Christmas in Oregon

God is good. That's about all I can say. It's amazing how things work out sometimes. Two days before Zach and I were to head to the Salt Lake City airport (5 hours away), Utah got hit with a massive storm. The pass we had to take through the mountain range was closed and snow was the forecast for the Salt Lake Valley. I decided to book a hotel in Price, which is the city leading into the pass and headed there Tuesday night, hoping the snow would melt. When we arrived in Price, the restrictions for the pass were chains. All I have is studs on the car. We prayed and a miracle happened (at least in my book). When we left the next morning, the forecast was for rain in the lower elevations and snow in the mountains. Yet the only rain we saw during the 70-mile drive through the mountains was at the very beginning and the very end. The roads were dry or slightly wet -- the snow that had plagued the pass for the past few days had "magically" disappeared. What I thought could take us up to 4 hours took only two. We arrived at the airport at 11 a.m. with a departure time of 3 p.m. It took us longer to find a parking spot than it did to get through security.

Zach brought me an early Christmas gift -- a little grey tabby kitten. He was almost hit by a car and Zach's sympathetic nature took over. I am a sucker for cats, so I turned out the be a complete pushover. The only problem was that we were getting ready to leave for two weeks. Luckily our neighbor has volunteered to watch over him for us. The little guy is really cute and twitches a lot in his sleep, so we named him Twitch. He appears to be about a month or so old. Not really sure.

Here in Oregon, it's been pretty uneventful, which is probably a good thing. We're staying with grandma and grandpa. Grandpa Charley just turned 94 and Grandma Fauneil is 82, so not sure how much longer they'll be around. If it wasn't for the two of them, we probably would've stayed in Utah for the holidays or gone to Vegas. Jentzy turned 19 on the 23rd and I took her to get a new cell phone. My brother, wife and two girls came to visit --which was a lot of fun. I haven't seen my one niece, Hannah, for almost two years, and have never seen my just-turned-1 niece, Emily.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with Dad, Sandy and Brian. I got dad an "I love my Ducks" shirt, which was a big hit since he's a pretty rabid Beaver Believer. He's a good sport, though. The most memorable part of the day, though, was when Zach opened his present. Zach had forgotten to email or text my dad what he wanted for Christmas. When dad called, I told him Zach wanted an "Iron Man Gym". I knew what I was talking about and just assumed dad would understand what I was talking about (the whole common ground thing). I even told him you could find it at Wal-mart. Well, Zach opened his present and instantly a weird look came on his face. He held up a pair of black boxer briefs with the image of the DC hero Iron Man on it. Not knowing that Zach and he were on a different page, dad told Zach how he had gone to Wal-mart and asked the clerks for any and all Iron Man stuff (both he and the clerks assumed they were talking about the comic book hero). Zach then pulled out two more pairs of Iron Man underwear. By this time, I knew exactly what had happened and how our communication breakdown came to be. I started laughing my butt off, while Zach graciously thanked dad. After I explained to dad the miscommunication (and how it wasn't anybody's fault), I did what any good mom does -- posted the incident on Facebook.

Overall, we got several cash gifts and gift cards, which is probably good considering how much the airlines charge for luggage. Jentzy got a lot of jewlery stuff, as she has decided to take up a new hobby. We spent Christmas day with grandma and grandpa. I helped cook dinner, then the kids and I went to see the new Tron movie in 3D. I'm spoiled now, don't think I can go back to good ol' 2D.

Now that Christmas is "over", the kids and I are being mellow. Planning on going to another movie today, Tomorrow, Zach and I will take Jentzy back to The Dalles and we'll stay the night at the Fiegenbaums. Hopefully, we'll get a chance to see all of our friends. Zach is going to go rabbit hunting with a former neighbor that he did odd jobs for. We'll come back to St. Helens Tuesday and chill until Thursday. We plan on flying out about 3 p.m. That works well because it's Dad and Sandy's anniversary and they plan on going to the beach for a few days.

It's been an interesting year with lots of changes. Not sure what 2011 will bring. But whatever comes our way, we'll deal with it. Happy Holiday to everyone.