Christmas in Oregon

We had quite the trip to Oregon over Christmas. We ended up spending the night in the DFW area before our flight because our flight left at 9:30 a.m. No matter - it gave Ted and I an excuse to visit some of our old Dallas haunts, namely NorthPark and the Cheesecake Factory. That night at the hotel, we ordered room service - PB & J sandwiches and chicken tenders. Kid food . . . yummy! Bright and early the next morning, we were off to the airport (in the cold). Thanks to Ted, a very experienced traveler, we had a detailed game plan that helped us get parked, checked in, and through security without a hitch.

Little Ted managed the 4 hour flight beautifully. He only cried once, and only to tell us he needed food, pronto. We couldn't have asked for a better baby.

A downpour met us in Portland. Ted navigated us through the rain and into Albany without too much stress. Upon our arrival, we picked up a key from Aunt Carol (who graciously let us take over her home during our stay - thank you!) and then grabbed lunch. We were pretty famished by that point.

One night of recovery from travel and we were ready to spend time with family. We spent the next day with my grandparents. At the time, grandpa was checked into a nursing home that is on the same property as my grandparent's home. We introduced grandma and grandpa to their great-grandson and enjoyed their company.

We spent the next morning with grandma and visited grandpa after breakfast. Later that evening, grandpa passed away. Words can express neither the sadness we felt nor the love and support we received from family and friends on the occasion of his passing. His funeral was held the following Tuesday; all of his children, their spouses, his grandchildren and his great-grandson were in attendance.

My parents arrived the Sunday before the funeral. In the days following the funeral, we were able to do some "touristy" activities with them and other family members. We went to McDowell Creek, which is very icy in the winter (surprise, surprise), to Corvallis to see Christmas lights, to the Oregon coast (though it was frosty, foggy, and cold in Albany, it turned out to be a beautiful day at the coast), and to the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

Christmas was spent at Grandma's, where we opened gifts. Little Ted is a pro at unwrapping presents, though he found the paper to be much more interesting than the gifts themselves (with the exception of the Hot Wheels cars that Uncle Marlin and Julie gave him). We had Christmas dinner at the Lakeside Center (on the same property as Grandma's home). There were 25 in all, including Uncle Glen, Aunt Lois, their sons and daughters-in-law, cousin Cindy, and the Eichelberger clan.

As you can probably imagine, Little Ted was a big hit. He is especially fond of his great-grandmother, who made sure he was well fed and well taken care of. He also enjoyed playing with Luke, his only cousin (and a distant one at that) on my side of the family. Of course, grandma and grandpa were thrilled to see him again and very sorry to see him leave.

Our flight home was delayed due to snow in Dallas. We ended up leaving 1 1/2 hours late, just enough time for a couple of inches of snow to fall in Portland and ice to collect on our plane. But once again, Little Ted managed the flight beautifully. He was only momentarily bothered by the crying of a toddler in the row across from us, and I'm sure if he could talk, he would have borrowed one of his cousin Matthew's exclamations, "Stop crying!"

We enjoyed the trip immensely and were especially grateful to be able to spend time with my grandfather and introduce him to Little Ted during our visit. Ted and I will both cherish our memories of those two days.

We also decided that we will have to go back in the summer, when we can explore the parks more and visit places like Crater Lake, Mt. Hood, Sisters, and Mount St. Helen. Guess that means we need to start saving our pennies!