Leaving Portland and back to Phoenix

"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest." - Mark Twain

Christmas 2009 is now behind us. The new year is just around the corner. Everyone is busy taking back gifts, spending gift cards, planning the next event and trying to come up with New Year resolutions. Many folks will just use the same old ones they used last year and the year before. Since they didn't keep them in the past, it makes it easier than coming up with new ones to break.

Terry and I split for Christmas. He spent a few days before Christmas in Washington State with our son and his family and I spent Christmas there. We met at the airport in Portland and wished each other Merry Christmas before we went separate ways. He ran to his plane and I jumped in my daughter-in-law's car. We finished up a little shopping and headed to their home 30 miles north of the airport.

Christmas Day and the day after were fantastic. We had such a wonderful time. From the slow paced gift opening to a magnificent dinner and leisurely afternoon, it was wonderful. The day after we joined all the other people out there at the mall. Justin and Jordan had gift cards to spend and packages to return. We hit the Clackamas Town Center south of Portland since Oregon does not have a sales tax. No sales tax made those gift cards even more valuable.

Eating was an all day event. We started with Lee fixing breakfast, had lunch at Macaroni Grill, early dinner at Wild Buffalo Wings and dessert from Shari's. This was the Day of the Food. On the way home we stopped by my aunt's place in Vancouver and visited with her and cousins from Port Angeles. Their motorhome was parked on the street and they were on their way to Yuma for the winter. We'll continue our visit in Yuma.

How to shop ------>

All in all, we had the most fantastic time. It almost made me want to stay...almost. It was hard to say good-bye but off to the airport Sunday morning. Flying standby over a holiday weekend is normally a very difficult thing to do. I planned on spending most of the day at the airport and figured I'd probably roll from one flight to another. However, I had a seat on the first flight I tried for .... I couldn't believe it!! I was a happy camper.

Back to Phoenix. Terry's father was taken to the hospital by ambulance early Sunday morning. Terry spent most of the day and all night there. We should know today more about what will happen this week. Our guess is another heart surgery but we don't know. We're just glad we were close.