Our opening pic, blogs and safe landings...

Hello!

Just wanted to share with all of you that my little girl has just safely landed in Portland! Phew! She's ours next year....so, i say that we all try and get together on the actual holiday of x-mas!!

that's A....

who says that we should update that opening pic?? i bet that it's the last time a pic like that was sucessfully taken of most of us together...but we should really try to gather for a new one...WHO'S WITH ME?!

that's B....

and C is....

THIS IS SOOOO COOL!! GARY YOU ARE A GENIUS!! Rockin Rockus!

k, that's my lot!

love you all! be safe for New Year's!!

ps- did i mention that my oldest baby is home??!!?? yeeehawww!!

Christmas past and present

Christmas always falls on the same date on the calendar, Dec. 25, but many years Christmas is celebrated on another date. Sometimes there are several Christmases each year. It all depends on when family or friends can make time, or traverse distance, to be together.

For many years, I was not really a big fan of Christmas. And I've never cared for shopping very much But that changed sometime over the years. I have found I actually enjoy Christmas shopping for Suzanna. I'm not sure I'm any good at it. But trying to find things she will like -- maybe things on her wish list, maybe things she hasn't expressed a wish for, has been much more fun that I really care to admit.

Now the wrapping part, that I hate. I"m not good at it. The gifts I wrap always look like they they were wrapped by a 5 year old or like gifts that have been sitting under the tree for weeks that pets have been using as chew toys. It's not good.

Thank goodness for whomever invented the gift bag!

I would be hard pressed to remember many specific gifts I've received (or given for that matter) for Christmas. But I have many happy memories from Christmas gatherings from one end of the state to the other. So I thought I'd share some photos of Christmases past from the holiday season. I'm not many, or any of them were actually taken on Christmas day. But these are some examples of what I remember about Christmas.

Does anyone else remember the year Anna was pregnant with Andrew and Christmas at Martha and Michael's house? One of the lasting images for me were Michael and Suzanna on the little couch and Michael covered with holiday ribbons. Another was Cat going around the room demonstrating Anna's head massager gift. Judging by Anna's reaction, she's seemed to like it.

I lost most of my photos from Christmas last year in Pendleton, but I do still have this family portrait, that shows just how much Andrew has grown. And of course this year, Sarah no longer has braces, and Andrew is bigger still.

Sadly, though, Shawn is still known to wear green U of O Duck gear.

And speaking of changes, does anyone recognize the little brown-haired girl in this photo? Before we all know it, Isabel will be that age and Maya will be looking and acting all grown up!






In this one, Monica shows off some fancy martini glasses she got as a gift, and Elizabeth seems to appreciate them too. Unfortunately, there weren't martini fixins included with the gift.



And this photo was from a recent Christmas at my parents' house, with my grandmother, my parents and my brother Dean. This will be our first Christmas without my grandmother, who died earlier this month. We miss you Grandma.

For those of you I won't see this holiday season, you are much on my mind this season. Thanks for the Christmas card Martha and Michael. And thanks to all of you who have been the part of so many happy Christmas memories.

May you all have a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

It was an idea that wouldn't go away

I often carry a notebook with me on trips. I keep one by my bed too. It's an old habit, born of regular bouts of insomnia. Sometimes when I lay down at night my mind turns to the next day, or regrets about the day past, and the brain just won't shut off. When this persists for too many days I have found that sometimes it helps to write in one of those notebooks about whatever is running through my head. Sometimes putting those seemingly random thoughts on paper reveals the order to them. I get the jumble out of my brain and spill it on a page and that act allows my mind to rest and my body to sleep. These days I rely more on a computer for my periodic writing jags, but sometimes things just flow better like ink through onto paper, when I put the keyboard away and take pen in hand.

It was in one of those notebooks that I wrote the following on Aug. 14, 2006:

I have an idea for a new blog. A family blog site for the whole Felix/West clan. The original idea was for a father/daughter blog for Suzanna and I, but I don't know if she'd go for it. I don't know if anyone else in the crew will either.

Question is: Will I pitch the idea to them, or let it die?

And for more than a year, the idea sat dormant. I had let it die, or so I though. It was resurrected again, almost a year later, in August 2007, after Suzanna and I teamed up on a little project for my newspaper and the newspaper's blog. It was fun collaborating with Suzanna on material for the blog and a story for the newspaper. I was even inspired to write a blog post on another site about the experience.

That caused the family blog idea to flare up again, but I didn't do anything with it. Then, over Thanksgiving weekend, when I saw Suzanna, Monica and Elizabeth, I worked up the courage to share the idea with them: What if we had a family blog that we could all contribute to and share things with each other (and maybe even the wider world) from our separate locations around Oregon (or wherever or lives take us)? Were then interested? Did they think the rest of the family would be interested?

To my surprise, the idea was greeted with some enthusiasm. So now, I'm ready to pitch the idea to the wider family and see who might be interested in not only the idea, but in contributing post, pictures, video -- whatever -- from time to time.

There is no magic to this formula. It's just a place where we can share ideas, memories, whatever. It's the holiday season, so maybe we might not get this thing going in earnest during this busy season. But I hope this post serves as a start to a fun family collaboration.