Traditions

Jason, Ryan (my brother) and I have had a Christmas Eve tradition for about nine years. The three of us go out for a late breakfast and then go to the movies. It is always so much fun, especially because we don't get to see Ryan too often, as he is a student at PSU and lives in Gresham.

Bread

After a busy day of playing, a few evenings ago, Kristina and I made two types of breads to freeze and give as Christmas gifts. I made three loaves of a yummy pumkin bread from one of Jason's room moms, and Kristina made a delicious blueberry zuchini bread using our berries from this summer.

A little bit of everything

Things have been very busy, and I have forgotten my camera when we have been out and about, including Thanksgiving day and Black Friday. We had a great Thanksgiving with lots of family and friends. I even made homemade dinner rolls for the first time. This past week, first grade had a craft morning. Here is one of my wonderful room moms and her daughter making corn husk dolls....they turned out wonderful!

We also made pilgrim boys and girl hats......

Need to catch up....for Halloween Jason was an old man. I knew the prior day that he was going to get a haircut, but had no idea exactly what he meant.

Here is the haircut....I just died! Thankfully it is growing back quickly!

Flowers and Fingers

Today I received these flowers and balloons at school with a congratulations note attached from my parents. On Monday I had my Chicken n' Dumpling soup featured on the local news out of Eugene, KVAL, as I won their crock pot recipe contest. I had my 30 seconds of fame and it was a great way to start the day.

Jason's finger is healed and all better. There is barley a scar and he is happy to have the stitches out!

A Great Visit

This afternoon Keri and Kelsey stopped by for a visit. The Brinkerhoffs were our next door neighbors growing up, and we did everything together as toddlers, kids, and teenagers......and we have MANY fond memories. I have known Keri as long as I have known anyone else who is a non-family member. Keri lives in Washington and Kelsey lives in Utah. They were in Oregon having an early family Thanksgiving over the weekend. We had a great visit, and it was so wonderful to catch up.

Here is Keri's oldest, Naya, holding Kelsey's youngest, Carson. They are both such sweet kids.

This Weekend, plus Monday in rewiew

Saturday morning my mom and I picked, blanched in hot and cold water baths, and froze 31 lbs of broccoli.

Sunday afternoon church we went to a surprise graduation (MEd) party for Kristina.

Monday at school, Jason had an encounter with a box cutter and lost. He cut through his half way through his tendon lengthwise but did not sever it. It required 4 stitches to repair the tendon and 10 to close up the finger. Here it is bandaged up.

Here it is lookin' like part of a Halloween costume.....Frankenstein?

Fall Visitors

Last weekend we had some very special visitors and so I decorated our house for fall. Here are the decorations right outside our door. Most of the pumpkins came from our garden.

My aunt (mom's sister) and uncle from Michigan were vacationing. They had their Harley shipped to Portland. Then they traveled, staying one night with my parents, and are taking Route 66 back to Michigan. It is really funny because they are not the "typical Harley" type of people. They own a counseling business and have 21 therapists working under them. Sometime Jason and I would like to vacation back there and see the rest of our family. It was a really fun time visiting, as we don't get to see them nearly as often as we would like. I was fascinated by how similar my mom and aunt sound, their gestures, feet, legs, and facial expressions were. It was almost like I was looking at an exact clone of my mom!

Auntie Cris brought me some treasures from her house in Michigan for my house.
My uncle was going to gave my mom a ride to their house on the Harley. Here auntie Cris was suiting up my mom.

And she and my uncle are off.......