Hi folks! I'm sitting in my home office in Portland watching the snow flurries! It has been so beautiful - we rarely get snow here - but it's also been uneventful since it's not sticking in the lower elevations where I am. We are expecting freezing rain overnight on Wednesday so I'll be staying at the DoubleTree when I get off work in the morning so I don't have to negotiate ice. Should be a great adventure!

We had a nice Thanksgiving here - hope all of you enjoyed being together. I loved hearing about the long distance baby shower Sabrina had - what a clever way to shrink the miles between the family members. I'm jealous of Sabrina getting to be a grandma - I can't wait until my son gets married and starts a family, (Hint Hint Ty!).

Our family was all over the place this year. Mom and Dad were in Olympia with Cyndi and her family. Tyson, (my son who just celebrated his 25th birthday! Wow, do I feel old!), along with my brother Steve and girlfriend Debbie, were also there. Anna with fiance' Dan in Chicago and Mike in Virginia with son Jordan. Kaye enjoyed dinner with her family in Phoenix; Glenn and I both worked so we went out for sushi in the evening. (How traditional is that? Have YOU ever tried eatting turkey with chopsticks? Glenn did. It was hilarious!) Doug and Celile spent the day with Cecile's family - we get them for Christmas - Yahoo! And Tammy headed to Cresent City, CA with Dick and his family. The only family left in Spokane was Shirley's husband Gary and their 3 children and families. I think that accounts for everyone!

I went up to Cyndi's after I got off work Friday night and saw Mom and Dad before they headed home to Spokane on Saturday morning. They made it just barely ahead of the big snow storm we've been experiencing here in the northwest! Dad said the snow was beginning to fall as they pulled into Spokane Saturday evening and I don't think it's stopped yet! Mom is such a good driver, I don't know why I worry...I guess it's my job as their daughter, right?

Cyndi and I spent the weekend baking cookies and playing Draw Four until we were comotose on Saturday night. ( I had had a long day Friday. I got up at 3:30 a.m. to get to the Black Friday sales before I went to work. It was fun, but I was a bit rummy by the time midnight rolled around.) We had so much fun baking cookies, we made more on Sunday. Each year for the past 15 or so years our sister-in-law Celile hosts a cookie exchange the first Saturday in December at 2:00 to kick off the Christmas season. Their house is beautifully decorated including the yard and trees out front. No invitations go out - it's a standing holiday tradition! We drink wine and Ceclie does a white elephant gift exchange, we catch-up with each other and come away with a variety of Christmas cookies to give away as presents.

It has mostly been for women - moms, sisters and girlfriends. I bring my good friend Cheryl - we've been friends now for 30 years. She has been like a sister to me here in Portland. We met when we both 18 after we had "ran away from home" as we call it and met at J.C. Penny's. (Cheryl was Draperies and I was Bed and Bath.) We raised our boys together and now we are getting to be little old ladies together. In the past, we've stopped in Olympia on our way and picked up Tammy and Cyndi, but this year will be different. Tammy has a school conflict, (although Dick still wants to come), and I have to work the night before and so Cheryl and I will be coming up later so I can get a little sleep before hitting the road. If the husbands and sons want to show up, Doug usually entertains them. Thank you Cecile and Doug for making this event a family tradition. We love it!

After the guests go home in the evening, the sisters, (sister-in-laws and serogate sisters), along with Denise, Cecile's mom, all go Christmas shopping until we drop! We spend the night and head home on Sunday after church. I can't wait! Mom usually sends cookies by proxy - Cyndi and I made enough cookies for the entire event this past weekend. I'll forward picutres when I get home.

BTW - Responding to Aunt Sue's question about Aunt Camp: You most certainly are welcome to join us this next year! I will even present you with an honorary megaphone and whistle! We'd LOVE to have you! I'll let you know our plans as it gets closer...

Hope this note finds you all well and getting into the Christmas spirit. Watch for those Christmas cards in the mail and brush up on your caroles. We'll be thinking of you all as the season is upon us and so wish we were closer. Thank you Aunt Sue and Aunt Rose for keeping us connected via this blog - it means so much to the 2L branch of the family to more apart of your lives.

Holiday Blessings!
Let it snow!
Sandi

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone. We have been hoping the weather out west didn't hamper anyone's travels for the FeLLin celebration. I flew to Louisville on the Monday before and rode back to St. Louis with Scott and Brayden. I had a wonderful time with the grandchildren who are very solitious to their old granny. I'm very outdated about TV - like Sponge Bob Squarepants, PS2, Spiderman, etc. Whatever happened to Romper Room and Sesame Street? I used to know all the characters and songs.

We had Scott, Brayden, Chris, Shelly, Mark, Andrew, Shirley's nephew Michael and his fiance Leslie, Rose, Shirley and me for dinner. Mother used to say that Rose should spend as much time learning to cook as she spent learning calculus. I'm happy to report that these days she does. She's discovered which one is of use in the long run, something Margaret Ann and I learned 50 years ago.

This is an historic occasion. Scott turns 40 on Wednesday. He, Mark Goldman, and Mike Lynch, all three long-term friends since before Kindergarten, celebrated their 40's at a party on Friday. Pete wanted to know if anyone had to call the cops, but these young men approaching middle age have calmed down a lot. Of course, the three old ladies were not invited, but were called upon to babysit Brayden--a whole lot more fun for them. One of our thanks at Thanksgiving was that we were not invited.

We missed Jalen this year. He stayed in Louisville to be with his mother and grandmothers. We are very much looking forward to seeing him for an extended time during the Christmas school break.

The Abbott Clan had their big family Thanksgiving get-together at Sabrina's. Today Sabrina had a shower for her step-daughter, Lauren, who is expecting a son on December 16. Lauren and husband Josh are in North Carolina where Josh is with the Army. Because of the imminent delivery, the shower was a long-distance one which Sabrina video-taped to send to the expectant parents. All of us at the shower called Sabrina, "Granny Smith," which she didn't particularly care for, made her "feel like an apple."

After we read Sandi's entry about Aunt Camp, we naturally had a question: Can Old Aunts attend Aunt Camp? It sounds like a wonderful tradition. My kids had the advantage of something similar when they went to "Aunt Janet and Uncle Pete" Camp as boys. They still talk about what they learned--some of it not good came from Pete but only gospel truth came out of Aunt Janet's mouth.

A short Brayden story. (Please indulge me.) Aunt Rose took Brayden with her to the storage area of the basement. He looked around in great wonder, then said, "WHO messed this place up?" Rose answered, "Aunt Shirley, Granny, and I." To that, Brayden said, "Was that when Granny had good hands?"

Brayden also told me that we couldn't ride dirt bikes because, "You have bad hands, and Aunt Shirley and Aunt Rose are too old."

As you can tell, Dear Readers, life is fairly quiet here. Would our editors jump in and add items from Greenwood, Turnbo, and all points west.

Hi folks! Sandi 2L here with another installment of my summer recap from the northwest. I wanted to write and post some pictures about my favorite activity in the summer - Aunt Camp! It all started about 3 years ago when sister Cyndi went back to work full time with State Farm. Kyle and Jake were used to Mom being home for them in the summer, but this summer began a new era for the Langstons. Kyle had taken a position at their local Boy Scout's camp as a counselor and so Jake, (then 10 years old) was left home for the summer by himself. Cyndi and Dave enrolled him in every camp they could find to keep him busy and having a fun summer - basketball camp, church camp, band camp, Boy Scout's camp...I offered to have Jake and a buddy for a week and the first installment of Aunt Camp was launched. We've been enjoying our vacation together every summer since! (Last year Jake and Kyle invented the Winter Installment of Aunt Camp! I'm trying to keep up!) I try to pick a theme and give them an agenda and all the things that a real camp would offer. We have so much fun! Now, these three years later - we've built some traditions.

Kyle joined Jake this summer and we started out at the beach. The beautiful Oregon coast is just an hour and a half west of Portland. We rent a very small house at the beach with Cyndi and Dave and Uncle Doug and Aunt Cecile and we all pile in. It's nothing fancy, but is right on the beach and a friend rents it cheap, so after several years, it's become our beachhouse, too!
We ate seafood, played on the beach, watched movies and played games. This year I organized an Amazing Race that was my favorite thing to do. The Red team was Cyndi, Cecile and Kyle and the Yellow team was Doug, Dave and Jake. We used digital cameras, cell phones and the internet to pull it off. The winning team had to buy ice cream at the Tillamook Ice Creamery at the end where we laughed and went over our pictures. How am I going to top that one for next year?!

Finding the next clue after hiking to a waterfall. The Red Team with Cecile, Cyndi and Kyle.

The two boys and I left the beach and went to the raceway where the Langston boys got their Driver's Licenses! Look out everyone!

Kyle getting ready for his next race!

Jake having way too much fun!

Next we headed east to the mountain. Portland is about an hour away from Mt. Hood. In the winter we ski and snowboard down the slopes. In the summer one resort uses the ski lift to bring folks to the top of the mountain where you can hike, mountain bike on the 40 miles of trails, or - like we did - take the Alpine slide. You ride the chair to the top with your "sled", hop on the track and using the brake, of course, fly down the side of the mountain on the track. Needless to say it was a hit. Klye though, being over six feet tall, leaned the wrong way at one turn and flew out of his sled getting a little road rash. Jake, never took a break until Auntie made him stop for a picnic lunch. Steve's son Matthew joined us, but was afraid of the big slide, so we did another one for smaller campers.

Riding the chair to the top with the peak of Mt. Hood in the background. Who's afraid of heights? Not these dare devils.

Can you see Jake coming down the slide to get a sense of how big it is! What a blast!

Here's Matty flying down his slide. Next year we're all going on the big one with Kyle and Jake!

The week flew by and ended with Uncle Steve and his three boys, Cyndi and Dave with their "campers" and me meeting for pizzia at our favorite joint called Flying Pie Pizzeria where they have great pizza and entertain you by throwing the dough. I had to dash off to work a graveyard shift and the week came to a close. Another successful year!

I'm already planning next year. Kyle and Jake are going to help me brainstorm this Christmas vacation. We hope to get up to Mt. Hood for some snowboarding during their Christmas break from school. This next year we plan to add a more nephews. (So many boys in this family...) Let's see...Kyle (age 17) and my brother Mike's oldest boy Jordan (16) will be the camp counselors to Jake and Mike's stepson Quinton (both age 13); Steve's youngest son Matthew, Mike's other stepson Leland and our niece Carrie's (Shirley's daughter) son Austin, (all age 11) as camp attendees. (Whew! Did you keep up with that?) I will be the Camp Director of course, complete with megaphone and whistle! I can't wait!! Let me know if anyone from St. Louis wants to join in - there is always room enough for more!

Well, I hope I didn't bore you with our family photos. I love the Pacific Northwest!

Look forward to the next installment of hiking the Columbia Gorge, poking around in Seattle and mopedding over San Juan Island with our Arizona visitors, Nate (Kaye's oldest) and his sweet and lovely bride, Danielle, this last September!

Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving being together with family and making memories!

Signing off for now,

Sandi

Rose has another checkup on her eyes tomorrow. It will take sometime before she can tell how much the surgeries improved her eyesight to have her prescription glasses updated. Meanwhile, it's scary to ride with her at night.

We had a newsy email from Tmmy FeLLin in Olympia. The heavy rains and floofing have only caused them endless traffic. power outages, clogged drains, and bad hair days. Anna just returned from masseuse school in Florida and a visit with her fiance in Virginia. Bernie had been under the weather but was on the mend. Cyndi and family in Olympia are hosting family for Thanksgiving. Their Christmas will be at Sandi's in Portland. Bernie and Maudie plan to attend both.

Pete and Janet are settled in back in Arizona. They took the truck pulling their redneck guest house, the trailer back down there. Simone, Pete's GPS, got him on a one way street going the wrong way in traffic in Las Vegas enroute to Circus Circus. He said she thought they were in Reno.
Shirley got back from Chicago on Monday and Rose returned yesterday. I stayed in St. Louis over the weekend and Goldman and Maddog were my faithful helpers. Chris and Shelly spent the weekend at the lake house. Shelly had a teachers' conference at the Lodge.

I'm going to fly to Louisville next Monday and then ride back for Thanksgiving with Scott and family. Scott, Goldman and Mike Lynch [Maddog's brother] all turn 40 this month. They've been friends since kindergarten. Their friends are throeing a big party the evening after Thanksgiving. Rose, Shirley and I get to watch Brayden.

The election results were favorable to us. Stem cell research amendment was one item we were campaigning for here in Missouri and it passed to our delight. Rose was up very late that Tuesday and back up at dawn on Wednesday. She and Stephanie [Margaret's daughter] were on and off the phone all evening. I'll have to finish this later.

I wanted to update the blog about Rose's eye surgery on the other eye. The surgery was done on Monday and checkup done today. This makes completion of the second eye and a great improvement on her eyesight. After about a month the eye surgeon will check her vision and see if she needs any lasik surgical improvement. She may not have to wear glasses after 55 years of doing so.

I spent the weekend at the lake for a girls' weekend. This was their shopping weekend. When they weren't shopping they - and me - were eating. A good time was had by all.

Pete and Janet left for Arizona this morning after they voted. Rose, Shirley and I voted absentee last week. VOTE EARLY AND OFTEN.

Margaret and Norm were home this weekend after having put their camper in winter storage. Margaret said it was too quiet at the house. They like the campground better.

Jalen was named student of the month in September. I'm not sure what that means but he was nonchalant about it. Brayden calls me about every two days to update me on Louisville happenings.

Like I said - VOTE EARLY AND OFTEN