View of Mt. Bachelor and La Pine Snow Scenes:

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

A Nice Visit and Learning to Speak Pig Latin

Scott, Garrett, Gage and Cheri

Well, we are back to hospital visits once again.  Yesterday, Cary's oldest daughter and her family were here from Washington.  We had a nice visit with them, Cary's mom and brother, and even exchanged a few Christmas gifts.

Scott, Garrett, Me, Cheri and Gage

We love these boys, our sweet grandsons:

Garrett and Gage

Gage and I pulled up a funny You Tube video on my phone, and learned about speaking Pig Latin:

Grandpa Cary, Garrett and Gage

Cary and Garrett are wearing their Army All-American Game hat and sweatshirt, souveniers of when we were in San Antonio last January, watching another grandson, Tyler Matthews play.

Grandpa Cary, Garrett, Gage and Grandma Kathy

I love all these guys, they make me happy.

Larry and Scott

Cary's brother, Larry, reminds Scott that he was the one who introduced Scott and Cheri in the first place.  Scott was working for him at the time, and Cheri was visiting her grandparents in La Pine.  Larry said, okay, now I am going to introduce you to your future wife, he did ... and they fell in love!

Gage and Cheri

Hold still, Gage! Cheri might not like this picture, 

but it cracks me up.

They sent us home with a wonderful gift basket full of chocolates, coffee, hot chocolate, festive Christmas cups and ... new moccasins!  We always look forward to the slippers that Cheri gets us each year.

So, even though my MIL was only home a short time, the hospital staff is getting her all fixed up so that she can come back home.

Hope that you are all doing fine and that you will have a great New Years Eve!

~ Kathy M.

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

A White Christmas:

It was an odd Christmas this year for me.  We did have snow, and lots of it.  These snow photos were taken on Christmas Eve day.

Dana and Sasha (my MIL's little dog) don't mind it so much, if they only have to go out for a quick tinkle.
 

Whoa!  That back door needs to be hosed off as soon as spring hits.

We are sure going to miss Sasha. She will be going home today, because her Mama is coming home from the nursing home! 

Here are some pictures of the front yard.  The big hill behind the chairs is where the Bobcat dumps the extra snow from our sidewalk.  Still, look on the round table for how much snow there was and still is. 

We had a series of winter storms that made us decide that it would be unsafe to travel over the pass to celebrate Christmas with my family on Sunday.  That made me kind of sad, but I figured that we wouldn't be doing anybody any good if we got into an accident at this point in time.
   

On Christmas Day, I opted out on the drive to Redmond and visit with my MIL.  Cary went and spent the most of the day with her though.  Instead, I stayed home, finished wrapping the gifts that go to Eugene, cleaned the house and made us a ham dinner.  It was so nice to just stay put and take care of us.
 

This is what it still looks like!  I don't know how long that we will have the tree up now.  I am hoping that we can get to Eugene soon.  I feel as if I just finally got things up, and I'm not too excited about taking everything back down.
 


Dana and Sasha like it best when we are home with them.  Dana has just gotten used to Sasha, and seems to enjoy her company.  I am afraid that she will be lonely again, without another dog.  Before Sasha came to visit, I was thinking about getting a poodle mix, and that is what she is.  I hope that we will find a perfect match for us sometime soon.  We have always had big dogs, but from here on out, I think that we will be getting little ones. 

Dana looks pretty big here, doesn't she? 

So, this was our Christmas.  Not much different than any other day this year.  We didn't go to church.  We didn't have a family gathering with either side of the family.  But, we have each other, a nice warm home, cell phones and Facebook ... and that all made things a bit easier.

Today, we bring Darlene back home, and our long trips back and forth to Redmond will be over with.  With the snow, it is an hour drive each way.  We will be so happy to have her back home, next door, and know that she will be too.  

Well, we have a busy day ahead, and so I had better get off of here and get ready to rock and roll.  I am sorry that I am so behind on my blog visiting.  I hope to get back into the groove again soon.  Thank you for all of your nice comments and Christmas wishes.

Happy New Year, my friends.

~ Kathy M.

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

The Night Before Christmas:

This week, I am a bit late for Sepia Saturday, but I hope that you will enjoy this post even so.  I chose to combine some Christmas memories and the Little Golden Book, "The Night Before Christmas".

It is fun to see when Mom got these pictures developed.  It looks as if it took a couple of months to recover from Christmas to afford the developing costs!

 

 This is me, on my very first Christmas.  I must not have liked the flash in my eyes.

My first tricycle.  My Grandma T. is on the couch, and Dad is beside me.

Mom said that this is my second Christmas, and I look about 2, but I think it was my third.
It says, "Chistmas at Nanny's house with Boo-Boo.  2nd Christmas.

Let's skip to when I was 9 and we had a Christmas gift exchange at school.   I received this book from my friend Suzy, and by the looks of it, I never wanted to let it go.  Mom gave it back to me last year.  I love coming from a family of savers!
 

This is what I wrote on the inside cover:

Name: Kathy Johnson
From:  Suzy Hamrick (?)
Dec. 22, 1967

"In memory of a Christmas present in forth grade.  I am 9  years old.  I hope not to lose this book.  If so, I don't want it tore."

"Coments:  Thank you Suzy fore this book." 
 

One two, skip a few.  Here we were on West Quinalt (two years later), where we lived from second grade until spring vacation of fifth grade.  Nice velvet dress, Miss Kathy!  I love seeing the house in the background.  Notice the kitchen table and chairs, the laundry basket, the swivel chair and the ashtray on the end table.  Too much fun:

Me, Angie, Little Bro holding our dog Bambi and Julie.

That was also the year that we got The Big Snow (1969) that brought the Willamette Valley to it's knees.  It happened in January, and the Christmas lights were still up outside.  The snow was about 4' deep, and the lights cast a pretty glow outside mine and Julie's bedroom window.

Me, Little Bro and Bambi

If you came here for the scanned copy of the 1950 Little Golden Book, "The Night Before Christmas" here it is.  I liked the illustrations better in this book, there is a lot more action and detail.  You can click on any picture for a better view.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everybody!

~ Kathy M.

So, there you are, my friends.  If you enjoyed this story, please visit my Sepia Saturday friends by "CLICKING HERE" to find other neat photos and stories.  To read more about my family and other stories featuring old photos, memories and more, please look for this picture of me and my dad on the left-hand sidebar and read whatever else catches your fancy.  Thanks so much for visiting!

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.