Merry Christmas 2010!

Our Christmas tree, w/every ornament we own!

It's been a holiday weekend of fun and relaxation. We opted to stay at home in Eugene this Christmas. Doug had time off the week of Christmas but had to be back to work the morning of the 26th so traveling for the holiday wasn't really a great idea. We enjoyed the family traditions we've been building over recent years.

The fun began Christmas Eve morning with our yearly Christmas Eve breakfast at Shari's Restaurant (the equivalent of Denny's, for those of you not in the Northwest). Yes...Shari's. This tradition began a few years ago when we had an ice storm in Portland and we woke to no power on Christmas Eve. The house was cold and dark and Doug announced we should go out to breakfast. The kids, always begging to go to restaurants on their Mom's "not on your life" restaurant list (translation...KFC, Denny's, Golden Corral, etc) quickly chimed in with "Can we PLEASE go to Shari's??? Please??? It's Christmas Eve mom, please!?!" So I caved, telling myself it WAS the holiday and I can handle it just ONCE. And off we were to Shari's. Fast forward a few years and yes, we made the annual trek to Shari's for  our Christmas Eve breakfast.

Our other favorite Christmas Eve tradition is the annual swimming outing. We adopted this tradition from my sister's family when we were looking for something fun to do on Christmas Eve. Lucky for us, we've always had a selection of local indoor pools to hit for the holiday swim. This year, we've discovered Splash! Lively Swim Center with it's great wave pool and water slide. For the most part it was a great time, except for the phone call from the plumber in Beaverton informing us that our rental home there needed a new hot water heater. Good thing Christmas presents were already purchased or Christmas would have gotten a LOT smaller with that news. On the bright side, at least it happened on Christmas Eve during normal weekday hours and not ON Christmas with double the labor costs.

Christmas Eve night we enjoyed our normal traditions of the Christmas Story from the bible, other Christmas stories, games, and Secret Santa gift exchange. The kids also opened their new Christmas pajamas...provided this year by Grandma. She has a knack for picking out gifts for the kids that suit their personalities to a T. Note...Terry's shirt says "I'm pretty much one of the best people I know" and Zach's says "Awesome ends with ME."

We got the anxious kiddos to bed with an agreement reached of 6:45 a.m. for the wake-up call. But Trevian only made it to 5:30 before she began pestering us regularly. By 6:10 we couldn't take it anymore and the rest of the crew was wrestled out of bed for the fun to commence. The kids were thrilled with their gifts and off and playing, and Mom and Dad were nestled back snug in their bed by 7:00 for a Christmas morning nap! Of course, the new running shoes we each got (Doug and Heather) beckoned to us and we got a great holiday run in shortly after our nap. With some holiday movies, traditional Christmas dinner, and some board games, the rest of the day was a treat. It was a fairly low-key Christmas that will leave me with fond memories of peace and comfort at home with my family.

While the Kids Are Away...The Parents Will Play!

The perks of Doug's new work schedule are kicking in and we are enjoying new found time for play. We've found this fall that more frequent rounds of golf leads to playing golf a bit better...I guess practice really does make perfect??? Okay, our golf games are far from perfect, but it's just one activity we've found more time for now that Doug has abandoned the life and schedule of a medical resident/fellow!

Our latest discovery however...is SKIING! Yep--we've gotten back into skiing again. Okay, maybe Doug never really gave up skiing...he just didn't do it often. Me on the other hand...I abandoned the sport around age 12 after a youth church activity went bad. Or should I say my loving sister ruined it for me when she "accidentally" pushed me off the ski lift at Kelly Canyon. I've never been so grateful for a giant snow bank in my life! But I digress... 

  Last March we took a family trip with lots of family friends to Tahoe for spring break and introduced the kids to skiing. Everyone had a blast. And after a successful trip to the Eugene Ski Swap this fall, I was very inexpensively outfitted for the upcoming winter months. One of the docs Doug works with then tipped us off to our new found fun...HOURLY SKI PASSES at a nearby ski resort. So the new daily schedule when Doug has a weekday off that we can spare goes like this:




7:30-8:30 a.m.--kiss the kiddos goodbye and stick them on the school bus
8:45 a.m.--pack up the ski gear and hit the road
10:00 a.m.--on the slopes for 2-3 hours of kid-free skiing fun (that means only spending time on the green runs for my warm-up of the morning, the rest of the time on the steeper runs)
1:00 p.m.--lunch on the way home
2:30 p.m.--ski gear put away just in time to meet the bus at 3:00 p.m.

 We think it is pure genius!!! (The kids think it is so unfair--although last time we went, Terry had the day off from school for a trimester grading day and he opted to stay home, so it's hard to feel sorry for them).  We have promised them all their turn over winter break though to try out the slopes here near Eugene. And plans are formulating for another fun trip to Tahoe in the spring. But I guess I can say after a 20-some-odd-year hiatus, I am a skier again!