Holidays at the Ranch

"Oh there's no place like home for the holidays..."

Since moving to Washington over a year ago, I've only seen my family twice since last Christmas.  

Being a wandering soul and adventurer comes at a bit of a cost.

But I have NEVER missed a Christmas.  

After I worked Christmas Eve I jumped in my truck and turned my wheels southward for 6 hours and East for about 45 minutes until I was rolling into the 160 year old driveway I grew up on.

My parents are so cute, even though I had told them to go to sleep and I'd just sneak in really late and see them in the morning, there they were...half asleep on the couch when I walked in.  Parents of adult children or not they still wait up! :) 

I won't drag on about how great it was to see everyone and do things...so here's the highlights...

• Spending Christmas day up in the snow as is tradition.  The sun was blazing and beautiful and we had an amazing time
• Frosting cookies with my 2 year old nephew.  He sat on my lap for 30 minutes patiently decorating.  The bells are his favorite! :)
• Watching my parents with my nephew.  Mom reading him stories on the couch (he adores her as he should) and Dad sneaking him cookies from the adult table (two mischievous boys)
• Cooking a birthday dinner for my Big Brother with the help of the talented and marvelously 39 weeks pregnant Sweet Sister-in-Law who is the most amazing impromptu winging it cook I have ever known!

I love my family dearly. We have differences and have distance but I am so proud to say I belong to them :) 

Here come the Holidays!

it's happening...

The season of copious glazed and saturated foods cached underneath billow bulky sweaters is upon us.

Yep!  And around December 31st we will be loathing ourselves and making resolutions for the New Year.

The list will look like this...

1. Lose weight/eat healthier/workout more

Then it's the all out scramble to get fit really fast in 4 months so when summer comes around we can wear swimsuits with no reservations.

Buuuuuut guess what?  If we cut the head off the snake...plan ahead...maybe we won't have to do the summer death scramble and maybe we can feel good through the holidays instead of bloated and oozing frosting out our pores.

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How are we going to do this?

When most of having a healthy body is about eating right...how do we navigate the yummy land mines of the season?

Here's my plan sweets!

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How to eat (semi) healthy during the Holidays

• Plan ahead

  You know when those parties, cookie exchanges, potlucks are going to be. So eat clean before hand.  Like if I know that Susie has made approxomatly one zillion pies for her Autumn Awesomeness party...then I won't be having panckakes with syrup that morning...no I'll have blueberries to boost antioxidants, and yogurt to keep things rooollllliiinnngggg on down there.

• Choose your battles

  What is your favorite?  Pumpkin pie? Then eat that and skip the cobbler.  You don't want to miss the joy of the holiday foods...just the guilt and food babies.

• Don't Drink your calories

  Yes tis the season of egg nog lattes, punch with ice cream floating on top, and pumpkin beer.  What I've done is skip buying juice at the store or coffee drinks.  I drink water and green tea so I haven't loaded up before I even eat.  Also keeping hydrated will help you digest holiday food and make you feel much much better! (And look better...remember hydration and healthy skin are buddies)

• Set tiny goals (and stick to it)

  Setting a goal like "Don't gain weight before Christmas" is silly.  Our weight fluctuates daily, even hourly based on hormones and digestion and with our super heightened "OH MY GOSH I GAINED A POUND" is only going to de-rail and depress.  Instead set an easy goal like "At this party I'm only eating one plate of food", or "I will eat green leafy veggies for lunch this week"

• Skipping meals before a party is a no-no

  If you show up starving in that skinny dress...you are going to stuff your face or hate your life as you sip ice water and watch everyone else eat.  How about don't do either?  Eat your meals.  A 4:00 event doesn't mean skip lunch.  Eat those leafy veggies from your previous goal ;)

• Walk, walk, walk

  It's hard to exercise when the weather is gross and you want to chat inside and snack more.  Trips to the gym or home workouts become nearly extinct.  How about grab the gals and take a walk around the block?  Then you can catch up on the news while getting some air and MOVING! 

• Be positive

  BE POSITIVE! Don't beat yourself up if you had two scoops of sweet potatoes with marshmallows.  The holiday's aren't a time to be stressed (even though we know stress happens).  Holidays are for being with friends and family, keeping warm in the cold, and celebrating!  

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These are my tips ladies and I shall be striving to keep them up through the New Year!

I hope at least one of these will prove helpful to you as we head into the last bit of 2015!

Cheers!

That time the babies carved pumpkins

October 15 the Talcott tribe descending from my lovely parents conglomerated at the ranch for a bit of a reunion.  Also my sweet Oma flew down from Alaska at 85 to see her Oregon grandkids and all the great grandkids.  

When I was a little girl, Oma and Papa would drive the Alaska highway down to Oregon every year in October to see my brothers and I.  We would do crafts with Oma, Papa drove us to the ocean, and the last night we would carve pumpkins with Papa and eat Donuts they had made for us.  These were good memories and I'm thankful to have had grandparents who took time, all the way from Alaska, to have a relationship with us kidos. 

So this October we resurrected the tradition by having Oma fly down from Alaska, my oldest brother Joshua and his family fly up from Denver, me drive up from Arizona and my older bro Luke come back from Eastern Oregon.  Yes we are spread out!  

My niece and nephews were taken to the pumpkin patch to pick out the perfect carving pumpkins.  My nephews are both 11 months at the time so they basically just looked at the pumpkins, slapped the pumpkins, played in the dirt and looked cute.  My niece who is 2 made it a shopping trip, trying every pumpkin out before choosing.

Pumpkins at home, washed, and set out on the table.

Check

Nephews dressed in matching outfits.

Check

Ready for festivities....

As I had an artsy pumpkin photo set up...in comes the hand of my broski.  The cracked and calloused hand of a hard working man who supports his family by the sweat of his brow.  He's the bro who got me into fire fighting...because he has been a firefighter for a long time and he's basically the best at it.  No bias.

Here he is again concentrating on helping my sweet sister-in-law Sarah (his wife) with a Pinterest pumpkin.  That my friends is a loving husband.

Here is Sawyer James...Luke and Sarah's sweet baby boy.  Aren't those eyes to die for?

And this boy with the crazy sweet cheeks is Junior.  He's my brother Joshua and sister-in-law Jenni's boy and I cannot stop kissing that face!

These guys were born about 12 days apart...on accident thought...Sawyer was waaaaay early and spent a long time in the NICU but look at them now!  Bright eyed boys who are going to be walking soon!

They are just too much

Concentrating on those toys...and learning to share.

Sweetness.  Lot's of sweetness surrounded by lots of love.

Sarah my sweet-sister-in-law making her Pinterest pumpkin.  Just a shout out to her for the dinner she made for the whole family at her house.  Homemade bread.  Homemade chocolate cake with homemade chocolate gnash.  Homemade lasagna with homemade lasagna sauce.  This woman can cook! 

And she can use a drill...watchout.

Jenni getting some laughs out of Sawyer man....he was a big fan of her necklace!  

Ok back story.  We have this old video of Luke carving pumpkins with Papa and LOVING it at about the age of 6.  He has this look of absolute glee when he pulled the "guts" out and a laugh that, well, if it doesn't make you smile then you must have no soul.  

SO we HAD to document Sawyer's first reach into a pumpkin to pull the guts out.  Granted he's only 11 months but he has no fear.  Put him on the ground in the garden and he's picking up leaves to crunch, rubbing the dirt around, splashing his hands in cattle water troughs...he loves to learn.

This was his reaction.  This is not crying.  This is confusion, a little disgust, but curiosity as well.

And he plunges his hand down in there again...and again...he was perplexed but did not want stop!

Now Junior on the other hand, he is very observant.  Very serious and quiet.  Sometimes he gets giggly and smily but often seem content to simply watch.

I had no idea how he would react to the odd texture of pumpkin innards.  But tell me he doesn't look crazy cute right now!

He's his father's son for sure.  Put his hand in the pumpkin...got some on his hand.  Hands immediately went up by his ears and he looks away, completely calm, but not at all interested in continuing the gooey tradition.  

Had to get some family shots...Last year when Luke and Sarah carved a pumpkin...Sawyer decided to come into the world ahead of schedule!

After all the scariness and hospital time and driving to Eugene and tears and IHOP food...who would have thought one year later we'd all be together with two healthy happy baby boys!

His wee face.  His Dad's strong hands. His Mama right behind him...this child is blessed

This is a cell phone photo so low quality but it's precious to me. We had 4 generations in that kitchen doing the donuts.  Sawyer only observed (he was transfixed by the circles in the dough) but it was a very sweet time.  Left to right: Oma, Sawyer, Sarah

Two days with Family

Fire season lasts for about 6 months.  

For me that's 6 months every year guaranteed away from my family.  

Since College (which was 4 years also far from home) I haven't had a full time job near my family. 

Mount Adams as seen from Trout Lake, Washington

Nope...first Alaska, then Arizona for the most recent years.

Reason A) There aren't jobs to be had in the field I want locally

Reason B) I have a wandering itchy foot 

SO days like today, when I am lucky enough to have my two mandatory R&R days only three hours from home are a HUGE BLESSING! This is after 14 of working.  Not complaining...the last roll for me was 21 days before R&R.  This is normal real life for wildland folks in the summer.

This is a brief summary of why I love being home with my family.

• My Mom hugs me and feeds me good homemade food (I block out the vegetarian lasagna MRE memories)
• My Dad tells me all the goings on at the ranch so I don't feel like I've missed out too badly
• And Sarah my Sweet-Sister-In-Law drove the 3 hours over the mountains with her baby in the backseat just to pick me up at my helicopter in Eastern Oregon and bring me the 3 more hours back home!  

{I am highly blessed.  My family is brimming with kindness and love for me and dedicated to supporting me in whatever way they can from far away.  Convenience is not a word they understand...no they will jump any hurdle to support me and to get even the briefest times together}

Each year I anticipate not seeing them for the full 6 months...but this year I am unimaginably thankful to see them in the middle.

Only 63 days to go!

Here is a mash-up of photos I've taken on this last roll.  Some are taken on my phone, some with my Go-Pro...the quality isn't that great for some but at least you get the idea!

Mt. Adams view from a gravel sling sight where we received cargo from the fire via our helicopter for a few days

Sunset from a helispot I managed on the Mt. Adams Complex fire.  It was great to spike out...even with ice on my tent.

Loads prepped and ready for backhaul from H-1 on the Mt. Adams Complex

Every night in Trout Lake I crashed into my hammock for the night.  This is my happy place.

Thank you Pacific Northwest.  Even the most remote towns have an espresso shop with stellar coffee.

You know you're in Oregon farm country when...there is a tractor and fiberglass cows inside the grocery store.

Kudos to this store for shortening the distance from farm to table.  Well done.

Life is exploding with happiness for this Auntie when she gets to have her day off with this little man.  SO. MUCH. LOVE.

Finally got to bake after months of not really having any culinary expression besides Tabasco on the MRE wheat wafer.

Even though I love being home, it feels weird to be in a house.  Had to have some hammock time to mentally re-set.