December 2021
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Christmas seemed to stretch a little longer this year. A Christmas Eve lunch was held at Susan's with 28 in attendance including all eight children under five. The two infants, Vivienne Pastrick and Galen Sitte, got handed all around. The Ellis family brought instruments on which they played Christmas carols. Susan and Tori played violin, Cynthia played viola, Tim played trumpet, and Lance played French Horn. Susan was not pleased with her undercooked ham, but most of us were very happy with it. Jean brought her special stuffing again. This was the first family holiday gathering that Helen and David Eby attended now that they'd moved to Auburn from Oregon. Naji, Susan's missionary friend from Lebanon was there as was Julie Adams. Joel's sister Abby was visiting from Massachusetts. Randy missed the whole Christmas weekend. He checked himself into Providence Everett on Friday with bouts of internal bleeding. He credited God with a great healing as he was allowed to drive home on Monday. However, his healing was incomplete and at months end he's being very careful with his diet at home. Before we came home, both Thomas and I took falls, he slipping down the slick stairs into Susan's living room, and I fell toward the bottom of her basement stairs, breaking one of the legs off of one of her dining chairs. It could have been much worse. On the way home, Jean and Joel had a flat tire on their Tesla. Fortunately, we had driven two cars from Bellevue to Kirkland. Nancy and I were able to leave "Sillie," the Mercury Sable, for them as their Tesla got towed to Bellevue and we rode home with Annie and Thomas and the girls. |
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Christmas Eve at Susan's with 28 in Attendance 
 
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The events of Christmas morning began just after 8:00 AM. Stockings, which had been hung by the wood stove, were opened in the living room. Annie cooked an exotic bacon and egg breakfast. Then we went to the "Great Room" where the tree had been placed on a table to protect it from Valerie. Present opening began after 10:00 AM. Charis was the center of attention. Of the three gifts I gave her, she announced that she liked the Barbie-sized tea set best. She liked the Bluey toy set and the Play-Doh 50 pack, but chose the $1 item from the Dollar Tree store as her favorite. I'm sure Valerie will get equal Santa treatment when she is old enough to appreciate her gifts. Susan joined us toward the end of present opening, and Julie stopped by at 4:45. Joel and Jean got me a kit to build a ship in a bottle, with which I am much intimidated. And Annie and Thomas got me a set of heavy metal bookends with a nautical theme. They also got me two back scratchers. How did they know they were just what I wanted? My favorite gift to give was a Fairleigh Dickinson University Alumni sweatshirt for Annie. In late January, I'll meet Joel at Sierra Fish & Pets in Renton so he can use the $50 gift certificate I made for him. |
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We woke on the 26th to a promised snowfall. We were told to expect temperatures in the teens and low twenties most of the last week of 2021. A blanket of hail on Christmas Day means we could claim a white Christmas, but the real snow greeted us the next morning. The Seahawks laid an egg, losing to the lowly Chicago Bears 25-24. But Nancy made up for that when she presented me with her Christmas present. She had finally finished framing the Steelhead Moon print by Salish artist Carl Stromquist that we had purchased in August 2005 in Vancouver, Canada. She had designed the frame to mimic a bent wood box. We hung it at the east end of the dining room above the beautiful doors that lead into the library. I'll take a picture for this journal once the library floor is done and that room is painted. The snow stayed through New Year's Day and is expected to rain off on January 2nd.
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I was first asked back in March 2020 to give a presentation to the Monogram Club. The pandemic delayed that talk until this month. I was much relieved to finally get this task completed. It took nearly all of these months for me to track down items I displayed there. The last one we found was my letter from Madison Junior High. I had far more to say than my 25 minutes allowed, so I skimmed through my written remarks and, alas, managed to leave out my senior season in Track & Field. But the talk was well received by the small audience of former West Seattle High School varsity athletes in attendance. Randy picked us up and drove us to the West Seattle Golf Course the long way since the West Seattle freeway was still closed for repairs. Nancy and I joined the club this year. Club President Ted Foss read the names of many of the members who had passed on over the twenty-one months since their last meeting. In recent years, the membership rules were changed to allow folks who had earned their varsity letters 40 years ago instead of 50 years to join. I earned my first varsity letter in Track and Field as a sophomore in 1971, exactly 50 years ago. I began my talk by mentioning the athletic opportunities we had growing up near Lincoln Park. I then spoke about Don and his great success as a ski racer. I described Randy as an all-around athlete in whose shadow I labored. I read the citation about Laurie's letterman's sweater that is now property of Seattle's Museum of History and Industry. Then I went on to detail my own rise from "Best Dressed Boy" in the 1960 Hi Yu kids parade, to my success in Cross Country and on the track. Here is
a copy of the talk
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Jean turned 29, Valerie turned 1, and Charis turned a precocious 4. "Grammy" Kim Disher took the train up from Oregon for Charis' birthday, then Bob and Kim drove up later in the month for Valerie's birthday. We defer to the other grandparents when they visit and this allows us to get other chores done. Julie Adams joined us because she also has a December birthday. The Pastricks would have joined us for Rowan's birthday but he got sick on the drive south. |
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When I get a few free hours, which is rare, I need to make progress in the yard. ♦ I began planning my indoor seed planting. ♦ I pruned back all of my peppers and moved some of them indoors. ♦ I removed a boxwood tree that overshadowed my bulb onion patch. ♦ These photos show the dead 40' Dogwood tree that I cut down just where I planned it, across the fallow tomato patch. I felled it, sawed it up, split and stacked the pieces of the trunk for firewood, then hauled it all to the wood pile near the front door, all in one day. Thanks to YouTube for "how to chop down trees" videos. A new chain on the chain saw also helped. And using the splitting maul was warm work.
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From my talk to the Monogram Club on December 2nd. By now I'd trained and raced over 6,000 miles over the previous three years, the distance from Seattle to Boston and back. So, in those races against Garfield, Cleveland, or Queen Anne which were easy wins for me, I had a unique race plan. There were three good Chief Sealth runners who ran in a pack. Each week, if I was not already ahead of them, I would close with them in lap seven and kick past them on the last turn. It was my guilty pleasure to never lose that year to West Seattle's archrival. |
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After every seven or
eight rows of oak flooring that Nancy screws down, I sand and put on
three coats of finish. Work slows when Valerie "helps."
