Christmas tree hunting

We’re hosting Christmas in Portland for the first time this year! My parents drove out last week and we went Christmas tree hunting over the weekend. Usually we go Christmas tree hunting in the forest in Idaho but here we decided to try out a Christmas tree farm. However, there is a Christmas tree shortage in the Portland area so we had to call quite a few farms before we found one that still had trees and then we had to drive for almost an hour to get there.

There was no snow but we managed to have a good time and find a nice tree!

Of poodles and leaves

Being located in a temperate rainforest, Portland is heavily populated with large deciduous trees. All Spring and Summer, the trees are an enjoyable asset for the residents of the city. In the Fall, we begin to suffer as the leaves fall. There are leaves everywhere! And then it rains and there are slippery, slightly moldy leaves everywhere. Then the leafblower wars begin. These wars are fought on several fronts. The first front involves blowing leaves back and forth around the neighborhood. The second, more vicious front, involves the debate between useing gas-powered or electric leafblowers or even the old-school rake. This debate encompasses everything from noise pollution to air pollution due to the inefficient gas motors, as well as localized air pollution from all of the particulates and dust that are thrown up by leafblowers and especially affect pedestrians and those with asthma. As you can imagine, the residents of Portland are very passionate about their opinions on this subject.

Hendrik and Orion prefer the old-fashioned raking method for rounding up the leaves. My cowboys get good exercise collecting the leaves when they are soggy.

Thanksgiving

Nancy and I hosted Thanksgiving dinner – something we have rarely done in more than a decade together, and probably the first time we were in charge of the whole meal. For dinner, we had three diners and two dogs.

My mother needed to travel, so we were cooking for my father, who brought his dog to hang out with Orion. We focused on a few favorite dishes: stuffing, mashed potatoes, pasta fruit salad, and pumpkin pie.

-Hendrik