Christmas - aka Andres' Birthday

We celebrated Christmas "Vigil-style" this year.  I must say it was lovely to have Christmas on a Tuesday, as Tom and I were both off Monday and Tuesday.  It made for an extra long weekend and extra time together.  We did some work on the house and finished getting in our bathroom windows, which installed differently than the others.  Pop came over and worked with Tom to install a big ol' heavy basement door to the cellar.  It was chilly work, and I appreciate that Tom said we shouldn't take all our vacation at Christmas time, when conditions for working on the house aren't prime.  All the same we got a bunch accomplished.

Then it was time to shower and clean up for Christmas mass (on Christmas Eve).  The family tradition is to get together after mass for snacks and gift-exchange.  10 pm made for a late dinner, and the kids had to wait even longer to open gifts until we all finished.

Tom passed out candy bags to tide these three over until the wrapping paper came off.

I think we left Mom & Pop's just minutes before Christmas.  We were pooped, and I might have had a little too much green and red drink.  Tom and I collapsed at home after we got the fire stoked back up and the food put away.

About 6 in the morning, nature was calling.  I took the opportunity to stoke the fire back up, and to my surprise I saw that we'd be having a WHITE CHRISTMAS!  I felt all the excitement of a six year old on Christmas - not for presents under the tree inside but for the gift of moisture all over the trees outside.

These pictures were requested by my dad who answered the phone singing, "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" on Christmas morning and then was a wee bit surly when he heard we had in fact received a white Christmas while he was looking out at a wet Christmas.

By mid afternoon we really weren't ready to eat again, but eat we did.  We joined back up at Mom & Pop's to see the kids arrive with new toys and stories of the ones left at home.  Sofia was happy to prance in with a purse on her arms with a doll sticking out of it.  We ate, we talked, we laughed.  We were all tired.  Such a wonderfully prepared meal left us all needing a little time before Andres' birthday dessert and presents.  

Sofia found my slippers and proceeded to wobble across the floor in them - a little too heavy for her little feet.  Monday night she was clomping around in Sara's heels, which were a better fit.

Marie prepared funnel cake for Andres, who is now 14!

The holiday blazed right by as we got back to work.  Our Advent wreath was put away, but the tree still shines on - Christmas isn't over until January 6th.

What a year!

Twenty-twelve...a year of many milestones for Tom & I! 

Most family and friends' first question for us is "how is the house?" - a question that will carry us through 2013, too.  The answer all year has progressed so much, though for some the answers may have repeated themselves, too.  Were we to drop everything and just work on building our home, the house would look very different.  We started the year with a footer and end it with walls and a roof, doors and floors, windows and stairs.  (Truly we went from footer to walls and a roof, floors and stairs in about four months.)

In late April we began laying the first course of ICF blocks on our footer.

Now in late December, the hole, as it was affectionately called for a year, has become a hill with a home on top.

We have quite a lot of work to do in 2013, but we've made great progress: four pours of concrete, plus some small batches; framed three basement walls, the main floor south wall, and the west corner wall; hung floor joists and decked them; hung roof trusses and decked them; prepped and hung the roof panels; filled in walls and gables; installed almost all the windows; built stairs in side and to the cellar; installed front door and cellar door; hung insulation and sheeting for cellar walls; and numerous details in between.  We've worked through the sun and wind and rain and hail and wind and cold and hot and wind.  Plus we've done a lot of other things.

I thought about listing all those other things, but really I already wrote about them, so just use the side bar to scroll through.  We did have such a great year and enjoyed all the visitors who came to help or just to hang out.  We look forward to many more next year, too, I hope. 

And now it is almost Christmas.  For the first time we really did it up because we won't be traveling.  Tom's put up lights before, and he did a great job again this year, but we also have out a Christmas creche we received for our wedding and another I received as a little girl.  Tom chopped our first Christmas tree, which was fun trimming together.  I have been baking a bunch of Christmas goodies to share with friends and co-workers, including three batches of Mom's chocolate noodle-y things.  And as we light our Advent wreath in the evenings, the lights get brighter and the candles get shorter the closer we get.  As magical as Christmas is, I really love these days of preparation and anticipation.  Wishing all a Merry Christmas filled with love, especially my family back in Oregon, who I am missing this first Christmas away from home.  loveyoumeanit

Our first Christmas Tree, laden with ornaments;

a pair of stockings I'd sewn a decade ago,

presents for our family

(and last year's Ford Christmas picture in the top left corner)

Parties...

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, much partying ensues.  David's birthday came first - and we were all so well behaved.  Someone had the good idea of homemade pizzas, which were really delicious.  The kids were especially amusing (and amused with themselves), as they had wrapped a few packages containing various articles found around the house, including clean laundry.   It was a fun evening together.

And Mom's birthday came next.  We celebrated on Saturday with dinner at Marie's, followed by the annual ornament craft night.  Marie's family had been sick during the week, and evidently Sofia wasn't quite over it.  Hopefully it is not a preview of moody teen years, which won't be as amusing as her dinner "performance" - cheerfully laughing at the table one minute and then pitifully looking from person to person willing the tears to spill over.   

 

future rodeo princess or just princess??

Wow - our guest of honor!

David in the middle of a daughter sandwich

Daniel and Julie presented this year's ornament craft - little sun catchers that you fill with paint.  It was just the right amount of messy, although I can't figure out how I ended up with orange paint streaked through my hair.

the master craftsmen carefully filling in the colors

Still a few parties left - fire hall team building training/party and end of the world party.  Then the real party begins - Andres/Baby Jesus birthday party.

Truly a reason to be thankful

What a blessing to celebrate family in Portland, but this last week we have been celebrating family in Miami. 

Tom's Grandma passed away on Nov 29th - two months shy of her 89th birthday.  Grandma Molly lived next door to Mom & Pop, and we have been blessed to live near by and see so much of her these past couple of years.  She always encouraged me to practice my Spanish and indulged me in stories of her younger days.  She will be missed, but we know she goes to a better place.

The funeral was on Tuesday, and what an honor for Pop to have invited us to be involved.  Monday night most of the family had arrived from out of town, so we enjoyed stories over dinner at Mom & Pop's.  Daniel was full of memories, recalling her first motorcycle ride not more than ten years ago and other images that had us all laughing.  I enjoyed getting to meet many cousins for the first time and even discovered a deacon in Las Vegas that I see frequently at work meetings was Granny's brother's son! 

We pray for our own comfort, but we celebrate what a full life she lived!  May eternal rest, God, grant unto Granny and perpetual light shine upon her.

A Reason to Be Thankful : FAMILY

I can't get enough family, it's true.  And living so far from Portland, we pack our days and nights with lots of family time. 

Look at me!!  I am super cute and fun.

Tuesday we spent the afternoon with Ollie (after a morning of getting our tires replaced).  What a lot of fun!  His new thing is puddle jumping, which he demonstrated over at the school playground across the street.  He's into balls and golf clubs, though not necessarily together.  And he is great at throwing checkers and sort of great at picking them up and putting them back in the bag.  Evidently, I am the scroogy tia that gives out six at a time - much easier to throw and pick up six than twenty.  We also got to drop in on Cole and Drew before bedtime.  Turns out Cole didn't need any help figuring out that Tom makes a great human jungle gym or wrestling partner. 

Cole likes playing with the checkers, too, but he enjoys sorting the black and red ones.  He is also good at sharing with Ollie. 

Wednesday our plans for Voodoo Donuts was foiled by a long line of people waiting in the rain - no thanks!  We did find a really super place with lots of vegetarian fare instead - my luck.  Then it was off to pick up the three Ms from school.  I enjoyed getting to hang out with them and Amy and her mom for a little spell.  The two little boys were doing their own thing, but Monica and Maddie came back with me to swap cars and pick Ollie up from daycare.  It was a little surreal driving down the "vez" with Tom and three kids in the back seat.  The girls were delighted to play with Ollie in the back, but in truth, Monica just wanted to play with Tom as soon as we were out of the car.  We enjoyed an afternoon of play and then dinner with the Greenlees.

Little Drew grew so much in the two months since we'd seen him.  I was lucky enough to get some smiles out of him after dinner on Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was a full day - lots of eating and cooking.  There was a really nice mass in the morning, and then onto preparing for dinner.  I enjoyed taking a b-ball break with Miki and Marty and Ollie in the afternoon.  It had been a long time since I had played hoops in that old gym across the street, but it was a lot of fun - maybe because I started off on a scoring record.  I also got to impress Ollie with my hula-hooping skills.  Gratefully, no sprained ankles or pulled muscles or asthma attacks - I knew to quit while ahead.  It was time for the finishing touches anyway.  Dinnertime brought a full house with lots of family, though not all could be there.  We were sad for some sick little kids who couldn't make it and Grammy who stayed home to watch them.  But it was just really nice to enjoy the conversations and visit with everyone.

Thomas carved the turkey Dad barbecued.

Uncle Ken happily and carefully deep-fried a turkey - no fires at our house.

Maddie, Monica, Michelle, and Mary invited me to play Apples to Apples with them.  What a fun and silly game!

The men hanging out at Cap'n Jack's.  Might Ollie be picking out a nightcap?

We had such a great time Thursday that we slept in nice and late on Friday.  The rain came down in buckets, but Tom and I slipped out to wander around town for a while.  Marty and Ollie came over in the afternoon as a prelude to our family dinner.  Certainly the climax of a great week already was sitting around the table - Mom and Dad, Auggie and Michelle, Tom and I, Miki and Marty and Ollie, and Nick and Jen and Cole and Drew.  Those moments are pretty rare and absolutely treasured.  It was a special dinner - Tom made an elk roast that was thoroughly enjoyed by the meat-eaters.  Dinner was followed by much merriment playing "Loaded Questions" and "Buzzwords".  I am still warmed by the sound of laughter and teasing as we played - one big happy family!

Driving to the PNW

The last few weeks have turned into a blur, but I will backdate a couple blogs to catch up.  Thomas and I took a week off to spend Thanksgiving in Portland.  It was a wonderful trip made by car.  We found yet another route between home and the home I grew up in.  The only road we'd traveled before was the stretch between Crater Lake and Roseburg.

Our journey landed us in the land of Arches National Park:



Tom and I at North and South Window

Landscape Arch behind us is wide enough to fit a football field lengthwise underneath!

Before we got to it, I correctly guessed why this was called Pine Tree Arch.  The view through just keeps going and going - really lovely.

We thought we would get in one more national park stop - Crater Lake.  We stopped on our way to Portland for the wedding a couple years ago to find it still buried under six feet of snow.  We thought we might beat the snow and get to see another side of it, but we were wrong.  We started seeing snow the higher we climbed, so we decided that it was best just to bypass it and try again another time.  (We also needed new tires and didn't want to chance a visit to the ditch.)

The road to Crater Lake

Once we hit Roseburg, we refueled and headed north up I-5.  This proved to be a strenuous drive of three hours of torrential downpour - wipers at full speed.  I think it is the closest I have come to water skiing.  Rather than arrive Tuesday noontime, we made it to my parents around 5 pm Monday evening and gave them both quite a surprise.  Also gave my sister some relief, as she was watching a snowstorm roll into Mt Hood National Forest - our original intended route.  Thank God for detours!

House work

Busy times, these are.  With the beginning of November came the hunts at Philmont, so we are not spending Saturdays getting firewood.  This means a month of housework!!

We picked apples at the end of October from Mom & Pop's tree and took our sweet time cleaning them.  From them we got almost three gallons of apple cider, over a dozen quarts of applesauce, and almost a dozen pints of apple butter.  Phew!

Tom also picked up a couple pumpkins for me, so I cooked them up and got over a gallon of pumpkin puree - pie, empanadas, and bread coming right up!

And we have also been working outside a little bit.  The shorter days make it tough to do much after work (dark by 5:30 pm), but we have found some time on the weekend and made quick work of one window when we both got home a little early.

Tom worked on the field with the tractor.  We plowed in a couple truckloads of mulch and manure before planting 300 feet of garlic!  Hoping for a good crop, and then maybe we can start selling some.

We also had the help of Pop (and his tractor) to install the four basement windows and the kitchen/garden window.

Not a bad view from kitchen!  Imagine the brown field obstructed by lush green foliage growing in the garden window!  Oooh la la!

Our supervisor - Buttermilk

She talks non-stop, but with her Siamese coloring and blue, blue eyes, she's a little irresistible.  Granted, the cats are outdoor animals - not really pets; they're good mousers and gopher-getters with the occasional rabbit and bird.

Belated Happy Birthday

Marie celebrated a big birthday at the end of October - her 21st all over again!  Just kidding, but on the Saturday eve of the surprise party she hadn't found out about, we hatched a plan at the end of our last fall woodcutting day to have a fake birthday party.  It was fun and sugary and a great welcome home to Mom & Pop from their travels, too.

the decoy birthday cake with some hungry skeletons vying for a piece

three little princesses

Sofia knew this was a prime lap for a big serving of cake and ice cream

The real party was at Mom & Pop's, and the kids decorated with bats and ghosts and spirals.  They also made the cake and helped make the enchiladas. 



exhausted after running over to beat Marie for the surprise

she looks surprised, right?

the spectacular cake made by her children

PS - I got to watch Sofia one day while Mom & Pop were gone.  What fun we had!  I didn't bring my camera, but we played and read and took a nice long walk to visit great grandma and Tio Tom.  A very fun day - makes sitting behind a desk less fun.

Monday, Monday!

It's been a busy week and a half, and yet I have enjoyed some laziness, too.  The past two Saturdays have been firewood-getting days.  Amazing to go to the same spot two weeks in a row an notice how dramatically the colors change (or disappear in the case of falling leaves)!

From the 13th - a beautiful sunny day when Pop, Daniel, Tom, and I made quick work of loading the trucks - it felt great to be so active, except that I tripped on a small branch and tore back a fingernail.  Not one of my most graceful moments, but who needs fingernails when you're loading wood?

From this past Saturday, our way up wasn't blocked by cows or deer, but burros and their cute little burritos!

After we loaded Dave's truck, Tom handed me the chainsaw and told me to start cutting.  It was a lot of fun, though it is tough on a low back.  I felled two trees and then blocked them and some other wood besides.  It was fun, and I am grateful Tom snapped some pics.

Timber!  Tom actually took a series of shot, flip book style, where you can watch the tree fall if you can flip through them fast enough.

In other news we've been spending QT with family and each other.  A week ago our Ministerial Alliance held a fiesta, and my dance partner showed up to sweep me off my feet.  The music of Amistad was terrific, and though we didn't polka, I loved every minute of it and laughed a great deal, too.  I also got to hang out with my nieces and nephew, who showed me the bear that was hanging out in Miami last Thursday.  He was treed early in the morning, and when we came home from school, he was still there.

It's a little blurry because he picked a good spot to hide, and nobody wants to get too close and risk that bear deciding to get down.  Andres took the shot for me, and you can see the bear's head and ear above the branch and good dangling below.

And while it is a Monday, things are a-okay.  Much to do, but what's new?!? 

Birthday Party!

The fall is the season of birthdays - every other week it seems! We gathered Wednesday evening to celebrate all eleven years of Miss Maya.

the meeting of the minds

little sisters excited for the birthday girl

someone enjoyed the attention

blowing out the candles

still blowing out the candles - oh yes, they were trick candles,

and why did I sit right where the smoke was being blown?  blech!

having practiced only four weeks earlier,

this one remembered what to do with the frosting

Do I know how to rest?

I haven't decided if I squandered my free day last Wednesday or not - I sure didn't rest as much as I would have liked.  I kind of felt guilty about being home while Thomas worked (which I totally shouldn't have since he had Columbus Day off, and I didn't), so while I did sleep in, I tried to get a bunch of stuff done.

I chopped up some old hot dog buns for stuffing and made bread pudding with them.  I baked a couple loaves of bread and a big pan of potatoes and veggies for breakfast burritos.  I got two loads of laundry done, and I also split a ton of wood.  We borrowed the splitter from Mom and Pop the evening before, so I put in a few hours doing that.  I did read a little, too, but then after splitting wood, I scrubbed the shower and cleaned the bathrooms.  In truth it was nice to have these things done.

Saturday we built our first fire after getting wood - the house was 53 degrees!  I curled up on a blanket in front of the fire to try to rest, though it wasn't so comfortable.  Sunday, I had an even better idea - after lunch I pulled the futon pad onto the floor in front of the fire and curled up for a two hour nap.  So did someone else.  I got up first and tried to get evidence that I do know how to rest!  And it's so much nicer to get to rest together...

Playtime in the woods

I know most probably think of gathering firewood as hard work and a chore, but I enjoy our trips so much - not that I haven't mentioned that a ton, I know.  We missed a weekend of woodcutting while in Portland, but we jumped right back in on Saturday.  Tom's chainsaw is still down, but there was plenty of work loading up the trucks.  Oh yeah, and entertaining Sofia. 

Well, Tom's saw worked for a few cuts

 Sara and Maya's fort was still standing from the weekend before and kept them busy

 the "fog" never lifted - which I think means they're really clouds

Mom was in the back of the truck loading

 Marie's action shot - throwing the logs David cut

 no mist or cloud can penetrate this sunny smile

Andres, Daniel, Julie, and Pop were too far away with the mist and clouds to get any pictures without taking an even longer break from loading, and I really like schlepping the wood to the truck.  Maybe this weekend I can capture their hard work, too.  Fingers crossed, the pieces Tom got from the hardware store this week will restore his chainsaw to power, and he'll be cutting this Saturday, too!