Heaven loves families/ On to Oregon

In designing our mammoth plan we realized that Christmas would fall between the weddings and we were already in the west so the obvious place to spend Christmas was in Portland, OR with our grandchildren who believe in Santa Clause.  December road trips through the mountain west are always beautiful and exciting.  We put Rebecca behind the wheel on the drive between ID and OR because she needed experience with a hydroplaning car in a rainstorm on a mountain pass.  And if she didn't need it , she got it.  I'd say, "Umm Rebecca, you're crossing the line," and "Stay in your lane!"  She calmly explained that she wasn't doing it.  The car was floating.  She actually is a great driver and probably is the reason we stayed safe.  Driving into Oregon along the Columbia River was thrilling for me.  My dad went to Dental School in Portland and practiced for 5 years in Corvallis.  With my spending the first 10 years of my life there, it's actually the place I've lived the longest.  I had just not been back to visit until Brandon and Mallory moved there.

We arrived Monday evening and woke up Christmas Eve morning with some Christmas jobs to do.  December weddings=Christmas lite.  Paul and I headed out to Wal-mart.  Brandon and Mallory live conveniently next to a lot of great shopping.  We plugged "Wal-mart" into the GPS and were confused when it said, "11.6 miles."  We commented that our GPS was acting up again and we'd probably drive past 3 Wal-marts on the way to the one listed.  When we got there we found that it was surprisingly manageable crowd-wise in the store, and we were able to get groceries and a few little things quickly.  We breezed through the line with everyone who we came in contact with acting cheerful and polite.  Weird.  Later Mallory explained that Portland (Seattle's little hippie sister) eschewed big business and did not look favorably on Wal-Mart shopping.  Who knew?  Well, that made for a great Christmas Eve shopping experience for me, so thank you, Portland.  I guess.

Christmas Eve dinner

This was my first year being in an adult child's home for Christmas.  Well, we were in Aaron's home, but he was a single college student and Paul and I were still in charge of Christmas Eve.  It was very rewarding watching Mallory and Brandon establish Christmas traditions with their children.  Christmas Eve activities consisted of acting out the nativity with emphasis on Mary and Joseph finding a place to stay.  They had to knock on the coat closet door 3 times before they met the inn keeper who would let them stay in the stable.  We played a snow game which is similar to "Dumpit to Crumpet" but more exciting because children were playing.

Christmas pajamas

No room in the inn.

 Then Brandon had everyone choose a scripture or song about Christ to share.  That was really wonderful, but the most powerful moment for me was listening to my child testify of the divinity of Jesus Christ to his children. The windows of eternity opened up in my heart, and I saw the power of God in families who love him.

Christmas Morning came surprisingly late.  It was past 8:00 am before the littles came down to find that Santa had come.  There was delight and surprise to find that Santa knew that they liked nerds candy and had brought them a big movie-sized box.  My children, aged 13, 16, and 19 were not as delighted to find that Santa had brought them Brandon and Mallory's Halloween candy and a mandarin orange that looked suspiciously like the ones in the fruit bowl, Christmas lite, remember?  Present opening was very fun.  I'm so thankful that Mallory got a nice camera for Christmas because she's been taking some adorable pictures of her children, so Merry Christmas to me.

It's Christmas, It's Christmas!

This year our children drew names and gave homemade gifts.
Gabe got this "Jack Frost" hoodie from Joseph.  He wears it all the time.

These were not taken with Mallory's camera, but I love them.

The boys didn't really want a hug, but they would let me sit by them.

Paul and I received the "Frozen" soundtrack but were instructed not to listen to it before seeing the movie.  The obvious next step was to go to the movie on Christmas Day.  I join with all of the other reviews that I've read:  So great!  I loved it!  See it now!  And that was Christmas.