Oregon Living 2024 – Blog #52 – Helping Out & Celebrating Christmas with Family!

 

Sunday, December 22^nd., 2024……  We slept in late again! Cathye went off to church after we walked and fed the dogs and I went and got us breakfast. I worked on the blog and posted it. Then settled in and watched some football games. I had already watched my Broncos play on Thursday Night Football (they got beat – bummer!) but I always like sports on Sundays. The Rams and the Seahawks both had games and I follow both teams. Later, we went off to our beginner’s class. They are pretty close to graduating but still need some floor time. I enjoy seeing the students, especially those that are enthusiastic about their new found activity! Afterward, we all went over to Ixtapa for dinner. We get out of class at 8:00pm so we don’t like to eat that late, but Ixtapa has great food and we both had full dinners. We would pay for that later when acid reflux hit us both! Next week we will go easy!  

Monday, December 23^rd., 2024…… HAPPY BIRTHDAT TERISA! Today was busy!  First thing after walking and feeding the dogs was to call Cathye's daughter, and sing Happy Birthday to her! We skipped the gym this morning because we needed to be in Sweet Home at 10:00am to help pack food/gift packages for local residents. We drove over and went to The Point for breakfast and just had enough time to make it there by 10. We do this every year so we have it down pretty well now. This morning there were 10 of us working on fourteen boxes. Depending on the family’s size, their boxes were loaded with food for Christmas dinner. Some got hams, some got turkeys, all got potatoes, gravy, cranberries, corn or green beans, cake or brownie mix, and small gifts (like potholders, oven gloves, etc.). Those with children also get a gift.  Cathye and I each did 2 boxes and volunteered to deliver them on our way home. We chose those on the way back. It is always very rewarding to see the folks who get these boxes. Most are really happy to see us. Others may be embarrassed because things aren’t going well for them at this time. But we offer them some cheer and hope we can give them a positive holiday.

Once we were done with that, we came back home and then left again pretty quickly. This time we were headed to Costco!  Yeah, we know – the busiest time of the year! We parked way out this time and headed in. I told Cat that this crowd in the store would be like any day at a Costco in SoCal! We were impressed because they had all of the checkouts going and each had their own box person. We had zero wait time and were out of there pretty quickly!  Why did we have to go today you ask? Of course we needed some staples like coffee and creamer but we really wanted to go get the hams we are serving at our Club’s New Year’s Eve dance. I was afraid the holiday rush would deplete the supply. But they had plenty! Once we got back, we unloaded everything and relaxed for a bit. Later, I watched Monday Night Football in my room, and then went in and we got a few of our taped shows watched before hitting the spa and then calling it a night.     

Tuesday, December 24^th., 2024……  Christmas Eve! We slept in this morning. Rains all this week in the forecast. We dodged the showers when we were out with the girls though. We fed them and did some housecleaning. Tomorrow we have Corey and family, Jamie, Penny, Cherrelyn coming for Christmas dinner. We chose to have a later meal because Cherrelyn is planning on driving up to Washington to spend the day with her son before coming here. The turkey was taken out of the freezer and put in the garage fridge but tonight we will take it out and put it in the sink to finish. Cathye took off later in the morning to go deliver some gifts to her friends. Penny came by to see if we need more dessert. Nope – we bought one of those huge apple pies from Costco!  The plan tonight was to go to mass at my church either at 5:00pm or at 11:00pm. But as we got close, we decided that we were lazy – I know on Christmas eve of all times! – so we would just stay in and relax. So, later, we cut cards to see who was going out to pick up pizza while the other fed the dogs. I went out. Our pizza place of choice was closing so I went over to Dominoes and got their manager’s special. We watched tv and since neither of us was sleepy, we stayed up until 11:30pm.      

Wednesday, December 25^th., 2024……  MERRY CHRISTMAS!  I was up early and let Cat sleep in. I had coffee going and showered and walked the girls even before she got up! But once she got going, we got busy. We had food to get out and prepped for our dinner later this evening. Dinner tonight will be after 5:00pm because Cherrelyn will be back from her son’s by then. Penny came by early and we three opened gifts. A lot of fun!  Penny went home and Cathye got the turkey going. Later, she went over to pick up Jamie. The kids got here from Corey’s mom’s. They had opened gifts from there and then came here for gifts and dinner. Cherrelyn got here and we sat down and ate. It was a great meal!  Later, we headed off to the living room and went around the room opening gifts. Then it was time for a snowball fight! Yes, we had snowballs. 40 of them!  The pics below show some of the fun. You have to look closely to see them in the air.

After that, we all went back into the dining room. Next up was a white elephant gift exchange. I had seen one on Facebook where they read a letter that had the words RIGHT and LEFT significantly listed. Everyone starts off with their gift in front of them at the table. Whenever the words LEFT or RIGHT were read, you passed your gift accordingly. Here’s an example:  from what I read entitled Suing Santa:  Once upon a time, there was a lawyer named Bob RIGHT. His son’s name was Bill RIGHT, and together, father and son started their own law firm named RIGHT, RIGHT and Associates. RIGHT, RIGHT & Associates was famous for lawsuits that LEFT people penniless. They LEFT the Tooth Fairy penniless for insufficient funds, they LEFT the Easter Bunny penniless when they sued him for the rancid eggs he LEFT in a child’s basket….  They went on to sue Santa.  There were two pages of this and I think the gifts made it around the table more than once. It was really fun!  So much fun, we forgot to take pics!  After everyone LEFT (no pun intended!), we cleaned up and relaxed for the evening. Long day!  

Thursday, December 26^th., 2024…… Another ‘sleep late’ day!  No gym today… We walked and fed the dogs, then headed off to get breakfast at Kristi’s before going straight from there to make our 10:00am appointment for our haircuts. There was nothing else on the agenda for today so we relaxed and enjoyed the quiet. I still have to gather up the items we have for our New Year’s dance but everything is ready (I think!).  I brought all of those out to the truck where they can all be stored together in the enclosed truck bed. I did notice that the back glass on the cartopper doesn’t want to stay up. I will need to get it in to Corvallis, to the place where Cathye bought it years ago. I think it just needs new hydraulic door closers.   

Friday, December 27^th., 2024……  We decided to concentrate on getting some of the Christmas things put away today. Cathye likes to leave things out way too long but this year she is thinking that she wants to get things back to normal again. I am all for that! My job was to get my Christmas village re-boxed and back in the totes. She decided to take down the table decorations and dining room glasses and such. Then she found the boxes for the tree ornaments. We only did a little today. There is so much!   

Saturday, December 28^th., 2024…… We were up early this morning and walked and fed the dogs, then went out to breakfast. I thought we would got to Corvallis to Truck Pros to get the struts replaced, but I saw from their website that they were not open on Saturdays. But we decided to make the drive to Corvallis anyway and go to Sharon’s for breakfast. Cathye had never been. She liked it, so we will add it to our list of breakfast places. No dances for us this weekend so we pretty much just worked around the house. I discovered some items I needed to work on for New Years and then I put away some more of the Christmas village items. We also got the tree down and boxed up. I said previously that we’d probably get a new one - but for now, this one goes back in storage! The weather here is nothing but rain!  The ditches are filling and some of the low-lying fields around here are flooded. Of course the French drains everyone has are doing their jobs, routing water off their property. It all goes to Oak Creek so it’s almost running over the road!  We get a break on Monday and Tuesday but the rest of the week still has rain in the forecast. But today the sun is out and it’s so nice! Leftovers and tv and bed.