The Fortune's: Christmas in Oregon

First, before I reflect on 2006 (that will be the next blog), let me write about Christmas. Shelly, Madison, and I went to Oregon, which was relaxing, enjoyable, and nothing unusual to any other American family, so I will spare you the recap. Instead, ther are some other more humorous moments, that happened before we even left San Diego, I would like to share with you. Perhaps the most humorous was a girl who sat beside us in the San Diego terminal as we waited to board our flight. She was your typical SoCal Diva -fake blond, designer leisure suit, and of course, Louis Vuitton travel bag. Though this alone might be humoruos to some of you, it was the conversation I and everybody in a twenty foot radius from her could not help but overhear. While sitting there trying to entertain Madison, thinking this is already impossible and we haven't even boarded the plane, the SoCal Diva got on her cellphone and called one of her girlfriends. Among the various conversations I was privilaged to hear was one about her not contemplating getting a Porsche Cayenne or Landrover instead of her usual BMW M3 because of how sexy she would look in a sporty SUV, and how much "ass" this would cause her to get. She also talked about the Christmas present her boyfriend gave her. It went something like this, "You wouldn't believe what he got me for Christmas! ... No, a F**king Picasso {not happy}. I don't even know what to do with a F**king Picasso! It doesn't match my apartment, and I told him that I couldn't accept it, but he told me, 'If I didn't want it, to sell it!' So, I Googled 'How to sell a F**kng Picasso,' but I could find anything to help me. Seriously, what am I suppose to do with the stupid painting?" This is when it gets even better. As Madison squirmed out of my lap and b-lined it for someone's dog who was chilling at the owners feet, I looked down and saw that our SoCal Diva had the the Picasso propped against her bag. No joke! She was just carrying it like it was another piece of luggage, no box, or portfolio case, just the painting in its frame. I was dumbfounded. She actually was on the same flight to Portland as us and sat a couple of rows in front of us. She was more concerned about her Louis Vuitton bag than she was about her painting, as she threw it up in the he overhead compartment. Now I don't know if the Picasso was real or not, for we do live in the one of the few places where a dumb blonde might actually be carrying such a painting around like it was another copy of Runway magazine, and we were sitting first class (thanks to $20 upgrades), which could imply she is dating (or more likely) comes from money, but I was really tempted to walk up to her, pretend that I was an art dealer, ask to examine her painting, and then be sorry to inform her that it was a fake. She probably would have thrown it in the nearest trash bind. The other experience we had from that flight was that, as great as flying first class is over coach when you are childless, it is that much worse when flying first class with an a 15 month old on your lap. When you are sitting in coach, and your baby starts to scream, you try to sooth her, but you don't feel too bad for the people around you because they get what they pay for; but when you are in first class, and your baby starts to scream, you are frantic to calm her, for everybody else in first class is scowling at you as if to say, "We did not pay all this money to be in first class and hear your child scream." When Madison started to scream, which was only briefly on the ground, a lady sitting in front of us, told the steward to keep the champagne coming until it stopped.

The only other notable from our trip to Oregon was Shelly's grandparents' Christmas breakfast. You would not believe the amount of food for breakfast! It is only comparable to hepr other grandparent's Christmas Eve dinner! I want to write about is having waffles, more specifically the toppings for your waffles. There arethe normal, butter and syrup but that is for amatures. There is also Blue berry syrup and peanutbutter (Jered's favorite). As for me, I go for, what I have named, the Trifecta -butter, peanutbutter, and syrup. It's only once a year, but that's enough calories for a week.

In other big news (at least big news to Madison), Shelly and I finished Madison's rocking horse. In case you do not know the story behind the rocking horse, it was an $8 item we picked up at a junk store. Being $8, you can imagine the shape it was in, so I took it apart stripped, sanded and restained all the wood. Shelly painted Madison's name and the year, and then I put a new mane, eyes, and bridle on. We still have to attach a tail, but as you can see from the pictures, it was a big hit with Madison.

Though after all the supplies and trips to Michael's, our $8 rocking horse was more like a $50 rocking horse.

For our last day of 2006, Shelly and I made pita bread. This is not the pita bread you buy in stores that makes a convienant pocket for sandwiches. Instead this is a sweet, Greek bread. It is Greek tradition to hide a quarter in the loaf before baking it, and then, when serving it, cut an equal portion for everyone in the house (e.g. 3 portions for our household). Whoever gets the quarter in ther portion has good luck for the year, and if the knife hits the quarter while cutting it, there is good luck for the house, as a whole, for the year. (We hit the quarter.) Anyway, this fun tradition is not too exciting either, nor is necesserily making bread (even though one of the ingredients has to be ordered online from NYC because it's so rare). Instead, what makes this story humorous is that the recipe called for a dozen eggs, 1 lbs of butter, and 7 to 10 lbs of flour. When making bread that uses 7 to 10 lbs of flour, there becomes the question of what to mix it in. Shelly and I had a lengthy discussion on this topic and ended up using a 66 quart plastic storage container Don't worry, for it was barely used, and I washed it well. I also washed my hands and arms well, too. Below are pictues of what ended up being eight loves of bread.