Neskowin - Christmas 2014

This year's Christmas was the first in quite a few years that we did not celebrate in Wilsonville with family, but instead headed out to the gorgeous Oregon coast. We rented a little condo straight at the coast with a nice view of Proposal Rock.

And then we got out to do what we had come for: looong walks along the endless, deserted beach - rain or shine:

Which made for a happy dog...

George and Abby took a while longer to settle in, but they came around, eventually.

Christmas Eve was particularly stormy and so large amounts of sea foam piled up on the beach. (Contrary to common perception, this is - at least on the Oregon coast - not due to pollution, but due to a productive ocean ecosystem.)

PDX International Raceway

Billie and Rod invited us to drive along the raceway near Portland, which is always nicely decorated during Christmas time. And it was a lot of fun! Christmas music on the radio, lots of lights outside. It really put me in the right mood for Christmas. Pepper and Maggie joined us, of course, and Pepper also seemed genuinely interested in all the lights outside! And afterward we had dinner at Xico, a Mexican restaurant. A great evening with great friends!

Dog Days

This year it struck me: Pretty much any time Pepper and I walk across campus, students ask if they can pet him, and then they tell me how much they needed that because they have an exam in a few, or they have a lot of homework to do, or.. fill in the blanks. And what's the most stressful time? Finals week of course.

So I sent an email to my fellow dog owners and asked them if they'd be willing to volunteer some of their time during finals week, to make their dogs available half an hour before a final. And guess what - we got nine wonderful dog/human teams together to cover 12 pre-final time slots. All in all, about 100-120 different students came, several of them multiple times. I call that a great success :).

Pepper had a great time too. Note the blurry tail :)

Cookies!

It's this time of year again... I can't believe it! Aaaanyways...

Here are a few pics of our latest cookie creations:

Mint cookies with chocolate coating (they were a bit too big, and really, they needed more chocolate anyways :)):

Lemon sugar cookies with sprinkles:

Mint chocolate cookies, second try (half as big and with more chocolate :)) and almond Vanillekipferl:

Thanksgiving dinner

Just like the last few years, we were fortunate enough to be invited by Billie and Rod to a great Thanksgiving dinner. This time in their home on Ladd Hill rather than on the coast, though (makes for a much shorter drive!).
The 23-pounder was expertly carved by Rod under the watchful eyes of Maggie, while Billie cooked and entertained simultaneously.

The meal was great, as is tradition, and we enjoyed the company of Terry, Donna, Tim, Pat, Hong (sp?) and Huong (sp??), as well as their teenage daughters (who did NOT want to be there...).

And then the Seahawks beat the 49ers 19:3 - what more can you ask for?

Spark of Resistance - 60 minutes to escape

Today we went to Spark of resistance - 60 minutes to escape, a super-fun event in Portland. Here's the story: You are special agents, and one of your fellow special agents went missing. Your job is to get into his office and search for clues about what happened. And you have 60 minutes to achieve it. Lots of fun (even though we didn't quite make it in time (at least we freed our fellow agent)).

Here's us afterward having dinner. 

Halloween

Pepper went as Dr. Who this year (and I as the Tardis!).