.It's been too long between posts. I'm Sorry. With our Facebook pages, most of what goes on around here winds up there but that's no excuse. To use the vernacular: My Bad.
There really hasn't been much going on around here just the usual post-holiday back to normal routine. The decorations are down but not completely put away. Maybe we'll get to it before the spring cleaning starts...maybe not.
As I posted earlier I let Jacob put the lights on the tree and other than some words of advice I gave him free rein. Well that meant he got to take the lights off the tree; lesson learned, Don't wrap the lights candy-cane style around the tree. I had explained a better way that would make it easier to remove the lights later but he took the opportunity to do it his way. Now he discovered how much more difficult it can be to take them off. Until. Until I gave him a chance to have a little fun.
The tree was in our sun porch with our newly stained cement floor. If we had any other kind of floor I probably wouldn't have let him do this but, He was willingly helping so I told him he could....
You see, Jacob likes swords. He has collected four or five metal ones and couple wooden ones. You see where I'm going with this right? I have tree pruners but instead I gave him permission to use his swords to hack the branches off one at a time with the admonition not to hack up my lights. By the time he was done there was this intense pine-fresh cent permeating our sun porch. Hacked boughs stacked neatly on table and floor and one lone, long stick poking up out of my tree stand (that still had 40 pounds of weights holding it down). He managed to avoid blister but I believe the wrapping on one of his "nin-gata" (ninja-style) hilts looked a little worse for wear. He was quite proud of himself and his accomplishment. I was too. I mean how cool is it to have a sword and a (reasonably) legitimate reason to use it? If you don't understand, odds are against you being a guy...
Well, hopefully that will hold you over til our next post, which hopefully won't take as long at the last one!
May the Lord Bless You and Keep You and Give You Peace!
Will
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Holidays 2009-2010
Well, they're almost over; the holiday vacation days for Christmas and the New Year. I just made the unpleasant and unpopular decision to not let the kids run off today. (Jacob wanted to go see his girlfriend). Deanna and I are home today and tomorrow and we've all been running off to parties and get-togethers without actually spending much time with each other.
Below you will see some pics of our cutting down our Christmas tree. That has been a family tradition for some time that may have come to an end this year. We've been getting our Christmas trees from the same farm for almost 15 years. They've been very good to us but they are no longer planting Christmas trees and getting ready for retirement. More than that , for the last couple of years we've been putting our tree up later and later as our schedules make it more and more difficult to find the time to all get together to go cut down a tree. Dea and I have decided it's time to look for a good quality artificial tree. Recognizing that this might be a last chance I had Jacob and Jessalyn put up the lights and decorations themselves with very little interference from myself They did fine with some exceptions that are normal sibling issues. Normally I let Dea pick the tree and I only use veto power if the trunk is too twisted. We've been able to enjoy 9 and half foot trees and larger but we were so late this year that there were very few to choose from. So, the first one she picked I gave the "okay" and let Jacob have the saw. Later as I tried to put the tree into a stand I realized how twisted the trunk was. I thought I had it up okay. Really, I did. Anyway, after the kids were done decorating I claimed the honor of putting the angel on the tree; only to drop and break it. No big deal we'll put a bow or something up there later. The angel being broke really didn't bother me the next morning when we found the tree on it's side with Christmas balls scattered over the floor. We put it back up with the idea of attaching it to the wall later. Ten minutes later, it was on the floor again. Neither time did we hear it fall. By the time I was done I had put two 20 pound weights on the base and tied the top to the wall. It's not going anywhere tell it's time to put it on the burn pile! (tomorrow maybe)
for longer than we've been together (20 years), Deanna has been holding a Christmas eve party. This year the forecast was an ice blizzard for Christmas eve. We didn't have any choice, we postponed for the following Sunday. It went well, but there were a lot of faces missing and I'm still not over the disappointment. I understand they're not being able to be there but as I said, I missed them. some of them it's the only time I get to see them all year. The worse part? The storm they kept predicting right up to party time never showed. I know we make the right decision but as I started out this post, sometimes the right decision really stinks.
That said, the Sunday get-together really was fun. There were fewer people so I may have to put off my New Years resolution to diet until all this food is gone...
This New Years eve we did something a little different. Normally, Dea and I are in bed long before midnight, but not this time. Our friends Randy and Diana Fischer have three great kids Adam, Ben and Dillon (sp?). We invited them and Luke Callaway ( a real good friend of ours and our kids) and Jacob and Jessalyn's cousins : Jessica Oakes, Skylar Sutherland and Analisa Sutherland. We then gave the kids our sun porch. The kids brought an extra T.V. and took two of ours and set them up with three different kinds of game consoles. I walked out to tell them it was almost midnight (hours after they started) and they were all having a blast! They also were being good as gold! It was a really good feeling seeing all these kids having a good time playing all kinds of games and just having fun...right there in my sun porch.
Diana Fischer stayed well after midnight and we truly enjoyed the conversation! The time flew but we all needed some sleep time. The next morning some of the kids were still going strong, so we fed them some breakfast, helped them get cleaned up and sent them on their way. Deanna's parents have a tradition of cooking up fry bread and chili for lunch on new years day so we spent the afternoon with them and their family.
That brings us to last night where there was a "grown up" party at Darin and Tiffany Oakes (Jessica's parents) house. Well, it started out "grown up", with great food and nice atmosphere, but then the Fischers brought a "Wii" console and set up this game called rabid rabbits. Suddenly there was a house filled with giggling, laughing, 40-something, adolescent kids. We laughed til our sides hurt and wiggled the controls til our arms ached and had THE BEST time! Thanks to all!
This morning was almost back to normal as the temps dropped to -10 (f) and below as I jump-started the truck to begin taking the trash out to the dump. I 'm not ready for the "getting back to normal". So yeah, everyone can stay home together today and maybe watch a movie or two together.
Perhaps a meal or tow together too. As long as it's together; for just a little longer.
May the Lord Bless You and Keep You and Give You Peace.
Will H. Donaldson
Below you will see some pics of our cutting down our Christmas tree. That has been a family tradition for some time that may have come to an end this year. We've been getting our Christmas trees from the same farm for almost 15 years. They've been very good to us but they are no longer planting Christmas trees and getting ready for retirement. More than that , for the last couple of years we've been putting our tree up later and later as our schedules make it more and more difficult to find the time to all get together to go cut down a tree. Dea and I have decided it's time to look for a good quality artificial tree. Recognizing that this might be a last chance I had Jacob and Jessalyn put up the lights and decorations themselves with very little interference from myself They did fine with some exceptions that are normal sibling issues. Normally I let Dea pick the tree and I only use veto power if the trunk is too twisted. We've been able to enjoy 9 and half foot trees and larger but we were so late this year that there were very few to choose from. So, the first one she picked I gave the "okay" and let Jacob have the saw. Later as I tried to put the tree into a stand I realized how twisted the trunk was. I thought I had it up okay. Really, I did. Anyway, after the kids were done decorating I claimed the honor of putting the angel on the tree; only to drop and break it. No big deal we'll put a bow or something up there later. The angel being broke really didn't bother me the next morning when we found the tree on it's side with Christmas balls scattered over the floor. We put it back up with the idea of attaching it to the wall later. Ten minutes later, it was on the floor again. Neither time did we hear it fall. By the time I was done I had put two 20 pound weights on the base and tied the top to the wall. It's not going anywhere tell it's time to put it on the burn pile! (tomorrow maybe)
for longer than we've been together (20 years), Deanna has been holding a Christmas eve party. This year the forecast was an ice blizzard for Christmas eve. We didn't have any choice, we postponed for the following Sunday. It went well, but there were a lot of faces missing and I'm still not over the disappointment. I understand they're not being able to be there but as I said, I missed them. some of them it's the only time I get to see them all year. The worse part? The storm they kept predicting right up to party time never showed. I know we make the right decision but as I started out this post, sometimes the right decision really stinks.
That said, the Sunday get-together really was fun. There were fewer people so I may have to put off my New Years resolution to diet until all this food is gone...
This New Years eve we did something a little different. Normally, Dea and I are in bed long before midnight, but not this time. Our friends Randy and Diana Fischer have three great kids Adam, Ben and Dillon (sp?). We invited them and Luke Callaway ( a real good friend of ours and our kids) and Jacob and Jessalyn's cousins : Jessica Oakes, Skylar Sutherland and Analisa Sutherland. We then gave the kids our sun porch. The kids brought an extra T.V. and took two of ours and set them up with three different kinds of game consoles. I walked out to tell them it was almost midnight (hours after they started) and they were all having a blast! They also were being good as gold! It was a really good feeling seeing all these kids having a good time playing all kinds of games and just having fun...right there in my sun porch.
Diana Fischer stayed well after midnight and we truly enjoyed the conversation! The time flew but we all needed some sleep time. The next morning some of the kids were still going strong, so we fed them some breakfast, helped them get cleaned up and sent them on their way. Deanna's parents have a tradition of cooking up fry bread and chili for lunch on new years day so we spent the afternoon with them and their family.
That brings us to last night where there was a "grown up" party at Darin and Tiffany Oakes (Jessica's parents) house. Well, it started out "grown up", with great food and nice atmosphere, but then the Fischers brought a "Wii" console and set up this game called rabid rabbits. Suddenly there was a house filled with giggling, laughing, 40-something, adolescent kids. We laughed til our sides hurt and wiggled the controls til our arms ached and had THE BEST time! Thanks to all!
This morning was almost back to normal as the temps dropped to -10 (f) and below as I jump-started the truck to begin taking the trash out to the dump. I 'm not ready for the "getting back to normal". So yeah, everyone can stay home together today and maybe watch a movie or two together.
Perhaps a meal or tow together too. As long as it's together; for just a little longer.
May the Lord Bless You and Keep You and Give You Peace.
Will H. Donaldson
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