Beneath the Wraps

Jenna loves to make people happy.   She likes giving little gifts for birthdays.   Before the year started she asked us if we could take her and one of her friends to the roller skating rink for his birthday.   I have taken Jenna roller skating a few times during her lifetime.   It has always taken her longer to get her shoes off and skates on or vice-versa than the time she spends going around the rink.   She has never mastered the roller skate however.   I, on the other hand, spent many hours on roller skates in the past.   I am no longer confident about stepping on wheels.   Yesterday we took her and her friend up to the Big City of Roseburg and purchased passes for each of them.   Her friend had gone around the rink a few times without her.   She struggled, but did eventually get better at it – or so it appeared.   She didn’t seem to notice that she had gotten better as she still felt unsteady on her feet.   Her f...

          I had always believed that New Year’s Day was for taking down the Christmas decorations and putting them away as that is the day my mom had always done that.   I had tried carrying it over to the family I am with right now.   Sometimes it works, but not always.   Roland always seems anxious to take it down right after Christmas.                     We did not wait until New Year’s for the outside decorations but removed the lights and ornaments, electric cords and so forth from the yard.   We started at 10:00 Tuesday morning before the fog had completely lifted.   Roland announced that it was going to rain.   He was right.   It poured.   I can’t remember what time it started pouring, but it was still light outside.   I don’t think the pouring stopped until after midnight.       ...

          Roland had tweaked  a recipe found in this book:              The reason being is because we did not have all the required ingredients, but it was good.   A little dry.   The next day I decided I would go to the store and purchase some queso to add to it as Roland made enough for 12 people and we didn’t have that many eating.              I was just going to go to Ray’s or Dollar General and come right back.   But Roland asked could I pick up this and that and oh, how about some shrimp . . .?   I wasn’t planning on going to Roseburg.   Dollar General doesn’t have shrimp and I doubt Rip Off Rays would have it either.   And if they did . . . really?   Was I willing to max my debit card for the assortment of items?           Jenna had just barely cleared the t...

          Shortly after we moved to Oregon, Jenna and I had gone to a second hand store in search for some game cards – or puzzle cards – something that we could cover to create our own version of.  We ended up purchasing a child’s alphabet learning game including four boards and 28 cards.  this is not the exact game we had purchased, but one similar We covered the backs of the cards with clip art pictures we had printed off the computer.   shows a small piece of the board that we made   We didn’t have a use for the boards but continued to hang onto them until earlier this month.   We decided that we would send them to our youngest granddaughter for Christmas and spent a family home evening painting letters so place on the boards.                        For our oldest granddaughter I had purchase a bead kit which re...

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful . . . “ My sister recently posted this picture on her facebook page. retrieved from facebook My comment was that even though we live further up north than she does, the residents in Douglas County are more inclined to be like the first picture than the second. I DON’T miss snow.   I don’t miss driving in it.   I don’t miss waiting in the cold snowbanks and blizzards.   I don’t miss the horrible traffic.   I don’t miss this: retrieved from KSL NOVEMBER 27, 2019 AT 5:14 AM   Retrieved from Salt Lake Tribune  NOVEMBER 27, 2019  retrieved from NBC news December 8, 2019   The weather was quite beautiful on Christmas morning and continued into the next day.   Jenna put on her Elf costume and we went to Millsite park ao she could pass out candy canes. I had to take another picture after we returned home so that the socks could be seen (as t...

I always associate this song with my dad as I remember him singing it each year.  I would like to share this rendition which combines the voice of Kenneth Cope with the art work of Liz Lemon Swindle:

          Monopoly is still not my favorite game, but it is one of the few that Roland will agree to play with us.   However the rules vary quite drastically depending on whether he or Jenna are banker.   One of the last times we played, each of us had monopolies but Roland was banker hoarding houses and we were not allowed to buy hotels until we slowly built up and then traded in.   When Jenna’s banker, hotels can be purchased without having to first build up a housing empire.   There aren’t enough houses – at least there weren’t.           Roland found some extra houses at good will and purchased what appears to be vintage pieces.   Not original 1936 pieces but a remake done in 1947.   We decided to incorporate the extra housing in with our game pieces that were made this century. We played a came the day after Christmas. The hotel sizes are different and the house ...