It's a New Year: 2017!

How did I become such an inconsistent blogger? I didn't do so well in 2016, and the first month of 2017 is almost history. I guess there just hasn't been much going on......

Well, Cool did have her shoulder replaced, and two and a half weeks later she was back in the operating room under general anesthetic having her heart worked on. When I think about it, that was big news, and we were all concerned about her, covering her with prayer. She is doing well, which is not to say she did not suffer. But prayers were answered. God is good.

Come to think of it, Elletu had her gallbladder removed two weeks ago. She had been suffering a lot and hadn't mentioned it to us. I went to the hospital with her and got to meet her doctor. He handled things well, and she is now gallbladder-less and already back to work, which is not to say she did not have her tough times during her recuperation.

We had our monthly BVG night last night, and besides dinner and watching a cute movie, "In-lawfully Yours," we had a chance to catch up on surgeries, j's Christmas trip to Texas to be with her family, etc. Later, the BVB's returned to my house after their dinner prepared by 'Chef Bill-R-Bee' (Cool's husband), quite possibly the world's best cook. It always makes us Sisters happy to see how the guys have their special camaraderie. I know it means the world to my husband.

And then early this afternoon the text came from Cool---her mother-in-law had passed away just an hour earlier, at the age of 86. The rest of us have all lost both of our parents already. Bill's mom is the last. We all know the sadness, the emotions as his family (two sisters, one brother) gathers together to mourn the loss of their mother. Our hearts collectively go out to them, as we pray for God's peace to surround them at this difficult time.

I think back to my own mother's memorial service 35 years ago this coming August. My children were five and two. It was before I was pregnant with my third child. My heart was broken. I was emotionally drained. The service was held at my family's church in Seattle, and I played the piano for it, the very piano my mother had played the previous Sunday.

After the service I was greeting people who had come to honor my mother, and then there they stood before me, the Bethel Valley Girls. They came all the way from Port Orchard, and we hadn't even known each other all that long. The thing is, God already knew that 35 years later we would still be friends. Sisters. Family forever.

Now is our time to embrace Cool and her husband is the loss of his mother. We love you both!

May 1: Greek Easter, Our 40th Anniversary and a BVGO Reunion All Rolled Into One!

Much has happened since this photo was taken on May 1, 2016. I was hospitalized with double pneumonia and a severe asthma attack and have been slowly recovering during the past five weeks. The passage of time and all the medications pumped into my body have not dulled my recollection of the fun celebrations that preceded this untimely turn of events.

So, about this photo. It was taken at my daughter's house in San Mateo, CA, where my husband and I had gone to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. Cool and her husband joined us in San Mateo, not only to celebrate our milestone anniversary but also to experience Greek Easter at our daughter and Greek son-in-law's house. Our two sons came from Seattle and North Carolina, and our Seattle daughter-in-law and their two children came was well. Our family actually had a week-long family reunion at our daughter's house. Cool's son lives in Sacramento, and he and his girlfriend drove down for Greek Easter as well, making possible another BVGO reunion. And that is what this photo depicts, my three grown children with Cool's oldest son (the tall one) after decades apart.

Time flies while life is happening.

A funny thing happened on the way to the beach.....

It's pretty obvious I haven't been very good about keeping up the BVG blog. For six months I have been mostly silent online. I did take the time to commemorate our 35th anniversary on June 2. A month before that, on May 1, my husband and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary at our daughter's house in San Mateo, CA. Our children, their mates, our four grandchildren, my niece, and Cool and her husband joined together to note this momentous occasion with an incredible dinner prepared by our daughter, our sons, our daughter-in-law and our son-in-law. While they cooked all day, Cool and her husband and my husband and I spent the day in Santa Cruz, getting back just in time for that special dinner. I was feeling great and also overwhelmed by the love shown for us by our grown children. Several days later, after Cool and her husband had taken off driving back to Port Orchard, our son and his family had flown back to Seattle and our other son had flown back to his home in North Carolina, I had the joy of attending a Mother's Day tea at my grandson's preschool along with my daughter. Later that day I notice I was feeling chilled. The next day I was coughing a bit and feeling tired, but I was looking forward to spending Mother's Day with my daughter, our first Mother's Day together since 1995, when she was a senior in high school. Unfortunately, both of us woke up really sick. We managed to get pedicures, but I was so dizzy afterwards, she left me there while she walked the several blocks to get the car. I willed myself to be well because the following morning my husband and I were planning to drive north to our usual hotel in Grants Pass, Oregon, the first let of our journey to be beautiful place we spent our honeymoon, the Oregon Coast. Just like it was that week, the weather was predicted to be sunny and clear, with highs in the upper 70's. Well, I felt worse Monday morning, but off we went, me coughing all the way and with zero appetite. By the time we got to Grants Pass, my husband wanted to take me to urgent care, but I resisted, thinking all I needed to get better was to get to the beach, to breathe in the salt water air. I was awake all night coughing and spitting up gunk. In the morning, another plea was made to agree to go to urgent care, but I insisted no, and off we headed to Seaside. That seven hour drive was torture for me, and I just kept focusing on getting to the beach. When we reached the parking lot of the hotel I sicker but feeling relieved. That relief was short-lived. After removing his big suitcase from the back of our car my husband asked, "Where are your suitcases?" I asked him how I should know? Back in Grants Pass he said I was so sick, he would take care of everything. Here is where I need to shorten the story a little, but I must not leave out the part about how beautiful our hotel room was. It was on the fourth floor of a beautiful building right on the beach promenade. It had a king bed, fireplace, large tiled showed, flat screen TV, covered deck looking out on the beach, and the special treat, a Jacuzzi tub for two looking out on the beach. Too bad I didn't have any of my clothes or toiletries. Too bad I didn't sleep one single minute that night but rather sat up coughing and spitting up gunk. Too bad I couldn't wash my hair and looked so awful. And too bad we had to leave in the morning and drive all the way back to Grants Pass to get my suitcases. So we had one more night at that hotel, and I even apologized at the front desk in the morning for anyone in the hotel who complained because some women was hacking and coughing all night. I still wouldn't go to urgent care, not in Grants Pass. I was so sick, but all I wanted to do was get HOME. Another day of driving, another day of coughing, and it was getting obvious that something was terribly wrong with me. We made it that night, and again I was awake all night, fourth night in a row. About 2 A.M. my coughing was on the verge of sending me over the edge. When my husband woke up at 6 A.M. he called the emergency nurse, who set up a 9 A.M. appointment for me in Tacoma. I was in a doctor's office for just a few minutes before they sent me on to urgent care. I spent nine hours there before an ambulance came to take me somewhere else. It sure wasn't that luxurious hotel room I had dreamed about. Someday I want to go back there, and I want to stay in that very room. While I was in the ambulance, it occurred to me that God was taking me through something quite unordinary for me, just so I would have new stories to tell. That kept me oddly comforted through some really crazy experiences. As I looked around the tight quarters in that ambulance, I had the presence of mind to think I was in a limo going to a spa for a few days. It is amazing how mind games can help me when facing the reality of a situation can be scary. And so it was as I rode along the streets of Tacoma to what turned out to not really be a spa at all. And so my new stories began.......

35 Years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, 35 years!!!!

No, that is NOT how long it has been since I posted on our blog, although it might seem like it. (And do I ever have a lot of stories to tell from the two months I skipped writing, but that will all happen in due time.)

It was 35 years ago today that the four of us got together for the first time, so that means this is our 35th anniversary, and our anniversary party is about to commence. I just wanted to mark this special event on the blog, and comments can come later. And stories. Lots of stories. It's been a storied two months.

Happy 35th anniversary, BVG Sisters! Love you! Love us!

(And Happy 38th birthday to Cool's son, Isaac, whose third birthday party was the event that drew the four of us together in the first place. I just saw Isaac a month ago yesterday in California, at my daughter's house. It was such a fun BVGO reunion, but I will save that story for another day. I have pictures!!)

happy birthday, j!

Though from Port Orchard she did defect,

On this, her birthday, I must reflect

Back to when our town was her choice

And the first time I ever heard j's voice.

That was the beginning

Of a friendship so winning

That 35 years down the road

I truly treasure it like pure gold.

Golden Girls--ah, the BVG's!

We're a little like them, if you please:

Dorothy, Sophia, Blanche, Rose,

We embody their camaraderie, I suppose.

Their show got canceled but reruns live on,

Even after three of the actresses are gone.

We appreciate their humor, how they face life,

How they pull together even in strife.

That's how we've done it over the years,

Sharing our joys, soothing each other's tears.

And always our j has encouragement for us,

Lifting us all up without any fuss.

So thank you, j, and bless you this day,

From your Sisters, with love, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

A BVG Night Without j is like...

...coffee without the caffeine

...a latte without the espresso

...a summer in Port Orchard with no sunny days

...trying to paint your toenails in the dark

...the Seahawks without Russell Wilson

...Hall without Oates

...receiving a box of caramels on the day you get your braces put on

...locking yourself out of your house in your pj's

...running into another car during your driving test

...forgetting to remove the original card when re-gifting

***************

Do you know what's worse than all of this? Elletu getting sick just thinking about a BVG Night without j. That is what has happened, and so...

Tonight is not a BVG Night after all. Instead, I am renaming it:

"Cool and Billy B Come for Soup on a Monday Night Night"!

Feel better, Elletu. Enjoy your grandkids, j. Miss you both!

Thou Shalt Not Worship Other Idols

A current BVG demographic: 3/4 of the BVG's watch "American Idol." Only Elletu abstains. On last night's show the Top Ten was announced, and it is a talented group for sure. While I was watching their performances I texted my friend Jeanne in Hawaii who also watches, but of course Hawaii is a few hours behind. Jeanne texted back and asked me who I "support" on Idol. It was an interesting question considering that our texts and e-mails during the past few months have all been about Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. My answer was this:

"MacKenzie, Sonika, Dalton, Avalon, Trent, La'Porsha and Lee, but not necessarily in that order. They are all so good, it's hard to choose my favorite. Now, if I could only feel that way about even just ONE person who is running for President!"

We talked about both of these issues at our BVG Night, the sad state of this Presidential race and the outstanding talent on this, the final year of "American Idol." I've always voted Republican, but I can't find one Republican running for President this time around that I want to vote for. I'm certainly not a fan of Hillary or Bernie either, of course. But look at that list of six potential Idols---I'll be happy if any one of them wins the Idol title. They are really all that good.

In the grand scheme of things, what's most important? The sign above says it all. I have put this on the blog before, and I might do it again several times between now and the November election, and beyond. Politics aside, Jesus is our leader. Reality TV aside, Jesus is our Idol.

That being said, Cool and j, what do you think of my list of six "American Idol" favorites so far?

Trending Topic: j is a Volunteer Stripper!

Why is it that on our blog the topic that has gotten the most views is the recent "j is a Volunteer Stripper!"? Does this say something about our audience? Is this how you get your blog to go viral?

Just asking.

BVG Night - February 2016

Our dear Sister j remarked to me recently, "I'm glad you're our historian. I would forget everything." So this one's for j: We had our monthly BVG Night last night, Wednesday, February 24, 2016, and it was at my house. It began at 4:45 PM. We dined on a new gluten free pasta and Italian sausage dish I found online. Frozen peas are cooked with pasta, and kale, onion and garlic are sautéed together, then added to the pasta and previously browned and drained Italian sausage. Accompanying this was a beautiful green salad compliments of j. For dessert, I prepared Baked Apple Slices, another recipe I found online, with cinnamon, raisins and walnuts. Four and a half hours after our gathering began, thoughts of getting up to an alarm to get to work the following morning prompted Cool and Elletu to signal the beginning of the end of our night of visiting. Clearly, we had not run out of things to say. Have we ever?

Have the topics of our conversations changed over the decades? You bet they have! It's been a really long time since we discussed things like diaper rash, head lice, temper tantrums and ear infections. Last night's dialogue included Elletu's story of babysitting her granddaughter and her granddaughter saying, "Grandma, your boob's hanging out!" When I heard that I thought about the recent story of j stripping. This one begs to be called "Elletu: An Accidental Stripper." Even though she denied it, it turned out to be true, it really was hanging out. (Thanks for keeping us abreast of the situation, Elletu.)

When the BVG's are together, we do let it all hang out, and what I mean by that is we can be ourselves. There are no pretenses. Lest you think it's all for laughs, it's not. In fact, last night we touched on some very serious issues facing us as the older women we are. We were a support group back when we were stay-at-home mothers of young children, and we are a support group now as we inch closer to 65 (Cool and Elletu) and 70 (j and I). Those ages are a few years off for each of us, but we are getting pretty close to identifying as 'senior citizens' (yikes!), and that makes our perspective on 'the future' quite different from what it was 34 years ago.

Thanks for keeping life fun, Sisters. Treasure each day of our friendship. How blessed we are!

I Heart My BVG Sisters

It is Valentine's Day Eve, just one hour away from the beginning of the Hallmark-inspired Day of Love. I am inspired by a little poem running around in my head:

Dear God, thank You for blessing me,
With friends who seem like they're family;
Family of the very best kind,
Who always have my best interest in mind.
But it's not just me, their love is complete:
You taught them to share Your love with those they meet.
They are good, they are loyal, they are such fun,
As their close friend, I'm the fortunate one.
Three special friends, Sisters I hold dear,
That You wove our hearts together is so clear;
And now I pray, bless them, please,
And thank You, God, for the BVG's.

                   ********

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, SISTERS!
LOVE YOU..............................LOVE US!

Our j is a Volunteer Stripper!

 

This text just arrived on my phone from j:

"I am a volunteer stripper now."

For a minute there I thought perhaps she meant to say she is a volunteer 'striper,' as in a Candy Striper at a hospital. To think of something other than that was too wild, too unbelievable, too un-j-like. Or was it? I vaguely remember a story she told us some time ago, something about her being up on her laundry equipment when her hubby came home from work. The memory must be vague because I tried to block it from my mind before I got an image stuck in it.

Anyway, above the above picture, to my relief, j's text continued, "That is, I am cutting and sewing strips for a quilt at church." And below the above picture (does that make sense?) she captioned, "My first strips."

I'll say this for j: She sure is a colorful stripper!

And I should add, good for you, j! I know these quilts bring great comfort (hence, 'Comfort Quilts') to those who receive them.

Oh Where, Oh Where Are the BVGO's Now?

My younger son is working in South Korea for a week, and my daughter is working in Switzerland this week, London next week. My other son is hard at work on the East Coast, so we are indeed a spread out family. This got me to thinking about how far-flung the BVGO's are. Our ten precious children all 'flew the coop' long ago, and their careers (and loves) have taken them near and far. Just how near and just how far? Here are their current locations, in descending order by age:

Dallas, TX
Port Orchard, WA
Basel, Switzerland
Turkey
Sacramento, CA
Yakima, WA
Durham, NC
Port Orchard, WA
Tulsa, OK
Suwon, South Korea

Fly high, BVGO's, but never forget your roots: The playground at Bethel Valley Lane and the Piggy Park!

So far, and yet so near...........always in our hearts....................always in our prayers.

Looking Back at Another BVGO Reunion - December 27, 2016

 

It wasn't planned, and sometimes those are the best reunions. Two days after Christmas--and three days after another reunion of Bethel Valley Girl Offspring--we ran in to j's family at one of our family's favorite Port Orchard haunts back in the '90's, Spiro's. My husband and I had just finished dinner with our son and his girlfriend, who were visiting from North Carolina, when I heard a familiar voice and looked up to see j, her husband, and lo and behold, their two daughters who were visiting from Eastern Washington and Texas. What a joy to see j's daughters together, first time for them in five years, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get a blog-worthy picture of them with my son who didn't even remember them from his childhood. And there they are, together---yay! Just days before, j's daughters had been with Cool's oldest son. Sorry to say, no picture to prove it happened, but like distant cousins, we BVG's sincerely hope our grown children will somehow stay connected and will be proud of their BVG heritage. That makes these reunions worth much to us.

The Passing of Glenn Frey

Glenn Frey died yesterday. He was 67. He was my age. He was j’s age. Wait-----who was Glenn Frey? Oh, he was the co-founder of the Eagles. And by the Eagles I mean the band, not the fraternal organization that a whole lot of old people belong to. I know the Eagles, and I know their music, but they were a ‘70’s band, not a ‘60’s band. Therein lies a slight difference between Elletu and me, a ‘generational gap,’ if you will. She’s playing Eagles music all day and feeling sad and nostalgic. Just the other day I was telling j’s husband that even songs from the ‘60’s about drugs, such as “White Rabbit,” make me feel nostalgic today, and I didn’t try any drugs (or drink, for that matter) when my generation was doing that. It’s easy to see now that music defines a decade. Those of us who graduated from high school in the ‘60’s seem to identify with music from that decade, and so it is for people who graduated from high school in the ‘70’s, such as Elletu.

That being said, I do like the Eagles’ music, and when a music maker passes away, I hate to think about their genius being gone. David Bowie, and Natalie Cole just before him, won’t be putting out any more new songs. It is sad. Keith Green died in a plane crash 34 years ago, and I still miss him and his music, even though I have several of his albums. It makes me stop and think, do we take songwriters for granted? And who will leave us next?

I had to do some research about Glenn Frey, since I honestly did not recognize his name when I heard of his death (sorry, Elletu). So research is just what I do--I can't help myself. I was so surprised to see that Linda Ronstadt had something to do with the 'incubation' of the Eagles. Glenn Frey and Don Henley knew each other before they joined Linda Ronstadt's band in 1971. But it was their time together in that band that led to their formation of the Eagles later that year. I am definitely a Linda Ronstadt fan. This is something about her I did not know. I wonder if Elletu knew it before. She does now.

This afternoon Elletu sent me this article from CNN, and it backs up just what she and I were texting back and forth to each other earlier in the day, our surprising feelings when singers and songwriters who spoke for our generation pass away. I deleted some paragraphs of the article because of space, but the main thrust of the article remains intact. I am posting it here to show solidarity with Elletu, the youngest of our Sisterhood, a 'youth of the '70's' indeed, just to let her know that I, a child of the '60's, feel her pain today. Today we are all Glenn Frey fans!

(CNN)The passing of Glenn Frey both recalls and closes the book on one of rock's most celebrated rock 'n' roll songwriting teams, but for many of us it also signals something more personal: the passing of a time when the Eagles' "Hotel California" was the anthem for the youth of America in the '70s -- the way Beatles music was for the children of the '60s.

For people who came up in that time, the death of Frey -- and earlier this month the death of David Bowie -- comes as a reality check, a resounding reminder that the days of "Take it Easy" and the promise of "One of these Nights" are long behind us.

'Hotel California' speaks to generation

But it was "Hotel California," released in 1976, that made them a worldwide sensation. The album's opening track of the same name, co-written by Frey, was the clarion call for the Eagles the way "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" had been for the Beatles: It described both the band's self-destruction by excess, its awareness of that self-destruction and its inability to stop it. ("You can check out any time, but you can never leave. ...")

It was "Hotel California" that internalized all the angst of the times, trading in the '60s -- Vietnam, student unrest, turning on and dropping out -- for a weary age of tuning in and getting laid, its lead character moaning about not having the spirit of 1969 in the air anymore.

This introspection was what separated and elevated the Eagles from all the other American bands, and it was Frey who was key to it. The only thing he cared about was the hot-rush politics of romance, while Henley wanted the band to be more relevant, to put a cool contemporary voice to the romance of politics.

******

Because despite the belief that rock 'n' roll will keep us forever young, the truth is it doesn't age well on us. That's the beauty and power of rock 'n' roll: It celebrates transient youth in the present tense. It's what makes it both shimmery and precious. And it's what makes the death of Glenn Frey so mournful.

The passing of Glenn Frey reminds us all too well of the kids we were in the '70s -- our blue jeans and black boots, our long hair and 'stashes and crushes on impossibly beautiful, unattainable girls, our nights spent cross-legged in front of turntables listening with great intent to the latest album of one of our heroes. We believed that somehow we could change the world by the force of our belief in the power of rock 'n' roll, but instead the world changed us.

When we mourn for Frey, are we mourning our lost selves and a time when we all thought we could live hard and stay free and surf and bike and run and jump and love and never lose because we were forever young?

God bless, Glenn Frey. You were part of our dreams. Now, truly, you belong to the night.

******

And I should add here, perhaps to make us feel better, that today is Dolly Parton's 70th birthday! May we all look that good when we turn 70!

 

Happy New Year!

We made it through Christmas and then gathered at Trankwility Woods with a few FOBVG's for a fun and fabulous New Year's Eve party. Saying goodbye to 2015 with a feast and a couple of games, we welcomed 2016 with some bubbly, expertly (and Cooly) mixed together with Harbinger Blackberry or Raspberry Bliss. We watched the ball come down in Times' Square on TV, and given the ages of the party-goers, let's just say that Dick Clark was sorely missed. It's never been quite the same without him. While some people made a rather quick exit once the clock struck midnight, one BVG/BVB combo stayed until 3 a.m., bless them! I was perky until 4 a.m. and up at 9 a.m. to prepare for more friends to arrive for the day. The year is off to a good start--even got more snow on Day 3--and I can't wait to see what's in store for the BVG's in the next 12 months. Check this blog out for all the action!

'Twas the Week Before Christmas

Really? Christmas Eve is a week from today? It can't be---I'm not ready yet, and in fact, I might never be. But the important event has happened, the annual BVG Christmas dinner party at my house. It was Monday night. I worked so hard decorating the house and cooking up a tasty dinner, but wait, no pictures? Really? Then as far as this blog is concerned, it never happened!

It happened, it was wonderful. We dined on Smoked Salmon Caesar Salad, Chicken Picante, Brown Rice with the Picante Sauce, Roasted Asparagus with Garlic and Roasted Butternut Squash with nutmeg, plus desserts made of either pumpkin or Rice Chex. It was a great dinner if I do say so myself. It's just always so fun to get together with the Sisters, but it is especially nice in the midst of the extra busy times leading up to Christmas. We all needed a night to chill and pretend, if only for one evening, that we didn't have a care in this world. We had our gift exchange, and the BVB's, who had been out to dinner, joined us for the dessert. We sat in our own rooms, BVG's in the living room, BVB's in the family room. We savored each moment for our visiting. We love us!

Two things I won't to add here, for no particular reason other than the fact that I have carried these four quotes around on a piece of paper in my purse. I wrote them down many months ago. So here goes: "If you don't like the food, drink more of the wine," and "How merlot can you go?" Then, "My mind is drawing a blanc." And finally, "Give us this day our daily red." Then Elletu happened to share this with us the other night: "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas. When the white's gone, I'll switch to red."

Merry Christmas, Readers.

Oh Christmas Tree: Part 1

Having completed decorating our Christmas tree on Saturday, a song has been stuck in my head and driving me crazy. I knew only the title, not the lyrics, but the tune would not leave me. I finally looked up the lyrics this morning, and now I know how apropos those lyrics are. I present to you, "Oh Christmas Tree":

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree,

Thy leaves are so unchanging;

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree,

Thy leaves are so unchanging.

Not only green when summer's here,

But also when it's cold and drear;

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree,

Thy leaves are so unchanging.

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree,

Such pleasure do you bring me!

O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree,

Such pleasure do you bring me!

For every year this Christmas tree,

Brings to us such joy and glee;

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree,

Such pleasure do you bring me!

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree,

You'll ever be unchanging!

A symbol of goodwill and love,

You'll ever be unchanging!

Each shining light, each silver bell,

No one alive spreads cheer so well;

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree,

You'll ever be unchanging!

******

You may recognize this as a German Christmas song, "O Tannenbaum," which was based on a traditional folk song. A Tannenbaum is a fir tree. The modern lyrics were written in 1824 and did not refer to a decorated tree but to the fir's evergreen qualities as a symbol of constancy and faithfulness. It became associated with the traditional Christmas tree by the early 20th century and sung as a Christmas carol.

 

Our Christmas tree is definitely 'evergreen.' That's because it is artificial! The 'leaves' are definitely 'unchanging' from when we bought the very tall thing to grace our living room in our last house with its soaring ceilings. Now it only fits in the two-story entry hall of our McCormick Woods house. During the rest of the year it fits in one large, cumbersome box, and I'm quite sure it is green 'when summer's here.' We for sure have precious memories of our family outings--in the 'cold and drear'--to pick out and chop down a Christmas tree at a tree farm with our three children. Once we moved to Hawaii and our house came complete with an artificial Christmas tree, we have never returned to the Christmas tree farm in December to get a fresh tree. Funny thing, the house we live in now is on land that used to be a Christmas tree farm, and we actually got some of our trees here all those years ago.

 

Our tree always brings me 'such pleasure,' and much of the pleasure comes from the actual decorating of it. As I am fond of saying, "Bring out the Christmas tree, and bring out the memories." This year is no exception. I admit to getting somewhat misty-eyed as I pulled out so many of our ornaments and thought of who gave them to me, who made them, when I made them, where I bought them, what they represent to our family history, special people, special times. One newly treasured ornament is a BVG ornament, with the names of the four of us on it, not our BVG names but our real names.

 

Front and center on our tree every year is an ornament I bought when our children we toddlers, and in fact my third child had not even been born yet. Every year it reminds us and our visitors that...

 

JESUS IS THE HEART OF CHRISTMAS. May it always be true for all of us!

 

 

 

 

     

 

Oh Christmas Tree: Part 2

Christmas 2015

Special memories of Christmas in Hawaii

and of Christmas 2007 in New York City

of ornaments made by the mother of our Swedish foreign exchange from Sweden (Santa, above) and the many fabric heart ornaments I have made over the years for family and friends

and the red and green ornament my mother made for me back in the '70's (above), not to mention the storied legacy of the pink and white gingham ornaments I bought in Renton in 1974 at the Sears store in Renton

and the real story of Christmas, Jesus' birth

although so many in our culture focus on things like snowmen instead of Jesus. That does not diminish the special memories ornaments like this felt snowman made for me by one of my Port Orchard piano students back in the early '90's bring back of special people, special times in my life. Every ornament, every memory is to be treasured. When I bring out each ornament, out come the memories too. Thank You, God, for memories to hold people and places so dear to our hearts this time of year. And above all, Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Tales from the Dark Side

A potent wind and rainstorm pummeled Western Washington on Tuesday, resulting in power outages for the BVG's. Oh yes, many more people were affected, hundreds of thousands, actually, and some people are still without power two and a half days later. For some communities, power will not be restored until this weekend. I pity these people, because we nearly froze our buns off over a two-day period. Well, I wish I could have. If you're going to be frozen, you might as well get something good from it, like a better physique. No such luck.

It never ceases to amaze me the number of times I try to turn on the lights when the lights are out. I wonder how many times I did this in a period of 26 hours. We don't have a generator, and we don't have a gas fireplace, so we huddled around the fire my husband made in the family room fireplace. With two blankets on me in my recliner, while wearing my coat, warm scarf and gloves, I stayed fairly comfortable. Then I made the trek upstairs to our cold bedroom and crawled in bed wearing long pants, long nightgown, hooded coat and gloves, with two extra blankets. I stayed pretty warm, while my husband had at most two hours of sleep downstairs while he kept the fire going in the fireplace. Much gratitude to The Duke!

There was much rejoicing when the power came back at 2:30 yesterday but also much grumbling when we discovered last night that our cable was still out. Everything we had DVR'd for Tuesday and Wednesday just didn't happen. The cable didn't come back until late this evening, and even now, we don't have our Wi-Fi connection. Life is tough.

No, not really. Not for us. Three people lost their lives during this storm. People have had to be rescued from rapidly rising flood waters in several places. People had their homes inundated with water and mud. We got cold and missed a few mindless TV shoes. How can we complain?

Times like these just require an emergency kit and a good sense of humor. My husband and I are resilient. Before he built the fire he had the kerosene lanterns and hurricane lamps filled and working, while I got the candles set up. And then, with no TV, no computer, and no cell phones at our disposal, we resorted to "Amish Scrabble," played by kerosene lantern. ("No lights, camera, action!") I sent the picture below to our three children, told them we were playing Scrabble like the Amish do, by kerosene lantern, to which our daughter responded, "Dad's suspenders go a long way to add to the illusion." Couldn't find a black hat for him though, and he doesn't have a beard anymore. The second photo shows the tiles I picked on my first draw of the game. They inspired me to invent this joke that would only make sense to other classical musicians:

Q     How does a popular Classical cellist go on tour?

A     By 'YOYOBUS.'

Don't worry, my husband didn't get it either.

  

Gone But Not Forgotten

We are putting our heads together to remember the many stores, restaurants and other businesses that have closed in Port Orchard since the four of us moved here about 40 years. They are gone but not forgotten:

Grocery Stores
     Thriftway, Mark-it Foods, Stock Market, Safeway, Haggens---but it's coming back to Safeway!---Saar's, King's Fish

Coffee Shops
     Olympic Coffee, Tully's

Taverns
     Ale House---but we still have the Bethel Saloon!

Restaurants
     Myhre's (because of a fire, then insurance fraud on the part of the owners), Captain K's, Tommy C's, Pietro's Pizza (a frequent hangout for the BVG's and the BVGO's), Godfather's Pizza (just recently), A&W (but it came back!), Popeye's, JJ's Fish House, Soo Hoy Café (that was a heartbreaker for the customers but a good thing for the dogs and cats in the area!), Pot Belly Deli (my 32-year-old son still talks about the times I would take him to lunch there before his afternoon at kindergarten), Tijuana Jail, The Beachcomber, Clam Bake, Mary Mac's (now Clubhouse), Happy Teriyaki, Best Burgers, Boston Market, Safari, TCBY, Delilah's restaurant, Morningside Bakery and the bakery that replaced it, from the owners of That One Place, Everybody's (was Pietro's, now Clubhouse Grill), Los Cabos, Tweeten's Lighthouse that closed a few times, became Gino's for a while, then back to Tweeten's Lighthouse but had to close due to one of the owners being arrested, now open as just Lighthouse and it's great, in fact our next BVG night will be held there on November 30

Stores
     Apple Annie's (j and I both have pieces of furniture we bought there, and we both painted these pieces last year), Sprouse Reitz, H&P Drugs, Kmart, Hallmark, The Hub, Bremer's, Grandma's Attic, Fashion Bug, Ben Franklin, Pay 'n Save, Payless, Ernst Hardware, Bethel Feed, Office Depot, Port Orchard Office Supply, Totally Video, Hollywood Video, Blockbuster, Mike's Video, Radio Shack, DJ's Music, the yucky New Age bookstore that was on Bethel Avenue (but not Bethel Valley Lane), Comfort Shoes, Great Prospects

Other Businesses
     SK8 Town, Plaza Twin Theater (now Dragonfly Theater), Hair & All That Jazz, Syling Rendezvous, the pest control place on Bay Street whose name escapes me but on their reader board they would 'honor' the Pest of the Month