Peace out 2025!

 Happy Holidays!

Can’t believe it is that time of year again. Time for the annual Pederslie Christmas letter! I was talking to a coworker today as he mentioned he had to write their Christmas letter. I had said that I came across a previous one of ours and Shelby was only in first grade so…that means I have been writing these for (takes out a calculator..) 16 years! Now surely it would be cool if I had kept them all somewhere. You would think with me being a scrapbooker I would have but.. can’t say that I did! Too many computers throughout the years, no idea where I saved any of them…

Anywho.. I know they usually talk about a car or two Chad has bought, crafty things I am doing, how Shelby just keeps getting older (but I stay the same age!). This letter will not disappoint! There will be much of the same in this one!

As per usual, I’ll start at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, this year started off on a sad note. My mom, Suzi, passed away on January 6^th. It was sad but also a blessing in some way. She had been suffering from Alzheimer’s for the past two years. Though she always seemed to be happy, it wasn’t fun to see her forget who people were or things that had happened. I know she is glad to have her memory back and be hanging out in heaven with friends and family that have passed before her.

January also saw us taking a camping trip up in Birch Bay. It was COLD! But it was fun to bum around Bellingham. We also traded in my Sooby (2013 Legacy) for Sooby Deux (2025 Crosstrek). See what we did there?? 😊 Subaru’s are so great. I loved my Legacy but it was getting to the point where it would probably need more maintenance, and I wanted something that was a little higher off the ground. I mean my car did great in the snow..if you could get through the 2 ft drifts.

In February, Chad’s Grandma Joy passed away. Or as we always referred to her – Grandma Montana (because he had grandparents in Snohomish 😊). She was 94. We went to Montana in May for her memorial service.

Chad worked on his dad’s corvette a lot this year. It is a 1959 Corvette that his dad has had 54 years. It was up and running in time for his dad’s 75^th birthday. The older Corvettes have always been a favorite of mine. It is so cool to have this car restored and drivable.

The end of April we headed to Oahu. This was our first time on that island. We have been to  the others at least once (sometimes twice!). We enjoyed the island, but it was a bit too touristy for us. Too peoply! We had a condo right downtown. Not on the beach but within walking distance. Besides the fact that the garbage trucks came through at like 3 am EVERY morning, and the sliding door falling on me, we had a fun time. We visited Pearl Harbor and went kayaking and just enjoyed the warm weather.

May is a bit of a blur. We got back from Hawaii, went to Montana over Memorial Day weekend for Chad’s grandma’s memorial. Then at the beginning of June his dad turned 75. Chad took his dad for a cruise around the block in the corvette. I don’t know who was more excited, son or father. It’s been many years working on restoring this vehicle. It was a big milestone.

The end of June was both a happy and sad time. We took a 2-week camping trip through Montana, through Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Craters of the Moon national monument and then to Pendleton OR where we met up with some friends and then came home. We survived 2 weeks together in a tin can and are still married/alive to talk about it! Chad turned 50 in the middle of our trip! We were in Bozeman and he went on a fly-fishing tour.

Chad says I have to mention that we went to the National Museum of Military Vehicles in Dubois WY. He says if you are visiting the Grand Tetons, you must check this out. It’s worth the drive….

A few days after his birthday we found out that our good friend Kurt had lost his battle with colon cancer. This hit a little hard because if it was not for Kurt and his wife Chad & I may have never met. They set us up on a blind date and the rest, they say, is history!

We are empty nesters again! Shelby moved out into an apartment with two of her friends and took her puppy! She is in Bothell/Mill Creek and seems to enjoy being on her own. She does visit regularly and allows us to get our puppy fix.

Let’s see… Chad bought a dune buggy in August, and we went to Ocean Shores in September for a long weekend. Whenever we are in that area we try to head to Westport to visit my Uncle Rog. We also enjoyed driving through Aberdeen where my mom and her family lived for a bit when she was around 17/18. It was kind of surreal to drive by homes/buildings where they had lived or worked.

In October we went back to Ireland! We had gone back in 2018 and have wanted to go back. Chad had to go there for work, so we tacked on a few days and I went along. I love Ireland and can’t wait to go back!

November saw us in Seaside for Shelby’s birthday. She turned 23! I am not old enough to have a daughter that is 23! I mean, I am only 29… it’s a miracle! Chad also bought himself a 1967 VW Beetle. This was the same year/model as his first car, and he had always wanted another one. Meanwhile, Shelby thinks her dad is going through a mid-life crisis… 😊

And… that brings us to the end of 2025 (and to page 3 of this letter!) Oh lordy… I hope you are still here and haven’t dozed off! I may need to go back and reduce the size of my font, but then you would all need to put on your readers to read it!

It’s been a wild and crazy year. Sad moments but a lot of fun ones with friends and family. We enjoyed more time in our trailer, reconnecting with old friends, and have gone on some great trips.

We are blessed to have the friends and family that we do. We wish you all Happy Holidays and a Happy 2026!

Chad, Steph, Shelby, Winston (dog), and Nova (cat)

Another year in the books - Merry Christmas from The Pederslies

      

         What a year 2023 has been. It’s actually been kind of a blur, and it’s hard to believe it’s almost over.

Early in the year on February 8^th, my dad Gary passed away. Something you start to expect when your parents get to be a certain age, but that still doesn’t make it any easier when you get the call. He was just shy of turning 80, which would have been on February 19^th. And this is probably where everything starts to become a blur as we had to quickly decide where my mom was going to live, and then start cleaning up their house to sell.

At the end of last year, my mom had started to see a neurologist regarding some memory issues she had. At first the doctor noticed she had some tremors, so he tested for Parkinson’s since my grandma, her mom, had had Parkinson’s. If the results came back positive, then the memory issues could be related. However, the results came back negative for Parkinson’s. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

After my dad passed, my mom didn’t want to remain in their house. She didn’t like being alone, and there was a lot of house to take care of. Due to her ongoing memory issues, we looked for a facility that allowed her to still be independent but also had people around to help her if needed. We ended up finding her a nice little apartment at Aegis Living in Marymoor. She moved there in mid-March.

Meanwhile, back at Freeman’s Folly (aka their house), Chad & I were starting the fun task of cleaning up their house and property. Imagine a 3,000 sq ft house with almost 40 years’ worth of crap, I mean treasures, inside. Add a few outbuildings and several cars that were hiding under weeds and there was A LOT of stuff to go through.

Luckily, we have wonderful friends and family. There were numerous weekends where we would have a half dozen or so people at the house helping us clean and sort through items. 5 months, 4 estate sales, 5 waste dumpsters, 2 metal dumpsters, 14 unearthed cars sold or taken away, and 35 junk trucks later, we were done! We had the house on the market in August and it sold within a week! It is currently being remodeled by a company out of Snohomish. I can’t wait to see what they do to the house! I am so thankful it is being fixed up as it is a great house, in a great location and for its age, had great bones.

In May we headed back to Tucson to bring Shelby back from college (Univ of Arizona). She decided to finish off her degree online, so this was a permanent move back to Washington. We had to somehow get her car back home and it was easier for us to just drive it instead of trying to coordinate transport of it so…Shelby flew home, and Chad & I drove her car back. We made a quick stop at Warner Bros. Studios. I think this makes it our 3^rd time going on a tour there, but it never disappoints! The good news is that we got home in 2 days, the car didn’t break down and…Chad & I didn’t kill each other! 😊

Shelby immediately began her online classes once home and is set to graduate next fall. She started working at Braithburn Academy here in Duvall. A friend of mine is a teacher there and…it is the preschool that Shelby went to back in the day! She also turned 21 this November. Where, oh where, does the time go?

In September we bought a travel trailer. After the year we had, I told Chad that it would be nice to get away on a regular basis for some long weekends just to relax. So far, we have enjoyed a weekend at his family’s property in Plain, a weekend in Anacortes, and then a weekend in Gig Harbor. It’s fun to see different parts of our state that we don’t usually see. We have a trip planned to Cannon Beach in January the weekend of my birthday (and yes, I do turn 29… again!)

Oh and…I caved and agreed to getting a puppy! Both Chad & Shelby have wanted a dog since we had to put Harley down last year. It was hard though to commit to another dog. For one, Harley was such a good dog that we feared we would get a dog that just didn’t measure up. Two, dogs are a lot of work. They want to eat 3 times a day and go outside and want to play. Cats are so much easier – you leave out food, a litterbox and they just sleep the day away! 😉But I came across a double doodle breeder in Montana. So over Labor Day weekend we met up with them and picked up Shelby’s new puppy! He is an Australian Labradoodle and Aussie doodle – so Poodle, Labrador, and Australian Shepherd. His name is Winston, and he is just the sweetest thing. Nova, our cat, still isn’t thrilled with him but maybe some day they will be friends! 😊

And that has been 2023. It’s been chaotic but it has also reminded me what a wonderful support team I have with my friends and family. I would not have been able to get through this year without you all!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays from the Pederslies - 2022 Edition

The past couple years I have foregone the whole sending of Christmas cards. I blame 2020/Covid (or it would just be plain laziness on my side, but...I prefer to blame the pandemic!). What this means though is that no one gets to receive our wonderful Christmas letter. I have realized that this is very unpatriotic of me. Oh wait, wrong holiday! It is very Bah Humbug of me to deprive you all of our spectacular Christmas letter. So...the Pederslie Holiday Christmas Letter is back!! (Cue confetti, balloons and cheers now)

Hmm, maybe I quit writing the Christmas letter because our lives are quite boring and there is nothing new to tell anyone. But I will try (or at least come up with some really believable, exciting sounding stuff so you don't think we are lame!)

This past year we have been traveling to Tucson quite a bit. As you all probably know, Shelby goes to school at the University of Arizona in Tucson. We have tried to visit her at least once a month, and since she has had a job working as a desk assistant at one of the dorms, we have been going to her instead of her coming home for long weekends.

It is great that we can work remotely as we worked from Tucson last February for a week. Then I went to visit Shelby over Easter. She was done with her first year of school in May, so we packed up her dorm, put it and her car in storage, and flew her home of the summer. 

We went down to see her the weekend of her birthday. Our baby turned 20!! She is no longer a teenager! I am still in shock that she is an adult now and that we have kept her alive these past 20 years! It was touch and go a bit during those pre-teen years! Her BFF and her parents went w/us and we rented a house with a pool and hot tub and went to a U of A/ASU hockey game. OMG, hockey games are fast paced and fun!! (But cold!). 

Then because of her work schedule, we also spent Thanksgiving with her in AZ. We ordered a meal from Whole Foods, which wasn't too bad, and vegged and watched Christmas movies. 

Back in February we had to make the very hard decision to put our beloved puppy, Harley, down. We found out she had bladder cancer prior to that. Even though she really remained a very happy puppy, you could tell she was in pain and tired of it all. We were really hoping we could have held off until Shelby was home on Spring Break so she could see her. But we called Shelby that day, asked for her opinion and let her say good-bye. Hardest...decision...ever. It's been almost a year and there are still days where I am like "Oh Harley is going to come running out to greet me!" 

Chad has been traveling quite a bit for work. He is still at Astronics. I have to say, it is kind of nice when he is gone, and Shelby is away at school - it's like I get these mini vacations where I can do what I want and watch what I want and no one judges me! 

I am still working at Spacelabs. I go in one day a week which is a nice break. I get to see other people besides my spouse and I can get away from the cat who thinks if we are home she should have our undivided attention. She addresses this by climbing up on us, walking across our desks and then taking a nap on our keyboards. Good thing she is cute and fluffy...

So, back to Shelby, since her life is probably more exciting than ours! She started her sophomore year at U of A (though I think she classifies as a senior...IDK...something like that because of her doing running start in HS). She switched her major after the first semester from Nursing to Business. She actually likes things like Statistics and Accounting! Weird kid! She made the Deans list Spring semester. She had thought about transferring to a school in WA for her second year but then made the decision to stay at U of A so as not to prolong her time at school. However, she will have all the pre-req's done after spring semester and is planning on doing the remainder of her degree online. So come May, she will probably be back in WA! (Yay!) 

So that is basically our life in a nutshell. We work, get annoyed by our cat, go see our kiddo a lot then come back home and do it all over again. 

Happy Holidays!

Steph, Chad & Shelby