Seasons: January 2009

Snowy Cherry Orchard

Sally Peeking Through Fence

Beautiful View of House in Winter

Christmas 2008.........Reflections and Reminiscences......

The first thing that comes to mind as I think about the holiday season of 2008 is snow. Lots and lots of snow. And cold......extreme cold! We did not have temperatures above 32' for over 10 days. Often in the morning the temperature on our back deck was in the teens, the coldest being 13' one morning. And the deck is somewhat protected from the open cold, and I do not even know what the temperature was outside in the open. The result of all the cold was that the snow, which kept coming down, did not melt. We ended up having 10" of snow, with about 1" of ice on top of that, followed by 8" of new snow. Walking through this was difficult. And since we do not have studs or chains or a snow plow, we were unable to get our car out of the garage for 8 days! The day before we got 'stuck' up on our hill, I had gone to the grocery store and stocked up on double of the items I use most......"just in case". Thank God, I had the foresight to do that because we had enough fresh items to last us for the 8 days we were house bound. My first shopping trip after we were set "free" from our garage was quite expensive. But I realized how creative a person can be when you have a limited supply of groceries. Thankfully, we did not lose power for longer than 4 hours one night. The furnace worked so hard day and night just to keep the temperature in the house at a balmy 68'. The consequence of that was a PGE bill that was $100 more than the previous month! YIKES! But with layers, we kept warm.

My next thoughts are about family. My sister, Carolyn and her husband, Nelson, came out to the NW for a week from Chicago. They had not seen Mom and Dad's new little duplex. They stayed with Mom and Dad for 4 days, and then came over to our house for the last 3 days of their visit. My brother, Phil, also came down for 10 days from WA. He stayed with us the first part of his visit, and then went to Mom and Dad's. We were all planning to have a big Christmas dinner with the family, and our daughter, her husband, and grandbabies on Christmas Day. But the family in McMinnville could not get out, so they had Christmas with Mom and Dad. Jenn and her family did make it up to our house.....thanks to a neighbor who took his big truck and drove back and forth over the lower driveway to make a path for her little car. It was a nice Christmas with just the 6 of us. It was the first Christmas that Jacob, 3 1/2, understood the concept of presents. He did not care what was in them, particularly, he just was excited to open them, and more than willing to help Abby open hers. We did have a fun party at Mom and Dad's on the weekend. It was all the siblings and spouses, my niece, Elaine and her husband, Jeff. We ate tons of yummy food, and played games, and laughed a lot. Very special time as a family. This is why it is so good for Mom and Dad to be closer to family.

We ended 2008 with our annual New Year's Eve party with three couples who are very dear to our hearts........my sister and her husband, Crit and Janice Haney, and Max and Patty Huff. We ate lots, played games, and just had fun bringing in the New Year with very special friends.

My prayer is that as we begin a new year, we will all live by Proverbs 16:9 "Man makes his plans, but the Lord directs his steps." We may make plans that seem good to us, but we must be open to the plans that God has for us each day. Spiritual maturity is being flexible and willing to follow where God is leading us each day.