitches in to help.

Time for a break from all the decorating.

Every year the kiddos get special ornaments and every year together

we buy a dated tree ornament.  

Finding one with the date on it, is much harder than one might think.

This years is a great Dr Sues themed one from Target.

We also always put up the handmade decorations from a Christmas of our past.

We were all living in a motel for the holidays and all of our Christmas stuff was in storage in another part of the state.

We borrowed a fake tree and made all of our own decorations.

Not saying it was a bad Christmas--there is no such thing!

But the decorations are awesome, and they remind us of how far we have come. 

I am sure your family has some great traditions.

To read about some more of ours---please check out some of my posts from last year

at another great sight of mine

www.wyomingjack.blogspot.com

We also hope that you and yours have the most amazing Christmas possible!

Filled with hope, spirit, family, love and the true reason for it all

Christ!

This count down ornament now says eight days left!

Quick Week In Review

Things have been extra hectic at our house.

And I am still having trouble believing that June even started, not to mention it is now almost over!

School ends on the 22nd, and the end of the year activities are crammed in, especially with three kids.   With summer just around the corner, and the added week of school daze because of "snow" during the winter, the kids have already checked out.  And the teachers are pretty much there also!  I went along with our youngest and most of the Larabee Elementary school Friday on a field trip to Fairhaven Park.   Three hours of running around the park shows the teachers have also checked out for the summer!  The worse part of the trip, was when they decided to attempt to sit all of the kids down, after hours of running around, and have them participate in a group sing a long.  Wasn't happening--is the cliff notes!

He also was in his first play at school!  As the lazy dog.  Very kool!

Above I put snow in quotes because compared to measuring snow by feet in Wyoming, were I grew up, the few inches of snow they saw here last winter was nothing.  I have talked about this before, but in comparison-just last month the Rockie Mountains saw 5 feet of snow in one day.  In that last big storm the west always gets, before the two months of summer.  After that joy, they go directly back to snow.

Among other things---summer time offers some great sunset pictures over the bay!

This week the sprinklers start up at Fairhaven Park.  And the movies on the Village Green in Fairhaven.

Village Green

Just to the right of the white screen for the movies. 

 And summer officially starts!  The 20th marks the summer solstice --the longest day of the year.

 Also the only day of the year that you can balance eggs on there ends.   Try it!  I don't fully understand why it works, but it does.  Something about the gravitational angle and positions of the Earth --sun--and moon.

Call your daddy!

Tell him to buy eggs and try the above on the 20th AND in case you forgot to call him yesterday.

It was Fathers day---you are excused if you were hatched from an egg!

    My dad is overly great!   If for no other reason , because he still puts up with me!   He has also been married to my mother for 40 years!   A feat in this day and age.  And I love them both to no end! 

   Now on to some other things---I have not had time to blog about lately!   

Recently our terrific daughter turned 11

  Our oldest son--who is also about read to have a birthday.  Why do they want presents every year??   He received his second GRR award at school.  For going above and beyond the expected.  
He also just had a reading for some poetry he just wrote at school, but my schedule did not allow me to make that.  

My long time buddy "Professor Getty" blew through town for a few daze and we hung out in the woods.   More on that in an upcoming exploring blog.  

      And than on Friday we made the long trek across the state for a family reunion and camping trip.  

Usually I make a high speed U-Turn in the road if I see this sign ahead *although you can't beat the towns slogan. BUT it was an  awesome weekend in Greys Harbor!!

Again--much more on this and beautiful Lake Sylvia soon!

I take pride in what I write.  

I also enjoy how easy it is to contact me.  Both through my blogs or my page on Facebook.

Sadly few of my readers ever seem to have comments or feedback.

Many times I test this by adding topics or thoughts that might start a conversation 

or anger others.   Kind of like a "mini-mini rant"  My next one will be about the coal trains proposed to run through Bellingham.  Here are a few local hot topics and my thoughts on them:

  I can't wait to head to the reservations and buy some good fireworks! While they are still legal. How un-patriotic are all of those fools trying to ban personal fireworks? Read up about July 4th---and than tell me I can't shoot off fireworks! If I am un-safe--that is MY problem, and you can than refer to me as Stubby!

      One last "mini vent" for now----- With all of the recent violence in Seattle---guns are going to be harder to get. Don't protect us from guns---protect us from idiots! Everyone in Wyoming has 12 guns---mostly to protect themselves from the government and to hunt & protect there livestock. They do not go around randomly shooting people because they have learned gun control and The right to bear arms.

In closing---I have posted this picture many times before-- but had always thought it was photo shopped.   While we were traveling through Washington over the weekend on the Air Force base, I saw this actual sign.   I am sure you are not as impressed

I am very from Wyoming and very easily amused.  

Many new blogs and ideas to come in both blogs!   Thank you all for your readership and support!!!

Dirty Dan Harris Days!

   Last Saturday we ventured just down the road to attend the Dirty Dan Festival in beautiful Fairhaven, Washington.  We saw a lot of shoppers in the town, but no real activities.  At first I was ready to call this a very lame event, but soon found out that the event started on Sunday, this year----Whoops!  Above is Dan's statue, forever keeping watch of the Village Green of his town.  Also a great place to snap a picture of him and yourself enjoying the view.   The Green is surrounded by great shops and partly covered.  It is usually the towns event hub.  The far wall doubles as an outdoor movie wall.   And the town plays family movies all summer starting in June.  I will report about these complete with a list of movies next month.  

   Sunday we tried again.   And enjoyed another sun filled day.  It has been a great trend in the past few weeks were we have OK weeks capped off with awesome sun filled weekends.    

  This festival celebrates the founder of Fairhaven.  And has been going on for six thousand years.                  
Minus about six thousand years, so for years now.  Fair warning--- for $20 bucks you can sample more clam chowder than you can imagine.  Clam chowder has a VERY distinct smell and we chose to stay away from this section of the festival.   At my last job, we had clam chowder soup on special every Friday.  When a new worker asked what the soup of the day was, I would take off the lid, and stand back.  The smell would instantly remind the new worker what the soup was.  All of this fun was in Wyoming, a land locked state -were fresh seafood is not an option.   The seafood tents are also near the beer garden.
   And now a little bit of history:
       Daniel Jefferson Harris was born on February 16, 1833 in New York.   He was a rebel, better to be left alone.  He was involved in at least four noted large legal scrapes.  Each time he was arrested, but bailed out by friends so never served any real jail time.    So the Dirty part was soon added to his name.   He was also a hard worker and great business man.  Around 1868 he acquired nearly 200 acres of land in what is now Fairhaven.  Much of this land was along this water front.  He quickly sold off the land that is now the town.   And later made a small fortune selling off the water front.   He was married for a year, before problems arose.  His wife and him separated, but made amends and stayed with each other.  Dan died in 1890 leaving an estate of about $180,000.    
By 1896, when Washington portions of Dan's estate was finally settled, Fairhaven property values had hugely dropped and his 5 heirs received only $33.93 apiece. 


    OK   wake up time!   Our daughter and I roamed down Harris street and hit incline down to the bay about time for the piano races to start.  

                   At the bottom of this hill are the 3 pianos to be pushed up the hill.

    The street is blocked off for the race and than the large crowd cheers on the runners.

  The Bellingham Terminal was our first stop of the day.  Many ships were in port to view and board. Filled with the crews who could answer any questions.  These boats are amazingly preserved and works of art even before the sails are lifted.   Several of them also had a sailing race later in the day. 

 Many vendors surrounded the terminal.  And bands offered more entertainment.  

 Displays and activities filled the inside of the terminal also. 

                           Replica of the Titanic to honor the 100 years since the tragedy.

                                                                We found Nemo!!


                                                         Rustic Coffee fueled stop ....

    This is in front of the depo leading people to Junction Coffee.  A great little shop that offers an awesome view with every coffee purchase!


 Back up the hill to the main festival.   All shops were open for business.  Musical groups kept everyone entertained in the Village Green were more vendors were out and benches were set up for all the guests.  

                                     A very busy face painter was one of the vendors.
  The Toy Garden also had a booth were kids could make there own toy.  Today's was some sort of water filled ball.   These were bouncing around all over the green.  Amazingly in all the time we spent at the festival, I saw no one get hit by the balls.  Later we roamed around the near toy store.  It is a great store with amazingly helpful and knowledgeable workers.  Rare in this day and age.  Off the green you can also roam the huge multi level book store.  Village Books is a great place to spend your time. With every type of book imaginable.  This store even has a machine that will print out the book you wrote!  Great staff and great prices also welcome you every trip.  Possibly the best thing about the store, is all of the activities.  They have free lectures, readings, open mic nights, workshops etc, something going on almost every day of the week.  The 2nd best thing is the owners of the store, it defiantly does not feel like a stuffy chain book store.   Plus the upper level houses a coffee shop if your caffeine level is running a little low.  Exit the bookstore without venturing outside, into a great gift shop.  

  People in authentic costume roam around the festival.  I believe the man in white is supposed to be Dirty Dan.