Welcome 2008!

Well, I was reminded this morning that we had not put an update to the blog since Christmas 2007. I thought that I should at least leave a note so that you did not think that we were being lazy.

It has been a busy few weeks. My parents were here from November 17th until January 5th. We had a great time, obviously not seeing them for over 1 year, meant we had a lot of catching up to do. It also meant that they got to see a little of where we live, and things to do.

Mum wanted a "white Christmas" - which she got. We took her down to Sunriver, which is about 4 hours drive south of Portland, and sits at about 4,500ft elevation. When we arrived a little before Christmas, we were not so sure it would snow, but it did - a little after lunch it started, and it appeared to never stop until near the time we left.

Christmas was obviously great with family, as well as having it the first White Christmas for all of us. We had the traditional "Aussie" Christmas, with roast pork and roast vegetables, plum pudding and custard. Although they were variations, as some of the ingredients here in the USA are slightly different to those we are able to get in Australia - it all tasted great.

New years was spent with friends at their apartment/unit/house. The kids were playing together on the new Nintendo Wii that had been received for Christmas, while the parents stayed out and talked, drank and ate - generally enjoying themselves.

Now things are back to normal, I am back at work, the kids are back and school and mum and dad are back in Australia - after some interesting events with canceled flights, etc. - but all was well, they did make it home safe!

Tomorrow we will have a bit of a "gathering" at our house, we are going to have a few friends (with their families) over to our place for a late lunch, early dinner. (Monday is a holiday here in the USA "Martin Luther King Jr. Day" - so a bit of time to rest after enjoying ourselves. )

We have purchased a $40 TV from "Goodwill" - which is like The Salvation Army. It is for the kids to be able to play their Playstation on. We find now that they are very much into the games on the Playstation, that we don't have much time to be able to watch TV ourselves. This way the kids can play, and we can watch TV - and not have to watch each other. The new TV is upstairs in the "bonus room" - so it is kind of quiet when we are used to the kids being with us here making noise on their games.

Well, I am sure I have rambled enough for now. Hopefully we will share some more pictures with you all soon. Hope everyone is well, and have a great 2008! (Hey that rhymes!)