Four Part Harmony

Howdy folks. Hope you all had a nice, relaxing holiday weekend.

It’s winter now (officially), and the longest night of the year is behind us. You can practically hear the crocuses and daffodils popping up through the soggy ground (well, maybe not quite yet).

We spent the weekend down in Central Oregon with Gabe and Maya, at Gabe’s parents’ place just outside of Bend/Redmond. They’ve got a nice little place within walking distance from the Deschutes River. We walked down there on Sunday morning and spent a little time wandering around. It took quite a few tries, but we finally got this group photo.

Here’s another photo of Nicki and Gabe looking out over the river.

We celebrated Christmas with their family on Sunday morning. As you can see from the picture, Anna was pretty excited about the whole deal.

For no particular reason, I just had to put this picture up. Anna pouring some tea for Adobe, Gabe and Maya’s dog.

We also watched a few football games over the weekend, as Gabe and Nicki were in the finals of our fantasy football league this year. Nicki’s team (the Banjo Bombers) ended up victorious!

We woke up to snow on Monday morning, and had a snowy drive out of Redmond back to Portland. We avoided the pass, and took the beautiful sunny scenic drive up 97 through Madras and Maupin, and then down the gorge back into Portland, where it was raining.

We made popcorn Monday night, and I showed Anna how to throw it up and catch it in your mouth.

Christmas morning, Anna helped Nicki make some gingerbread, and we had gingerbread and pears while we set to opening presents.

It took quite a while, as Anna had to open each present and play with it for a while before moving on. She really liked this doll that her great-grandpa Taffe got for her. We did a lot of hair combing and braiding.

Happily, Anna seemed to have the most fun with this big box. We set it up as a bed and as a car, and she played for hours in it. I guess eventually we’ll have to put it away, because it takes up half the living room, but for now, it makes a fun thing to play with.

Just about the time we finished opening presents, it started to snow! This picture shows it about as heavy as it ever got, but it kept up for a couple hours. Unfortunately, Anna was in dire need of a nap after the mornings excitement.

When she woke up, I bundled her up and took her outside to play, but it had mostly turned into a rainy slush at that point. Still, we had two snowy days for our Christmas weekend, which was much more than one can really hope for here in the Pacific Northwest.

I put a few more photos up on our photo page too.

Hope you all had (or are still having) a nice holiday. See you soon.