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December 25, 2015

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

It's hard to believe that Christmas is here, when did that happen? I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and here is hoping that you have a great day with your loved ones. I got all my gifts wrapped and goodies made so I guess I am ready. In spite of the fact that it is a wonderful holiday, Christmas is not my favorite time of year as there is too much stress involved.

Dave's sister Leanna - who lives next door to us - came over Christmas Eve for dinner. All of her family is back in Michigan, so she will be by herself this year. We are headed in to see our family today but will wait to have our Christmas festivities on Saturday. We are getting together for a Christmas brunch at Leslie's that morning. We will spend the weekend in town as we have been invited to my nephew's birthday party on Saturday afternoon after our family get-together in Silverton. It sucks as he was born on Christmas day. We think we'll stay in town an extra day after that, because we still have some errands to run before the year is out.

We decided last Monday that we were tired of the stormy weather and we were getting a little cabin fever so decided to get out of town. We checked the calendar and found out that our granddaughter Paige was playing a game of basketball in Silverton, so we drove a hundred miles to watch that. It was one of these spur of the minute decisions and we also had to decide which way to go into town. Our usual route to Silverton is to go south by way of Highway 22, but that has been closed due to a cave-in in the road. The other two ways were down the coast to Lincoln City and then into Salem (the LONG way around) or take our usual Hwy. 26 into Portland and then I-5 south to Silverton. We ended up going 26 and of course ended up in a terrible traffic jam once we got into Portland. Even so, we made it to her game with minutes to spare. Paige is through with soccer for the year and so now it is time for basketball. She plays for her middle school. It is not only fun to watch her play soccer, but she is also great at basketball. She is very competitive and gets around the court pretty fast. She scored about half of the points for her team that night. I think they have won every game so far this year. Her sister, Ashtin is still on the injured list with her basketball team. She is recovering from a torn ACL but is still considered part of her high school team. She is recovering well from the surgery, is out of her brace and has been given the okay to drive once again.

On our way from Silverton to West Linn, we stopped at Sheri's for dinner. We were due a free piece of pie as new "Sheri's Club" members and our time was about to expire to collect the freebie. We hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning and we were hungry. Dave decided on a hamburger, but let his appetite take control and ordered this humungous cheeseburger that he could hardly open his mouth wide enough to eat. Then, after eating that he still had room to share a piece of pie! And to think that last year at this time we were worried about his lack of appetite! We got to West Linn in time to see our other granddaughters before they went to bed. They gave us a "crash-course" on all their activities since we last saw them - including updating Christmas lists! We got to see a video of seven-year-old Jordyn doing Reader's Theater at school. She is going to be a chip off her grandfather's block and Dave was pleased to see that she is following in his footsteps! We spent the night in West Linn so we could run some errands before we headed back home the next day.

We received some sad news when we heard that the girls lost their hamster, "Kettlecorn" the other day. She become deathly sick and Lara took her to the animal clinic but couldn't save her. This was very hard on the girls as they got a lot of enjoyment out of that pet. But, I just heard that "Kettlecorn" has been replaced with "Ginger" the hamster, so all is well once more.

We had our monthly Park Committee meeting on Thursday at city hall and after the meeting we had a Christmas lunch. The theme was "South of the Border" and so we sat around and enjoyed Mexican food. I had brought a tres leche (three milk) cake with "Feliz Navidad" written on it. It so happened that one of our members had a birthday that day and our City Manager had a birthday the day before so we got to sing and they got to blow out candles.

We are enjoying our new weather station that we gave each other as a Christmas gift. The weather has been rainy, windy with thunder showers and lightning. We have had it all! Anyway, during one of our downpours, we were watching the weather station and it was showing the amount of rainfall and had printed out "Raining Cats and Dogs". We thought that was funny and so Dave took a picture. We have to entertain ourselves somehow during all these storms when we are cooped up in the house all day!

It can't believe all of the birds that have come to the feeder. Not only are the winter birds like the Varied Thresh, Towhees, Chickadees and Juncos around, but the Finches and the Red Winged Blackbirds are here too. They usually don't show up until spring so this weather has them totally confused. I just hope that it doesn't get freezing cold for them. I also spotted a Bob White for the first time.

So, this is the last journal in 2015. The next one will be on January 1st. I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a safe, healthy and happy New Year!