Christmas 2008

Christmas morning started earlier than usual this year. Adam was up at 5 and had the restraint to wait till 6 to wake Will up. Then, since they were told not to wake us up till it was light out, they occupied themselves in their room till 7 when Nedra(who was sleeping over) took pity on them and offered to read them a story.

The big excitement when they first came down were the Pokemon cards in their stockings and the candy. I think everything was downhill after that. My highlight was of course the surprise Bosch mixer. It was a pretty civilized present opening- not too overwhelming or chaotic. Lots to keep them busy for awhile.

After a breakfast of waffles and sausage we got into gear getting ready for Brad's sister Karen's family who where flying in that afternoon. They arrived around 4:30 and all eleven of us(including Brad's mom and dad) sat down to a yummy meal of ham mashed potatoes and rolls and various appetizers- cheese, cut veggies and dip, shrimp and cocktail sauce, olives. It was good to visit with all of them and reconnect.

At the end of the evening, we pushed Lyle's car out of the snow where it was stuck and drove Karen's family to the nearby bank where they had parked when they got stuck trying to come down our street. It was really a white Christmas.

Snowy Scenes

Will is pulling the sled up the hill after a solo ride down.

Brad is pulling the kids to the 5th hole on the golf course for sledding.Our very snowed in house.
Trudging back up the hill after sledding down.

Adam sleds down

the hill lying on top of Brad.

Finally, yesterday, the snow started melting. It's been above freezing for more than 24 hours and the rain has moved in. We reached some new records here in Portland- more than a foot of snow on the ground Christmas Day and at least 13 consecutive days with snow on the ground. It's been a lot of fun- despite the inconveniences of trying to finish Christmas shopping with limited driving ability.

Our best discovery was the hill on the 5th hole of the nearby Eastmoreland golf course. We went sledding there at least three times with friends joining us two of the times. The toboggan we retrieved from Brad's Dad's attic made it all the more fun. All four of us can fit on it at once and it goes farther than anything else we saw. Now we have to wait another 40 years for another shot at sledding on the golf course. And of course, we'll be too old at that point. Oh well- I think we got maximum enjoyment out of it while it lasted.

Snowy Garage

It's been snowing since early this morning. We've had an unusual combination of events for Portland- very cold weather and moisture. Usually it's one or the other. Only a couple inches fell, but it's been super cold and windy. Will tried to make a snowman but it's very powdery snow and doesn't stick together well. Try telling that to Will though. He spent at least a half hour rolling the same ball of snow around the yard without it getting any bigger before he gave up.

We took a long walk this morning up to a bakery to get some treats. Brad pulled the kids on a long plastic toboggan and they had a great time pretending to be snowplows with their hands creating tracks in the snow. Will stockpiled the snow on the toboggan and kept throwing falling apart snowballs at Brad's back. The kids tried sledding down our driveway but it just wasn't very satisfying- too slow. School is already cancelled for tomorrow though, so they'll get another try.

Sunny Garage

The garage is done! They finished painting about a week ago. Here's a sunny shot of how it looks.