Holiday Updates

Well, we got the Christmas Card out the door this year with a new song and even better rhyming (we think) than last year. Thanks to Carrie's brilliance (and Matty's occasional suggestion for a noun) we're hoping to continue the tradition for many years to come (and hopefully with a new song each year). For the brave ones out there, feel free to sing it out loud like my Dad did. Most of the lines sounded pretty good :-) In case you missed it:

O’ Little Town of Portland,Ore’

O’ little town of Portland,Ore’
We moved there in July,
Although we love our families
We had to say goodbye.
Yet in our sad departing
There was much hope and cheer,
With new jobs and adventures
And of course great new beer.

O’ yes this year was good to us
New jobs we have obtained,
Matt at the Dept.’ of Energy
Carrie, the state’s retained.
I’d tell you more about them
But in this tiny rhyme,
The details don’t get justice
Just know it’s a good time.

O’ fun and games, vacation
We dearly love you so,
We’ve hiked and fished and camped away
And now it’s time for snow.
Skis are on the agenda
Along with finding sun,
Don’t get me wrong we love the rain
But like to warm our bun(s).

O’ little town of Portland,Ore’
We’d love to see you there,
By car, train, bus, or just by foot
Our town we love to share.
Yet if we do not see you
We wish you joy and health,
The best to you in all you do
You are our life’s true wealth!

Merry Christmas!

As for further updates, we made it back to Boise to see as many family and friends as we could between Thanksgiving and Christmas (3 trips in all!) and did pretty well at it. We never have all the time we hope for but we sure do love every minute while we're there.

Back in PDX, our Christmas Tree was a really nice Grand Fir this year (see below) and did the job of preparing us for Christmas quite nicely. While hard to tell, that's a Reindeer (possibly Moose) finger puppet as the tree topper. I put this photo on Facebook in mid-December and though not a direct hint, Bob and Viv got us a beautiful Angel topper for Christmas. Future trees will be topped a bit classier now as Angel beats finger puppet pretty easily.


On a related picture note, we've "misplaced" our camera and and are thus a little slow to upload photos (or blog about them). Cell phones are nice but having the real deal is way more fun. Hopefully we'll find it soon and can update everyone further on our Portland adventures via photo.

Lots of snow falling in the hills, fish swimming in the rivers, and beer flowing from the taps should keep us busy through Spring. We're happy to share a weekend with anyone who wants to visit and have a few trips of our own on tap for next year!

Hope all is well and here's wishing everyone a Happy New Year!