And you thought the holidays were over

Tonight we participated in our final - and arguably most important - holiday activity of 2008: Ian's school holiday program. (And at this point, I'm sure you don't need to ask why this was taking place tonight instead of before Christmas.)

At the beginning of December they started advertising the holiday program at school but Ian never said a word about it to us. I wondered - Would his class be in it? Were they even practicing something? Because if so, he wasn't sharing. And we didn't ask. So of course we were very curious about this "holiday program" and were very bummed when it didn't take place on its originally scheduled date before Christmas. Luckily, once classes finally got back in session this week the school director quickly pulled together the new date of tonight.

The festivities got started at school around 5:30 p.m. Instead of picking up Ian from class, we were directed to go straight to the school gym and take a seat there. The back wall was all decorated with adorable handmade decorations, with a paper garland Christmas tree as the centerpiece above a wooden stage. Already I wondered if I might cry at the sight of my son in his first school performance. Quickly setting thoughts of potential waterworks aside, we started chatting with the parents of one of Ian's classmates when we heard a commotion at the doors of the gym. The kids were ready to begin. Director Tricia gave a short intro and the music started to play. Only, we're not talking Frosty the Snowman - it was Stayin' Alive. As in, from Saturday Night Fever. Yeah! This is going to be even better than I thought! But it turns out that was just the toddlers' walk-down-the-aisle music. Once all gathered on stage - a feat in and of itself - they started singing Wheels on the Bus. Well, actually, the teachers started singing. The toddlers just sort of stood there. One started crawling down off the stage and running toward his Mom. And one started wailing. By the end, things weren't going well overall. Which just made it hilarious.

Next up was the 2 1/2 year old class - starring Ian Burpo (okay, maybe he was just the star in our minds). The walk-down-the-aisle music for his class was Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas. Which, I pretty much have to turn the channel every time that song comes on the radio because it's one of my least favorite holiday jingles ever - but that's okay. Maybe he'll get Jive Talkin' next year or something. Jeff and I had positioned ourselves (along with the other parents in Ian's class) at the front with video camera and digital camera in hands. Quite a juggling act indeed (as can be seen in the video quality).

Once they were all situated, they started their little song and dance. Now, let me pause here and say that one of the reasons that we were really intrigued by this whole thing is that we were curious how Ian would perform on a stage given that - as I've talked about - he's not the most extroverted of kids in group settings. So a whole auditorium of camcorders and flashes going off? Hmmm.... I half expected to see him do a repeat of the stand-and-stare toddler act. But no sirree. He seemed pretty into it from the moment they got started with some rendition of Row Row Row Your Boat that I must admit I had never heard before. But there were bells and jumping and twirling and it was all good. And if one song wasn't enough for these adorable little people, they concluded with We Wish You a Merry Christmas - including a big Happy Holidays! shout out to the crowd as their big finish. At which point the whole audience jumped out of their seats in roaring applause. The crowd was going wild! Or, maybe that was just the parents of the 2 1/2 year old class. I'm not sure.

Anyway, it was all pretty cute and now my holidays are officially complete. A video version will for sale on Amazon.com very shortly. PS - We're pretty sure Ian had fun despite how things might look in this photo.

Until I write again.

2009 has been a great year...so far

Okay, so we are actually only on the fourth day of the New Year but I have to say that so far it's been a really good year. Here's our year in review so far:

Countdown to Day One. Of course our New Year officially started off on New Years Eve where it wasn't until about 4 or 4:30ish p.m. that afternoon that we decided what we wanted to do that evening...which was sort of nothing. But being home never stopped us before from creating our own party and having a good time, which is exactly what we did. First, we popped over to Freddie's for some tasty dinner makings (yes, steak and baked potatoes were involved). Once home, we kicked on the "Party Favorites" on the music channel and that's when things really got rolling as we revived our official living room version of Dance Party USA (which admittedly has not made much of an appearance since leaving Dinwiddie Street). While I unfortunately don't have any photos to commemorate the revival of DP USA, I do have some video - which I may or may not be sharing in the near future.

Once Ian enjoyed his requested New Year's Eve meal of a "tostada" (aka, quesadilla) and a piece of Santa chocolate - he headed off for a bath and bed (well, not by himself - we were there to help him). After Jeff and I wrapped up dinner we returned to the dance floor - some of us longer than others - before heading back out on tour with the Stumptown Burpies downstairs. And then before we knew it, it was approaching midnight so we called off the tour and came up to watch Dick Clark...who now looks frighteningly similar to Ryan Seacrest...drop the ball. And let me just pause here to say, wow is that show bad. And besides that, what I really want to know is, who are these people who actually think that standing in Times Square with zillions of people screaming while freezing their butts off for hours on end actually sounds fun?? Because personally, you couldn't pay me to be out there. Well, I guess it would depend on how much you were offering - but it would have to be a lot. Maybe enough to pay off our mortgage or something like that.

Day One. Our first day of the New Year started off on a very positive note with Ian sleeping in until something like 8:30 a.m. Though, I have to say that with the holidays and recent weather issues throwing off all our schedules, he's been sleeping later a fair amount. That was the first 8:30 morning, though. I sprung out of bed with bells on and was M-O-T-I-V-A-T-E-D to start the year off right. How, you ask? Organizing, of course! Being it was the beginning of a new year and the fact that the weather was super nasty out (rain nasty, not snow nasty) - what better day to get the household in order? So that's pretty much what we did from morning till night. We took down the tree, the lights outside, packed away all of the Xmas stuff, I filled boxes with the latest round of outgrown Ian clothing and put it in the garage, we broke down boxes and hauled out trash and recycling for Friday pickup the first time in 2+ weeks, we made some money by selling our old high chair and fireplace set on Craigslist (we hated that high chair but were sad to part with the fireplace set - though we just didn't know if we'd ever need it again...), I reorganized our main storage closet in our den while Jeff cleaned out and organized the garage, and I put new pictures in frames...it was great!

Day Two. Jeff worked from home on this day, so Ian and I were on our own. Still tuckered from the previous day's activities, I have to say that we weren't overly ambitious about getting out early. And Ian is really into being in his jammies these days. In fact, we are having a lot of battles about putting on our "day clothes", but that's a story for another post. So he was running around with stickers all over him (Santa brought him transportation stickers in his stocking) and at one point I see him walking over with this big fat Elmo phone stuck to his ear. He's clearly having an important conversation with someone when he goes over to the drawer with our takeout menus and pulls out the menu for Lin's China Jade - still with phone to ear.

Me: What are doing, Ian?

Ian: Please be quiet. I'm ordering.

Me: Oh, okay, sorry to bother you. Carry on.

Ian: (Walks over to chair in the living room and puts menu down point at items.) Yes, I'd like a grilled cheese. Yes, and a peanut butter and jelly, too!

So, apparently the Chinese joint has expanded their menu since we last ordered from there, which is good to know. But since I know that kids often mimic what they see their parents doing most, I'm not sure how to take that little episode - but it was funny nonetheless.

And speaking of takeout and food, the real highlight of Day Two of 2009 came in the evening. After we had subjected ourselves to some crazy number of nights eating at home (it was at least four!), we were overdue for either takeout or a dinner out. So, we went with the latter. We decided to splurge a bit and take Ian out to a nicer little Thai place (but still kid-friendly) that we usually just get takeout from. And let me just say that we had the loveliest dinner with our two-soon-to-be-three-year-old! More and more lately it seems that we are finally reaching a point where we can enjoy a meal out w/o anxiously gulping down our food at light speed and asking for the check halfway through the meal. And boy have we waited a long time for this day! We actually sat there perfectly relaxed amidst candlelight, ordered appetizers (!!), had not one - but two - glasses wine and enjoyed a tasty dinner. Ian loved his sticky rice and chicken satay with "peanut butter" sauce. Heck, we even had to wait for him to finish his dinner before asking for the check! This is a new and pleasant trend, for sure. Of course, I should also mention that a little added bonus of this particular place is that it has full-length windows that sit right beside the light rail train track - so a train would come through every few minutes, much to Ian's delight.

Day Three. The perfect day of organizing on Day One was complemented on Day Three by a much-needed visit from our beloved Maria (who like many other things - had to miss a visit during the bad weather). And poor Maria - it is a wonder she gets anything done with Ian as her little helper who follows her every move like she is a rock star. As soon as she walks in, he whips out his broom and dustpan and helps her "clean" around the house. About mid-morning Jeff, Ian and I left the house for a visit to an aviation museum in McMinnville, which is about 30-35 minutes from here in the wine country. We came across it one time when we were driving to the coast and it looked quite impressive from the road so we took note to take Ian back sometime. I mean, this place isn't the Smithsonian or anything, but they have quite an impressive display of aviation nonetheless - including that it is now the home of Howard Hughes' infamous Spruce Goose. Ian seemed to enjoy walking around and looking at all the airplanes. Then, last evening we shared a babysitter with our neighbors and went for dinner to an nice Indian place on the east side, followed by a fun cocktail party that was being hosted by a good friend of both of our neighbors (and who we see fairly often as he visits our hood quite a bit).

Which brings us to Day Four. I'd say it's been sort of your typical end-of-holidays Sunday before the business of the New Year really gets started. Grocery store, a bit more organizing and all that fun stuff. Plus a little catch-up blogging, etc. But despite today not being particularly exciting, it's still good to feel like you are getting things in order. Tomorrow Ian will start going to school full days on Monday and Wednesday while continuing with a half day on Fridays. I'll be using that extra time to step up my search for something that might actually pay - ideally in the form of freelance work for now. It should be interesting to see how that goes as it has become apparent to me in recent months that there are a lot of job seekers out there right now.

So all in all, it's been a great first four days. Now just 361 to go!

Until I write again.

I wonder how I'll like driving when I learn how?

Okay, so I'm hoping that if I vent over this little episode it will help me move on from it - which I clearly have not done yet. So, here's the story:

The past couple of days I have been hit hard by the CCs. You know - the Curse of the Clutter. I mean, it's everywhere! We've got Christmas decorations, we've got wrapping paper on the bed upstairs, we've got bags and tissue from purchases, we've got new toys everywhere and most of all, we've got GARBAGE. That's right. You see thanks to ARCTIC BLAST 2008, our trash and recycling hasn't been picked up in nearly two weeks now (actually, make that a month for recycling because they only do that half as often). Combine that with all the extra trash you have during the holidays and well, let me just say it ain't a pretty sight. So, suffice it to say that Mama Bear has not been happy with all of the clutter in our midst. Yesterday I set out to take some steps to remedy the situation by starting to remove some Christmas decorations and wrapping paraphernalia upstairs and organize them back in boxes. Well, about two seconds into this little project it was clear that I was going to need more organizational tools at my disposal. Which is where Target comes in. Okay, hold that thought for a minute.

So, yesterday morning Jeff took his car into the dealer to get a couple of things repaired. They gave him a brand new TL (same car that I drive) as a loaner for the day, which he proceeded to drive about 1.2 seconds from the dealer to our house and park in the side parking spot of our driveway where it stayed all day until the afternoon when the following conversation took place:

Me: Hey, I'm curious how the new TL drives. If you don't mind, I think I'll take it for a spin down the road to Target. (The TL was just redesigned for 2009 so I wondered if there were many differences in the new one versus my now older model - which is really the point of why they give you a brand new TL as a loaner, right? With the hopes that maybe you'll love it and be interested in a little upgrade?)

Jeff: Sure, but it's a keyless operation so I'll need to come out and give you a little tutorial.

Me: Oh, I don't want to go through all that - never mind, I don't really need to drive it.

Jeff: Oh, it's no problem, it'll be quick. Oh but wait, I left the keys upstairs, I'll have to go get them.

Me: Oh really, never mind - this is turning into more of a production than I intended.

Jeff: No it's not - but just make sure you don't get in an accident!

Me: Okay, I'll try! (Nervous laugh.)

So we go outside and I get my little tutorial on the keyless operation as well as a few other things. A half hour or so later, I'm all set for my little jaunt to Target about a mile down the road. Jeff reenters the house and I put the car in reverse - watching for a car to pass behind me before I pull out into the street when BAM! I feel the back side of the car slam into something hard. All I recall is quickly pulling the car back up and jumping out while uttering a few choice words. It turns out that I hit a telephone poll that sits directly in the path (well, off to one side but still directly in the path) of where the car was parked in some extra pavement space that is to the side of our main driveway. It was on the very side edge of the back bumper and while it did not actually cause a dent - the gook-covered pole did a rather nice job scratching up and discoloring the shiny new silver paint job on the car. Ugh!!!! Are you kidding me??? I couldn't believe it. As you can tell, I still can't believe it! I got back in the car to pull it forward again, I think all the while saying Choice Word. Choice Word. Hit the steering wheel. Hit the steering wheel. Choice Word. Choice Word. Then I got out and ran inside yelling for Jeff to come outside and help me make sure this wasn't a bad dream. He assured me it was real.

Jeff returned the car to the dealer (which is literally across the street from the end of our street) yesterday evening and they said they'd call today with an estimate on the damage - which turned out to be just over 500 smackers. After insurance, we are hoping our portion will be just about $100, but we'll see. My glass-is-always-half-full husband is encouraging me to move on given that it's now a "sunk cost" in his mind, but let's face it - I'm not as good as he is at moving on quickly. I have to dwell on it for at least a day. Sheesh. Which is why I decided to do a little blog therapy. I will consider this my final release and plan to move on immediately upon posting.

However, to end on a more positive note: This little incident did finally encourage me to post a couple items on Craigslist today that we've been meaning to get rid of for quite a while now in hopes of helping make up the cost difference for this unfortunate episode. Also, I learned an important lesson which is that I will never again drive another vehicle that isn't mine unless I really need to. Grrrr. Okay, now deep breath. Out with the bad energy, in with the good energy. You see, I already feel much better.

Until I write again. Oh, and Happy New Year!

Now this is what we like to see

I thought I'd post some evidence that things have returned back to normal in Portland. (And I can vouch that it happens to be pouring cats and dogs as I write.) I think I echo the feeling of many Portlanders when I say that I've never been so happy to see precipitation of the non-frozen variety:

And just for good measure, here's one last snow picture I took a few days ago of Jeff and Ian's faceless snowman in our front yard (who has since gone bye-bye):

Until I write again.

A new day

It's been nearly a week since I last posted so I figured it was time to get back at it. There have been many little things that have happened over the past week that are certainly post-worthy, and I realized that they could all be summed up in the title of this post: A new day. Why?

Well, first of all - it feels like a new day on the weather front for sure. By the morning of Christmas eve, about one and a half weeks into our seemingly never-ending snow/ice event - things were getting pretty frustrating. Really, when people can't go to school or work or finish up Christmas shopping or really go anywhere they want or need to go when they want or need to go there, it can start to get a little maddening. I mean, even the cats were at each other's throats by last Wednesday. Oh wait, that's normal. Never mind. The point is, there was definitely some stress building that may have even caused an episode (or two) of family bickering. Oh, and there was also that one semi-awkward moment of a slight breakdown at the FedEx facility where I trekked on Christmas eve to retrieve some packages that never made it to our house. I think it had something to do with the stress of most every road - including Interstate 5 - being like some combination of driving over a bed of rocks (huge chunks of packed ice and snow) and being on that car ride at Disneyland where you have to stay perfectly on the tracks without veering too much to one side or it would shoot you back to the other side rail.

Road stress aside - by late morning of Christmas eve, the weather conditions were looking up. The additional snow that they had forecast did not materialize and instead the temperature was slowly climbing. I believe it was at that point there was a collective "Yahooooooeeeeyyyyy!" that could be heard across the city. And we in the Burpo house decided that being it was Christmas eve and all, it was time to get over our frustrations and get in the Christmas spirit. So that, we did. Christmas eve we had a very fun evening with our two neighbor families and had a wonderful Christmas day watching Ian experience the joy of Christmas, cooking and eating a delicious turkey dinner, and talking with family members. By Friday morning, the snow was already starting to disappear (helped by lots of rain, of course) and though many roads were still in desperate need of a good plowing - they were starting to improve slowly but surely. With vastly-improved mobility under our belts - we did what any good American would do in this time of economic crisis: we headed straight for the mall. By Saturday, we were driving down the highway on actual pavement just like normal people would do. And today I went for my long-awaited haircut. Tomorrow, Ian will return to school and tomorrow eve we are planning to go to Zoolights at the Oregon Zoo, which we thought we had missed when the Zoo was closed several nights due to weather. So yes, it feels like a new day indeed!

But in addition to a new day in the sense of returning to normalcy after two weeks of things being not-so-normal, it's also very clear that this holiday season marks the beginning of a new phase in our parenting journey. The phase I'm referring to is, of course, the Santa Deception Phase. Because all of a sudden this year Ian clearly gets it. I mean, not only does he suddenly know who Santa is, but he knows where he lives. For example, on Christmas morning we went in to get him up and immediately he wanted to know if Santa had been to our house. We said, "Oh, I think he was definitely here last night and he left you some presents." And he said, "And now he went to the North Portland?" (Which for the non-locals, happens to be one of the "up and coming" areas of the city with a few kinks still to be worked out.) "Um, well close, but I think what you meant was that he's back at his home in the North Pole now," I said. "Oh," he said.

But as with many lies, you find that once you start telling a little white lie like the fact that there is this jolly old fat man who wears a red suit and climbs down chimneys to deliver presents to kids around the world all within one night - there's a whole other set of deceptions that now must follow that you don't initially think about. Which is frankly why it's much easier to tell the truth. For example: wrapping the presents. One day I was wrapping presents and it suddenly occurred to me that I only had one type of kid wrapping paper, when really I should have two types of kid wrapping paper: One for gifts that Santa brought (and of course had wrapped himself) and then one for presents from us. Dammit. Of course normally it may not have been a problem just to run down to Target for a new roll of wrapping paper to keep up with this little Santa charade, but when there happens to be a foot of snow on the ground and you have the very person you are trying to deceive locked to your leg, it becomes slightly more challenging. So then I started making up explanations in my head (as if my two-year-old is going to ask why the wrapping paper is all the same - just like I knew he'd never find the unwrapped gift under the guest bed): Santa clearly didn't have time to wrap all the gifts beforehand, so after he came down the chimney he snuck upstairs to borrow our gift wrap. Perfect. Whew, the path of deception was still intact!

And then of course there are the presents themselves. For example: what Piece de Resistance would the little come down to find from Santa under the tree on Christmas morning? This year, after remembering at the somewhat last minute that we were lacking an actual Piece de Resistance from Santa -we decided on, and procured, a "Grand Walk-In Kitchen" with so many bells and whistles on it that it would make Emeril salivate. Of course Grand Walk-In Kitchens don't just come already assembled. No way, Jose! They come in large boxes in about 50 bajillion (yes, you read that right - bajillion) pieces. And this is where the real fun begins for parents entering into the Santa Deception Phase, right? WRONG. So, enter Tuesday eve. I said to Jeff, "You know, we are going to be at the neighbors tomorrow night and maybe it's not the best idea to wait until Christmas eve to start putting this thing together." He agreed and so after Ian went to bed that night we went down the basement and pulled out a couple of engineering textbooks to get started. We had it halfway put together when trouble struck. Try as we might, we couldn't get the counter on. That, and a couple of other issues, led us to the conclusion that we had a defective product on our hands. Of course what we also had at that point was a half put-together Grand Walk-In Kitchen that was not coming apart. After about 20 minutes of two people with graduate degrees standing there perplexed about what to do next - we decided that one thing that was for sure was that this was not the kitchen that "Santa" would be giving to Ian on Christmas morning. So we had approximately 24 hours to get this one returned, procure a new one and put it together. Oh, and PS - there was supposedly more snow coming in the morning on top of already difficult roads. So again, it wasn't like we could just count on zipping down to Toys R' Us first thing in the morning.

Travel challenges aside, we knew we had to get this one back in the car. So we tore apart the car as much as we could and around 10 p.m. on Tuesday evening embarked on what I can now call a comical process of trying to shove a half put-together kitchen and rather large box containing the rest of the parts into the back of our car. (Remember that bickering I referenced earlier?) Then I went online to find out what time my favorite toy store was actually opening in the morning only to find out that low and behold - they were open until 1am that night. Well, hot damn! With more bad weather on the way and the clock ticking toward Christmas, I figured there was no time like the present to take care of Santa business. So off I went at a maximum speed of about 20 mph the whole way on icy roads trying not to kill myself and my defective Grand Walk-In Kitchen on a mission to retrieve a new Piece de Resistance. And let me just say that standing in the Customer Service line at Toys R' Us with a half put-together kitchen in my car at 10:30ish p.m. two nights before Christmas is most definitely one of the highlights of my parenting adventures to date. Frustrations aside, I have to say though that the process actually went very smoothly and a very nice man helped me remove the old and put in a new one - at which point I (slowly) trekked back home and Jeff and I did a Take 2 on putting together the Grand Walk-In Kitchen - this time very quickly and without incident. Thank God.
And so we have also entered a new day in the realm of holiday celebrations and all the good-natured deception that comes with it. But boy was it all worth it when he came downstairs and first saw that kitchen on Christmas morning. Which kind of sums up the whole interesting phenomenon I've discovered about being a parent: Even though you can feel a whole lot of frustration and sacrifice sometimes, really all they have to do is smile or give you a hug or say, "I love you, Mommy" and it makes it all worth it. And so I have included some pictures here of Ian's first glance at and moments with his kitchen, along with some general Christmas day excitement and festivities.

Until I write again.

14 inches and counting

We received several more inches of snow overnight and this morning, making our current total somewhere around 14 inches and breaking 40-plus year records for Portland snowfall, according to our local NBC affiliate.

Today for fun the three of us ventured out and went to pick up our friend Zach down the hill from his house (getting up the hill to his house is pretty much impossible right now) and then we all went to Washington Square Mall (with about half of the stores open) to watch Ian run around the play area there and eat lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. I won't count on having that type of family experience again any time soon.

The roads are still somewhat passable, but are significantly worse from when we were out and about even yesterday. (In case I forgot to mention it earlier - Portland owns very few snow plows so counting on plows to clear the streets doesn't really happen here.) We came across many a stuck or abandoned vehicle. I'm still awaiting delivery of an overnight FedEx package from California that was supposed to arrive here on Friday and as of about 30 minutes ago is showing that it's still sitting on a truck in Lake Oswego (just south of here) - as it has been since Friday morning. So, at this point I am not counting on anything reaching us (that isn't already here) by package delivery before Christmas. More sighs.

We did get together with our two neighbors for dinner last night to watch some football and let the kids run around like crazy people. We are also going to get together again for Christmas eve dinner, so that will be nice.

So, the good times continue here in Beaverton. Oh well, at least it's pretty! Today's pictures are ones that I took from our outing today and out our front and back porch just a while ago.

Until I write again.

Still going strong...

I'm referring to the Bummer Moments, of course. I'm very unhappy to report that every single one of my Bummer Moments as well as my Anticipated Bummer Moments came true this week. And, we even have a couple new ones to add to the list!

Let's see...where did we last leave off in our little adventure? Oh right, I think they had opened schools on Thursday and them promptly panicked when they saw snow falling and immediately closed them again. Sigh. Well, the snow eventually subsided and the roads were FINE on Thursday. Really, I can't even remember now what we ended up doing that day to pass the time, but I'm sure it had something to do with either Ian or I (or both of us) pulling out every last strand of our hair at some point. Now, I know what you are wondering: Is it possible to have too much togetherness with a two/almost three-year-old? Well, I'm here to tell you that the answer to that question is most definitely, yes. Not that I don't think my little angel is the most wonderful thing put on this earth, but hey, we all need a break every now and then.

So anyhooskie, let me tell you that when that alarm went off Friday morning, I floated down the stairs with glee because I was just 110% positive that school would be open and I would have a few free hours to get myself back on track. But oh, silly me for getting my hopes up. I mean, why would they want to open schools for just one day of the week? Okay, well maybe we did have some sort of precipitation on Thursday night that had iced up the roads again making it supposedly dangerous for school buses to navigate their way around Portland, but is that really a reason to close school for the fifth day in a row? I mean, can't all these kids just walk?? (Okay, just kidding. I wouldn't want to put any little ones in danger.) More sighing. Well, all I have to say is thank God for OMSI. I packed up Ian and we headed over to the east side for a morning of good times at the museum. And while I was positive that it would be packed, it actually was not at all. In fact, just the opposite - there was hardly anyone there. Bonus.

On Friday afternoon Jeff came home from work a bit early which allowed me to join the rest of the greater Portland metro area at the mall late Friday afternoon to wrap up some last minute shopping. I mean, I'm positive that absolutely everyone who lives within a 50 mile radius was at Washington Square that day. And, by the way, don't you think it's strange that the second you walk into a mall that the entire world's population changes into only teenagers? Hmm...very odd. Anyway, by Friday eve they (and by they, I mean those weather people on TV) were busy talking about more bad weather again. You know, that whole Phase 3 thing I referenced in an earlier post. Yeah, that one. Well, they kept saying that this one was going to be the real deal. Lots of snow, ice, freezing rain, hurricanes, tornadoes, you name it - all rolled up into one big weather system expected to hit about mid-day on Saturday (at least accordingly to Doppler Radar - and we all know that the good ole' DR doesn't lie). Okay fine, we'll see.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early (like I really need to point that out since I haven't "slept in" in about four years now) to find that we already had a dusting of snow and it was continuing to fall lightly but consistently. Well, I wasn't even going to make an attempt to find out if perhaps there was some smidgen of a chance that our Parents' Day Out was still happening. Clearly it was not. (I do believe that was Anticipated Bummer Moment #6 becoming Actual Bummer Moment #6.) So the three of us piled into the car headed out to pick up goodies for the holiday dinner we were hosting for the Hyders that evening (which I'll just mention we had scheduled about three weeks prior and were of course looking forward to). Even as we were out and about on Saturday morning, things were looking a bit ominous. We saw several cars struggling to make it up slight hills even on main thoroughfares as a now moderate snow continued falling. Hmm. By the time we got home midday with enough food and drink to feed an army, I must say the white stuff was really starting to come down. By about 2pm, it was becoming painfully clear that we were about to add Bummer Moment #8 to the list: our holiday dinner was not happening. (Those people said that the snow was only expected to worsen throughout the day/night - not get better.)

So, phone calls were exchanged, (and once again this week) plans were canceled and then we did the only thing we could do: bundled up Ian and headed outside to enjoy the snowfall. We had purchased a couple of small sleds when we had the bit of snow the previous Sunday which we expected to use on a still TBD trip up to the mountains this winter - but luckily they ended up coming in handy yesterday. Ian was beside himself with excitement at the opportunity to do a little sidewalk/street sledding with Dad. Much to Ian's disappointment, we weren't able to stay outside too long because well, it was snowing hard and FREEZING outside, but I believe a good time was had by all anyway. Last night we made our holiday dinner anyway sans our guests (it was yummy - sorry you weren't here Z&B!) and continued to watch the snow along with the Godfather 2.

By this morning the precipitation had ended and all told I think our area ended up with about eight inches of snow along with a good sheet of ice on top of that - helping make this the snowiest December in Portland in more than 10 years. The mountains have gotten well more than two feet, I believe (not counting all the stuff from earlier this week) and the highway in the Columbia River Gorge just east of Portland has been closed to traffic due to blizzard conditions out there right now. We did some Sunday morning snow frolicking and then decided to venture out to Costco midday. With chains on (required on all roads in the area right now) we fared just fine on the roads - though I have to say that the MDX has proven to be a real trooper in bad weather. With temps only in the mid-20s today, we've seen more bands of snow and freezing rain coming through and apparently have another chance of some snow accumulation tonight (two to six inches). The latest we are hearing is that this unusually cold air in the valley is going to keep hanging on for about another week or so before finally pulling out sometime around next Saturday. Hopefully we'll all still like each other by then.

So, that's the latest weather report from the Pacific Northwest. Even though all Portland Public Schools are now officially closed for holiday vacation anyway, Ian's preschool was scheduled to still be open tomorrow and half day on Wednesday. Which brings me to Anticipated Bummer Moment #9....

Until I write again.