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December 26, 2014
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
Well, I made it through another Christmas! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with friends and family.
The elves were busy all week out in Dave's workshop busily trying to finish up a few projects for Christmas. Dave helped me make a couple of hanging vertical planters in the shape of stars to give to our daughters for Christmas. It was a longer project than expected as Dave had to cut the angles just right for the stars to go together. I helped with the sanding and extra hands when needed. Some of those star points required three hands to nail and glue into place! Once the frames were finished, we had to cover the front with wire mesh and finish them with wood trim. Then I stuffed them full of moss and we nailed slats on the back to hold it all together. After getting the Sedums planted, they looked pretty good. I may even make one for myself!
Speaking of woodworking, we've been hinting for the past couple of months that Dave has been working in the shop on a couple of items, but we couldn't talk about what he has been doing because they were for Christmas. He had earlier started to make Adirondack chairs for Lara and Leslie in September, but the plans he was working from turned out to be so messed up that he ended up re-working them into something that he could finish. Since he still doesn't have a lot of stamina, (he would work for an hour or so a day), it took him two months of on-and-off work to finish the first chair. He got that one made but decided at that time that he was going to buy his long-wished-for new table saw before building the next one. We know now that didn't work. Over the past few journals, I've documented the problems he had before he was finally able to get the new saw into operation. That delay meant he couldn't finish both chairs in time for Christmas. So he took pictures of the one he has done and the girls are got photos of their presents. I guess a picture says a thousand words! He will finish the project after the New Year and will have them ready in plenty of time to enjoy them when the weather gets warmer. It was fun being able to make things for gifts, and the girls seemed to like them.
Meanwhile, a couple of us that work in the park on Wednesdays, got together to have a potting party. We pot various plants though out the year in planters to enhance around the flag pole at the Post Office. In the spring we have daffodils, in the summer we plant geraniums, the fall it was mums and since the mums were getting a little under the weather, we decided to plant blooming heather for the winter. These will stay in place until we change the pots to our "spring" theme in March. It dresses up the area a little.and I think the town enjoys the contrasts.
I must boast about my granddaughters. Ashtin, our oldest who is a sophomore in high school, got her varsity letter in soccer this fall, so for an early Christmas present she got her letterman's jacket. We are so proud of her in all her accomplishments. Not only is she a very good student, she's working very hard an being the best athlete she can be, whether it's in soccer, basketball or track. While I am at it, her younger sister, Paige who plays soccer too, was one of 18 girls in her age group in Oregon chosen to represent the state in the Region IV Olympic Development Program championship tournament in Phoenix, Arizona next month. It was pointed out to us that not only is she one of 18 that made the team, she's one of only 4 forwards in the state who were selected at that position. She is quite the soccer player and it is always fun to watch her scoot around her opponents to score a goal. She has worked very hard to get to this point and we're glad her effort is being rewarded. Not to leave out the other three granddaughters, they are at the top of my list too with all of their activities. We have been blessed with five wonderful granddaughters and we're excited that we're going to have the younger three staying at our place for a few days beginning Saturday. That's going to be fun! I'm hoping the weather will be halfway decent so we can do some things outdoors, but we'll come up with activities for them one way or the other. I'm sure you'll get the report next week!
We had Dave's sister, Leanna over for Christmas Eve dinner. I fixed chicken and dumplings and we opened gifts. For Christmas day, we had a change of plans. Since the girls had planned on doing their own thing with in-laws, we decided to stay home this year and had made reservations for Christmas dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, the Terra Cotta Cafe in Manzanita. At the last minute, Lara called and said that the girls were sick and the in-laws didn't want to get exposed to whatever they had. So she wanted us to come in as she felt that they would be well by then. By Christmas morning, the girls were all fine so it worked out great.
We packed our bags on Christmas morning for a couple nights stay and headed into West Linn to join our daughter's family for the holidays. Lara had made a wonderful ham dinner and with my macaroni salad and Leslie's rolls and homemade pies, we ended up with quite a feast! As a Christmas gift, we received a wonderful set of luggage from everyone to use on our trip next summer. It was wonderful day and was topped off by Dave reading to the granddaughters the traditional "Night Before Christmas" story.
On Friday (today) I may be crazy, but I think I will head over to the mall for some sales. I will probably be sorry I am doing this, but I seldom get a chance to really go shopping. That night, Dave and I have tickets to watch the Trail Blazers play. We will be bringing some granddaughters back to the coast with us on Saturday for a few days.
