Monday, December 24, 2007

Christmas Eve

After being sick for the first 1 1/2 days of my visit, I finally re-cooped enough to be up and around and help Cathy and Kathy with cooking and such.

Cathy's room mate Kathy and her parents Frank and Bea, whom were visiting for Christmas as well, spent the weekend at relatives in Astoria, WA. That happens to be one of the places that suffered from terrible mud slides. They returned home again on Sunday afternoon. Cathy and I had been preparing lasagna and garlic bread with tossed salad for supper that night. We also enjoyed a lovely bottle of wine from the vast selection at hand!

The next day Kathy had to work but Cathy made a big breakfast for the rest of us. It included sausage links and pancakes with coffee and orange juice. It hit the spot after being ill and not having much of an appetite. Cathy and I were also planning a meal for Christmas Eve to treat the Pacheco family. They in turn were going to cook on Christmas Day. So we planned and prepared ham, scalloped potatoes, scalloped corn, scalloped oysters....(notice the theme?), green bean casserole and wine. Earlier in the day we had made a recipe of Shortbread cookies from our Mom. Cathy had made Creme Brulee. It was very good! That would be our dessert that evening. Later, the phone rang and it was our Dad calling to wish us Merry Christmas and thank us for the gifts they received.

That night we were going to Christmas Eve services at a place up in Portland that both C and K had been to in the past. It is called The Grotto. It has a Festival of Lights this time each year. You can also go there to buy and light a candle in honor or memory of someone. Cathy has done this in memory of our Mom, Mary Ann. So we left in time for a 10:00 PM Catholic Service and also enjoyed beautiful Christmas lights on all the landscape as you enter the botanical gardens. There are no words to describe just how many lights there were or how lovely it looked. The decorations were unbelievable. And the traffic was a testament to how popular The Grotto is.

It was very late when we returned home again and everyone had a very hard time staying awake on the 45 minute drive.

The view from outside Cathy's living room

Cathy and I

Cathy's pets, Buddy and Spooky enjoying the tree

1 comment:

Kevin Moberg said...

You little geese! Cute pics. Thanks for the summary of your Christmas Eve! 'Twoulda been nice to all be together, but alas . . . 'twas not to be this year.