Christmas in January

Happy two week old birthday yesterday, Levi!

Karlie, Lena, and Jonathan give baby Levi the two week birthday treatment after E.P.I.C. last night.

Other than some leftover overseas adventures, camping, and hiking trips that didn't make the cut (yet) in 2013, this should be my final "catch-up post" for a while. We'll also have a couple of Greatest Hits blog posts starting early next week. And then, stay tuned for the story of our precious baby boy Levi's birth!

There aren't any stories in this one, just some festive pictures (some pics were previously live tweeted) from a few of last month's holiday celebrations. 


Students guess Christmas charades at our house

Friday night at Beaches on the Columbia River

De-icing Delta airplanes on Christmas Eve morning

Christmas Eve extended family party at my parents' Vancouver house

The VanWa Mustache Club

A Christmas day PDX airport visit to me and my adoring Delta coworkers from Mommy and a nearly 2 1/2 month old Lena...

...Including an obligatory photo with #PDXCarpet, the only known carpet with it's own cult Twitter following!


One more return to the 'Couve on Christmas afternoon with Mike, Summer, and our parents

A giant mirror for a lil' Lena

And finally... a post-Christmas family get together in Salem

Lena brings this gingerbread house up to code.

Merry Christmas in January!

We'll be back next week with a look back at the 10 most popular travel and non-travel Garth's Blog posts from 2013!

Our home's first Thanksgiving

At last... Thanksgiving dinner at our own house!  To sweeten the deal, the Dallas Cowboys took down the Raiders for a televised win.

Opening our home for our first ever Thanksgiving dinner in Beaverton has been a long time dream of ours. Kathy put a lot of effort into the preparation, and it really paid off.


I, on the other hand, woke up in the middle of the night to work the early shift like on any other Thursday morning.

Deicing a Delta 737 at PDX airport, just before the Thanksgiving sunrise

Thanksgiving morning at PDX was busier than in past years. Delta Airlines was generous enough to hand out meal vouchers for those of us stuck working on the holiday. Our Tokyo flight was a late arrival, giving my crew just enough time to rush upstairs to the concourse for breakfast at Beaches restaurant.

Five sides of bacon.  Ron Swanson would be proud of my man Rockee.

On the way home from work that afternoon, I picked up our friend Sarah (pictured at the top of this post). She was in between living situations and had no one to spend Thanksgiving with.  Our family welcomed her in.

Lena remains the center of attention after our Thanksgiving dinner.

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Of course, the whole Vancouver family couldn't fit into our Beaverton dining room. So on Friday afternoon, the Brown, Davis, Hamilton, and Sorensen families gathered together at my parents' house in Orchards.

God has given us so much to be thankful for this year. Our cup runneth over with far too many blessings to list here. Most significantly, we have been blessed with a wonderful family, a vital student ministry, and a happy life.

And in less than four weeks, we'll be rushing Kathy to the delivery room for one more reason to give thanks!

Next up on Garth's Blog...

The Black Crowes rock downtown Portland!