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Our holday hours, meet Maria, our holiday traditions and a special thanks to you!
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820 Market Street # 1
Kirkland, WA 98033
Phone: (425) 821-1000

A Time to Give Thanks – To You!

 
As a small business we strive to provide you with exceptional customer service and unparalleled choice for your insurance. Whether you have one product insured with us, or many, each of you is important to us. It is during the holidays that we reflect upon our year as a business and look for ways in which we may improve or offer you more.

One way we’re giving back this year is hosting a family through YES – Youth Eastside Services. We will also have our “ELF” box in our office lobby where you can drop off a new toy or clothes for children ages birth to 18 years old.

Looking to donate to an organization this holiday season? 

Last year we filled two ELF boxes and we donated them to Sibling House and Wellspring Family Services in Seattle. If you would like to donate to ELF feel free to bring your unwrapped gift to our office. 

We thank you for your continued support and hope you and your families have a joyous holiday season.
 
Kindest regards,
First Rate Insurance

Please Welcome Our New Employee, Marie Corral


Marie is a graduate of Grace University in Omaha, Nebraska. After school, she worked in a Congressional office and later the Campaign. She relocated to Arizona to be closer to family. While she was there she worked for Verizon Wireless in Business Sales. She recently relocated to Washington and got her insurance license and is loving what the Pacific Northwest has to offer! In her spare time, you can find her at local farmers’ markets, exploring what the city has to offer, or just hanging out with new friends.

Our Holiday Traditions


Here are some of the holiday traditions we enjoy at First Rate Insurance! 

Ken and Diane Martin – Christmas is the Martin’s favorite time of the year. Every year we head out in search of the perfect Christmas tree. Some years we go out into the mountains, but often we visit a Christmas tree farm and cut down our own tree. We spend Christmas and Christmas Eve with our families.   

Kristi and Tim Josephsen - Tim and I are hoping to start a new tradition with the new member of our family. We are going to take Ruger to the tree farm and The Lights of Christmas. Being major foodies, we have a lot of favorite holiday recipes. A few of my favorites are Bada Bings, Fire Cider and stuffing. Bada Bings are phyllo dough filled with ground chicken mixture of sun-dried tomatoes and fennel paired with homemade marinara sauce. Fire Cider is hot apple cider with a shot of Fireball.                

Loretta Lee-Pennington - My whole tree is snoopy from lights to ornaments when I do decorate. I have loved and collected Snoopy since I was a child and over the past 20+ years I have collected an entire tree and home of Snoopy Christmas decorations…tree lights, ornaments, Nutcrackers, stockings and dishware. It’s always a fun treat to bring out the whole Snoop-a-bilia for Christmas and I love that my hubby indulges me in all of it! 

Chris Eddy - Every year my wife makes a broccoli casserole without fail. This year will probably be a year where new traditions are started.

Janie Dickerson - The main holiday tradition for my family is homemade lemon meringue pie instead of the traditional pumpkin or apple. In addition, we rotate which family member’s home Thanksgiving is at and everyone brings a favorite dish. Great fun!

Marie Corral - Ever year my mom, sister, and I always watch all the cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies that play repeatedly. Even though all 3 of us are in different states, we always keep tabs on which ones we have all watched.

Jack Greene - With the addition of our new baby girl and our son now a toddler, cultivating "thankfulness" in our home and modeling it for our children has become very important to my wife and I. This year we started writing out something we are thankful for each day in November leading to Thanksgiving, creating a paper "thankfulness chain" of 24 links. Then in December we will tear off and re-read each chain link leading toward Christmas Eve! We look forward to our kids participating as they get older! A staple at all of our holidays is my wife’s cranberry sauce!

Clint Boren - Our family tradition was to open one present Christmas Eve and go to Candlelight Service to sing the best traditional Christmas Carols. Also on Christmas Eve, relatives would come from out of town and all spend the night at our house. That was always so much fun as we would play board games and the video game Pong, as that was all technology had invented up to that point. Then on Christmas morning, our traditional breakfast was Danish pancakes called Aebleskivers. They were filled with jam and required no syrup as they were so good!

Ashley Srsen - Our family tradition is that we all get together in the morning and we make brunch. My grandfather always made waffles/pancakes and in his batter he put a dash of nutmeg, I would have never thought about doing that. Some of us will play Monopoly and the guys will watch the game. We prepare a later dinner and have turkey with many sides. We have Thanksgiving at my sisters since it is easier with the kids and also we can have both sides of the family all together. We have done this now for two years. My mother in law makes the best rhubarb pie.

Shannon Dagley - Every Christmas eve night, we pack up all of Christmas and go to my parents' house to set Christmas up for the next day and play games. We all get new pajamas, and in the morning, my dad will make eggs benedict for us all. This has always been my favorite memory and glad every year we continue this amazing tradition of family.  

Amy Timmerman - This year our family has decided to adopt a family in need from our neighborhood. We also will enjoy homemade peppermint hot chocolate with our favorite Christmas movies.
 
4 cups milk 
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 peppermint candy canes, crushed
Whip cream for garnish
 
In a saucepan, heat milk until hot, but not boiling. Whisk in the chocolate and the crushed peppermint candies until melted and smooth. Garnish with whipped cream and candy cane. Makes 4 servings.

Sarah Snyder - With my brother recently joining the Marines, holidays have a little different feel than they did growing up. This year we are fortunate he will be able to spend some time home during the holidays so we plan on doing all of our Christmas tradition that include toy donations to our local fire department, pictures with the Nordstrom Santa (29 years strong), midnight mass, and a big Christmas day breakfast. 

Stefanie Hegge - My family has always opened ALL our gifts on Christmas Eve. Stockings, big gifts, little gifts, all of it. We don’t even wait until midnight. We all go to church for the Christmas Eve service, come straight home to start the opening. Christmas day we sleep in, play with the new toys and often take lots of naps. NO WAY are we waking up at 5am like most families. I guess the Hegge’s love our sleep! 

Turkey and Pigskin 


Football on Thanksgiving can be just as important as turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing to die-hard fans.

Here's this year's tripleheader schedule: 

Minnesota Vikings at Detroit Lions at 12:30 PM ET

Washington Redskins at Dallas Cowboys at 4:30 PM ET

Pittsburgh Steelers at Indianapolis Colts at 8:30 PM ET

Our Holiday Hours 


We will be closed the following days:
Thanksgiving, we will be closed November 24th and 25th.
Christmas, we will be closed December 26th.
New Years, we will be closed January 2nd.

Referral Program 

We appreciate all of your referrals! To show our appreciation, we gift $25.00 to our monthly referral winner and we donate $25.00 to the charity of the winner's choice. 
 
Previous Winners: 

August: Troy Schaben – Wounded Warrior Project
September: Kelly Rogahn - Bellevue Schools Foundation
October: Janette Parra – American Cancer Society
 

From Our Blog

Should I Keep My Insurance in the Off-Season?


It’s now time to enjoy some amazing fall camping excursions, calm boating on the lake or a motorcycle road trip. Each year we’re asked by many of our customers about the possibility to cancel your insurance policies on your summer toys like motorcycles, RVs, boats and ATVs. While you may not be using these alternative vehicles during the fall and winter months, your vehicles may be damaged and insurance claim would need to be opened. If you cancelled your insurance policy, you may be forced to pay for repairs or replacements out-of-pocket. During the cooler months while your toys are parked events can occur that could get expensive without a valid insurance policy.
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Tired of Junk Mail? Follow These Easy Steps!



 
If you’re like most people, you really don’t like getting junk mail delivered to your home. Not only is it wasteful to you, but the companies paying for the marketing don’t want the wasted funds for print and distribution either.

If you’d like to be removed from mailings to your home or business, follow these easy steps!






 
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