Not A Creature Was Stirring...

...not even a boy and his cat!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. From our home to yours, whatever holiday you celebrate, we wish you a blessed holiday season!

This photo was taken a couple of years ago. John, and our baby Mitzi who is no longer with us, in front of our Christmas Tree.

OK, This is Getting Ridiculous!!!

I have always enjoyed it when it snows in Salem... but this is getting ridiculous! Enough is enough!

We had so much ice yesterday, and trees all over Salem - including several of ours - were breaking and raining limbs down on the ground. We thought we would wake up to thawing this morning - after losing power for several hours last night - and it looked like we might be out of the woods... but NO! More snow, which is beautiful, but now is sitting on a layer of ice. Snow on ice equals treacherous driving. All of the branches of Cindy's bank are closed today. So, here we sit.

Enjoy this video that we took this morning... thought you might be getting a little tired of pictures of snow and ice - so now here is a movie of snow for your enjoyment!! (Gosh, we're getting boring!)

The Ice Man Cometh...

In the 12 years we have lived in Oregon - this has been the strangest week EVER! We've experienced snow and ice before - but nothing like this. The weather yesterday was so unpredictable. Salem had not been predicted to get as much freezing rain, ice and snow as we did. Everything is frozen this morning. Here are some photo's for your enjoyment. I'm going to go sit by the fire and have some hot coffee now!

Light Post In Front Of Our Home (look at those icicles!)

Poor little frozen duckies by the waterfall in our backyard
The tree in front of our home that we showed you in the last post. The branches had light fluffy snow on them on Friday. Look at it now! Solid ice!

The very frozen lavender and rosemary plants

My poor rosemary. I hope it survives.

Let It Snow... Let It Snow...

... Let it Snow!!

We've had more wintry weather this week. Here are a few photo's that were taken this morning after another overnight snowfall. The weather has been very unpredictable - but this morning has been beautiful. We have had cotton ball size snow flakes, and several sun breaks that have made the snow glisten like diamonds. We live in a truly majestic place - and we are thankful for all of God's blessings on us. Enjoy the sights from our Winter Wonderland!

Can you believe how crystal clear the sky is in this photo! And look at the moon... still visible at 9am.

Driving around town

Oh! The Weather Outside...

... is frightful! We have had quite a bit of snow and ice in the Willamette Valley this week. It all started on Sunday afternoon, and folks in this part of Oregon aren't quite used to dealing with this type of weather.

Here's a photo in front of our house -

Here are some photo's of the snow falling, our back deck area, and our street -

The house at night with our colorful Christmas lights -

And here is the snowman that Richard and John built this afternoon. (While Cindy was AT WORK!)
For those of you in our area - enjoy the snow, but be safe out there. For those of you outside of the area... you can enjoy the weather vicariously! Happy December!

It's Beginning To Look...

.. a lot like Christmas! We have decked our halls and drank our nog. The house is decorated - let the festivities begin.

Here are Richard and JJ decorating the tree. Our tradition is that someone in the family will hide the "Pickle" ornament on Christmas Eve. This year it is JJ's turn. Here he is pretending to hide it amongst the branches.

Here is a picture of the outside of our house. This year we went with colored lights.

Here is the finished tree. Appropriately adorned with special ornaments from over the years.These ornaments are from Cindy's childhood. The Santa Claus is the first ornament that Cindy's Mom bought for her on her first Christmas - 1959. The Egg was made by Cindy's cousin Nona. We have a dozen of them that we hang with care - each and every year.

The Santa Claus below belonged to Cindy's Daddy. It is almost 90 years old. The Mushroom was one of the ornaments that Cindy's Mom bought. She liked unusual and special ornaments.

Here are some ornaments that belong to Cindy and Richard. The First Christmas 1987 was purchased on Cindy and Richard's honeymoon in Boston MA. The heart was given to them by Cindy's Dad.

Here are two of several special Ballerina ornaments that Cindy's Dad, and special friends have given to her over the years.

And here is the finished product.
We wish all of you a happy holiday season and hope that the hustle and bustle don't get you too stressed. Sit back, enjoy a treat, a cup of eggnog, and relish in this special time of year. Christmas is the BEST!

Four of Four...

Here's a fun game... If you would like to play along - go to your fourth folder of pictures on your computer and choose the fourth picture... then post it and explain it. Let me know when your posting is up so that I can see it!!

So... this photo is of JJ and me on "Fat Tuesday" in 2000. JJ is only five years old. We love New Orleans (anyone miss all those postings from our visit to NOLA in October? If you saw them - you know how special the city is to us!) Anyway, we celebrate Mardi Gras every year. We usually celebrate with our good friends and neighbors - Kerry, Dodi and Alyssa. This photo was taken just before they arrived for our annual feast! Good times - good friends - good memories. These are the things that life is made of!

Happy Thanksgiving

I think that Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday... well, next to Christmas! Apart from the delicious meal that we all partake in - Thanksgiving is a time for us to count our blessings and reflect on all that we are thankful for.

I am thankful for my wonderful family that surrounds me - and for those that have gone on to the hereafter. My life is so much richer for having had you all present. My beautiful son, my wonderful husband, our beautiful grown up kids and spouses and grand kids! We are thankful for all of you.

I am thankful for the blessing of so many wonderful friends - both in person and blogging. Because I come from a very small family - I tend to consider my friends "family". Life wouldn't be the same without all of you. We have laughed together, learned together, cried together, and enjoyed spending time with each other. I am so happy that you are all in my life.

I am thankful for the opportunity of freedom and for my right of free speech and for living in a country - although flawed - that we are allowed to be different and can appreciate each other for our differences.

I am thankful for all of the blessings that the Lord has bestowed on me. Too many to write about. I've had a pretty lucky life. I was fortunate enough to have the most amazing upbringing and the most amazing family. Not all children are as lucky - and my heart breaks when I think about those that are not as fortunate.

I wish for all of you the most wonderful Thanksgiving and a beautiful holiday season. May God Bless each and every one of us.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sometimes I Wonder...

Sometimes I wonder where this is all going. Times are scary. People are losing their homes and their jobs. I wonder if I will be next. (not losing our home... but being unemployed) There are wars, and there is poverty, and the stock market keeps falling and falling and falling. I heard on the news today, "Has the stock market fallen as far as it can go?" I screamed at the television, NO! Unfortunately - no....

Sometimes I wonder... what my life would be like if I lived in a different country. In a country where women were considered second class citizens, and where we didn't have the same rights that we do in the wonderful USA. What would my days be like? Would I know that I wasn't being treated fairly? Or would I just "take it" and not know the difference?

Sometimes I wonder... what would it be like if we didn't have freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom of religion. That would not be an experience I would want to have. Even though many of us in the U.S. disagree with each other when it comes to politics and religion - it is so nice to know that THAT is our right! We live a great country.

Sometimes I wonder... what life would be like if it were like the John Lennon song, "Imagine". Peace and love and everyone happy and living together in harmony. That would be such a beautiful thing. I wonder if I will ever have an opportunity to experience life like that in the years I have left on this Earth? Probably not. But, that really WOULD be wonderful.

I don't know... maybe I'm just getting older. Maybe I'm just nostalgic for life as it was when I was young and carefree and didn't worry about these things.
I know that I feel blessed to be surrounded by my family, and to have the most wonderful friends, and that we all have our health. I feel blessed that I have a job that I enjoy and that I have a roof over my head and food on my table. But, I kinda like living in denial and not thinking about all the bad things that happen in the world. As I said to my friend the other day, "I rather enjoy living in CindyLand where everyone is happy and there isn't a care in the world."

I'll close for now... I'm headed back to "CindyLand". Have a happy weekend!

Central Oregon

Last weekend we decided to head over to Central Oregon for a couple of days. We rented a beautiful two bedroom condo in Sunriver. Wow! We were really pleased with this find. All the comforts (and then some) of home!

On Saturday we visited the Nature Center at Sunriver. It was an absolutely gorgeous autumn day. Brilliant sunshine and a moderate 60 degrees! We couldn't have asked for a better weekend.

A stately bald eagle lives at the Nature Center in a flight cage. This means he can fly away when he desires, but is kept safe from other animals when he decides to be in his cage. We were the only visitors while we were there - so the eagle was extremely interested in us, but slightly afraid of us too. It took us a long while to snap some decent photos of him. Here are two of our favorites.

We had a perfect family weekend watching movies, enjoying the sunshine, doing a little shopping and making chocolate chip cookies. Oh! And Cindy discovered "Dancing with the Stars" for the Wii. John is now concerned that he may never again regain control of the Wii....