It feels like we have finally arrived at the Christmas season now. It is getting cold, the kids are getting out of school, the decorations are going up, and there is Christmas music everywhere. It is especially good this year because Grandpa Lauro and Grandma Conchita are going to arrive tomorrow night. Lorena and the kids will leave me here in the mid-valley to work to go up to Portland tomorrow morning so Lorena can do some shopping on her own and the kids can go out shopping with Grandpa Milo and Grandma Sarah. The plane comes in late, so they will stay the night in Portland to come down to Albany on Wednesday. The house is looking quite festive, too, what with Lorena’s electric grapes and dead tree branches strewn around the house!!!

It was quite an unusual weekend this weekend because of the strong storm that blew a tree down over Jim and JoAnn’s power line. That was pretty sad, but it meant that our ministers needed another place to stay for a couple of days, so they came to stay with us (we are the closest to Jim and JoAnn). In addition, we got to have the Sunday morning meeting at our house for the first time ever. It was great. Even though it was a the cost of a pretty lousy set of circumstances for the Waldo’s we appreciated the chance to have the meeting and the workers at our house and the excuse to invite Jim and JoAnn over for dinner on Sunday. I ate to much, but we all had a super time.