In all the years we’ve been married, my husband and I have never spent Christmas at home. We’ve been responsible for a few Thanksgivings, but never a Christmas. This is primarily my daughter’s fault. She does not believe that I am capable of “doing” Christmas. Oh, my husband and I […]
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Giving Up Divinity
My paternal grandmother’s chocolate fudge and divinity were part of many of my childhood Christmases, along with her fruitcake. I didn’t care for the fruitcake, but I did love the candy. She made two colors of divinity, pink and green. One of the batches she would make without nuts, because […]
Continue readingRocking Through the Ages
I mentioned my pint-sized rocking chair in a recent post. I received the rocker for Christmas when I was a toddler. During my preschool years, the chair sat in the living room of our home. In those years, my father and grandfather often posed me in it for pictures. The […]
Continue readingMy Daughter and the Bobbie Vehwahwee
Who waits for Black Friday (now called “Thanksgiving evening”) or Cyber Monday? When I was working I did as much of my Christmas shopping on the Monday through Wednesday before Thanksgiving as I could. Maybe the prices weren’t as good, but the stores were less crowded. And that’s what mattered […]
Continue readingThe Haunted Doll House
I’ve written before about the times I built Barbie houses with my father-in-law. The second house we constructed was my daughter’s Barbie Magic Sounds House, which she received the Christmas when she was four. When the holiday celebrations at my in-laws’ that year were over, we brought the house home and […]
Continue readingDriving With My Daughter In Maui
Two years ago in late September, my daughter and I took a trip to Maui—a belated celebration of her graduation from law school the year before. She and I have different interests, but we decided Maui offered enough activities for both of us to enjoy. And (at least tacitly) we […]
Continue readingAbsaroka Ranch, Wyoming: Sight-Seeing on Horseback and a Gift to Myself
I wrote on July 15 about the Oregon emigrants’ experience sight-seeing at Ice Slough in Wyoming. My family has vacationed in the Wind River Range not far from Ice Slough, at Absaroka Ranch. Absaroka Ranch is located outside Dubois, Wyoming, at the headwaters of the Wind River, nestled beneath the […]
Continue readingHiking in Switzerland and Family Diversity
Fifteen years ago, in July 1998, our family took a hiking vacation in Switzerland. We arranged the trip through Distant Journeys, which sets up self-guided trips for adventuresome souls. My husband and two children qualify as adventuresome, if I do not. We flew to Geneva and took the train to […]
Continue readingA Picture Is Only Worth a Thousand Words If It Tells a Story
Sometimes I wish I could remember the story behind a picture. As I was searching for a photograph of my toddler daughter and her grandfather for my July 1 post, I came across this picture of my children from about that same year. The photo made me laugh, and I […]
Continue readingWater Sports, Card Games & Airplane Letters
As Memorial Day approaches, I remember long summer days of swimming and waterskiing until we were exhausted, followed by cutthroat card games in the afternoons and evenings. My family rented a cabin on Coeur d’Alene Lake in northern Idaho, beginning when I was thirteen or fourteen, until my parents bought […]
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