It's Winter and Christmas in Las Vegas

We are spending our third winter and 2nd Christmas in Las Vegas. Last year we were off to Des Moines, IA, but were still here for much of the Christmas season. However, this year it appears that I'm beginning to know when it is Christmas season and since I don't believe in Black Friday I have to figure it out other ways. Some of the things I have experienced this year include:

• Our neighbor turned his Christmas lights on the day after Halloween. I really thought that was just a bit tacky, but it is Las Vegas.
• Our other neighbor waited a week to turn his Christmas lights on. Both are just around the roof line of their homes, but still, they are Christmas lights.
• More lights - some terribly gaudy seemed to appear on almost a daily basis.
• Finally I was shamed into Christmas lights for our house (see photo). Forty-two years without outside lights and finally I broke down. Of course we are in Las Vegas so our front bushes are sage, but JoAnn says they look good.
• The radio stations started playing Christmas music 24-7 within a week of Halloween. If that's not the truth it sure feels like it.
• I had to wear a coat 3 days this week. That's a sure sign it is nearing Christmas. I haven't had to do that this early before.
• I woke up to snow on the mountains (and only a mile and 1,500 feet in altitude) and for me that IS a sure sign.
• The weather man talks about how cold it has been all day - 42 degrees. And I'm cold at that temperature. Maybe I'm finally becoming adjusted to the warmer winters.
• Tonight I drove home from Target in a blizzard - A Las Vegas blizzard. When the snow flakes are less than 24 inches apart we are allowed to call it a blizzard.
• Finally, our Christmas tree is up and the cat is eating it, and it's a fake tree.
• Oh, I almost forgot, we had our college Christmas party tonight. Being in the Hotel college I never got spreads like we get here. We have our own kitchens, our own chefs, our own conference center, the chef comes out and asks how it is, and the food was yummy. JoAnn says the shrimp and crab was outstanding. It was yummy as you only find in Las Vegas.

It's good to feel like Christmas - finally.

Traits Carried to Family Members

My granddaughter has a year-long project focusing on family history, family development, and family traits. That means I'm receiving periodic emails regarding questions about our family. I decided to post today's response to the following question:

"now that I have a enough information on family history, do you have any child life stories that have molded your personality, and have carried on to your children?"

I’m not so sure it is as much as a single story as it is an approach my mother and father took with us as we were growing up. It was a “do it now” approach to getting things/tasks done and a process of doing it right.

We usually lived on a military base (you know all about that) and in the military there are lots of inspections. Our lawns at base housing had to meet strict standards. They had to be cut every 2 weeks, they could not get long and shaggy, and the sidewalks and curbs had to be trimmed. In other words, we could not let grass grow over the edge of the sidewalk or the curb. When we were finished mowing the and trimming the lawn my father, your great-grandfather, would come out and inspect it.

Your uncle and I did the dinner dishes (no dishwashers) almost every day from the time we were in the 4th grade until we graduated from high school. Great-grandma McLean taught us how to do the dishes, early on inspected our work, and then left us alone to do it. Uncle Dennis and I would have a lot of fun doing the dishes and usually made a lot of noise (which occasionally got us in trouble), but the dishes were ALWAYS done correctly. After we boys left home our sisters had to do the dishes and all they heard from Great-grandma was, “Your brothers always did the dishes much better than you do.” They still don’t like it when we talk about doing the dishes.

We were taught to learn how to do a job, do it right, and do it right the first time. As a boy (you know how slow boys can be) I didn’t always apply that principle in everything I did. The lawn, the dishes, painting, cleaning the house when we were moving, but keeping my bedroom clean was a lot tougher and great-grandma pretty much gave up on me - just as Grandma and I did on our sons and daughters.

Your great-great-grandpa Merriam owned his own candy company. It was a vending machine company. It required that he know how to fix broken machines, work with companies so he could put the machines in their offices and factories, and then had to go out every day and refill the candy machines. He and great-great-grandma Merriam worked very hard at this for many years. Your uncle and I would ride along some times and get a chance to see how hard they worked. Again, it was the principle of hard work.

Your mother, aunts, and uncles all believe in (1) do it now, (2) do it right, and (3) move on to the next task. They are also a little outspoken and I’m afraid I have to take credit for that also. I got that from my mother, who was not afraid to share her opinion, as well as my father who frequently was required to share his opinion, especially as a first-sergeant in the Air Force.

I hope this helps.

The letter and the spirit of the law - or I should pay better attention!

On Sunday JoAnn and I had this one-way (notice how I say one-say, which should give you a clue as to how it went) conversation about cleaning up her sewing room. It was getting to where you could hardly get in the room and it had been weeks and weeks since she last sewed in the room. Of course she was working on Mike & Allison's quilt and that did require more space, but while she was off doing that the material seemed to breed and multiply on her desk. So I put my foot down and said, I want that room clean. Yes, it hurt when I put my foot down.

I got home after a late class yesterday and walked by her sewing room and it was "beautifully clean." I was so impressed. I went into the living room to tell her so. She was busy at the dining room table cutting out material for her next projects (note that there is more than one project). I really wanted to let her know just how wonderful and clean and organized the room looked. And it did and does. She was gracious in receiving my appreciation, even though I probably should have been skewered for suggesting she do something when she has been so busy. So she met the spirit and letter of the request (not the law as I published in the title.

I'm really impressed. It's clean and ready to go. I hope I don't have to make my desk look this good.

I really didn't pay much attention to the rest of the living room until we got ready to sit down to a bowl of soup and as I looked around me, there were piles of material everywhere (maybe a slight over exaggeration). My first comment was, "So, we moved the material from the sewing room to here?" She quickly responded with a spirited, "Well yes, the room is clean, isn't it?" I was boxed, what could I say. So much for the spirit of cleaning - or at least that was what I thought. I could not have been more wrong. Oh, I was right about the material hanging around the living room couch, but wrong about why.

Later she shared with me all of the piles individually and intimately explaining how each was a project and what it would look like when completed. It took all my patience to get through this. She unfolded item after item and showed it to me. The whole time I'm telling myself, I don't need to see the whole thing, and finally I said that (I know, dumb idea). To which JoAnn responded, "I want to see it again, it's so beautiful." I was trapped, but also aware I had judged too soon. I wasn't looking at random piles of material located on the couch to avoid storing them. No, I was looking a multiple projects, all carefully thought out and organized. I know there is a lesson in there for me and someday I will have to ponder it out. For now I'm just happy I was wrong.

It looks pretty ugly, but I thought I took 2 photos. No just one and I could tell you it looks like this so you wouldn't know what they are - but you know me too well.

Catching up

It seems like just yesterday all the kids were in Idaho, but for me it's been almost 3 weeks and in that time I have not gotten any of the photos I took processed. I have been a little busy with work. That happens this time of the year. Students are thinking about the end of the semester and administrators (that's me) are trying to get everything done we put off the whole semester. Since I'm at the near bottom of the slide a lot seems to end up on my desk. Oh yes, I've had a couple of other projects too.

Most of the photos, and I'm still working on them are on my Flickr account (just click to see them), but I thought I would put a couple here to tease you. I'll get to the wedding photos tomorrow or later this weekend.

Mike and Allison keeping an eye on all the preparations.

We really came to see cute little Charlotte.

All of the getting ready for the wedding just wore me out! But Chas kept me company!

Lots of help writing

I'm sitting at my desk writing. JoAnn is out for the evening and I'm fighting a cold. However, it's a great time to be working on my book. It is due to the publisher at the end of the year. However, we have this cat. You know, the devil cat to everyone else and sometimes us. She has gotten into the habit of jumping up on my desk and if she can find paper laying on it and purring. It just so happens my cut sheets are 11x17, almost the perfect size for the cat.

I was about to quit for the evening and fix myself some chicken noodle soup, compliments of Albertsons - and yes it is pretty good! When who jumps up on my desktop? Whisper of course. First she sits right in front or me. It's difficult to type when her face is just above your left hand and she wants to be petted. Failing to pet her can result in a nip or bite. I can type with one hand, but it is really slow and even slower when one hand is trying to type and the other is occupied petting the cat.

When she had enough of that she moved t0 the left side of my "L" shaped desk and took up the whole 11 x 17 inches and spread across back into my working area. It's always nice to have a little inspiration, but she purrs almost as loud as some people snore (and no, I'm not referring to anyone in our family).

She is gone and I'm ready for dinner, plus I'm flat tired of writing today.

Granddaughters as Sweethearts

I was going to title this blog "princesses" until I read the definition and decided I didn't want to subject my grandchildren to the potential abuse the word princess could bring upon them, even though one of them continually tells us she is a princess. In fact, under the definitions of royalty, I do consider her a princess. To me they are all princesses and sweethearts, but to a 60 plus grandpa we hold different perceptions of terms and meanings than other people do. Hence, my use of princess is always an endearing one, not one of derision.

I am speaking of two of my eight sweethearts today. One young and one a little older. Our 3rd daughter had a little girl last week - Hattie CeCe. I have waited for what felt like an eternity for a photo. I had finally come to the conclusion that she was either two-headed or 12 toed, or had 3 arms and they didn't want me to see her. The real problem was that I left town without leaving the cables to the camera so my beloved could download the photos. Naturally it's grandpa's fault. I have broad shoulders, I can handle the abuse.

Yesterday I received 8 emails, each with about 8 high resolution photos. I have photos of Hattie CeCe now and my favorite is below. And yes, she is a royal princess and a sweetheart.

My second sweetheart is an almost tweener (those who are almost teens, but not quite). In fact she is probably better classified as a precocious tweener - not quite there, but a wanna be. She has her own email account and I love getting emails from her. They are usually in large print and every word is a different color. Well, I was a little slow responding to her last email and while I was not reprimanded I got a "vacation note" or what we typically call and out of the office and not available. But her note was the classiest I have ever received. I share it below.

"Sorry if I didn't e-mail you I am probably grounded or gone, I'll e-mail you as soon as I can, bye"

Grounded or gone? That describes life from the perspective of a child. They have a simple perspective and it is focused on levels of independence. As a pre-tweener it has 2 primary levels. Those things I can do and those thing I can't do. Of course the intermediate level is those things I didn't do I should have and those things I did that I shouldn't have - hence I'm grounded.

Ya gotta love them.

The Perfect Weekend

There are lots of ways to describe weekends and perfect is a term that is used frequently. In fact, perfect is an overworked term. For example there is the "perfect game", the "perfect storm", the "perfect tense", and so forth. The term perfect is defined as, "having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be." That's how I would describe this past weekend

We had all of our children with us in Boise, ID for our youngest son's wedding. It is always an event when we all get together and we all enjoy one another. What made Friday and Saturday special was that our family grew by a whole new family, not just a new daughter-in-law. We made new friends, strengthened family, and on Sunday as everyone was leaving we all felt great. Of course we were all so proud of Mike and Allison and the decisions they made. The daughters have already accepted her as a family member. The Newlyweds even showed up for an informal getting-away dinner on Saturday evening. I would never have done that as a newlywed, but they did, signaling to us just how important family is to them.

Youngest daughter and I drove to Utah for Sunday evening and early Monday morning (still the weekend) we took off for Las Vegas and hadn't gotten too far down the road when the first text message came in. Daughter 3 was in the hospital for the birth of a little girl (Hattie). By 2 pm MDT she had accomplished that miracle and as I talked to her later and asked how Hattie was doing, her response was "Perfect!" And so, you see it was a perfect weekend.

PS - I would be delighted to share a photo of Hattie, but the one's I have are just not cute enough.