A little Christmas visiting

On Saturday morning I flew up to Redmond/Bend to visit Alyssa, Nate, Eden and Cora in Prineville for a few days. Mom and Dad also came up for the weekend and Mom, Alyssa and I had a rare and very welcome chance to shop and spend the day together…

Not only are my nieces ridiculously cute, but they are sweet and fun. We read a lot of books, made beaded necklaces (they turned out, as Cora would say, very "bee-yooo-ti-ful"), and went to the public library in Prineville. Basically, I just had a lovely and relaxing time with my sister and her family.

Oh, and I should say, I was able to go with Alyssa to her ultrasound appointment…and it looks like she’s having a THIRD girl. I am very partial to families with three girls.

Four pages of pictures:

Burning Dad’s Eucalyptus


fire
Originally uploaded by telfandrea.

Besides wildfires spurred on by the combination of high winds and urban/suburban sprawl extending into dry foothills and mountains – we have had some successful fires at home this past post-thanksgiving weekend.  Dad had a truck-load of eucalyptus firewood delivered to me last year and I’m finally getting the hang of building a fire.  It made for his favorite fires growing up and the eucalyptus plus some fir or some such I have been chopping myself (in very un-SoCal fashion) have combined to make very nice fires here – and in very SoCal fashion the lady we bought the house from left us a wooden crate from a former Redlands orange grove we’ve used to store the firewood.  -Telfer