The Heat Was the Villain

        Disneyland was not as decked out as I had expected.  I had asked Jaime if she had seen any Villains.  She had but was disappointed that there hadn’t been more.  But then again it was hot.  Cast members dressed up and photographers available to take pictures.  Lines formed for that.  Oh, no way.  Too hot.  Just wait until I get home and photoshop myself in.

       So from the train I took the back of the entrance that we personally did not use. We saw Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy in their Halloween attire.  I don’t know how long they had to be out there for.  Wearing those costumes would be its own challenge in cool weather.  I can’t imagine how much more hot they felt in 107 degree weather.

       Here are some photos taken from both my camera and Richard’s phone. 

this one found on Google images

Merry Christmas

 Jaime always manages to miss whenever we go to the pool on July 25.  Josh had always decorated for the first five years we had lived here but Sebastian did not.  Today I was surprised to see some parts decorated.  

New Years Day

           I remember taking down the tree on New Year’s Day each year.  It became tradition I would suppose for many families.  And gosh, darn, I will definitely miss the lights and decorations that had popped up in so many yards even before Thanksgiving.  The Myrtle Creek – Tri City area is always so dark.  It is nice to have the Christmas lights to remove some of the darkness.

          On New Year’s Day this year I read a couple of thoughts which helped ease the pain of this tradition that I have come to hate.  David Butler has a facebook page in which he shares uplifting thoughts.  On New Year’s Day he compared taking down the tree to the first Christmas – perhaps a week after the fact – when Joseph and Mary had to leave the manger and move on.  They could not stay where they were nor could they take the manger with them.  And why would they want to?  It wasn’t really a bed – a crib fit for a king.  And yet that is what it became.  The manger is a symbol.  The tree is a symbol.  Decorations.  They all have symbolic meaning.  And just because they are removed visually  does not mean we can’t still continue to hold them in our hearts.

          Meanwhile Corey has started a new blog.  Unlike his first blog in which he wished to remain unknown he uses his actual first name.  His goal is to provide uplifting messages.  I am certain he will be successful at it.  He mostly always lifts me up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candlepower

         He and Joh happened to be married on New Year’s Day. In his post he comments on spending their anniversary together and inviting another to attend a concert with them.  In his post he makes the comment that some think it is odd that they would invite another to celebrate their anniversary. His response “ . . .  seeing his eyes light up and seeing his spirit lifted is very joyous to us, and shouldn't that be what life is about--lifting others and making them feel good?”

          I admire my brother and so many others as David Butler and Emily Freeman for sharing their light. Thus even in darkness we can carry a light in our hearts.  May I keep that in mind with every new year I start by taking down the tree.

Reminiscing New Years

         Nine years ago today I started my blog.  I explained my purpose and the reason for the title.  The next day I posted about New Years – my goal was to give gratitude with every post.  My posts may have started out that way but I don’t think I was diligent.  I don’t know.  I haven’t gone back to reread every post. Toward the end of the year I was more focused on my mom’s needs as she had dementia and I highly suspect that my posts did not always reflect that of gratitude.

        At the end of the year I had taken Jenna to the library for an afternoon countdown – counting up to 12:00 and blowing horns.  She had wanted to stay up but had conked out by 11:30.    We had gone to my mom’s house New Year’s Day 2013.  We played games with my sister and her husband.  Jenna played with her cousins.  When Corey called my mom later on she told him that we had gone hiking.  We had not gone hiking.  It was too cold.

        I did not post about New Year every year, but when I did I would usually mention the weather, traditions of taking down the tree and reminisced on someone always being sick or emotional on New Year’s Eve.

        By 2014 my mom had passed away.  It was Roland’s turn to be sick and yet he had donated blood on New Year’s Day.  Go figure.  The weather was awesome that year.  Jenna and I took Shilo (aka Highness) for a walk in the park.  Autumn leaves were still on the trees and on the ground.  It was awesome.

        2015 Jenna’s final countdown with West Valley library. We did not know that we would be living in another state within six months. 2016 our first New Years in Oregon.  Jenna rode her bike and I took pictures. 

        There was no mention of New Years in 2017.  Jenna and I had purchased a calendar and had decided to celebrate the list of silly holidays that were suggested. On 2018 I took a suggestion that my sister had posted to write down positive things throughout the year and place them in a jar to be read 2019.  I remember reading through each paper on New Years.  That is the year I had set a goal to write at least two dashes per week or month – I can’t remember. 

        New Year 2020 we completed taking down the decorations (which we had started early due to weather and Roland’s insistence) It was Jaime who was sad that year.  We didn’t know that 2020 would become the longest year known to man. 

        Which brings us to this year.  2021.  Jenna and I played games hoping Roland would join us – but he’s had this cough for over two months now.  A severe cold but nothing COVID concerning.  He’s not always the greatest at taking care of himself.

        At 10:30 we put in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle so that at midnight when Dwayne Johnson put the emerald back into the Jaguar statue.  Roland opened some sparkling cider that we drink only once a year.  It was still warm and half of it exploded on his pants, on the couch and in one of my slippers.  We poured at the rest to toast the New Year and said “Jumanji” with the rest of the cast as it seemed more fitting than happy New Year.

        Jenna and I took down most of the decorations from the house.  There are still a few strands of lights framing the deck and the eaves.  Roland was quite staple happy when he put them in, but I didn’t wish to drag out the ladder to unstapled them.

        The weather was nice until just after 3:00 – a fierce wind swept over our street just as I finished bringing in the chords that Jenna and I had neglected earlier.  And as with every other year, all of us are finding things that didn’t make it to the shed.

Weather, Repairs, Crafts and Desktop

Jenna had wanted to do a craft.  We went and gathered pinecones on Tuesday.  Yesterday we made these:

 Jenna also found the perfect rock and painted a scene.  I thought it turned out well.

 

Roland had purchased some sensors for the house in order to detect anyone in our driveway or anyone on our porch.  One was more sensitive than the other and had gone off more times than needed.  He decided he would take care of it when he got off work yesterday in addition to putting up lights for the stairs and moving the initial light he had purchased which wasn’t serving the purpose as he had hoped.

 We were about to lose light and I didn’t want him to climb the ladder and not be able to finish the projects he had on his agenda.  He was tired and I could sense that he was already frustrated without a darkness challenge.  I suggested putting everything away and trying again today.  He had the entire day off after all.

 He asked me if I would go out with him at 11:00.  The fog was still lingering and it was cold.  Darn cold.  34 degrees Fahrenheit.  I don’t recall ever being so cold in Oregon.  Not even during snowmegeden when the power went out.  COLD.  The first picture was taken before 11:30.

 

The fog started lifting after that.

 

as the sky cleared in the east there was still darkness to the west

tried to highlight above of snowcapped trees

tried to capture dew as it glistened in the trees

 

I turned on my computer to write down my thoughts.  I was greeted by this picture.

My youngest niece and two nephews Halloween this year.  I had to put this on my desktop because it makes me smile.

Finding a Sense of Normality

       Every year the local elementary schools make ornaments to hang on the tree that is displayed downtown.  Each year they walk from the school to the downtown area where the tree is displayed so that they can hang the ornaments themselves or drop into a basket of ornaments to decorate higher than they can reach.  On the first Saturday of December there is a gathering.  There is music and free hot chocolate.  And then there is the lighting of the tree. 

Jenna took this at main street and second
avenue entrance to park (closed off in Dec)

      This year Jenna and I saw decorations carted out as some contributed to decorating the town.  

Jenna took this one yesterday.  So foggy this morning
that only one strand of snowflakes could be seen

The tree was lit without all the hoopla that it has seen in years past.  Only lights adorn the tree as there are no ornaments. Students have not returned to school since they left for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Everything in Oregon is online until further notice. 

       On Saturday we’ll have annual light parade (here and here). I don’t know where we’ll stand to view it and keep our distance at the same time.  It’s nice to have normality after a hard year of chaos. Trucker Light Parades are available on youtube as my video was removed here.

https://kval.com/news/local/christmas-truck-parade

New Year’s Eve and 2020

         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 wanted to play Monopoly and asked if I would like to be banker, but I really didn’t.  So he was banker and the rules were very different than they had been the last time we played.  Every time (both last time and this time) Jenna tries to play fair, it ends up biting her.  I don’t think it was so much the game itself, but making future comparisons of things that will take place in her life.  She is not ready (not willing) to grow up.  She was crying while I was thinking – “That’s tradition.”  Ever since I was a child I remember New Year's Eve somebody was always either physically sick or emotionally stressed – sometimes both.  But I’ve never seen it with this family – except for many Thanksgivings Jenna has been sick, but not since we’ve lived in Oregon – at least I don’t think.  She’s such a trooper.

          The youth had scheduled a dance that she had planned on going to until the day before.  She said she’d much rather stay home and play games with us.  After her meltdown, I figured she wouldn’t have gone to the dance anyway and wondered if she would want to play games.  But Jenna does bounce back and radiates a very positive attitude.

          We had three guests come over for light snacks and games.  Rita was the first to show.  We started to play the game Imagine-If having taken three turns each when Mary and Kassy arrived.  We stopped our game of Imagine-If and moved onto another so that Mary and Kassy could join us even though Mary said we didn’t have to. 

          She started preparing some food they had brought with them and Kassy sat at the table, arms crossed and expression that told me she had been dragged to the “party” against her will and would rather die than engage in any kind of celebration. We started game number two without Kassy but Mary did join in after a while.  We played “Hear Me Out” which Mary didn’t seem to fully understand as she would read the player's answers and make comments so that there was no secret about who wrote each answer.  When there was a tie, we asked Kassy to be the tie-breaker.

We did manage to get a smile and more participation from Kassy when Jenna and Rita took a break and started doing “the fork in the garbage disposal” dance.  All six of us played a round of Uno. Mary was tired and groggy and finally took a nap on our couch. I think we may have played another game of Uno without her and then Kassy decided she no longer wanted to play.  We put her on the other couch and gave her the remote control.  The rest of us continued to play “Catch Phrase” and pitted Roland and Rita against Jenna and me.  We laughed so hard.  After a while, we traded partners and quit keeping score.

After midnight Jenna went with Roland who took Rita home.  He said to just leave Mary and Kassy on the couch and they could sleep there, but Kassy was insistent that Mary wake up as they had other things on their agenda.  The wee hours of New Year’s Day in Myrtle Creek?  What was her hurry to get out of our house?  Perhaps she needed to get home to her dog.  I’ll bet that’s what it was.

They left shortly after Jenna and Roland returned.  We went to bed and took the indoor decorations down at 10:00 in the morning.  I thought we’d play games but went back to our boring routine of each of us just doing our own thing.  It was a quiet and boring day overall.

I feel like I did pretty well posting dashes last year, but my bi-weekly word rarely ever came out as I had intended.  They aren’t on the agenda for this year.  I figure most of what I have posted has been dash worthy – just not numbered as such.  My goal for this year is to allow Roland the pleasure of savoring his shopping and to not complain about the wait.

Decorating Pics

As mentioned in the last post, the skies darkened before we were through:

Roland had purchased "candles" to place in our windows.  

They will turn off after six hours

Jenna fell twice.  I don't know why she finds that amusing

Cell phone does not have the same sophistocation

as does some of the cameras I have owned

I thought the reflection of the tree in our window looks cool

as it appears the tree is really inside of the house.

We stopped decorating not only because it was dark but

The three adjoining cities will put on a light parade each year

on the second Saturday in December.  

I've taken several pictures in the past; this is the best I could do this year.

This last one was taken yesterday when we put the balls on.

I will have to get a picture of our finished product later on

Next we have our non-traditional advent wreath which I thought we would decorate with Christmas festivities.  Jenna decided to go for a more unique approach adding things that may not have anything to do with Christmas but may find a use for later on.  And so here we are from Dec 1 to Dec 15.  First the naked wreath:

Day 1: plastic dinosaur

day 2: granny square stocking

day 3: a plastic "diamond" from YW excellence
Aladdin theme "Diamond in the Rough"

day 4: book lamp

we tried turning on but the picture did not turn out as well

day 5: Believe

day 6: deer head

day 7: plastic container and snowflack on the booklamp
(so that it doesn't blend in with the door)

day 8: fairy doll

day 9: rubber star

day 10: match box ice cream truck

day 11: orange sunglasses

day 12: whoops, the wreath had fallen. Some ornaments
rearranged.  and dust puppy added

day 13: fish shaped blush brush

day 14: owl covered hand sanatizer

day 15: Elmo

And here is my little elf ready for school this morning  

Almost There

Written Satuday

Last year we were the

only house on our street

to put up Christmas lights

and decorate our yard. 

This year everyone

started yard decorations

early. 

Our roof was being fixed

and then it rained. 

Until late today we were

one of the few houses

on our street that wasn’t decorated.

We appeared to be "bah humbuggers"

but we are really not.

Our roof is finally finished

I had noticed on Wednesday

that the flatbed trailer was gone

– the one Roland insisted remain at

our house until the job was complete.

It rained all day yesterday.  Sometimes

the rain felt like snow.  I was

doing crosswalk duty again. 

All students had been ordered to

go to the gym after lunch.  I would

much rather stand out in the

rain then be in the overly loud gym.

It was nice today.  I didn’t even

wear a coat. Roland wanted to go to

Winston to look for a coffee table.  He

took me with him.  We were gone for

a long time.  It felt long. 

I was afraid it would be dark before

we returned. We had promised Jenna that

we would decorate the outside.

We did get home before dark but

did not finish with the lights until after dark.

Jenna and I plan on finishing with

big bulbs after we return home from Church.

Christmas Makeover

            At no time of the year do I believe in Disney's Toy Story than between Thanksgiving and Christmas - although it isn't so much the toys that move and form personalities, but rather the Christmas decorations that I am certain I had packed and carefully labeled each box.  I know exactly where they were located in January - the beginning of the year.  But by the end of the year, I notice that the decorations have moved around.  They have managed to move from box to box, shelf to shelf and all figure that it's been so long that I won't remember where I had put them in the first place.

            As I mentioned in an earlier post, Jenna had retrieved four boxes of decorations - yet I knew that a whole slew of ornaments were missing, and Christmas socks and . . .  lights.  Where are the lights?  And how is it that lights always manage to tangle themselves no matter how carefully they are put away?  It's a personality thing.  Lights are notorious for having parties when we aren't looking.  They dance, they play twister, and then they laugh when we open the box to pull them out.  They are definitely the most ill behaved of all Christmas decorations.

            Roland and I returned to the shed while Jenna was in school.  We found four more boxes of decorations.  Why in the world do we have eight boxes?  And where are the nativities?  I can't imagine that Joseph, Mary, baby Jesus, the wise men and shepherds would be as naughty as the light strings.  Or bows.  How are two decorative bows able to undo themselves in a box with the outside ornaments - which, by the way, Jenna insisted on putting up last night - in the dark.  Why couldn't she just wait until tomorrow when she gets home early?

            The rain came.  Still quite misty outside.  Perhaps she was smart about decorating last night.  It adds brightness.  We still have to do the inside tree.