Is it my turn yet?

Due to Aaron having come down with a mild case of pneumonia, we postponed our holiday dinner with our daughter and family until Dec. 26.  They brought all the food over from Milton-Freewater and cooked it at our house.  

During the cooking period we began to open our gifts.  We don't give lots of gifts to each other--just one or two.  Curtis, almost 4, kept asking, "Is it my turn yet?"  

Then we loaded everything in the vans and took it to my parent's house where we all ate together.  Leg of lamb, mashed yams, green beans and rice pilaf.  What a yummy dinner.

Today the temperature begin to rise and the snow began to melt.  My dad's gutters were full of ice and needed to be removed.  Aaron spent 4 hours helping to chip out the ice.  The clean-up from a beautiful snowfall is not pretty.  The streets are mushy and dirty.  It's slippery.  And if the temperature falls tonight, oh boy, it'll be a mess tomorrow morning.

Yes, Virginia, we will have a White Christmas even if Bing doesn't sing!

All of this beautiful white stuff has resulted in schools being cancelled 3 days this week (Tuesday, Thursday and Friday) so students are getting an extra long Christmas break.  So far the roads haven't been difficult to drive on as long as you slow down and watch out for everyone around you.


Winter in Eastern Oregon, 2008.  Here is the front of our house.  After Aaron shoveled off the front porch earlier this week, it is now completely covered again.  We can't use the front door.

Our beautiful back yard.

Picnic anyone?  

               The neighbors appreciate

               Aaron clearing the side-

               walks and driveways.

The snow-blower is a gas hog.  One

neighbor gave him $5 and then also

gave him a gallon of gas.

  

                                Our neighbor's pine tree.                                                            

Be Prepared

When I arrived home from work and exercising at Curves my husband had quite an interesting adventure to share.  He and our Pastor, Ron, had gone to a place that does special wood cuts, etc. for Ron to buy a mantel for his parent's fireplace.

On the way home they spotted a car along side the road with a woman looking through her trunk.  They decided to see if she needed help and sure enough she did.  She had a flat tire and her donut tire was unusable and she had no other spare.  Aaron and Ron told her about calling Les Schwab.  She had no money but both Aaron and the pastor said that they would pay for the tire.  The guys went over to the nearest McDonalds for lunch and then came back to wait with the lady.  After an hour the tire guys showed up (right on time) and fixed her tire.  $136.  Ron gave her his address with the hope that she'll be able to pay him back.  But even if she doesn't he will have done a good deed.  We'll split the cost of the tire with him.

So Aaron sent out an email to our lady friends telling them they should make sure to have a spare and a jack and any other needed tools in their vehicles.  So if you only have a donut tire-think about getting a spare.  Make sure you have a jack.  You don't want to be stranded along a freeway or back road unprepared.