A semi-daily chronicle of my life as a musician, a family man, and a citizen of Oregon.
It's been almost two weeks ago now since we put up the Christmas tree, but I just now have a chance to share some of the pics. We got a really great tree this year from a new favorite on Fremont St. It's a family owned business that's super-friendly. They have this device where you can put the stump of the tree into a shaker that gets all of the rain off the tree before you load it up to come home (a must have for Portland). Once all the rain was off the tree they put it through a binder for you before you're ready to go.
Here's a shot of us with the tree pre-decoration:
As usual, Andrew helped me string the lights on the tree:
And the finished product:
It's about 25 degrees in Portland, Oregon, with about two inches of snow on the ground at our homestead.
When we woke up early this morning there was only about a half inch on the ground. Brianna and Andrew had a swim meet, so we headed out the door and watched the snow come down as the kids swam. (More on the meet later, lots of pictures to post).
After the meet we came straight back home and have been pretty much inside all day, with the kids making short sorties outside every couple of hours to throw snowballs and get super cold hands which they can then place excruciatingly onto my cheeks. Today we watched a movie, worked on a jigsaw puzzle, started our gingerbread house, and made a delicious salmon dinner. Overall, a very agreeable winter day.
Portland has already cancelled school for tomorrow so Jen will be home with the kids. Unfortunately, since I work for the electric company, I must go to work tomorrow come hell or high water. Based on the wind I'm hearing outside I wouldn't be surprised if I got called in to work tonight. Thank god for Trimet, they've got the buses chained and ready to go.
The only thing I'm worried about is the marathon on Sunday. Olympia is supposed to be having the same weather as Portland that day, and right now they're calling for possible freezing rain and temperatures in the lower 30s, which would be awful and possibly a show-stopper for me. As it is I wasn't able to get my 8 mile run in today, which definitely puts a cramp in my mood if not my training.
Think warm thoughts and terribly wrong weathermen for our marathon day, we need all the help we can get.
