December 16, 2008

Dear Children,

I am getting so excited for Christmas with all of you! Dad and I have been working to make more sleeping areas so everyone is as comfortable as possible. We transformed Adrianne’s room, amazingly the largest bedroom in the house, into a great room for the Brady’s. I know many of you older children, who lost your “home room status” shortly after leaving home, will be secretly (or not so secretly) thrilled that the “baby” has lost her room-staying-the-same bragging rites.

Along with all of you, we have had some severe weather this week. It was a great blessing that Dad was able to gather larger crews last week and finish the last large job in Vancouver. Now he is checking it to see that the freeze didn’t ruined the fresh concrete. Upon learning that Dad would actually be done with the job days before all of you started arriving, I was so excited to know, with the forecasted storms, that I would have him home to help get the last things done before Christmas. I have been working on a big project that was going to need more than a few evenings of help from him so I am VERY grateful! My goal every night is to be in bed before the outdoor lights, on timers, go off. There have been a few nights that I have made that goal. Dad and I have had some fun projects for which I am SO excited!

The last of the decorations and outdoor lights are all in place and the tree is beautiful, as always. We did have a shock the other night, just before leaving for dinner at the Chandler’s home, when Dad discovered puddle water covering the fireplace marble and rug around the tree. Luckily the tree stand was not the culprit so we didn’t have to somehow replace that with the decorated tree intact. Dad pulled the tree from out of the corner and everything is drying up nicely, even the gifts that were touched by the water. Dad put the outdoor lights on a timer. My goal every night is: be in bed before the outdoor lights go off. Well, I made it a few nights!

Grandma shopped all around to find a fake tree, but only four foot, that looked real; she finally found one at Ludeman’s. I went with her to pick it up and Dad put it together for her. It looks pretty close to real. It reminds me of the nobles we used to get in California when I was young, a little sparser than the nobles we cut down here. The tree already has lights on it so when we left Grandma’s home that night she said, “Thank you for the tree lighting ceremony.” When Dad told her she was welcome and that he learned something new also, I asked him what new thing he which he was referring (after we were in our car). His rely was, “How to put those dumb trees together!” It is hard to convince an Oregonian that any fake tree is wonderful, no matter how pretty. I wonder how many years it will be before I have to eat my words and succumb to the curse of wanting a fake tree more than the work of a fresh one!

Except for the red and green fudge to go with our neighbor and friend gift of soup makings, I haven’t done much baking this holiday. So, in preparation of having family and especially the grandchildren, I spent a day making different cookie dough and freezing them into dough balls. I hope we get time to bake with the grandchildren and any of you that would like! We have a lot of dough balls in the freezer. I added snickerdoodles to the selection since that used to be the favorite cookie of some of you when you were in your teens.

I love being socked in by a snow storm but this one is really bad timing for those who had a lot of shopping left. Luckily, most of my preparations yet to be done are mostly projects at home. Dad put the chains on the Taurus so we could go to the Chandler’s for dinner on Sunday evening as planned; they had also invited Grandma. We would have never been able to get up her hill without the chains! We are just leaving them on as these chains are allowing me to get other commitments done such as finishing up my visiting teaching and picking up some things for Grandma plus some extra project supplies for me. I don’t like driving on icy roads but am getting the hang of it. I guess it is good practice so I can help Katie drive to St. Louis in January but that would be very nerve wracking to drive that trip as slow as chains require and I don’t necessarily want to be responsible to put them on!

The forecast of a snow storm was for Saturday or Sunday but Saturday night it still hadn’t snowed here. We deiced that maybe our Utah children would bring it with them later in the week. We laughed that Adrianne was no longer as snow crazy as she used to be while praying for snow days growing up. Although, she told me that she still loves the snow in Oregon as everything comes to a halt here when it snows. Dad made sure that he mowed the lawn on Saturday. She called during the storm to say our high and low temperatures were the same as their temperatures in Utah.

When asked why he mowed the lawn, he said that he had to vacuum all the remaining leaves up because a snowman isn’t pretty with leaves. The snow was actually so dry that very few snowmen were constructed in our area. We woke on Sunday morning to the quiet sound of snow; the snowfall became greater each minute and soon the deck was covered with deep snow. Dad said that we had Bill to thank since the snow came from Canada but after the snow on the deck crunched as he walked outside, he came back and exclaimed, “This is Utah snow, skiing snow!”

Morty called as I was maneuvering the snow packed roads on Monday afternoon to excitedly tell me that Las Vegas was getting a dose of snow. He took some pictures and sent them of the Red Rock area with its snow covered palm trees! This weather is crazy!

I called Morty one day while looking for salsa at Costco (not finding the one I like) since I know he buys his there also. He couldn’t talk long as he was rushing to catch a plane. I wondered where he was going this time. Then, that night, while Dad and I went to Grandma’s to do something there, we noticed the Blazer-Jazz game on TV and I remembered that he told me he was flying to Salt Lake for that game and for a BYUY-University of Portland game at the Marriott Center. We searched and searched for Morty, Katie or Nate in the audience of the game but never had any luck so we really enjoyed the pictures that Morty sent us. Katie had a media pass and was courtside so we were sure that we could get a picture of her on the TV but the camera angle was unreasonably focused on the game!

The weather has continued to be full of snow and ice this week. Katie surprised Dad and I on Thursday morning. She was supposed to arrive on Saturday. She has known for weeks that she was coming home earlier! Luckily, there were extra tickets to the concert, Michael Allen Harrison at the Old Church, Thursday night so that she could go with us. She sacrificed a Blazer game to go; her friends were stuck in Eugene and couldn’t go with her. Adrianne arrives on Thursday afternoon. Both of the girls came home tired; having little sleep all week with finals. It is fun to have the girls in the home again. We just love it!

We will see all of you in a few days or LESS!!! Remember to bring warm clothes and bring clothes for our family picture on Wednesday morning at 10:00 am. We have a great outdoor waterfall and rock shot planned but chances are, the weather won’t cooperate so we have found a suitable substitute indoor spot over by Doctor Barney and Goodrich’s offices. There is a nice wide indoor staircase that we could use. We are wearing jeans or tan pants and any combination of white or blue tops. I figure those colors should work for anyone.

Good news for the Jorgensen family: I had Logan here while they took Tate to his follow up appointment after the surgery to remove his eye. They doctor just received the report from the lab that the eye was destroyed by an aggressive form of Coat’s disease, not cancer. So, he will get a new eye that will be attached to muscles and track just like his good eye. They are understandably relieved.

Scott is looking forward to your visits. We had a nice quiet visit with him this week with being able to go midweek!

See you all soon! I love you, Mom