Christmas Eve shorts

Stuffed mushrooms

A grab bag of thoughts and observations...

-- Spent two hours this morning at the Peet's coffee store at N.E. 15th and Broadway, helping to raise money for The Dougy Center. Pretty painless. You sit there at a table with some literature, chat with a fellow board member (Diane) and her daughter (Shawna), smile at folks as they walk in the door, and thank those that drop some cash or a check into the glass jar on the table. Peet's is matching donations all week long at that store, up to $1,000.

Bonus: I got to greet my bowling buddy (John) and his family (wife Andrea and son Austen), spend some time chatting with friends (Kay, Lakshmi and Raghu), and say hello to a former Grant Park neighbor I hadn't seen in a while (Sandy) and her older daughter (Julia), who used to babysit our kids.

Double bonus: Diane told me that before I arrived, the scruffy homeless guy sitting outside on the sidewalk came in and approached the table. They tensed up, wondering if he'd make a grab for the money in the jar. Instead, he pulled out a dollar and dropped it in there. Sweet.

-- Came home and helped Lori (in a very small way, to be sure) with preparations for the traditional hors d'oeuvres dinner that we have on Christmas Eve. Our guests tonight: Nathan and Sara, Jordan and Jamie. Simone and Kyndall are in Washington state visiting with Kyndall's relatives, due to return Sunday night. Lori is amazing in terms of her planning, cooking, baking and decorating. I'm a lucky, lucky man, to be married to her. She is, no question, the heart and soul of our family.

-- Got off work last night and plopped down on the couch with a burrito and a beer, all set to enjoy a mindless comedy we ordered off Netflix. Turned out to be, quite possibly, the worst film ever made: "Hot Tub Time Machine." Somewhere along the way I'd heard it was a goofy. sophomoric film, not unlike "Old School" or any other Will Farrell film. Wrong. It was goofy and sophomoric -- but it was badly done goofy and sophomoric.

Lori bailed out after 10 minutes. I hung in there for about 20. It had just about everything not working for it. Gratuitous profanity. Puerile dialogue. A despicable lead character (actually, he was one of the main three). Women as bimbos. And on and on... I could only wonder why John Cusack, a guy with a decent reputation as an actor, would have agreed to be in the film.

Christmas 2010

Thanks to my plan-ahead wife, the Christmas cards are addressed and ready to be mailed; the gifts already bought or made; and now the Christmas tree is up, with lights, and next to the living room window.

If she were Santa, I think she'd be hitching up the reindeer and taking the sleigh out this week. :)

I had to work today (in trade for someone taking one of earlier weekend shifts), so we had to get a lot done this morning. Walked down to Broadway and had a delicious breakfast, as usual, at Milo's City Cafe. Then we walked a little farther -- out to Northeast 20th -- and purchased a tree from the lot of a Thai restaurant that hadn't even opened for the day.

This being Portland, I hoisted the unbound tree -- a six-foot Noble fir -- onto my shoulders and we simply walked it back to our house, navigating the sidewalks and neighborhood streets about a dozen blocks to our home. We carried it upstairs, Lori hung the lights and returned to the restaurant later in the day with a check for the tree. But not before turning the radio to a station with Christmas music. Already, I'm hearing Nat King Cole and Perry Como sing the old standards...

Looking forward to a great holiday season. Simone and Kyndall will arrive from Pittsburgh a week from tomorrow and will be in Portland for nearly a month on semester break. They'll make time to visit Kyndall's parents in Moses Lake, Wash., and her grandparents in Enterprise, Ore., so I don't know exactly where they'll be on Christmas Day. Main thing is they'll be in Portland for most of their time. (We'll wait until they're here to put ornaments on the tree.)

Likewise, I expect we'll see Jordan and Jamie at some point, depending on his time off from the Army. And I'm certain we'll get a visit from Nathan and Sara, since they're the only ones who live in Portland.

Both Jordan and I have birthdays the week after Christmas so it's always a hectic time.

After the wintry weather we had just before Thanksgiving, who knows what Mother Nature has in store for Christmas? No matter what, we're prepared -- thanks to Lori.

Season of Sharing 2009

It's getting to be late afternoon on Christmas Day. After a late-morning breakfast with Lori, Simone, Kyndall and Nathan, and opening of gifts, I took a short nap, then got up and ran a little over four miles in the brilliant sunshine -- a welcome surprise and a huge change from a year ago, when we had snow on the ground.

Now, as I sit down for a few minutes at the computer, knowing Christmas dinner is prepared and that all my loved ones are safe and sound and healthy, I know I am blessed.

And so my thoughts turn to those who are less fortunate. Specifically, the families and individuals profiled in this year's Season of Sharing Wishbook. Every year, The Oregonian writes about such people and nonprofit programs that assist them with a variety of social services.

If you're like me, your mailbox is inundated this time of year with appeals for tax-deductible donations. No doubt many of them are worthy. For my money, there's no better recipients than those profiled in the Wishbook. (I've helped select the cases and also served as editor of the Wishbook a couple times, so I know what goes into the annual holiday fundraiser. Hats off, btw, to my colleague Amy Wang, who served as editor for the third time this year.) All administrative costs are paid for by the Oregonian Publishing Co., so every dollar goes to these recipients. If you're in a position to give, please join me in doing so.

Photograph of Voycetta White, domestic violence survivor, by Ross William Hamilton of The Oregonian.

Getting ready for Christmas

There's a new presence in our living room: our first-ever Noble Fir after years and years of Douglas Firs.

I guess that's appropriate because we're celebrating our first Christmas in our new home. And, in what might be a sign of things to come, we traveled a whole ten blocks from our home to buy our tree from a small commercial operation in a parking lot. Took about 20-25 minutes total to pick a tree, pay for it, get it tied to the rooftop and drive home -- a far cry from the half-day excursions we typically make to the fringes of Portland's urban growth boundary, requiring a few gallons of gas and a lunch stop. (Hey, with adult kids in tow, of course you're going to make time for a mid-day meal.)

Anyway, we bought the tree Saturday and had it decorated that same evening. Along with a string of Christmas lights and a stuffed snowman looking out onto the street, we're ready for the holidays.

Fact of the day: Oregon remains No. 1 in U.S. production of Christmas trees with 7.34 million trees sold last year at a value of nearly $110 million. Source: Oregon Department of Agriculture.