Saw my folks off to the airport today; then Viv and I drove all over town running errands, the most important of which was getting a new power supply for her iBook. A rocking chair crushed the insertion tip in an unexpected side effect of having houseguests.

I very much enjoyed our holiday with my parents, more so than the last Christmas we spent with them, four years ago in Washington DC. I’m surprised that so much time had elapsed. We’ve seen them about twice a year over that whole period of time, often at Thanksgiving and midsummer. At any rate, in many ways, it was one of the most satisfying holidays that we’ve spent with them, although my work schedule meant we did not have as much time with them as we might have hoped for.

They arrived the Monday before Christmas and spent the night. Originally, they’d planned to drive over to Yakima, their hometown, that afternoon. We insisted that they use our car instead of renting one. As we discussed the plans, I realized that they were planning on crossing a notoriously snowy mountain pass on the winter solstice – the longest night of the year. Without telling them, I mentioned to Viv that we should plan on their spending the night that evening.

As it turned out, their plane was delayed due to snow back east and their flight didn’t come in until about 10pm, so it was good that we’d prepared.

They drove over next morning while I was at work, and returned here Thursday morning, just in time for me to take everyone out to dinner at that venerable Seattle institution, Canlis. Viv and I ate there for our first anniversary or something and it is one of our most memorable dining experiences. The holiday meal that we had this past week was certainly tasty but nowhere near as inventive or memorable as that which my wife and I shared in bibulous romance back in the day.

We asked our old dear friend Spencer to share Christmas Day with us, and happily, he was able to do so. I haven’t had a chance to post all the pictures yet, but I’ll pick a choice few.