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IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

Well, the world didn't come to an end on December 21st (as some people thought the Mayan calendar had predicted) and we made it through the Christmas holidays!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We're still here in West Linn staying with Lara and her family while she recovers from her surgery. She's doing great - it's just going to take a while for her to bounce back from that extensive procedure. We all attended the Christmas Eve celebration at the Lutheran Church in West Linn where my three youngest granddaughters were "angels" in the Christmas story that they put on. They were just adorable and I enjoyed the program so much. The festivities then continued as Lara and the girls gathered at the computer to watch Santa's progress around the world on NORAD. Then came the annual reading of "The Night Before Christmas". Dave has read that to either our girls or their girls ever since Lara was born! We're just sorry it didn't work out so that Ashtin and Paige could be there as well. Christmas morning, the Dewey girls were up bright and early to see what Santa had brought them and then later that afternoon my other daughter, Leslie and her family arrived and we enjoyed more gifts and a dinner that I had prepared. I fixed ham and spare ribs this year and - as usual - everyone ate too much. Dave presented our two daughters with Lazy Susans for their dining room tables which he made by hand using redwood rescued from our old hot tub. They were really surprised and pleased.

I am still "living" in West Linn and will be until Lara is fully recovered and is able to drive her car. She is getting better but wears out fast. The girls are out of school until January 7th, so she has that issue to deal with. I have been trying to keep them entertained and I have also been helping with the housework. On Wednesday, I took all five of the granddaughters (Ashtin and Paige stayed over) up to the Oregon Zoo to see Lily, the new baby elephant. We had so much fun watching the baby trying to feed herself and move around. It was raining that day and there wasn't a huge crowd so we could really get up close to the cage and watch her. After seeing most of the other animals and being soaked to the skin because of the rain, we headed back to the car. We stopped at Red Robin for lunch and then I drove Ashtin and Paige back down to Silverton.

Thursday the weather was a bit nicer but I had already planned to take the girls to see a movie in the afternoon. We ended up seeing Monsters, Inc. It was a really cute movie and I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. Their father is planning on taking them to Chuck E. Cheese's today. They got a lot of toys for Christmas and they have been busy playing with them. Jordyn got a Princess Castle from Santa with "some assembly required" and so Dave helped Lara assemble that toy. It took them big parts of two days to get it together. It is huge and has several floors with little furniture in each room. Jordyn is having a lot of fun playing with that with her princess dolls.

I got a phone call from my sister, Jeanne yesterday and found out that my other sister, Judy is in the hospital in Milwaukie with Cellulitis and a yeast infection. She has had the flu also and was dehydrated really bad. I went up to visit her at the hospital and she was in a lot of pain. She was supposed to go to the doctor a couple of weeks ago but felt so bad she canceled her appointment. Of course, her health got worse and that is why she is in the hospital. I hope the doctors keep her there for awhile, as she lives alone and doesn't take care of herself like she should.

Dave is going to go back home today and check on the place, pick up the mail and water my house plants. The plants haven't been watered since I left on the 14th of December so I hope they have survived. I gave him written instructions on how they should be watered. I took down the little Christmas tree and decorations that I had brought with me to West Linn so he is going to take all that stuff back with him. He will be back on Saturday as he has another Blazer broadcast to engineer. Next week is still undecided and will depend on Lara as to whether I stay here or go back home.

Well, this is the last journal for 2012. In spite of some tough times, the year is ending on a high note and I'm looking forward to a bigger and better 2013. Happy New Year!