Oregon Living 2023 – Blog #54 – A Nice Christmas With the Family & Recovery Days

 

 

Sunday, December 24^th., 2023…… Today the Portland kids were coming down. Tait has a new boyfriend, Shane, and he is driving and they will be bringing Josh too. We ran some errands and then went to church. Yeah – I went today!  Once we got back we set up the blowup bed for Josh in Cat’s office. The kids will be here only for Christmas eve and will leave midday tomorrow because Shane’s family is having Christmas dinner at their home in Portland. Cat bought enough ham and scalloped potatoes and green beans for both dinner tonight and tomorrow. It was great! Here’s a pic from the dinner.

                                             Terry, Josh, Tait, Shane, Cathye
 

We really liked Shane and we think they make a cute couple!  Cathye gave them a project decorating cookies but Tait wanted to show Shane family pics from her grandmother’s collection. They found some old pics and letters from her mom and Cat said she could take whatever she wanted. They hit the spa and watched a Christmas movie and then we called it a night.    

Monday, December 25^th., 2023…… MERRY CHRISTMAS!  We were up and going early. Cathye put together a breakfast casserole and we ate that up! Yummy! The kids opened up gifts from their parents in NH that were shipped ahead for us to hold. It was a great morning! Shane fit right in! Later, Penny and Cherrelyn got here and we opened up gifts with them.  Corey, Vikki, Baylee, and Brandyn picked up Jamie on their way and got here about 1:00pm and we repeated the process. Cathye gave them all the  Christmas cookie decorating project and they all enjoyed that. They made store-quality treats!

Problem was that they are from a kit and the cookies are terrible! So these will never get eaten. Cat wants me to drill a hole in them and see if they stay together for next year’s tree decorations! We’ll see…

Josh, Tait and Shane hit the road around 1:30pm and headed back to Portland. It was just sprinkling so hopefully that will be all of the rain they will have to encounter.  Later, we had a nice dinner 

and then rested for a while. The grandkids played outside.  After a bit, Corey and family left to go to yet another meal for them!  This time it was at Corey’s mom’s house. But she only lives around the corner from us so we got to see them for most of the afternoon. Cathye took Jamie home and Penny and Cherrelyn were left. Cat had a ticket for a carload for the ‘Magic of Lights 2023’ at the Salem Fairgrounds, so we took Penny and Cherrelyn and went up there. I liked the Portland Zoo lights better, but it was still a nice drive-thru show.

 

Once we got back and the girls left, we watched tv for a bit then hit the spa early and then bed after a long day! 

Tuesday, December 26^th., 2023…… We both got up with headaches this morning. Not sure why because neither of us had much alcohol yesterday. But a couple of Tylenol and we were good to go. We walked and fed the girls then headed off to the gym, since we didn’t go yesterday. After that, we went to Apple Tree for breakfast before coming home to clean up around the house. We had the blowup bed to deflate and a bunch of boxes and Christmas wrap/boxes to discard/recycle. We also washed bedclothes and I worked on the last post. The weather is overcast but no rain so far today. They say it’s coming again tomorrow. The group voted last week at the senior center not to meet this week and next, so no sd workshop this afternoon. We got the laundry caught up and that was about it for today. Leftover ham for dinner then tv and spa and bed.   

Wednesday, December 27^th., 2023…… Another day to rest and relax. I went out and cut some 12’ pieces for the car shelving in my room, but that was about all I did. We have come to an agreement that we would start soon on the Christmas stuff and get it boxed but the ‘snowpeople’ could and will stay out until the first of the year. So that said, I would need to bring all of the empty boxes to the back porch to bring in as needed. I got a couple of loads brought in and that was enough for now. 

Thursday, December 28^th., 2023……  The weather is still pretty chilly in the mornings. We had cloudy skies and a little sprinkle or two this morning but that meant it was a bit warmer. We had the girls out and walked and fed. We wanted to hit the gym again this morning but we decided that since we couldn’t go on New Year’s Day, we would go tomorrow and Tuesday and that would space it out. I got the rest of the boxes brought to the back porch and Cat went to work on her closet in her office. We store the blow up beds and pillows and blankets in that closet plus she moved in a display cabinet for keepsakes and records and such.  She wanted to bring in the petticoats that we had stored in four plastic tubs and use that closet from now on. The cabinet was really not a good fit because it was way too deep and clogged up the space, so we decided to move it out and cut a few inches from the depth to make it fit better. Once we had it out in my shop, I pondered how to proceed.  Cat came out and suggested that we just put the cabinet out in the shed and move her boxes out there. We went online and found stackable cubbies that will work perfectly for each petticoat. She has 13 petticoats so I ordered one with 16 cubbies that can be arranged in any configuration - so we can build up whatever she wants. They will arrive in a few days so we went on to other projects. I did get my Christmas gift out of the box and put together. I got a DeWalt 20v pole saw.

It will come in handy to trim high branches on a few of our taller trees. We also put together Cat’s garden wagon.

She picked it out because it folds up nicely so we can use it whenever we go to farmer’s markets. Later, she made another chicken pot pie from our leftover chicken. It has become one of my favorite meals! Tv and spa and bed.       

Friday, December 29^th., 2023…… Today was our day for the gym. We got up and showered and dressed and walked and fed the pups, then headed out. After our workout, we went to Kristi’s for breakfast then stopped by Walmart for a few items. I don’t know about other stores, but our Walmart has really cut back on customer service! Today they had closed both of the express 15-item checkout areas, leaving only the cashier service (which had only two open!) and the self-checkout lanes (which we prefer now). Well, the lines were way long when we came in. Luckily, they brought more checkers in and opened one of the express areas, so we got out pretty quickly. Still sucks though!  We needed to get home because Cat was leaving at noon with her girlfriends, to drive up to Wilsonville to visit an old local friend who relocated up there. Meanwhile, I took the time to work on re-boxing my Christmas Village. I still keep each one in the original packaging so it takes a bit of time to get everything unplugged and boxed up. Of course I took some time out to rest and watch some of the bowl games on today. We also had laundry going so I worked on that as well.  Since she texted saying that she was eating a late lunch up there, I had leftovers for both lunch and dinner. When she got back later, she had a small plate of the rest of the chicken pot pie and we settled in for tv and spa before bed.

Saturday, December 30^th., 2023…… We slept in later this morning. That’s ok – the weather is not conducive for walking early in the chilly air! But once we got up and going we did take the dogs out, fed them and Cat made coffee and breakfast burritos. We decided to tackle the rest of the Christmas stuff and at least get it boxed up. Remember, we (ok, Cat) had decided that we would leave the ‘snowpeople’ decorations up into January. So, we were at least 95% done with the boxing and had all of them out on the back porch. Now it’s a matter of hand-trucking them to the garage and getting them put away.  Almost there! We finished up the day just hanging out around the house – until later, when we decided to go out to Mexican food for dinner. A couple of margaritas and a tasty meal later, and we were back in for the evening.