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December 28, 2007

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

We had a whirlwind of a week, after three Blazer games and a holiday celebration with our family, we are ready for some down time.

We were gone from home for over a week and it sure feels good to be back. It would have been longer as we had planned to leave for a game on Monday the 17th, but I was still suffering from my cold. So I stayed home and Dave had someone engineer the game for me and he drove in by himself and then back again that night after the game. We ended up staying home until Wednesday the 19th when we both engineered another game and then we spent the rest of that week through Christmas in town.

The family all got together on Saturday for a Christmas brunch and opening of gifts down at the home of my daughter and son-in-law in Silverton. I got the new toaster that I wanted and also a beautiful family calendar for next year. The girls got Dave a digital photo frame that he wanted. I went back to West Linn with Lara and Greg and left Dave in Silverton with the car as he was going to go on a police ride-along with Jason that evening. Lara and I took her two girls to see Santa that afternoon. We went to the neatest place in Sherwood called Sleighbells where they sold Christmas trees and had this wonderful gift shop with every imaginable tree ornament you could want, yummy fudge and the best Santa that I have seen in years! Santa was so sweet to the two girls and there wasn't this huge line of parents with children waiting to see him. It was great.

Christmas day we were awakened by two granddaughters who were anxious to get to the gift unwrapping and were so excited that Santa had come and had eaten the cookies and that the reindeer had eaten the grass that they had left for him. After gift opening, we had a big breakfast of waffles, sausage, ham and scrambled eggs. Later that morning after we packed up our car, Dave and I headed into the Rose Garden for a Blazer game that was scheduled for that evening. The Trail Blazers won their 11th straight game! Since it was an early game, we had decided to make a run for home between snowstorms that were coming in.

We had snow for Christmas this year and fortunately, it didn't stay around. But it was neat to see it coming down. We checked the road conditions and after the game decided it was safe enough to try our luck going home over the Coast range. We made it as far as Banks when we hit a blizzard and the snow was beginning to stick. We felt like we should turn around and go back to West Linn for the night but decided to see how it looked a few more miles up the road. It wasn't the best of conditions, but being the adventurous folks that we are, Dave put the Jeep into 4-wheel drive and cautiously headed home. We took it pretty easy and kept our eyes on the road and thermometer and figured if we made it to the summit without any problems that it would be a piece of cake the rest of the way. Well, we hit more snow after the summit but the roads weren't icy, just slushy from the snow. We passed a snowplow going the other way, but for the most part, we didn't see too many other vehicles on the road. I guess we were the only "nuts" willing to give it a try. We got home around 11:30 that evening and after catching up with the mail, we crawled into bed. The house was so cold that even with the furnace turned up, it took awhile to warm up again. But, it felt so good to be home again.

This Christmas was nice but with so many folks who we know who that have lost loved ones over the past months, it was not as joyful. We found out that our dear friend Mary Martin from Scotland, who was 98 years old, passed away on December 21st. She was sort of a shirttail relative (Dave's father's cousin's wife's mother) and we had grown very close to her over the years. She had made many trips from Scotland to visit with us and we will truly miss her. My cousin had also lost her husband and another cousin had passed away last month. It seems like when it rains, it pours.

We are going back into town today, another Blazer game to do and then we will stay in town and spend New Year's Eve taking care of the granddaughters so their folks can have a night out. I am planning on watching a movie with the girls and getting hats and horns to celebrate the occasion. I am making a bet that they will probably out-last Grandma to welcome in the New Year! All that being said, we'll be home all next week and only have two games to work in the next four weeks!

GIVE ME A BREAK!!

Why is it that the toy manufacturer has to package those toys like they were going to go through a hurricane? We spent so much time trying to break through shrink-wrapped packaging and then untwisting them from hidden plastic ties that was permanently adhering them to the package. Meanwhile, the child is loosing patience with the whole exercise because they want to play with the new toy. It took Daddy with his scissors and Grandad with his Leatherman to try to gouge our way through some of that packaging! Good Grief!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!