Happy Holidays from the Emoto Family in 2024!

 

Ringing in 2016 in Seattle

View of Space Needle from Queen Anne Hill on January 1, 2016.

Kids popping noise makers in the hallway after seeing Space Needle fireworks.

Christmas Update 2016

We had so much to recap in 2016 that our annual Christmas letter got a little lengthy this year!  

(Hint:  Use the zoom in feature on your computer to read it!)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the California Emotos

Okay, so we didn't get our cards out in time for them to arrive before the big day for many of you. So in its place, we'd like to electronically send you this greeting.



Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

from,

Casey, Dorothy, Naomi, Ethan and Ryan

2013-14 Christmas and New Years Slide Show

Here's a slide show of our Christmas and New Year's.

Highlights include: kids learning to play pinochle, lots of great food, salmon and chips, trip to Snoqualmie Falls, trip to Bainbridge Island to visit good friends, white elephant gift exchange (steals?), funny eyes glasses (who ended up with these?), Diane getting her first digital camera (welcome to the 21st century!), ziplining at at Seattle public park, visiting other parks, ozouni on New Year's Day, shirogumi winning again ( think that the odds are stacked against akagumi), Space Needle fireworks at the stroke of midnight on 12/31/13, and finally spending quality time with family and friends.

Sights of 2011 Holidays

Although mostly rainy, we did manage to get out and about the Seattle area.  The Seattle Sheraton had its annual Gingerbread House display to raise funding for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.  On the flight to Seattle, we took in the sights from 30,000 feet to spy Crater Lake, Mt. Hood, Mount St. Helens, Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier.  Although Christmas evening dinner was the height of food smells and sights, we sampled small and large bites at:

Locol Barley & Vine in West Seattle where Chuck had a gig playing jazz adaptations of tunes by local grunge bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden to name a few as part of a keyboard, drums and bass trio; the atmosphere was local, the food was good (we sampled kale chips, a beet salad and a spicy corn and chicken chowder), and the music was a hit;

boom noodle at the U Village (which is no longer the U Village that I remember from my days as a kid going to the Village to bowl); while walking to the place from where we parked a horde of young men only wearing underwear crossed our path (didn't get this photo);

Red Mill Burgers in the Magnolia area; drive by this place several times as it is near where our relatives live; we first heard about this place on a show on the Food Network; the burgers and fries were terrific;

Kaname Izakaya in the International District that we visited for Happy Hour and consumed way too much food, the idea was to go and eat a little bit of this and little bit of that off their Happy Hour menu; we continued onto order ramen, soba and donburi; the food was good but the service was a little off;

Blue Star Cafe & Pub in the Wallingford district that must have one of the largest selection listing of scrambles and omelets known to humankind; I think I already know what I'd order for the next 10 times that I visit; not only is the menu large so is the establishment itself;

Stell's Burgers and More across the street from Seattle Pacific University is another place that we drive by frequently but had never tried; we tried the gyro sandwiches and Greek fries and were pleasantly surprised; the pita bread used for the sandwiches were warm, light and fluffy;

Old Mill Cafe outside Sequim where we stopped on the way back from our visit to the Olympic Game Farm; another stop being the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge and Spit (could see Canada across the way!);

Getting to the Olympic Game Farm included crossings of Puget Sound on the Washington State ferries.  In all the years going to Seattle, this was the first such crossing for our kids.

Mixed into this fun was two movies with the kids:  The Adventures of Tintin in 3D (we even convinced Ojiichan to see what was his first or second movie ever) and Arthur Christmas.  The parents had a movie night too and took in the latest Sherlock Holmes offering.

The Adventures of Tintin was at the IMAX theater at the Pacific Science Center which we visited a second time to see the exhibits.  Finally, we hiked over the Fremont district on two occasions - the place has really grown up to have an interesting mix of restaurants and eclectic shops.

But really for the kids the best times seemed to be when they were just hanging out.  They built forts with the bedding.  They built their own arcade and shops.  They played games and discovered a new favorite game called Forbidden Island that was actually based on the need for teamwork to succeed rather than on winning or losing.

Perhaps that should be the message for all of us in 2012 - let's succeed together.

Happy New Year!!!

We rang in the new year this year, just barely filling our glasses before the end of the countdown to midnight.  Then it was back to a game of bowling on the Wii.

Chinese New Year's Resolutions - Sports Edition

These are resolutions that should be made by the following sports personalities and institutions:

College Football: Scrap the BCS and implement a play-off system to decide a national championship, and determine awards after the ENTIRE season is over (including the bowl season) - if postseason stats count for records shouldn't they be considered for the purposes of determining awards too?

David Stern: Retire after his overseeing of the debacle that was the relocating of the Sonics to Oklahoma City - he's lost considerable credibility in some corners.

College Basketball: Implement the No Charge Zone under the basket just like the NBA has (there are too many charging calls still called in ticky-tack conferences ... cough pac-10 ... on players going to the basket when the defender is immediately under the cylinder ... don't know what defending is going on this situation ... isn't this like having the goalie in soccer defending while standing in the goal?).

NFL: Hire professional full-time game officials ... I think we've seen too many officials missing calls because their bi-focals had fogged up.

Al Davis: Trade in his silver and black Raiders jump suit for attire suitable for retirement to a golf course in Arizona ... he has lost all relevance in the NFL and the die-hard Raider fans deserve better.

Bud Selig: Return all money made on the backs of players like Mark McGuire, Slammin' Sammy, Clemens, et al. The players are carrying a much larger share of the burden than they deserve for the steroid saga (not that they weren't without fault either). Given the magnitude of its use, it's hard to believe that others inside baseball including the owners, MLB baseball management and media did not know more than what they are saying they knew about the whole deal ... and also retire.

MLB: Reorganize MLB into two divisions ... one division would have all teams with a payroll above $100 million and the other would have all the other lower payroll teams, with the winners of the two divisions squaring off against one another in the World Series (add teams from other continents to these divisions to make the World Series a true global championship) - this would be a David versus Goliath event with wide-ranging appeal.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to one and all! First blog of the year. 2008 was a down year for blogging in the Emoto household. Can't really say that this was due to one particular reason. We'll see what 2009 brings.

Perhaps we'll travel more. Definitely cannot travel any less than we did in 2008. We already have a possible trip to Disneyland in the works.

Here's our nomination for the video to inspire us all to travel more and for a more uplifting 2009 in general. Enjoy!



His web site says that he lives in Seattle. Check out his Wikipedia entry for more information about Matt. The Wiki entry states that one of the founders of YouTube claims that Matt's video is his favorite YouTube posted video of all time. Another entry also mentions that "few people are able to watch the video without smiling."

Happy New You!

It was January 2nd...Ryan and I had just returned from walking Naomi and Ethan to school when our neighbor greeted us with a "Happy New Year!" I called out "Happy New Year!" in return. And my little shadow chirped out "Happy New You!" Now Ryan's been chirping out "Happy New You!" to everyone he encounters. Just this morning he chirped "Happy New You, Mommy!" It crossed my mind to try to correct his pronunciation, however, he may be right on course with the use of "you" in place of "year." After all...isn't that why we make new year's resolutions? We make resolutions that we hope will make us a better person...a "new you." So, everyone, good luck with those resolutions this year and Happy New You!
~~~ Dorothy ~~~

Happy New Year!

Welcome back to all of you who were away for the holidays. Hello again to those of you who didn't travel, but may have noticed little activity on our little blog over the past couple months. Now we can all exhale.

We had our usual stack of Christmas, New Year's and holiday cards from family and friends to read through. This is probably my favorite part of this time of year. To be able to see pictures of friends' children and read about the past year. One of my high school teachers who I have kept in touch with is always good for a few witty phrases and comments from the past year. Here are a few that she passed on this year:

On the subject of weather - weather to give a person the weary dismals; the breeze had some little cold teeth in it; the heavy sky sagged with drizzle.

A native addressing a totem pole - "Don't be so proud. I know you from a plum tree."

On vocabulary - "sociopath" The trouble with words like that is that if you can pronounce them you think you know what they mean.

On faces - His face was fat and smooth, full of water and cities; a fellow with a face he'd gotten a lot of mileage out of.

On voices - If Tom talked any slower, he'd talk backward; a stained glass voice.

On principles - By definition, a prejudice is a principle that the owner does not intend to examine.

Father Earth? - the mountains where the earth pulled off its shirt and displayed its naked massive limestone shoulders, bulging lava pectorals, powerful granite biceps.

On time - Some things take longer to be a long time ago; just when is history anyway?

On religion - Atheism is a nonprophet organization.

On people - certain things among the shadows of a person's life do not have to be remembered -- they remember themselves; the chances we take getting born so accidentally; if you don't get smarter, getting older is more trouble than it's worth.

In case you haven't guessed, Mrs. C. is a retired English teacher.