Ell Alley: Christmas

Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Saturday, December 26, 2020

Christmas 2020

In the evening on December 23, we watched the 1954 film White Christmas with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye & Rosemary Clooney. Rusty set up his silver, fiber optic tree. Jordan decorated the Norfolk Island Pine that is usually just a houseplant. It was foggy & frosty in the morning on Christmas Eve. The temperature was 30. That evening, we watched The Christmas Chronicles 2 with Kurt Russell & Goldie Hahn. It wasn't as nearly as good as Christmas Chronicles 1. We were disappointed. The low temperature that day was 28 & the high was 44. On Christmas Day, Rusty made waffles & scrambled eggs for breakfast. We watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It was still enjoyable after all these years. We opened gifts. Rusty & Steve got clothes. Jordan got a pillow, maple sugar candy & pencils. We all got a small table to use while sitting in a chair. It was slightly overcast that morning, cloudy & dark that afternoon. It rained heavily that evening. The low temperature was 35 & the high was 50.

Thursday, December 26, 2019

Christmas 2019

Christmas Eve was sunny in the morning, then turned to clouds, but no rain. We visited Colleen in the afternoon. She had given us all sorts of misinformation about her plans. But we managed to find a time when she was home alone. We gave her an orchid plant. We had dinner at home that night. Then we watched Noel (2004) with Susan Sarandon, Penelope Cruz, Robin Williams, Alan Arkin & Billy Porter. Steve & Jordan had previewed a number of Christmas films on Netflix. This was the best they could find. It wasn’t bad. Christmas Day was pleasant, mostly sunny with some thin clouds. We opened gifts that morning. We went to Fou Lee for dim sum at 1PM. The place was packed. That evening we watched Office Christmas Party (2016) with Jennifer Aniston & Justin Bateman. It was stupid. The low on December 25 was 33, the high was 44 .

Saturday, December 29, 2018

Christmas 2018

at El Dorado West in Burien

Jordan made a few Christmas decorations, then started decorating on 12/11. He hung the stockings on the stair rail, but had no idea what to put in them. Steve said he would take care of it. He put gifts in ours, but there was nothing in his. Rusty & Steve both had a 4-day weekend. We watched the 1964 cartoon Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on Friday night 12/21. Rusty found some decorations & set them up on Saturday 12/22. His fiber optic tree had been repaired. We watched The Christmas Chronicles with Kurt Russell as Santa Claus that night.

Christmas Eve was a beautiful day, sunny & fairly warm. We had pork loin & polenta with mushroom sauce for dinner. We watched the 1965 cartoon A Charlie Brown Christmas. Christmas Day was cloudy. We exchanged gifts that morning, then had dim sum at Hong Kong Seafood Restaurant for lunch. We drove to Burien, where we toured beautiful Three Tree Point on Puget Sound. We visited Jordan's mother at El Dorado West & gave her gifts. Back at home, Rusty made roast chicken, yams & green beans for dinner. It was a busy Christmas Day.

Thursday, December 28, 2017

Christmas 2017

We went out to dinner at Chinook’s with Jordan's family members on Christmas Eve. His mother, sister & cousin were there. It had started to snow that afternoon. The snowfall was light & the coverage on the streets was thin. We had no trouble driving. It continued to snow lightly until Christmas Day at around 11 AM. There was an accumulation of about 3 inches at our house. It was the first time it snowed on both Christmas Eve & Christmas Day of the same year. The low temperature was 31, the high was 35.

On Christmas morning, it was picturesque to see the snow falling & the white landscape outside the window. We ate breakfast & opened presents. Rusty made a quiche. The snow began to disappear shortly after it stopped falling. It was mostly gone from the sidewalks & streets within a few hours. We took Jetta on her regular walks, but spent the day at home. We watched TV, including 2 episodes of season 2 of The Crown. We made dinner together. Jordan roasted a chicken & made gravy. Steve cooked Brussels sprouts. Rusty made biscuits we ate with gravy. We also had sliced apples with cranberries Jordan cooked the day before.

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Christmas 2016

Jordan & Steve bought the food for Christmas dinner on Friday afternoon. Saturday was Christmas Eve. We did our usual things until 4:00 PM when we went to visit Greg & Anisa. They live in our building of 5 units at the opposite end from us. They served snacks & drinks at their dining room table. We stayed for 2 hours. Then we went to Foo Lam for dinner. We opened presents on Christmas morning. There were more gifts than ever before. Rusty made blueberry scones for breakfast, then blueberry pancakes & eggs for brunch. Jordan's family came for dinner at 7:00 PM: Carol, Sherry & Shirley, Alex, Colleen, Gail, Iris & Andrew, Bleys & Kyndahl. We had ham, potatoes, quiche, polenta, Brussels sprouts & pecan pie. They were here 4 hours. The day was partly sunny & fairly warm at 42. It was a very nice day.

About Ell Alley

Ell Alley is the home of Jetta, Jordan, Kitty, Rusty, Steve & Toby. It is named for the alley beside & behind the house that forms an ell: the shape of the letter L. It is located in the Rainier Vista development, in the Rainier Valley of Seattle, which extends 7 miles southeast from Downtown Seattle to Rainier Beach, between Beacon Hill & the lakeside ridges of Mt Baker, Lakewood & Seward Park. Ell Alley is 4 miles from Downtown Seattle, 0.4 miles from the Columbia City Station & 0.7 miles from the center of the Columbia City Landmark District.

Rainier Valley History

The first settlers arrived in the 1850s, but settlement was slow until the forest was cut down & milled, as it was throughout the city. Developers bought logged-off land toward the end of the 19th century. They laid out the communities of Genesee, Columbia City, Hillman City, Brighton & Dunlap.

Cheap land in the valley, just outside the City of Seattle, attracted Italians of rural origins & they planted large, productive gardens. The north end of the Rainier Valley became known as Garlic Gulch. Japanese immigrants also had farms in the valley. The produce filled local markets including Pike Place.

The Rainier Avenue Electric Railway opened the valley to greater development, reaching Columbia City in 1891 & Renton in 1896. In 1907, the City of Seattle annexed most of southeast Seattle, including the Rainier Valley.

At the start of World War II, Japanese residents were forced into internment camps east of the mountains. Tens of thousands of war workers came to Seattle to work at the Boeing Company, the shipyards & the port. The US government constructed thousands of temporary housing units at Rainier Vista, Stadium Homes (now Mt Baker Village) & Holly Park in the Rainier Valley.

After the war, the temporary housing became public, low-income housing. Suburban development took many white residents away from the valley. Blacks moved into the Rainier Valley from the over-crowded, nearby Central Area. Interracial couples found acceptance here. Filipinos arrived in large numbers.

After the fall of Saigon in 1975, refugees came from southeast Asia: Vietnamese, Cambodian, Hmong, Lao & Mien peoples. Many settled in the Rainier Valley. Chinese continued to arrive, although most settled on nearby Beacon Hill. There was a small influx of Mexicans. Somali immigration began after US involvement in Somalia in 1992.

Work on new housing at NewHolly (formerly Holly Park) began in 1997 & continued for a decade, with 1400 units sold to private owners. The rebuilding of Rainier Vista began in 2003 & still continues. Columbia City rapidly gentrified starting in the late 1990s. Many units of new housing were built in the form of townhouses, condos & apartments.

The current population of the Rainier Valley is about 41,000. The racial breakdown is 34.1% Asian, 26.9% Caucasian, 26% African American, 1.6% Pacific Islander, 6.5% Mixed Race, 1% Native American and 3.4% from other races. Hispanic or Latino of any race are 7.2% of the population.

Our Land & Climate

The city of Seattle rests between 2 bodies of water: Puget Sound & Lake Washington. Puget Sound is a substantial part of the Salish Sea & a very small part of the Pacific Ocean. The Salish Sea is set apart from the Pacific by the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington & Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia. The dense, wet clouds of the Pacific Ocean travel as far as the Cascade Mountains, near the Salish Sea & not very far from the ocean. East of the Cascades lies the desert of the Columbia Basin. The moist, temperate climate of Seattle extends south to northern California & north to southeastern Alaska. The Pacific Northwest Coast from San Francisco Bay to Cook Inlet shares a flora dominated by evergreen coniferous forest. The central portion, west of the Cascade Mountains, is called Cascadia. The climate is cool & wet from fall to spring, warm & dry in summer. The Olympic Mountains block Seattle from much of the Pacific rainfall. Seattle is drier than the Atlantic coast of North America & northern Europe, cooler in summer & warmer in winter. It lies near the latitude of Paris & Quebec City.

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