Christmas doings

Hi Everyone,

I hope your Christmas went well. Ours was fairly quiet. We picked up the Boy from the airport braving the wild winds. We were under a tornado warning for most of the day which made his flight a little delayed. (for those of you in non tornado areas, a warning is when a tornado has been sited in the area and watch is when the conditions are right to produce a tornado) Our phones kept telling us to take shelter just before we drove to the airport. We didn't pay it much mind and I guess neither did the air traffic controllers because he wasn't delayed by much, 15 minutes tops. The storm moved onto rest of the southeast very quickly. Then the temperature went from 79 degrees to 36 degrees in about 3 hours and remained very windy until the next morning.

When we got home we opened gifts and ate dinner. For gifts this year I decided to make most all our gifts. I'd post what I made for the Boy but since I made the same thing for the Seattle kids and they haven't gotten them in the mail yet I don't want spoil the surprise. Next week I'll post all about them. Dr Boy loves his so I'm hoping the other kids will too. Everyone is getting a painting. I'm about done with the three I've got going and will start on the Seattle kid's painting soon.

JR really likes those socks with non-slip bottoms but they are really hard to find. In fact, you can't buy them any longer in the stores. The only place to get them is with a stay in the hospital. Since, that is considerably more expensive in oh so many ways I tried searching for a how-to. I found one on Pinterest (my new favorite hangout) and made three pairs for him. He loves them!

Nessa got a whole lot of new toys that she promptly disemboweled. I've been picking up toy stuffing ever since.

We ate vegetable shepherds pie for dinner and it was awesome. Definitely a recipe that I'll fall back on. I used balsamic roasted vegetables to make the broth which made all the difference to the richness of flavor.

We spent the rest of the evening watching TV with the new Apple TV thingy that the Seattle kids give us. It's pretty cool but since I didn't pay attention when JR and Dr. Boy set it up I'm not sure yet how to use it.

JR had to go to work the day after so Dr. Boy and I have been eating at all the great ethnic places in Houston, Tex Mex yesterday, beignets and pizza today probably Vietnamese tomorrow. We have BBQ, Korean, Cajun, French and several others to go. It is pretty obvious that rural Oregon doesn't have much of a restaurant scene.

I've been painting a lot. He has been sleeping and visiting friends. All in all very low key. We have a friend with a place on Galveston island so one day in the next week when the weather warms up we'll take Nessa down there to play on the beach. We've talked about going to New Orleans or Austin but haven't made any real plans yet.

Today I'm going to start the de-Christmasing of the house. The tree is getting dry and I'm jonesing to get some springtime in my house. Can you tell I don't like winter much? Two or three weeks are about all I can take. Times up! I plan to decorate the place in things that I have around the house already or can make very cheaply. If you are interested I'll post how-tos.

That is about it for today. I hope your Christmas was merry and bright and if not it was all you wanted it to be.

Love,
M