Our Christmas 2023

           Jaime and I were up before 5:00.  We played Phrasel on the kindle as we waited for Richard to emerge from the bedroom – possibly 45 minutes later.  We opened two presents each before getting dressed.  A calendar from my grandchildren I had spent Thanksgiving with!  What a beautiful calendar it is!

          We had invited the missionaries over to have breakfast with us and played some games with them before they had to leave.  We then opened the rest of our gifts and played more games.  Brand new games – two of which we had played with the Elders.

          David invited us to have dinner with his family.  We played more games before returning home.  I am very tired and need to go to bed.  Perhaps I’ll include more detail and pictures in another post.

Family Barbeque

                My whole purpose for going to Utah in the first place was to see my sister’s family and that of my son, Ryan. Initailly I thought I would go at the end of July as Shelly and Shaylynn would have camp and Shelly would need someone to stay with the boys while Todd was at work.  Then I got word of an upcoming ward reunion for August 19^th. I somehow didn’t feel that I would be able to stay that long and declined the reunion. 

Later Shelly informed me that she was released from her calling and wouldn’t be attending camp after all – which gave me opportunity to make arrangements to attend the reunion after all.  And then Natalee (aka Sunny) called to ask if I’d be there this summer so that she could arrange for my sibs and I to get together.  She made arrangements for all of us to get together for a barbeque on the 18^th.  So my initial plan was to take the greyhound on the 15^th and arrive on the 17^th. 

We ended up going earlier and wished for Richard to come with us.  I felt fortunate that he decided to come get us.  He drove all day Thursday and arrived after 3:00 a.m. on Friday.  So he was there for my two primary purposes for being in town.  We kept his presence a secret from Ryan’s family and Shelly's.

The barbeque didn’t start until four or five but we had gone to my brother’s house early.  I don’t think Ryan was planning to attend initially but did arrive before Shelly and Todd.  They were all very happy and surprised to see “grandpa”. 

We had a really nice visit.  Of course we played games.  We started with a game of “spoons” outdoors but Mother Nature had other ideas and pushed us into the house before the night was over.  Such a memorable night.  Thank you all who attended!

Visiting Cousins and Playing Games

 On Thursday morning my cousin Kindra (aka Michelle) and daughter, Aria (aka Melody) drove to Marj’s house to take Jaime and me to breakfast.  We ended up at a waffle house near the high school.  Afterwards Aria had wanted to get something at Fashion Place and so Jaime and I returned to the mall for a second time. After we were through browsing at the mall, Kindra drove us downtown and dropped us off. 

          We were specifically looking for a penny press machine and thought there might be one at the planetarium, but there was not.  

 

Jaime received a text message from Richard while we were downtown.  He had made arrangements for us to check in at a hotel as he was planning on driving in to collect us.  I was adamant about NOT returning on Greyhound.  I had wanted Richard to go with us in the first place specifically for the 18^th and 19^th – my soul reason for even being in Utah. 

                  UTA offered free fare to all passengers riding bus or train on Thursday and Friday and so we did not have to pay on the return.  

We took the train all the way to Sandy and met Natalee who then drove us to Marj’s to collect our luggage and took us back to the hotel.  She offered to take us back to her house and feed us.  But we decided to just rest up.  Jaime and I unpacked and went to the pool. 

Later Keith called to ask if we wanted to play games.  He came and got us and took us back to his house.  We were playing games when Steven (aka Corey) arrived.  Natalee took some really great pictures of Jaime and me playing cards with my brothers. What great memories in the making.

Introduction to Family Home Evening

 We ate dinner as a family and I asked if it would be okay to do a family home evening each week.  I really would like to know these three extra people who are now a part of our household.  We know OF them but don't feel a connection to them.  And so I introduced Define Your Dash and answered only one question and asked if we could do at least one per week.  

https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/define-your-dash-start-
writing-your-personal-history-with-the-52stories-project

After we each answered the question Ally and Clair started a game of "Never Have I Ever".  We each started out with five fingers but within six questions three of us had only one finger left, Clair had two and Ally had three.  She said she had never been to Disneyland which made the rest of us go out.  

Ally drew with markers while the rest of us played a few rounds of Blokus.  Could be the start of something positive.

Tony’s Family Vacation part 2

               Wednesday was a more relaxing day as the only driving was on the part of Tony who had loaded up the car and came on down to spend with us.  I had washed three loads of clothes before they got here and I think they ended up doing four.

          We played or started many games.  I think there were more games we hadn’t finished then there were those we finished.  Richard made fish for our lunch and decorated cupcakes with the kids.  I think Tony and family left shortly after 7:00 and decided to head toward Medford in order to see the temple.  They said they returned to Roseburg after 11:00.

Yesterday required more driving as we went to the Wildlife Safari. It seems each time I have gone to the park there seems to be less number of animals than the last time I was there.  We did see a group of staff members watching a cheetah in the parking lot.  That was cool.  Also was quite entertained at watching two emus in a heated chase.  Tony said that if he lived here he would be going to the Safari at least once a week.

The three year old drifted off as we were driving away and was sound asleep when we stopped our cars to feed the animals – mostly the deer and rheas.  Tony felt bad that Oliver was missing out on the feeding, but we did take the gang to Stewart Park afterward to feed the ducks and geese and Oliver was awake for that.

Once again, Rochelle and I felt warn out by the end of the day and rested on the couch while the kids watched Toy Story Three.   We played more games and ate Hawaiian Haystacks.  Between eight and nine we said our good-byes.  They are going home a different route than their coming.

Tony’s Family Vacation part 1

         All three of the boys have said they would come visit – though only two have made it.  Randy brought his family over Memorial weekend last year. This year Tony said he would leave Salt Lake after Jaime’s graduation.  He left on the forth. They came by way of California so that they could see the Redwoods.  We did not realize that we lived so close. We had suggested to them that they could stop at the Vortex on the way here – but by the time they got there, it was almost time to close.  And then the GPS led them some funky way.  For they were only forty minutes out but took to hours to get to us.

        They chose not to stay with us as their middle child is allergic to dogs.  Though we did put Bonnie in the kennel on Monday morning, Liz still has allergies.  She remembered having been there before and was quite excited about her stay.  Jaime was not excited.  They do tend to miss one another when they’re apart.

                We played games for a few hours the first day they were with us.  They left after seven to check into the hotel in Roseburg 22 minutes away. Yesterday morning we took a squirrely way to get to Bandon.  Rochelle, my grandkids and I walked around old town Bandon while Tony, Richard and Jaime went fishing.  I led the other four around the pier.  The youngest two climbed on statues while the other two took pictures and after a while Liz whipped out her little camera and she started taking pictures. 

 

I was hoping that the trolley would be running, but currently is not because of budget cuts.  After we looked at a fish made of garbage we went back near where we had started and crossed the street over to the Washed Ashore museum and looked at more sculptures.  They enjoyed it.  And then we had lunch.

Richard had reserved three places on a charter.  Evidently there had been a lot of turbulence and both Richard and Tony got sick and threw up. But Richard did manage to catch one fish. Jaime, who hates seafood and fish, caught ten.

Four of the adults were tired.  Neither the 18 year old (Jaime) nor those belonging to Rochelle and Tony understand what tired it.  Tony, who had initially looked to be in worse shape than Richard, regained his color and ate some food.  Richard had some tea and ate a while after that.  He felt awful.  At least that’s the impression he gave.  It was too cold for the beach.  Don’t imagine those that had ridden the boat even cared.  I think the children had forgotten my mention of it.

We had parted ways and Tony and Rochelle took the kids back to Roseburg. It is so weird coming home and not having Bonnie at the door to greet us. I think all three of us went to bed earlier than usual.  Our agenda for to today is to just take things easy – play games while Tony and Rochelle take care of their laundry.

Photo Solitaire picture 171

         I don’t know how old my kindle is.  I am certain a relic according to Kindle standards.  A while back I would not be able to finish playing games as they would freeze up until I finally deleted them because really . . . what was the point of having a game take up space if I wasn’t able to play it?  It’s not as if I was all full up and lacking for space.  Turns out the games I’m playing are also relics – thought it is hard to label them as such because I feel that I am at least 4-6 times older than they are and I don’t consider myself a relic.

        Anyway there was a while there in which I had only six games to play and was getting bored as only three were word related.  The last couple of months have given me other game options – recycled games.  I know they are recycled as I continue receiving messages that this game will expire at the end of October (or some other month) – 2016.  Um . . . 2016 was a while ago.  "What are you talking ‘bout Willis?"

        One of the games I had added is called Photo Solitaire.  

Normally I don’t go for the photos as I rarely see all that the creator had – or the same thing with four different names (curtains, drapes, lace, fabric) and am horrible at figuring out the adjectives or verbs that aren’t as apparent.  I thought Photo Solitaire might be easier than the other picture puzzles as it offered a Mahjong twist. Each Mahjong game that I have played have dimensional pieces that have to removed from either left or right ends but not anywhere – unless the tiles are piled higher than those next to it.  But with Photo Solitaire any letter that is visible can be part of the word no matter its placement. 

        I must confess that I don’t always see everything on the list – especially the last few that I’ve looked at.  Fortunately there are cheats for some of puzzles that I have installed - Photo Solitaire being one of them.  First off the following photograph looked like a double exposure.  

I was able to punch in the words: “hands”, “prayer”, “board”, “flames” and “light”, but I was missing a few.  It didn’t dawn on me that “faith”, “hope” and “religion” were also words that I should have found – and did once I looked them up. 

        I’m grateful that Kindle has brought some of these to life again.  I have enjoyed many of the games I have downloaded.  Thank you Kindle and to all of those who create games for the devises offered.

Roland's 3rd Kindle

           A few years ago a friend of mine had given me her old kindle.  She said she wanted me to have it so that I could read or play games.  I brought it home and had Roland look at it and create an account for me.  He did so using his Amazon account.  Whenever I turned the kindle on it greeted me as Roland's kindle

Roland's kindle (though it's not)

 I wasn’t much for reading electronically, but did enjoy the games.  I mostly played word games. After a while I had played the games and turned to daily puzzles which I would download before I left the house.  That way I could play them while I was on my lunch break. 

          After a while the kindle decided to spaz on me and would claim it would recharge but then it give me the kindlefire sign and I couldn’t get past it.  I did nothing with it for a few weeks and Roland decided to restore the kindle – though I don’t know how – unless he could do it through his computer?

          I reloaded games, tried some new ones, and started from scratch.  Though it was the same kindle that I had used before, it greeted me with being Roland’s second kindle.  I continued to download daily puzzles before I left the house.  Even during the pandemic when I knew I wouldn’t be going anywhere.  I wanted to continue being in the habit so that when the pandemic finally came to an end ( I didn’t think we would still be struggling like we are after just one year that has felt more like 10)

          Just before Christmas Roland purchased a new kindle which he believed would be bigger, weigh less, and wouldn’t have to be charged as often.  He succeeded with the latter two but the new kindle that he got me for Christmas was a kindle paper white to read books and not play games.  I didn’t think it was a very good fit until just last month.  There are still several books that I would like to purchase as they really don’t cut it on kindle – nor can I mark them the way I would like or reference them in a way that I can with a tangible book.  But I do find I am enjoying being able to read and return without having to worry about shelf room that doesn’t exist in my house but does in the cloud.

 

Roland's 3rd kindle (but not really)

          My new kindle greets me as Roland’s third kindle – even though I have been the sole user of both kindles and I have read a lot more.  I continue to use both kindles – one as a book and one for playing games.

Christmas 2020

         Last week I had taken Jenna to the church with me in order to wrap gifts for some members in the ward.  Another sister had dropped by the church to donate some games – which Jenna volunteered to take home.  I’m not really certain how that came about but we did end up with them.

        Thursday night Jenna’s Sunday School teacher dropped off a candy filled sock.  Jenna added the small sock to our fireplace; she said it would be for Bonnie.

 

        It turned out to be a really nice Christmas.  Each of us had three gifts beneath the tree plus the two games we dubbed from Santa Clause. Traditionally we will first open our socks.  Jenna passed them out one at a time.  I noticed my sock was bulkier than it had been before I had gone to bed.  Gloves, toffee, a chocolate orange and a notebook had been added to what I had already put in. 

 

        We each ended up with chocolate oranges – though Roland’s was dark while Jenna and I both received milk.  Roland also had sugar free chocolates and a McDonald’s card.  Jenna and I both received peppermint bark which Roland doesn’t seem to care for all that much. 

Jenna also received some Christmas cubes in her stocking.  She said it was meant for me but had to put it in her sock as there was no room in mine.      

me doing an elf jig while singing a Christmas carol

  

Bonnie's stocking

        After the gifts were open we watched Light the World here.  I like watching the virtual recording as opposed to seeing it in person – which I think I’ve only done once.  Watching so many faces (and not just doll-sized figures on the stage) from the comfort of my couch was so much better than going downtown Salt Lake. While I listened to the music, I filled out this Christmas themed paper.

 

 Afterward we played Mormon-opoly (one of the two games from Santa) It seems like a good theme for the transition from Book of Mormon, Christmas, and the Come Follow Me program which starts the Doctrine and Covenants.  The properties start at the New Testament (Bethlehem, Gathsemane), Book of Mormon (Zarahemla, Jeruselem) and church history (three places in New York, Nauvoo, Illinois and Kirkland Ohio and the progression of the church) also included are four newspapers instead of four railroads, “faith” and “bishop’s storehouse” instead of “chance” and “community chest”, and “spiritual darkeness” instead of “jail”.

        I like reading the information on the properties for example “Fayetteville Township, New York” says

 

·        The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized here on April 6, 1830.

·        The first conference was held here on June 9, 1830.

·        Where the Book of Mormon translation was completed.

 

Temple Square:

 

·        The Temple Square Mission began in 1875.

·        Home of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which held its first broadcast on July 15, 1929.

 

Some of them offer scriptures to read while the game is being played.  Bishop’s Storehouse and Faith cards also include scriptures at the end of each direction.  For example I had to pick a property to donate to charity and then I was sent to spiritual darkness the next round.  Jenna had passed go five times before I would make it around the board once.  And they made me the banker and all of the money and cards stuck together which added more time to the game.  When I landed on Roland’s properties for the umpteenth time I forfeited the game and so Jenna declared Roland the winner. 

 

        Jenna took Bonnie for a walk while Roland and I ate an early lunch.  She had returned after only a few minutes as it had started raining and Bonnie doesn’t like the rain. It was raining for most of the day and into the night.  It is still raining.

         Throughout the day Jenna and Roland played the Book of Mormon chess set while I took a few pictures and started this post for my blog.  I was unable to finish all of my thoughts until this morning.  My post would have probably included more detail if I had not been interrupted.  I suppose it already appears too long.  Oh, well.

how our tree looked Christmas morning

shirt received on Christmas - the only unwrapped gift beneath the tree
pictured: a chicken with the caption keeping it rural.  Also got matching
socks with roosters with the caption: rise and shine (pictured below)

Roland sent this doll to his mom and we got to watch her open it

This was taken later in the night; played our last game - not a new one

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.

Wooden Houses

         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 colors range in an assortment of greens.

          The color variation for the money is not as obvious between the 20s and 50s as they are today

          And the game pieces were not the cool shapes that they are today,  Wooden pawns and tiny dice.

          The instructions had been creased and torn.  When we taped it back together Roland asked if that wouldn’t ruin its value.  Jenna and I threw puzzled glances at him thinking the creases and tears had probably already disvalued the game.  Also the fact that there was no board included.

          Jenna found a misshaped hotel and thought it funny and purposely used the edge/corner to stand the hotel as she thought it was funny.

          The game came with a booklet to advertise other Parker Brothers games (this one in Salem, Massachusetts – though they also had locations in New York, Chicago and London.  The monopoly game sold for 3.50  A game called Camelot sold for 1.50 and 2. 00 or with a large board and ivoried pieces for 5.00.  Sorry sold for 2.00 and a game called Pollyanna (which suspiciously looks like Parcheesi) sold for 2.00 also.

           Jenna and I laughed as Roland started mortgaging properties in order to buy others – NONE of which gave him a monopoly.  We kept landing on community chest, chance, taxes, and our own properties but rarely our own.  Jenna and I had both purchased hotels for the monopolies we had – but as no one was landing on properties except for the owner, we failed to purchase more because what would be the point.

          We played for two hours and declared Roland the winner just so we could stop.  We played some other games yesterday.  Jenna and I really enjoy playing games.