Christmas time!!! - so full of family and activities.......
The week started with our annual journey to downtown Portland to immerse ourselves in the Christmas festivities of our big city. We caught the Max train at the Park Street center in Milwaukie.
Train ride was uneventful--which means the kids have gone on MAX many times before. Clara is riding Warren's horsie
Right after we got off MAX before we started to split up
This group went one way to look for food carts that Warren was interested in
We didn't find anything (that was open) that beckoned our dollars, so we headed up to the Pine Street Market where the others had gone. We went there last Christmas. It is nice because there is a wide variety of food and is a warmish place inside to sit down to eat--which is especially nice when you have kids..
I got the brisket burrito on the bottom.
Here we are patiently waiting for everyone to finish eating, go to the bathroom and, in general, to be found and gathered.
We headed to Saturday Market which wasn't busy - of course, we were there on a Monday. Every time I go, I walk up and down the aisles looking for something I want to buy, but, once again, there was nothing. (The last time I found something at a 'faire' was at the Harvest Festival in Hood River. I saw the hammock chair and bought it...and I'm still happy I did).
Ruby enjoying the waterfront view.
I still like this building which is right in the middle of the touristy part of Portland. So tasteful.
The "gathering" at 1:30 to head uptown to Pioneer Place
The kids are always smitten by this guy in his "metallic" costume.
Yep - we're in Pioneer Place
As usual we grabbed a big bench and 'owned' it with all of our coats and bags. We had one adult always sitting there with our baggage while everyone else wandered around the place.
The Skybridge between the two buildings was a good photo site.
Then up to Pioneer Courthouse Square while visiting wildlife on the way.
The MAX ride home offered a new adventure when an announcement came over the speaker system saying that a big truck, stuck on the tracks, would require all passengers to de-train at the next station and transfer to a Tri-Met bus that would become our "Bus Bridge" to the Park Street Station.
Two buses were necessary to take all the passengers, and we instinctively chose to wait for the second bus which would be a safer way to make sure all of our group kept together. The buses were crammed with people - reminding us, sadly, of the buses in Kazakhstan.
The driver dropped people off along the way, and by the time we got to the station, there was room to breathe on the bus.
Christmas Eve we decided to go to Cheesecake Factory at Clackamas Towne Center. Last year we got takeout from CF which was good but we still had to clean up. Jessica and Bev noted, last year when they picked up the food, that the restaurant, itself, was not crowded. So.."why not go out for dinner, pay the same prices, and be served and not have to clean up?" Brilliant! We all had decided what we wanted from the menu, texted our selections to Bev, who made up a spread sheet which was given to our server. Flawless! Good job Bev and Jess!
Renee gave this wonderful gift to Warren- she found it at a thrift store in Provo. He was happy.
To complete our Christmas Eve activities we went violin caroling at two places on Brunner Rd
...and then headed to Mary's Woods where we played for Sister Jeanette and other Sisters at their holiday dinner.
At home the Utah boys opened their traditional Christmas Eve gifts
Christmas morning we headed to the Cottage first.
Then came back to the Manor for the Utah Grays
Then to Donaldson Park
Then to Tidewater
We also visited the Fort On Front, but, surprisingly there are no photos. But, Holland did get a wooden train set that she loves!
We had our classic Christmas Day dinner at Jessica's - Mexican food. Everyone was there (except Ivan) and two of Warren's friends from Intel were invited too. The greatest success, in my opinion, was that the sopapillas "puffed"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dad had found a You Tube video featuring an annoying 'cowboy' type of guy (with bad grammar and a hillbilly twang) demonstrating the 'right' way to make sopapillas. And you know, he was right! He demoed how to strongly knead the ball of dough - and stretch it with each turn of the ball - for five minutes. Well, I tried this new cowboy method, kneaded for an agonizingly long five minutes, and it worked!
I made four batches - or 48 deep fried individual blobs of wonderfulness. They were totally devoured. I felt satisfaction after a lifetime of failure!
On Thursday Dad has his appointment to have his foot dressing removed. He left Kaiser walking in a shoe with greatly improved toes.
First is a before picture I posted last week. Second is an after
Thursday was the day Bjorn redeemed his Christmas gift. He had chosen a shooting activity. I begged Travis to come and help me provide this gift - he so 'came through' - bringing all sorts of big guns with big booms and 'know how' that I do not possess.
A big pistol...
with a strong recoil!
Malcolm even showed up and brought a German Mauser from WWI (maybe WWII...or both wars)
On Thursday Natalie's friend (I think boyfriend...yes, boyfriend), Clay Coleman, came to Oregon to visit the family! We went out to dinner at Sanfords.
Friday was the family temple trip to do baptisms. We had six youth - Bjorn, Archer, Camille, Tyler, Shelby, and Ethan Booth (our neighbor). Semi youth were Natalie and Clay. M priesthood holders were Dad, Warren, and Clay, mothers were Jessica, Renee, Donna and me. The session went seamlessly; there were 45 baptisms!
Afterwards we went go Burgerville for breakfast
Saturday was our Little Women activity - conceived, planed, and executed by Renee. First we had lunch which (in our minds) might have been what LW would have had for a tea party.
Then came the discussion of the book and activities We all wrote a letter using cursive....and maybe some other stuff. One activity was to try to correctly match quotations to characters in the book. Whitney and Penny were co winners.
Then we went to the new movie which was good! We all enjoyed it.
While the women were doing Little Women stuff, some of the men in the family were doing 'men stuff" with Clay. Dad, Ryan Warren, Clay went, and there were intermittent appearances from Paul and Malcolm. The unanimous verdict is that Clay is a good one.
They went to Waterfront Park
Voodoo Doughnuts
Powells Books
and were just plain weird
The Utah boys have enjoyed using the hot tub - mostly Magnus. One day Tyler was too lazy to don his swim suit and he just went in wearing his rolled up shorts - you can imagine -
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