Thanksgiving in Springfield

Happy Thanksgiving!  This year we hosted our first Thanksgiving not cramped in a tiny kitchen or shameless using our landlord's full size oven to cook a bird.  It was excellent.

Turkey Day started at 4:30am for Cliff and me.  I was off to work by 5:00am for the Turkey Stuffer 5K.  Cliff was awesome and got up with me to help load boxes upon boxes of bananas and pointsettas as I didn't want to leave them in the car overnight for fear that they would freeze.  After I left, Cliff rowed for an hour (as Thanksgiving is the first day of the Holiday Challenge!).  While I was at work signing in volunteers, setting up canopies, pumping water, cheering on runners, and doing other random stuff; Cliff was cooking a turkey, two pies, and generally making the house smell and feel cozy.

Despite the larger venue we had a small crew again this year.  Kathy and Jill went back east this year to hang out with family.  At this point, we have spent quite a few Friendsgivings with them so it was odd not to have Jill taking photos of food preparation and Kathy laughing at stupid things I say.  We missed them! With this said,  they were there in spirit as Cliff made Jill's famous chocolate pie.  There is no turning back for us.  Every Thanksgiving from here on out will include Jill's chocolate pie. 

We were happy as Brie made the journey down from Portland.  She brought a really amazing salad.  It consisted of roasted butternut squash over mixed field greens with tahini dressing.  It was awesome.  She also brought her newest craft items and we got to see her do some pretty cool needle felting. I think she could sell her creations at Saturday market.  I would buy one!  It is really wonderful to have family near and it is always fun to hang out with Brie! 

My rockin' coworker, Jana,  also came as all her family is back in Indiana.  She outdid herself. Despite working the crazy morning shift for the Turkey Stuffer she also managed to make a green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and crescent rolls.  What?!  I don't know how she did it.  Several folks at work commended me on hosting Thanksgiving and cooking a turkey despite working that morning.  I corrected each of them and and told them that Cliff is the master cook/baker in our house.  We are all much happier because of it too.  I  pick the menu.  I buy the groceries.  Cliff does all the hard stuff.  I eat happily.  We are a great team.  

All and all we had the following: turkey with gravy, Cliff's homemade cranberry sauce, the squash and greens salad, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls, wine, cider, sweet potato pie, and Jill's chocolate pie.  It was a feast.

Rudy also had a great time.  There were more people to pay attention to him and more food being dropped on the kitchen floor.  This photo shows his excitement.  Now just imagine him butt swishing and prancing like a show pony all around the house.  So good. 

After eating we chatted about family holiday traditions, looked at Black Friday coupons, and watched Wings on Netflix.  It was quite.  it was relaxing.  It was just awesome.  

The following morning Cliff and Brie went on a 7.5 mile run/hike up and around Mt. Pisgah.  I tried to take left over race food to a local food bank.  In that process I also found myself in Target finally getting my hands on a $6 copy of Pitch Perfect.  Victory. 

Gotta love Thanksgiving.   

October

Holy cow the past few weeks and months have been crazy.  Absolutely nutty.  October 2013 surpassed the previous craziest month of our life which was June 2008.  In June 2008 I completed my graduate research, graduated from grad school, had a fake wedding, moved across country with two cars and three lovely siblings in 10 days only to have Cliff immediately start grad school.  All of this took place in about 20 days.  So now imagine the nuttiness of this past October.  So many really amazing/stressful things happened.  I wish that I could dedicate more time to each event but instead I will present them as fast as they felt to me.  Get ready.

Mom and Pam Visited Oregon

I can't describe how happy I was to have these two wonderful women here for a week.  They visited the first week in October and did a little of everything Eugene/Springfield has to offer: eating out, shopping, bowling, exploring the mountains, visiting the coast, packing, hanging out, and the list goes on and on.  We celebrated Pam's birthday at the Timber Bowl then Falling Sky Brew Pub and four days later celebrated Cliff's birthday at the Falling Sky Deli.  I sadly wasn't able to take more than one day off from work but that ended up ok.  Mom and Pam explored during the day and we hung out at night.  On the weekend, we went to Saturday Market, drove up 126, had a picnic lunch after wine tasting at Sweet Cheeks Winery, thrift shopped, ate, and generally tried to do it all.   I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown the whole time due to the next event to be outlined and they helped to keep me sane, laughing, and well fed.  I love them and can't wait for them to come back.

We Bought A House!

That's right, we not only moved but moved into something we now own.  AH!  We had been looking at houses for a few months and had just about given up (seriously, we had to come to terms with throwing in the towel for another year when we found the one).  After seeing 50+ homes, we walked into an old homestead house in the Washburn and fell in love.  It honestly felt like our house the moment we stepped in the door.  The next day we put in an offer, two days later accepted a counter offer, three days later visited a mortgage broker, had an inspection, appraisal, and finally signed papers.  The whole time we were holding our breath and trying not to get excited as we know things go wrong with buying houses all the time.  We tried to keep a level, non-emotional head.  The whole whirlwind process took less than a month.  I discovered something about myself through this process. Apparently my body shuts down and sleeps when I am that overwhelmed.  Seriously.  We would meet with our real estate agent or mortgage broker and afterwards I would go home, stuff my face with something in our cabinets and then fall asleep to be dead to the world until the next day.  I did this several times a week!  I was not a good partner to Cliff in late September/early October as I was asleep for most of it.  Thankfully we are past that now.  We signed the papers on Cliff's birthday and moved in four days later with the help of amazing friends.

The date on the house says 1905 but the paperwork at the City actually dates it to 1890.  The home was once used as as a residence for mill workers and then a barber.  We are only the fourth owners of the home.  The lovely woman we bought the house from had lived here for over 35 years and did an amazing job keeping this old house in wonderful shape.  We are so incredibly lucky.

This is all you get photo and description wise as there will be more to come in the upcoming weeks.  We are 100% unpacked but only about 70% moved in.  When you go from a tiny cottage to a three bedroom house there are lots of opportunities for more furniture.  We are heading to Ikea next week to hopefully acquire a few last items that will complete the picture (rug, chair, bookshelf, etc.)  Then we will post more photos and stories.

Events at Work

Between October 12th and October 25th at work we had a first time community event, two park grand openings, a day long service project for staff and volunteers, and a major three day event.  Did I mention this was as we were moving into the house and trying to get out of the cottage?  Did I mention that my boss went into labor the morning of the major three day event making me the new interim Special Events Supervisor until March?  Did I mention that I love these events and that I was having a really hard time balancing my time between work, moving into a new house, and actually being a person? To top it all off, the weekend of the 25th I had a multi-day Board retreat for an organization that I am a part of up the coast.  Crazy.  I'm so thankful to be on the backend of the stress filled two weeks.

Cliff and I Celebrated 5 Years and I Paddled In A Pumpkin 

On October 19th, Cliff and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.  Time flies by!  To celebrate, Cliff was amazing as we left our new house filled with boxes to drive up to Tualatin, Oregon so that I could participate in the West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta.  I lucked out back in March as I met the organizer and they let me take one of the spots for the event and since then I have been telling everyone I could about it.  I love pumpkins.  I love fall.  I love events.  I love my supportive husband.   This is everything I love wrapped up into one. You had to be dressed in costume so I bought a sexy bumble bee outfit from Value Village and like a sane person added black leggings and wool top to it.  The sexy bumble bee costume turned into a rational, normal person bumble bee costume.  I picked the outfit as it would allow me to be warm and swim with ease should I tip out of a 1,000 pound pumpkin in public.

We arrived in Tualatin, ate hotdogs and hamburgers, drank fresh cider, and ate apple cider donuts (you can't find those often out here in the PNW!).  The event consisted of four heats: two were speed races and two were challenges.  I was in the last challenge heat and was so nervous.  By the time that I paddled to the starting line, the other paddlers told me that I needed a ball and a flag.  What?  So I paddled back and minutes later was given the items but not a description of what they were for.  As I paddled back to the starting line my mind was so focused on not tipping out or throwing up because of excitement that I missed the instructions on what we were supposed to do.  Whoops.  No worries as I kinda watched what others were doing and tried to follow.  I understood the rules to be take the ball and keep it in front of you as you paddle around a bouy in the middle of the lake.  To do this I would throw the ball for a bit, pick it up, throw it a little further, move it forward with my paddle a bit, throw it again, repeat.  I didn't come in first and I didn't come in last.  Just what I wanted.  It was amazing.  I was like smiley, dopey idiot happily paddling around in the middle of a lake.   When I got out, Cliff met me at the finish line and laughingly said "I like how you decided to cheat the whole way."  "What?!?  I didn't cheat!" is that my brain was yelling.  Cliff informed me that the rules were announced that once we did the initial throw we were not allowed to pick up the ball again until after we passed the finish line.  We were to juggle it with out paddle the whole way.  Get out?!?  I was mortified and felt really bad.  I don't like to be a cheater.  It took a little of the victory out of my step.  I felt so bad that I hunted down the event organizer (who so kindly gave me the opportunity) to apologize for my rude interpretation of the game.  He laughed and said it was totally good.  He in fact had not even noticed.  Whew.  Kathy and Jill, the wonderful friends that they are, drove down to cheer me on.  We hung out for a bit then we all went our separate ways.  Cliff and I topped off the evening with dinner at the Urban Hopworks pub in Portland for their happy hour and then returned home.  We ended the day with a 44oz Sonic chocolate banana milkshake.  It was an amazing Saturday and a pretty fun way to spend an anniversary.  For the next one, I need to support Cliff as he  geeks out and gets to do something fun.  I'm a lucky gal.

October was crazy but really wonderful.  In addition to the events listed above we also got to spend a morning with the amazing Katie (Schumm) McFaddin as she was in from Boston.  It was only an hour or so but it was so great to catch up!  We also celebrated our first Halloween in the house.  We have never had trick or treaters at our previous places but this year we had about 70.  It was interesting.  All in all, I'm thankful that I kept my sanity.

Monks and Music

A few weeks ago Cliff and I had a cultural experience...we went to a monastery to listen to Bach music.  I'm a bad Arts Administrator as going to cultural events is still considered a treat as they are often a little spendy.  With this said, we are grown-ups and dag gone it we will listen to Bach music if we want to!

Plans for the Mt. Angel Bach Festival have been in the works for months.  Kerry planned the trip for her folks at the Adult Activity Center but we knew right off the bat that it was going to be an awesome outing that we needed to get in on. I mean, look how excited we were....

The evening consisted of a few different performances.  We started off with vespers and it was so soothing.   So soothing in fact that in my post SummerFair haze I might have let myself drift off.  Thanks Todd and Kerry for documenting.  Embarrassing but whatever.  Apparently it took me back to my college days of listening to Pure Moods in the library as I tried to nap before Noteworthy rehearsals or Kappa meetings.  Yeah I said it...I listened to Pure Moods.

After vespers was a Bach choral concert.  I have to admit, choral music is not my favorite.  They were good but I was consistently thinking about dinner which was just a half hour way.   

Dinner consisted of a picnic on the lawn served by monks.  Salads with salmon, melon salad, stromboli, peach pies, and wine.   The monk who helped us out was so friendly and wore a fedora and had tattoos.  Gotta love Oregon.

After dinner we settled in for a Bach quartet.  This was my favorite part of the night.

We need to do this more often.  I still need to go to an opera and see a ballet that isn't the Nutcracker.  They are on the list.

First Weekend of Summer

Cliff and I did a good job of making the first weekend of summer count.

On Friday work had an event to kick off the start of summer, Summer Solstice Dash & Bash.  It is a two part event: 5K to benefit Umpqua Bank's Snack Pack Program and a free concert with food and beer vendors and community booths.  To help drum up excitement, I did two live promo spots on our local news stations. I got to be on at 6:45am on KEZI and just a few short hours later I was on KVAL.  I kinda really like doing these types of things.  It scratches a performing itch that hasn't been tended to in a long while.   The event turned out really well.  More attendees than our first time around last summer.  The weather was beautiful.  Our sponsors were happy.  What more could we ask for?   

Yesterday, we got up bright and early as I went with a friend/co-worker, Jana, down to Roseburg to pick up her new dog from their humane society!  I really enjoy driving south as the landscape changes and you feel like you are going out on an adventure.  And we were.  She has been looking for a dog for quite a while and this week found a blood-hound that was a winner.  We picked up Sheldon (Chip's new name) and drove back.  It was really a different experience from picking Rudy up from the shelter a few years ago.  Sheldon didn't eat his own poop, he didn't take 30 minutes to get into the car, and he didn't seem terrified of the new people who were driving away with him.  Also Sheldon's teeth are in so much better condition that Rudy's were when we adopted him (both dogs adopted around 7 months).  All of this is really making me realize that Rudy didn't have it so great before we found him.  Perhaps his first few months set us up for some challenges that we are still dealing with to this day.  Hum.  Oh well.  Rudy is fantastic and we wouldn't have it any other way (although better leash skills by now would be pretty great).  No matter.  Sheldon and Rudy got to play in the yard.  Rudy is far, far faster that the 65 lb. pup but it didn't matter as Sheldon seemed to be having fun running behind and using his chasing bark.  It was great.  Rudy has a new friend. In fact, he seems to get a long better with Sheldon than any other dog.  It must be a hound thing. 


After the puppy excitement, we packed up the car to go camping with another friend/co-worker and her family*.   Kerry's family got a pop-up camper and wanted to do a test run.  Cliff and I have recently completed our backpacking supplies so we wanted to do a dry run too.  Well, in the end we decided to use our car camping supplies instead of the backpacking stuff as we wanted Rudy to come with us.  He has been doing really well recently about chilling out with us (not on leash) and being less crazy around kids.  So camping was the next challenge to tackle (we aren't going to count the cross-country move camping).  So we all drove up the McKenzie River to Delta Campground.  On the way up, we realized that Rudy gets car sick.  He whines, barks, and pants a whole lot in the car.  To be honest it can be really unpleasant, loud, and stressful.  Well this trip we finally put it together that he freaks out when there are windy roads, speed bumps, and sharp turns (that is why he starts to get upset as soon as he hears the turn signal go on).   I feel bad saying this but we always thought he was just being a jerk and getting overly excited about everything.  Nope.  He wasn't feeling well.  Thankfully, it was a pretty smooth trip as we could just cruse once we got out of town. 

We mocked Kerry and Todd before we left when they mentioned bug spray.  Cliff and I insisted that we have never been bothered by bugs here as we were use to Virginia mosquitos and in comparison Oregon has nothing to complain about.  Well, that is apparently a lie.  Our campground was on an arm of the McKenzie and there were so many mosquitoes   We started a fire at 5:00pm in the hopes of smoking them out.  I almost immediatly changed out of my tank top and shorts and into long pants and multiple layers of long sleved tops in order to keep them from attacking me.  But it was too late.  They got me.  They got us all.  Todd later told us that the highlands are bad for mosquitos due to all of the snow melt.  Apparently things are better in southern Oregon.  Note to self for the next camping expedition.

Last night was a whole lot of fun.  We hung out.  We ate a really great meal of salmon, salad, and potatoes.  We made smores and sipped Fireball by the fire.  What to know the best part?  Our dog was AMAZING! Honestly, we lived our dog owner dream last night.  He happily played at the site with the girls (he didn't bowl anyone over or get someone right in the face).  We didn't freak out and bark at every kid, bird, bug, motorcycle he heard.  He was so good that we trusted him off leash.  He stayed right by us and enjoyed hanging out under the picnic table.  Plus since he is an avid fire-loving dog, we didn't have to worry about him being stupid around the campfire.  It was great.  Once it got dark he got a bit stressed out as he is kind of a weanie and doesn't like the dark.  Also, he has a pretty strict internal clock that makes him want to sleep at 9:00pm.  He was already on the downslide when our camping neighbors rolled up around 10:00pm to set up camp.  As long as he sat with his back turned towards them, between Cliff and I he was ok.  As soon as he turned around to see them he would howl.  To keep it together he sat touching both of us with one of us always petting him.  Todd and Kerry commented that it was like we were dealing with a toddler past its bed time.  On top of this, around 11:00pm it started to sprinkle.  Rudy hates being wet.  He beelined towards the tent so we called it a night.  When we let him in he was incredibly happy to lay on his bed at the foot of our super luxe Coleman air mattress.  We knew with the rain that he was going to break the seal so we broke one of our rules: we let Rudy sleep on the bed between us.  Rudy was shocked.  That dog didn't move all night as he was warm, safe, comfortable, and cuddling with us.  He was awesome.

Good thing we didn't let him sleep at the foot of the bed and it rained all night long.  Cliff got a really bad allergy headache sometime around 1:00am and after taking painkillers left our toiletry bag too close to the tent lining.  He broke the seal.  When we woke in the morning all of our clothes were soaked but we were happily floating above the water on our air mattress.  Rudy was less than excited about the rain and looked very weary about having to go outside to go to the bathroom and start the day.  Can you sense the internal grumbling?

After eating breakfast in the new pop-up (which was super sweet), we loaded up the car and headed home.  I stopped at the general store to get jojo's (or taters for all of us east coasters) with ranch as they are a must when we travel up river. We spend the rest of the day napping, unpacking, and doing laundry.  We even made it to Olive Garden.

Overall I think we did a pretty great job kicking off the summer.  I have my fingers crossed that we can keep this up for a little while.

*Side note: Kerry was my original office soul mate.  A few months ago Kerry got a new job in one of our different departments and that is when Jana moved in.  So far, I've really lucked out with co-workers. 

Tulips!

This past weekend I traveled to Woodburn, Oregon with some coworkers to visit the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival.  Kathy and Jill have talked about the event for the last few years and raved about how beautiful the fields are.  Jill bought bulbs there and I've been jealous about how nice they look next t their house.  Knowing this I was excited when my coworker Erin invited me and another coworker (Jana) to make the trip.  Well, let me just say that it was beautiful.  There are 40 acres of tulips of all shapes, sizes, and colors.  The fields were full of people taking photos (some people even brought professional photographers with them to snap official family photos).  I confess as I took a lot of photos too.  It was hard not to.  We pretty much got our photo taken next to every tractor, wooden face cut out, flower, and kids activity possible. 

In addition to the photos we also got to see a man carving wooden shoes, race little rubber duckies down a shoot, browse craft vendors, and eat corn dogs.  My meal consisted of a hot chocolate and a corn dog with sweet and spicy mustard.  I'm classy like that.

On the way out I placed my order for 25 spring variety bulbs.  We will pick up our goodies in the fall.  I'm excited to see what sizes, types, and colors we get.  Yay!

 Oh, and there were steam powered tractors....

On the way out we saw a group of adult males lined up along a field watching some guys plow a row.  The tractors were really humming and steam was coming out like crazy.  One really excited guy even yelled "there it is!" as the dirt was being dug into.  Can't get much better than that.  Thank you Woodburn, OR.

A Night In Portland

Photo by the Oregon Zoo

On Saturday Cliff and I headed to Portland.  We needed to exchange a lovely Christmas present from my mom and wanted to spend some time with Kathy and Jill.  I'm so excited that we got out of Eugene for a brief bit of time.  We have been stuck in thick fog for days.  FOR DAYS!  It hasn't burned off.  It hasn't moved.  It is just everywhere.  Driving to Portland was like driving in a thin grey tube.  We couldn't see the fields that sit close to the side of the road.  Billboards were difficult to make out until you were right on top of them.  It was crazy.  With this said, we saw 19 hawks on the drive up.  They were all right on the side of the road.  We don't know if the fog brought them closer or what but it was really fun to spot them as we drove.  We think they were red tailed hawks.  Cliff said he usually sees a few on the trip but never as many as we saw on Saturday.  (Side note: we also saw 13 on our way back down to Eugene yesterday.)

In Portland it was beautiful and sunny.  We could see Mt. Hood.  It was amazing.  I forget how different you can feel when you see sunshine.   We felt like we were on vacation.  What am I saying...we were on vacation.

Cliff got a nice razor for Christmas from this really swanky shop called The Art of Shaving.  Sadly, Cliff already has two razors that he uses and loves.  No worries.  There isn't a store in Eugene so we needed to go to Portland to exchange the items  It was really fun to be in the store.  Lisa, our helpful sale clerk, walked Cliff through the process and got him set up with some pretty cool items.  Cliff is now the proud owner of a badger hair shaving brush, shaving oil, shaving cream, and shaving lotion all made with lavender essential oil.  Nice!

After our experience at The Art of Shaving, we met Kathy and Jill at Hopworks Urban Brewery.  We had eaten there last year when we pet sit fort them and remembered them having the most amazing, fresh (and organic) food.  We went in thinking we would split a calzone and salad but we lucked out as it was almost happy hour (on a Saturday!).  We opted for a little of everything: a few beers, giant buttered pretzels with beer/cheese sauce and spicy brown mustard, jalapeño poppers, fries, pizza with lemon chicken and green chilies and caramelized onions, a house salad, and spicy southwest quinoa salad.  It was a really great affordable meal which is so awesome since all of their stuff is organic.  The quinoa salad was perfectly filling, spicy, and healthy.  I want to make it at home so Cliff and I can take it for lunch.  If you are ever in the Portland area and like good pub grub...eat there.

We decided to get a movie and stay in since Toby, their dog, wasn't feeling all that well.  They took us to a  movie store called Movie Madness.  Their goal is to "maintain the largest and most comprehensive collection of movies available to rent on DVD, Blu-Ray, and Video."  It was really fun to be in an actual movie store.  They have movie memorabilia all over the place (note the photo of a Drew Barrymore outfit from Never Been Kissed).  It was like a mini Planet Hollywood.  I won't lie.  I was overwhelmed with their stock so I was happy when Kathy suggested Point Break with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze.  We all knew about the movie but surprisingly non of us had seen it except for Cliff (and he was happy to watch it as it meant that we weren't going to have to watch something he hates).  Victory for all!

Since we were all still pretty full from happy hour, we opted for an ice cream dinner from a food cart.  I got a pumpkin ice cream dipped in dark chocolate (it was the $2 special), Kathy got a cake batter sundae, Jill got a chocolate chip banana and Oregon hazelnut hot fudge sundae, and Cliff got one scoop of chocolate chip banana and one scoop of green coconut curry.  I know what you might be thinking.  Green coconut curry ice cream?  I know as I thought it to.  Cliff thought it was delicious while I thought it was a little weird.  It seriously tasted like a sweet curry and had a spicy aftertaste.  Cliff was especially proud of his pairing as the chocolate chip banana went really well with the curry.  It was cold outside (30 degrees) so we all huddled near a heater in the make-shift food-cart food-court.  I would like to eat at more food carts.  They are really popular in Portland (probably also every other city/big town in America).  They all have decent menus.  Vietnamese food.  Thai food.  Mexican food.  Pizza.  Burgers.  Kathy and Jill complained that food cart food is no longer as affordable as it once was.  I mean there are apparently now two carts where you can get artisan cheese plates.  How Portland.

What would a trip to Portland be without a trip to Ikea?  I wanted to get a few frames so that I can finally hang stuff on my office walls.  We got free coffee (since we joined the Ikea family program), looked through the sample rooms, ate meatballs for lunch, shopped in the market place and then ended with a celebratory ice cream (it's tradition).  Kathy and Cliff played with stuffed animals for a while as they all are kinda odd and creepy this time around.  We also sampled a traditional Swedish drink that is consumed around the holidays.  It is a soda that is flavored with hops and malt syrup.  Really good at the first sip but then we found it hard to make our way through the rest of our serving.  All in all, it was a successful ikea trip.

Afterwards we left sunny Portland and headed south.  About 45 minutes down the road we were greeted by the fog again.   Apparently we will have it until Tuesday afternoon.  Oh well.  We have hunkered down at the cottage.  We have a fire going and we are roasting our Cinderella pumpkin so that we can make pie, soup, and freeze a bunch for future meals.  Cinderella pumpkins smell really good when they are roasting  Better than other squash in my opinion.  They smell buttery and delicious.

The Holidays in Oregon

First off, happy new year!  I hope that everyone's 2013 is off to a good start.  It is hard to believe that the holidays are over (although Cliff keeps telling me that they aren't over until this upcoming weekend when we take down the tree and decorations).  This was an odd holiday season as this was the first time we were away from the east coast and on our own for Christmas.

Cliff and I did an excellent job of getting into the Christmas spirit.  We went with friends to see holiday lights (see Coos Bay post), we watched holiday movies, ate chocolate, listened to Christmas music, decorated the whole house, and drank egg nog.  We were in good shape until Christmas eve.  We were really homesick and sad.  So we made dinner, chatted with our lovely family, watched "It's A Wonderful Life", and headed for bed.  On Christmas we finished opening presented (we snuck a few ahead of schedule) and packed up to head to Portland to spend the night with Kathy, Jill, and our friend Zoe who flew up from California.  We were actually supposed to go up to Portland before Christmas but postponed the trip as Zoe's flight was cancelled and she came in a few days late.  I'm really glad we changed our plans as spending time with friends helped to make a really nice Christmas.  Kathy, Jill and Zoe made a delicious lunch/dinner (ham, vegetables, bread and cheese, green bean casserole, stuffing, mimosas, and homemade cookies!).  We Skyped with our friends Sam and Steve in Pittsburg.  Afterwards we all went to the movie to see Les Miserables.  The theater was packed.  I love going to the movies on Christmas.  We all really enjoyed the movie and cried a lot...well....I cried a lot.  I get so emotional with musicals.  They are magical to me.  After the movie we opened presents and ate Chinese food.  It was a solid day.

We came back from Portland on Wednesday so that I could work the rest of the week.  Cliff and I were both looking forward to the weekend as REI was having their scratch and dent sale.  We really want to start backpacking but are missing a few essential items and we had Christmas money burning a hole in our pocket.  We got there 2 1/2 hours before the doors opened and we were about the 70th or so folks in line.  It was cold but dry and a friend waited with us so the time went by pretty quickly.  Once inside, Cliff did it.  He found the exact tent we wanted.  The tent sells for about $350 and we got ours for $70 because a non-essential zipper was broken.  Totally excited!  We also got a fuel bottle for our future stove and I got a fuzzy fleece jacket.  We were pretty proud of ourselves.  We put the tent up in the living room quite a few times that night.  Rudy was very confused.  We are now a few steps closer to our first spring backpacking trip.

Last night we went out to dinner with a friend from work and stopped in at our neighbor's for a get together.   The clock struck midnight as Cliff and I were going to bed.  We decided to ring in the new year with sleep.  This morning we got up and Cliff suggested that we climb Spencer Butte.  It has been dry this week (awesome) and the sun was out.  Everyone and their mom, brother, cousin, and dog was at the butte today.  We all wanted to take in the view and the sunshine on the first day of 2013.  There was quite a bit of frost and even some ice on the butte.  I took a photo of some as it was a cool shape. It was clear and we could see the Three Sisters and even up to Mt. Hood.  The whole hike was relaxing and wonderful.

I've failed to mention that Rudy had an awesome Christmas.  He got a new bed, treats, a long and leggy Santa monkey, a Rudolph rope/squeak toy (via Kathy and Jill), and a new tie (via mom).  He has been a happy camper.  He won't leave his new bed and when he does it is to either eat, go to the bathroom, or frolic with his new toys.  You can't see them all, but he is sitting on top of them in this photo.  He likes to snuggle with them.

As for the new year, 2012 was full of transitions for us and for the family.  We are looking forward to 2013 and the new challenges and the opportunities that await.  We don't really do resolutions but Cliff and I have a few hopes for the upcoming year:

• Spend more time outside
• Start backpacking (the goal would be once a month in the dry times)
• Be more active and eat healthier (we both have quite a big sweet tooth)
• Finally get the dog to walk properly on a leash
• Cliff wants to row another marathon before April
• I want to improve my ability to balance work and life

May the new year bring you all lots of love, laughter, prosperity, and happiness!  Bring it on 2013.