BIRTHDAY MONTH IS OVER!

NINE birthdays!...9!...all in ONE month!  January is our biggest month of birthdays.  We start right in on the 1st and it goes until the 28.  Every weekend we have 2 or 3 birthdays to celebrate.  Not that I mind at all, they are for some of the most special people in my life.  You know how everyone is always remarking that the Christmas season starts earlier and earlier each year?  Well, I call it the Holiday of Birthdays Season, because we have our first birthday to celebrate on the 30th of October, then a week later on the 6th of November is one grandson's birthday, and another grandson the next week as well as a grand niece and two more birthdays at Thanksgiving.  December, there is an anniversary which we don't really celebrate anniversaries, but it is always my chance to have two grandkids for a couple of days while their parents celebrate their anniversary.  Then on the 23rd we have a birthday.  It is followed by Christmas Eve and we always have a birthday cake for Jesus, to celebrate the most important birthday of all.  We get a week to take down the Christmas decorations and jump in full force for BIRTHDAY MONTH on the 1st.  Birthday Month, most people know it as January, the month to begin diets and getting back in shape from all the splurges they had in December, but come on!  How can a person even begin to diet when you are faced with this kind of party schedule?  I love cake, but by the end of January, I am really ready for a nice tossed green salad instead!

So here it is the end of the month.  I have taken my last bite of cake for a while...oh wait...did I forget to mention that we are headed to Los Angeles to celebrate our grandson's birthday in two weeks?  

 SNOW!!!!  

 We woke up to snow yesterday morning!  What is it about snow, especially waking up to it that gives me such a thrill?  

I know that as a kid it was partly because we knew that there would be no school for the day.  Not that school was a bad thing, but because it meant a fun change of routine.  It meant getting up and dressed as fast as we could to rush out all bundled up to make a snowman.  We sometimes would bridle up our horses and take them for a walk around.  One year  we had silver thaw on top of about 3 feet of snow...maybe it was more, but I am trying to make a realistic adult guess on the depth, it seemed more like 6 feet in my mind back then.  There was a good inch of ice on everything and the horses had to stop and crack the ice with every step.  Then, snowman built, horses back in the barn, going in and standing over the heater vent to get warmed up again, and having hot chocolate and cookies.  Sometimes it meant no power, which to a kid that was fun too.  Sitting by candlelight to eat, and no TV meant sitting and talking to everyone while we played Monopoly or worked a puzzle.  It meant more time together than the normal routine gave.  

That same excitement happened a few years later when I became a Mom.  Instead of me rushing out, I helped the kids bundle up, watched as the neighbor kids joined mine on our hillside with sleds, sheets of plastic and skis.  Then all of them would come inside, hang their coats by the wood stove and munch on cookies and another generation would pull out the board games and play by candle light. 

 This shot shows the view of the hillside when we first woke up, a little while later it was starting to melt and then even later, another storm moved on through giving us an ever changing view throughout the day.

 I took advantage of the break and took a walk around the yard.  All bundled up of course and hurried back in to make homemade chicken noodle soup.  mmmm....nice cozy way to spend the day.  Can you believe that Netflix now has a video of a fireplace...yep, nonstop fire going, with sound...it pops and cracks and hums.  You can get it with music or just fire.....looks and sounds like the real thing and on our TV screen is bigger than life.  Now just add a scented candle and crank up the furnace and bring on the board game.

THIS was an amazing sunrise to witness.  I did not do anything to make this picture any different than what was actually out there.  The colors were unbelievable.  Jessi was driving home from her nurse's night shift at that same time and called to ask me just how many pictures I had taken.  She knows her mom!!!  I have been so blessed to be able to live here and see God's handiwork.

 Last Weekend was John's Birthday.  He wanted to go to the beach.  He WANTED to have it be really stormy weather so that he could just sit there and watch the storm come through.  Well, at first it looked as if he got his wish.  It was raining when we arrived.

 We stayed at this place years ago.  At that time each room had a beautiful rock fireplace and they kept a pile of wood outside each door.  I was disappointed to find out that they had 'upgraded' and now each room has a fake fireplace.  It looks nice, but there is no crackle and pop, no smell of wood burning, no mess of little sticks to pick up and most of all, it never did feel like any warmth was coming from it.  But that was fine, I hunkered down with a new book and got lost in it.

 It had pretty much stopped raining by nightfall and that made me really happy to be able to get some blue hour shots.  I love the reflected lights on the water.  There was too much fog out there to get a good shot of the lighthouse.

 The next morning, all sign of his storm had gone and it was a nice sunny day.  Unbelievable that I was able to walk on the beach without a coat!!  There was no wind at all!!!  The Oregon beach at the first of January?  Unreal.  

 The waves were so foamy

evidence of the wind

 All the winds from the past make it look like the wind is still blowing.  It seems that every tree along the beach had this look to it.

I don't know why, but the beach, not just a warm sunny beach, ANY beach is one of my favorite places to be.  I can just sit for hours sifting the sand through my fingers while looking at the waves coming in and going out.  Or sometimes I start out for a little walk and then forget to turn around...until I have walked miles away.  Hopefully, I have my pockets full of great little shells and rocks by then to make it worth the walk back.

AHHHH!!!!  It has been over a month since I have put anything on my blog!  I have thought about it a few times...I have even actually come to my blog to try to post something...but that is as far as I would get.  Sometimes, figuring out which pictures to use and what to say just takes up way to much time.  And these days, time is a precious thing. The way I see it...better to be busy making memories and catch up later...who wants to miss out on the fun?  Below are some photos of what has kept me busy. 

Christmas baking...didn't want to disappoint anyone, so made way more than we should have eaten...cookies, peanut brittle, almond roca, pound cake, peppermint cake, cheesecake...and a few others I know I forgot to list.  A few things got the ax this year due to lack of time...peanut butter balls & popcorn balls ...sad, but true...and guess what, nobody seemed to notice.  

 John and Rachel celebrated their 15th anniversary in Seattle, they saw 'Messiah', and Emily and Joshua got to spend 4 days with us.  Jessi and Ariel bought a house, so we were busy for a while helping them pack up and move at the first of the month.  It is just a few miles away, so we were able to have Josiah over, too, while the kids were here.

 It was Ariel's first Christmas in Oregon, so Jessi made sure he got to see all that was possible for her to show him.  One of the places she wanted him to see was The Grotto.  

 The next week, we all packed into the car and headed to the Portland Zoo for the Zoo Lights.  Great Grandma & Grandpa McCool went with us.  As it turned out, that was the record day for attendance since the Zoo Lights first began!  It was not all that crowded once we got inside, but driving there and parking and shuttle bus???  Not to mention the HUGE line to buy tickets...believe me, we thought more than once about just packing back into the car...but it was all worth it once we got inside...the lights were spectacular!!!  If you click on the photos you can see them better...that is Emily's silhouette in the butterfly photo.  

 Finally, Christmas Eve...John's parents came out for a few hours in the afternoon, then when the kids arrived with their families, we made a Skype call to watch Gabe open his gifts while we chatted with Dennis and Abby.  After that we had our Christmas dinner.  We finished off with the annual 'Birthday Cake for Jesus'.

 Christmas Day.  

Since we opened up gifts the night before, we were able to sleep in and have a leisurely brunch.  Then everyone headed over to Grandpa and Grandma McCool's place in time for the Laker game (Joshua, son John and Ariel are the big fans).  We had the usual McCool feast with the aunts, uncles and cousins. We used to all fit into the dining room, but the past few years, the table has stretched across the whole living room to fit us all around it.  

This is a house just down the road from here.  One of the nights Emily and Joshua were here, I took them to look at lights.  They think that I need to light up MY house like this next year....hmmm...as busy as I was this year...I think NOT!

This is Joshua.  He is the Oregon State Cross Country Champion! He runs the 3K.  That is about 2 miles!  I can't remember his exact time, but I remember it was just over 6 minutes per mile!  

We are so proud of him!  Not because he is the champion, but because of the determination it took to achieve that.  It isn't easy to go out in the cold weather and workout.  But he decided he wanted to be a good runner and he worked hard to get the prize.  When most other guys his age are at home playing video games or watching TV in a nice warm house or whatever guys his age do, he gets out and gets it done and then he gets to do those other things too.  Good job, Joshua!!!   

This is him at the finish...the other runners were not even in sight!  He had a strategy and it paid off!  

TWO BIRTHDAY BOYS!!!

On the 6th we celebrated Joshua's 10th birthday.  Great Grandma made him a water dragon cake. Normally, he picks out what he wants her to put on his cake, but this year he said for her to surprise him.  She picked the water dragon because that is his newest pet.

We celebrated Josiah's 1st birthday, a week later, on the 12th. Great Grandma made him a monkey cake. 

We ended up our trip with a stop in Santiago, Chile to visit the Valencias, Alfredo, Alexandra, Angella, Ashley and Allison. I first met Alfredo and Alexandra when I was in charge of the conversation partner program at Mt. Hood College for the international students. As I called around seeking people who were interested in practicing their language with somebody trying to learn a different one, I called Pastor Alfredo at Iglesia Vida Nueva to see if anyone in his Spanish speaking church would be interested. He immediately said, "YES, MY WIFE, ALEXANDRA" I set up an interview with her and decided right then that SHE would be MY partner, since I too was trying to learn a language. We met up once a week, first we would talk in English only for a half hour, then Spanish only for a half hour. We hit it off and pretty soon, our hour started turning into longer and more often. One day she suggested that I come to Iglesia Vida Nueva and have practice with church in Spanish. That was ages ago...about 16 years actually and I still attend there, even though a few years ago, they left the states and moved to Chile as head of missions in South America. They originally are from Colombia, but have made Chile their home for the past 10 years. I felt like we were in California. Santiago was like Los Angeles  and the drive to the ocean was through vineyards that made me feel like we were in Nappa Valley, ending at the ocean. From the vineyards we drove to the Pacific Ocean to Vina del Mar. We saw the ocean, sand dunes, seals and pelicans and beautiful tropical colored ocean, finishing off the day with a gorgeous sunset and drive through an old old town called Valparaiso and a view of the harbor. The next day, they took us on a city tour, beginning with a drive up the highest point to see the whole city. You could see how the city is built right up against the Andes. We drove through downtown and then walked around the Capital building, shown here with the mounted guards in front of it. The last place they showed us was a monastery/nunnery that has been restored and is now a little village for visitors. It is full of shops with typical crafts along with other things to look at. Lunch was really different for us and really good...translation was 'corn pie'. It was very similar to Tamale Pie, but different. It had a beef and chicken base and was topped with corn cake...that had a ton of corn in it. It was a special kind of corn that they use for it. Afterwards we went back to the Valencia's place and had coffee and Coffee Kuchen before they took us to the airport for our flight back to the states. It was so good to spend time with them and they did an awesome job of packing so much into such a short time!

"Oh, Lord, My God, When I in awesome wonder, consider all the world Thy hands has made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder and there proclaim, My God How Great Thou Art!" The words to this old hymn have gone through my head over and over the past weeks as I traveled around Argentina. One beautiful sight after another, it was endless. The world is full of His beauty and I was so thankful to have this chance to see so much of it!

Dear Mt. Hood,

I have to confess, I spent the day admiring another mountain. Its beauty was amazing, the power, the awesomeness of it, I could not help but be amazed at all it had to offer. I took so many photos of it. I oooohhhed and awed. Please do not be jealous, you will always be my first love, you were there for me since my youth. I will always adore you most of all. You, my dear Mt. Hood are the one I have always woke up to and the one I fall asleep with. I am only looking. I promise you, I will be back. 
Yours, Vickixo

From the jungle to glaciers! Wow! What a change! And what beautiful sights down here too. We left for Patagonia on Wed. It has been non stop since we arrived. Thursday we went to the glacier park and got our first look at the biggest one. Then we strapped on the crampons and trekked over the glacier. It was amazing!







While we were there we got to see a piece fall off into the water. The sound was incredible. All through the day we could hear it, louder than thunder.





Then on Friday we took a boat to see three glaciers. It was a long day, but worth it to get to see them up so close and all those beautiful blue icebergs. Of course I took way too many photos.