THE LULL BETWEEN HOLIDAYS

Here we are at the awkward period between Christmas and the New Year.  The Lull.  I no longer do New Year's resolutions but this year my goal is to have at least one fish meal per week.

While Portland has been having tons of rain, the mountain has the most snow ever!  My family gift this year is five nights in the snow on Mt Hood.  In an Air BnB with sleeping for 10, a fireplace and a hot tub.  Washer and dryer for wet clothes after trudging in the snow.  The boys are taking a snowboard lesson and they are trying to arrange snowmobiles for one day.  They depart New Year’s Eve day and return on Sunday.

(Mr. Ralph and I would go night skiiing after work, back in the day!)

I will enjoy the solitude and being able to use the cozy living room for candles in the fireplace, movies on the big screen and of course, my laptop.

The most fun will be cleaning the self cleaning oven.  It is a disaster from a year without being cleaned.  I’ve watched a few videos on deep cleaning and then using the self cleaning feature.  I just ordered all the supplies necessary which Ms. Amazon will deliver on Monday. I hope to also have the energy to clean the dishwasher and the washing machine while I’m at it.  (We live a block from a cement factory so dust really accumulates).

(Not my oven door, but pretty close!)

I have my bottle of Prosecco for NYE and I'm dreaming of having a fabulous meal delivered!  I've never used GrubHub or DoorDash or Uber Eats but maybe I will.  Otherwise, I'm going to indulge via my local gourmet market.  Caviar anyone?

I'm looking forward to 2025!!

 

Christmas is Really Coming!

Today is Winter Solstice.  Portland has been dark and rainy but starting tomorrow, second by second, each day will be just a little bit longer.  It's been so dark and gloomy that all the outdoor auto-on lights have been on all day!

My second favorite tradition (read last week for my first favorite tradition) is using my Christmas dishes.  We start using them the day after Thanksgiving.My wonderful Mother in Law bought me a set of eight for our very first Christmas.  I've added to the collection over the years with shopping trips to the Dollar Store.

We have two sizes of drinking glasses and huge wine glasses that are just so festive to use.  The boys each have their own Christmas mug with a 3D Christmas scene on the bottom.  They had so much fun drinking their milk or whatever to get down far enough to view.  I had coffee mug made for Mr. Ralph with Kate's Kindergarten photo on it.

This time of year is about the only time I miss the old big house.  We had a music box or snow globe on each of the 14 stairs.  Two Christmas trees (one in the living room and one in the dining room).  My Dad made napkin holders that look like Santa and my Mom painted and sealed them.  And swore she would never make another set!  So time consuming.

Best of all ... the cookies!  Kate has made three different kinds and we all decorated the sugar cookies.  I finally got two spices that we needed and today I'll make gingerbread cookies!

   

Last but not least ... I still have to WRAP!  I don't know why I wait until the last few minutes...

Not much room left under the tree

Building skyscrapers up the wall

NAUGHTY or NICE?

My favorite part of Christmas is giving a Christmas tree ornament.

We started when Kate was born (1986) and have given her one every year.  We started out with pink and white booties made with delicate China.  I can’t believe they are still intact!  It was fun to take an idea of each person’s interests during the year and find an ornament to go with.  One year we had trouble with raccoons messing with out outdoor fountain and I found the cutest raccoon to hang on our tree.  Kate went through phases of Sesame Street, American Girl dolls and different sports/hobbies.  Dogs, bugs, cats, horses and I should have gotten her a SPIDER ornament this year (yes, we have a pet jumping spider).

As I traveled with Mr. Ralph, I always found something I could use as an ornament.  A tiny Eiffel Tower (we had to add a paper clip to hang it, Big Ben in London, the Sydney Opera House, hand blown glass ornament from Murano (Venice, Italy), a tiny boat from Suzhou, China (the Venice of the East).  So so many I don’t want to bore you.  Australia, Vienna, Hong Kong, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and so on.  Several cities in each country.  (So lucky I got to travel!)

(the teenager rarely smiles ... when Santa rolled up his sleeves it happened!)

Fast forward to the grandboys.  Every year when we decorate they screech when they see one of “theirs” to hang or ask for the story behind a different ornament.  I love the hand made ones from when Kate was in preschool and the boys when they were Kindergarten and First Grade.  I applaud teachers who do these projects as they are so precious as time goes by.  

I have two ornaments from my childhood and some cute ones my sister made.  So special.  Every one here knows which ones I want to hang. This year we only have sentimental ornaments.  We got new living room furniture so our tree is much smaller than usual.  But I think it is in a better spot so we can see it from kitchen, hallway as well as living room.

The good news is that when my local ornament shop (within an Ace Hardware of all places), closed … Etsy came on the scene.  Now you can find anything!  Do you have any holiday traditions?  We do and maybe I’ll share those next week.

P.S.  When we downsized from house to condo ... Mr. Ralph took the WRONG two boxes of Christmas stuff to Goodwill.  ALL of the travel ones are gone .... Than goodness I still have my memories!

HOLIDAY BUSY-ness

Thanksgiving week was a flurry of activity.  I was secretary for my daughter for a few hours over several days.  She volunteered to write a letter of support for immigration for a coworker at the native plant nursery.  Thank goodness for word processing software!  And an online thesaurus.  After four iterations, she was happy and it conformed to the specific guidelines.

She is also my propagation princess, harvesting seeds from native plants (for free) and following precise steps for each kind of plant.  Self taught!  Some have to be stored in the dark in the refrigerator.  Some have to be soaked first and some can just be planted.  There are a million black containers in all different sizes, from 1” to 10”…on our patio and in the patio storage room.

She has tall racks with shelves and grow lights (I can’t believe the HOA hasn’t complained).  There is a smaller rack with larger plants right next to our front door.  

Now that she is also growing some at Jesse’s Mom’s house, she decided to do a spreadsheet with estimated dates of when they are ready to give away or sell.  In the past, she offered seeds and plants at no cost to other hobbyists.  Now she sells them to the native nursery where she works and this summer went to an event selling native plants!

The family goes over to Jesse’s relatives for Thanksgiving and we celebrate later.  As usual, I buy a slice of turkey, some kale salad and make my three bread stuffing (Ala Pioneer Woman).  Late on Wednesday afternoon my local niece texted me to see what I was doing and when I learned they had nowhere to celebrate (friends all went to their families) I invited her and her wife over.  They are vegetarians so they brought three dishes to share.  I set a fancy table for three, made a small plate of crudités, plucked some greens from the yard to make tiny white vases for each place setting.

We were barely getting started when the family came home (they celebrated around noon and we started at 5pm as Audree worked til 3:30)  We got to have a nice family chat session and great fun watching our Aura Frame and telling stories about the photos.

Friday I changed my tiny living space into Holiday mode (pictures last week’s blog) and that’s where my week went.  Speeding by. 

TIS THE SEASON

 Sorry I ran out of time to write my blog!

My happy place!

He keeps me company

Everything by candlelight!

WALKING PNEUMONIA

Well, it became more than just a nasty cold with lots of coughing.

Tuesday was my scheduled semi-annual visit with my wonderful PCP.  We review my prescriptions (of which there are too many), he asks about past annoyances and current issues (usually none) and through out the 30 minutes, I coughed and coughed.  Apparently bronchitis and pneumonia are running rampant in Portland.

He talked me into a chest x-ray and wouldn't you know it!  Walking pneumonia.  Yes, I have had the pneumonia shot but he explained it's like a flu shot ... only good for a couple of types.  He prescribed a Zpack, five days of antibiotics.  By noon on Friday, I was remarkably better.  Still not much energy so this blog will be brief.

Here at the condo, the news spread and the Chair of the HOA texted she had been to urgent care TWICE and was still down and out, with coughing.  She finally got in to see her PCP, was also prescribed Zpack and it also worked for her.  She is in contact with almost all 112 homes here and told me more than 20 neighbors had bronchitis and/or pneumonia!

I wish you GOOD HEALTH and a Happy Thanksgiving!

OUR POLITICAL NIGHTMARE

Every day, and sometimes several times a day, my heart skips a beat.  Trump and his choices of cabinet and advisors gives me a migraine.  I still cannot believe he will once again be President.

Most of the choices will be working counterintuitively to what America needs, in my humble opinion.  Environmental integrity will probably be threatened by Doug Burgum (Interior Secretary) as he has strong ties to oil and gas.  Pretty sure he will be pushing for more drilling.

The new Department of Government Efficiency headed by Elon Musk (I have no words for my fear of his legacy)(net worth 298 BILLION) and Vivek Ramaswamy (net worth one BILLION) who is a critic of “new secular religions” like Covid-ism, climate-ism and gender ideology.  He seems to have no positive view on environmental, social or corporate governance initiatives.  These billionaires sure know how to budget and reduce costs (have they ever even been IN a grocery store?).

It’s worrisome that Musk is already talking with other world leaders at Trump’s side.  Nothing has been thought out or discussed with others or planned.  Let’s hope the rest of the world can just bide their time for the next four years without some global consequences.

I’m especially dreading the deterioration of immigration to our country.  So many of the current choices have no empathy (or morals).  It really is almost impossible to muddle through the red tape to be here legally.  

My hope is that Trump will push many of these advisors away quickly as he did in his first term.  For instance Labor secretary, Energy secretary, Head of EPA, Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs all left after a short stint.  There was a scandal with Robert Wilkie, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, during the first term but Trump is bringing him back this term regardless.  Duh.

In 2005, Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote the most interesting book (later made into a movie) called “Team of Rivals” the political genius of Abraham Lincoln and how he chose advisors based on their skills.  He tried (and mostly succeeded) to reconcile political factions and conflicting personalities to put the country on a path to abolition and victory in the American Civil War.  He was an amazing man and a true leader based on this historical account.

She has written several other books that I think I will now read, based on my research into this blog.  https://doriskearnsgoodwin.com/books/ if you want to peruse.  I think I will rewatch the movie today!

I’m not sure how to be heard at the high levels of government, so I’m going to be more active locally.  Oregon is such a liberal state and could be doing a better job.  I’m grateful that my little city (35,000) is just the opposite.  Our Mayor (second term) is also a successful businessman and is active in several local nonprofits (he’s on the Board at Hunger Fighters Oregon, our local food pantry.  And not as just a figurehead).

One day at a time, folks.  Just one day at a time.