MY FAVORITE GIFT

This is my favorite Christmas present.  Ryder gave this to me.  It is something he found at the house his Parents are refurbishing.  It was all rusty and dirty when he found it and he cleaned and scrubbed it all up and then repainted it.  It's really special.  I tried it out this morning and it really works.  This should help straighten out my drives.

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AFTER

This is what's left after the all the gifts have been opened.

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DURING

Our process of gift opening is to take turns starting with the youngest and ending with the oldest.  That makes Casey, first, and me, last.

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BEFORE

This is what it looks like before we open gifts on Christmas.  Casey is all excited and can hardly wait.  The living room is all neat and clean and everything is in it's place.

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CHRISTMAS SUNRISE

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CHRISTMAS MORNING

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MERRY CHRISTMAS

Even the spiders have had a rough time this month.  This morning it was 27 degrees when we got up.  There was freezing fog on everything.  The whole month of December has been like this.  

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SLEEPING GARDEN

It's a good thing I turned off the water a few weeks ago.  Everything would be frozen and the water system cracked and broken if I hadn't.  The beds that are covered in burlap have a 6 inch layer of crushed leaves on them.  The leaves will compost over the winter and the burlap keeps the leaves from blowing away.  It also helps keep the weeds from sprouting.  These beds will be prime for early planting next spring.

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TOO FOGGY TO FLY

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ROLLING THE CHIPS

Now, here's a game you won't find in "ToysRus".  It's a grooved piece of thick plywood, used as a starting gate, resting on a flat piece of thin plywood, used as a ramp, to send nice heavy poker chips rolling across our wood floor and down the hallway.  The object is to see who can get the chip to role the farthest without running into an obstacle like a couch leg or end table.   

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PROGRAMMING THE ROBOT

Ryder built this Lego robot from a plan he found on the internet.  It has a built in sensor that tells it to stop, rotate to aim, and shoot small plastic balls at any object within 20 inches of it's path.  After tolerating my help, he had to show me which pieces and how they went together, he connected to his laptop and programmed in the instructions to make it do what he wanted.  Just think, it was only 60 years ago that I was content to be able to build a hoisting crane out of a metal "Erector Set" when I was his age.  I wonder where all this will lead!

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COFFEE WITH LITTONS

What a surprise the other day when we were Christmas shopping at the Clackamas Town Center and we ran into our old neighbors and dear friends, the Littons.  We lived across the street from them in 1966, went to the same church as they did, had mutual deep personal experiences with them in CIF and have continued to visit occasionally as families.   

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THANKSGIVING ON HOOD'S CANAL

This year, for a change, the whole family got together at a neutral spot.  We rented a house on Hood Canal about half way between where we live in Canby and where Marlene's sister and her family live in the Seattle area.  It worked great!  The only problem was that it rained most of the weekend with only a few sun breaks where we could go on walks like this.

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