Anniversary get away

THIS was the view I awoke to yesterday morning. I gave Jeff an anniversary gift of "me undivided" and unplugged (I happened to not be on call) which is so unusual. Everyone else gets "Taffy time" so to speak, clients, Bean during school, Diz during his stay with Jeff and I, my Dad when I am on he phone with him. Everyone but Jeff gets extended me time, so I turned off my phone, and spent 36 hours listening. It was a bonus anniversary gift for me too.

We went to the coast...obviously, as this was shot from my pillow as I awoke, and had Loganberry wine, dark chocolate and a hot tub. What more could you ask?

In the morning, we hopped back in the hot tub to watch the waves. I shot this picture of Jeff unbeknownst to him. The 36 hours was pure bliss!

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words

I love capturing a moment on film.

Need I say more?

Christmas

Christmas was truly blessed. While I won't go in to the who got what and so on, I will say that Neil and Rissy were such gracious hosts and made everyone feel truly welcome in their home though they were exhausted from baking each of us a special batch of our favorite cookies until 5:00 a.m.! Can you believe they baked them on Christmas Eve, so they would be nice and fresh.

I was good to have Amy in our presence rather than only in our hearts. She and Rissy looked like domestic goddesses when getting Christmas dinner ready while Neil helped, he was simultaneously assisting Santa's elves with finishing the toys.

Jeff held the baby and the dog, and dozed while handling that challenging task.

Bean helped assemble some of Santa's gifts for Diz as well as played with his own toys. After dinner Neil, Amy, Jeff and Bean all played Magic, much to Brandon's delight! Charissa slept, at long last, while nursing the baby, and I played with Diz.

The love, the effort, the decorating, all of it was just so appreciated! I left their home with my heart full of love and family. THAT is a favorite memory!

Impromptu decorating

I had such fun with the boys today! Charissa had an appointment with her midwife so, I took care of the boys. While Charissa did Jeff and favor and ran him to the store to pick up an item he was unable to get when Christmas shopping on the weekend, Bean, Diz and I painted some Christmas pictures, had orange slices, and pretzels, and glue googley eyes on our masterpieces.

So, while I did not plan on this extra time, I am sure glad I had it!

Baking gifts

Last night Jeff and I had a Christmas Party at the neighbors. We got to know our neighbors better, and introduced ourselves to a few others. It was most enjoyable. That left Sunday for baking our cookies that we share with others and have Christmas Eve.

Sunday was also the day that Jeff went out with Amy to collect her Christmas gift from her Aunt Mary and Uncle Greg...a microwave. So, while they were out getting that I went grocery shopping for the ingredients for cookies.

Upon my return Amy decided she would stay and help out. This allowed us to bake 6 batches of cookies and make the sleighs you see atop the cookie tins made out of raisins, candies, candy canes, and a Hershey bar all wrapped up. It was great fun, and helped us get done by 9:00 p.m. rather than midnight, with AMy's help. We listened to Christmas music, baked, talked, and laughed and MAYBE, just maybe, the Grinch left AMY a little bit:-)

This is Jeff's favorite time of the year and he is trying to rub off on Amy just a bit.

Famous Dave's and Blind Side

You will find many of the following entries incorrectly dated. I finally have time to catch up a bit before I go headlong in to the New Year, but for now...December 6th Jeff and I took the opportunity to go and see Blind Side. I cannot recommend it enough! If it is no longer on in theaters, then I would see it on DVD once it comes out. The show is based on a true store and stars Sandra Bullock, who plays a plucky suburban housewife that takes in a kid off the streets, and goes on to detail the changes in BOTH their lives. Very inspirational!

Then we had an impromptu dinner with Amy at Famous Dave's. She had been to the place before in Minnesota, but it was our first time. It was nice just sitting around and chatting over dinner about everything and nothing. Jeff had a late flight out to Cozumel, so we chose to spend the extra time with Amy. Also, their Mudslides...to die...t for!

Incidentally as soon as Jeff left, the temperature bottomed out in Portland for about a week, increasing ONLY when Jeff returned. Never before have I seen temperatures in the teens in 10 years in Portland, until I had the sole job of walking the dog three times a day:-P Even Finny was reluctant to go outside and do his business!

All things Christmas

Bean spent the night Friday night and for the first time in my life we made a gingerbread "train" AND ate it one the same night. While I am not a big fan of gingerbread, I did eat a tiny nibble. I had such a fun time making it with Bean and we watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. It was a really wonderful evening.

Before we set about making our Christmas train, we went hunting ghost and monsters while taking care of the necessity of walking the dog. We brought flashlights and walked around an open field searching for monsters, which we intended to later draw from our imaginations and sculpt them following that, but time was at a premium so we settled on the gingerbread creation.