BURRrrrrrrr...11º

Up early this morning... Herb replenished the wood stove to keep our home toasty on a cold December morning...How fortunate we are to have a warm, comfortable home!..We are especially enjoying the heated tile floor in our bathroom, toasty on our bare feet.

Had a fun evening with Becky and John last night as we visited over enchiladas and apple pie à la mode...Both of them are fighting colds/flu and Pam stayed home with laryngitis...This is the time of year for the "flu bug"...Becky leaves for her last semester of law school on the 4th and of course will be glad to have the next 5 months behind her and then comes the real challenge of the bar exam and finding a job!

Chatted with Pat (in Maryland) this morning...They ended their season at Applewood Farm last night and today Brian will start taking down the lights and Pat will inventory and pack up the gift shop...Then a few days spent with son and grandson at Disney World and on to the Florida Keys for a month of sunshine and warm days.☀

Cienna and Stan were busy over the weekend fine tuning with the robotic's team as they prepare for the state competition...Bobi is racking her brain for more sort of-rhyming ditties on her blog--12 days of Christmas...Rusty is actually home in Bend for awhile working on insulation, wiring and heating of his new shop.

That's a look at our world on this last day of 2012...Wishing all a safe New Years Eve and many blessings in 2013....Hugs to All...OWAV:)

Sunday Morn...20º

 Temperatures about the same today with more promise of sunshine...The fog lifted yesterday and the sun poked through for a short time...Long enough for me to make two laps on the track, then return home to heat soup and make salad for our dinner.

Our meals are much simpler than they used to be when we had three meals a day...Now we are happy with hot or cold cereal or toast and jam for breakfast, (occasionally Herb will make bacon, eggs and toast)...Soup, salad and bread for our dinners (at about 2pm) and some kind of snack in the evening like fruit and toast or fruit and cottage cheese or I will eat leftovers from dinner...About three times a week we have a full dinner such as roast beef or chicken with potatoes and gravy or spaghetti with meat sauce and a salad...Then I use the leftovers for other dinners of hot sandwiches, or add the meat to veggies for a stir fry...This is much simpler than starting each day from scratch.

This afternoon Becky and John and maybe Pam are coming for dinner and I'm fixing my version of enchiladas...I brown some ground beef with onions and garlic, add canned deer meat (shredded) then lots of chili powder and cumin, some roasted tomatoes and simmer..place a heaping serving spoonful of  this in the center of a softened corn tortilla, top with cheese and onions...Roll it up and cover it with heated home canned chili, top with more cheese and onions...Nuke for about 1 minute, spoon on sour cream and sprinkle with chopped onions, peppers and olives...Serving several people as I will today I put the filled plates in the oven until all are ready then just like the Mexican restaurants I hand them out saying "hot plate, hot plate"....Will make a huge green salad and not sure what dessert will be....Maybe we will try some more of my IPA....Hugs To All...OWAV:)

Dark...18º

The little cloud at the corner of my blog is todays forecast...I'm hoping they are wrong and we have at least a few hours of sunshine...Last nights full moon illuminated the mountains behind our house at bedtime...But this morning it is either covered by clouds or has disappeared behind the mountains and at 6am it is very dark...

For the last two days we have had sun and I drove across town to the schools track and started what I hope is a regular routine of walking daily...My knee finally feels strong enough and needs the everyday exercise to get it back into shape but I needs a stable, not slick, surface to walk on...I will keep you posted.

I wrote off and on yesterday and plan more of the same today...Fixed nice juicy hamburgers for our dinner and we shared a bottle of the IPA beer that I made (with help from Nick) in November...It now has just the right amount of "head", nice and fizzy...Hmmm Good!..Hugs to All....OWAV:)

PS...On yesterday's post the link Devil's Slide didn't want to work so I have reposted it and hope you will take a few minutes to read a piece of history.

Writing...25º...Sunrise

The end of the month, putting words on paper for Katey...Working on stories about siblings...It is a tough assignment...They call it creative non-fiction--Meaning that you can expand on the story using your imagination...How far can I go without stepping on someones toes or hurting feelings...That is definitely not my intent...But I want to make it interesting and add some humor...How does what I remember differ from what my sisters remember...I love the phrase "No two siblings grow up in the same household"...Think about it!

While writing about Loraine yesterday I mentioned that they lived in Devil's Slide...My memory wasn't very clear on this little community so I googled it and found an interesting article...I'm including the link for all to read...Any feedback would be appreciated....Hugs To All..OWAV:)

The Ticking Clock...20º

The light of day increases just seconds a day as we move on from the winter solstice and into the end of the year...I like the thought of more daylight.

Becky and John arrived back home last night so Herb is off of "animal feeding duty"...A trip to Enterprise today to pick up an everyday prescription is on his agenda...We cleaned up the leftovers in the fridge yesterday so I have to rack my brain for menus for the next few days.

Nothing is jogging my mind today to write about so will sign off with the usual Hugs....OWAV:)

"White Christmas"...23º

It is a good thing that we planned Christmas day around a trip to the Elgin Opera House to see Irving Berlin's "White Christmas"...We picked Pam up at 1pm under threatening skies...Had a few snow flurries on the way...We were soon seated, popcorn and drinks in hand...Their popcorn is excellent...The show was first rate, incredible scenery and costumes for such a small company and the talent is amazing coming from the Grande Ronde Valley...It really helps to have EOSU (University) in LaGrande and its theater program...They performed to an almost full house and we enjoyed the singing and dancing and appreciated the time and energy that goes into a performance like this...It was a magical performance with lots of laughs... We left to the strains of "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas".

Walked outside into a winter blizzard and so glad to have Herb to drive us home as in Minam Canyon the storm was intense with snow piling up...It snowed clear to Lostine, then dwindled away and we arrived in Joseph to the same scene we left some four hours earlier...At least we had our "White Christmas" and an enjoyable afternoon.

We visited around our table eating soup, bread, salad and ended the day with pumpkin pie topped with whipped cream....It was a nice day.

Rusty chatted in this morning, home from Mitchell, after eating way too much food he said...Waiting now to catch up with Bobi and hear about their Christmas...Hugs to All...OWAV:)

Christmas Morn...14º, Partly cloudy

Looking back over last years blog posts of Christmas week...Temperatures and weather about the same...Very little snow, temps in the teens...Rusty was here and we were busy with baking and sewing projects.

Yesterday our house was fragrant with the smell of homemade bread that Herb and I delivered to friends and neighbors then back home to read, compute and count our blessings.

Today we will share part of the day with Pam, drive to Elgin and take in the musical, "White Christmas", then home for a bowl of soup, bread and pie...Pam came into our life over 20 years ago...She a single Mom with 2 kids, us empty nesters as our kids had flown away to start their own lives...(Still coming home for visits of course.)..Pam, Nick and Becky joined with us when our kids came home for holidays, or not, depending on the year.

Later this morning we will Chat with our Portland kids as they get ready to have this years Christmas with Stan's family...Rusty is at the ranch in Mitchell with his friends, out of cell range.

We send greetings and love to All and hope the New Year brings many blessings your way...OWAV:)