January 2026

 

Happy New Year!!

Our annual "Happy New Year" letter to family and friends went out the end of December. It went to nearly 100 people. Some via e-mail and some via USPS.

Thursday 1/1

We stayed up late last night to watch the 13th annual "Idaho Potato Drop" and fireworks display. But, despite the late night, when this morning came around, we were still up in time to watch the, equally famous, and very wet, 137th Rose Parade.

The theme was "The Magic in Teamwork"

Magic Johnson was the Grand Marshal. There were 39 beautiful floats, 17 equestrian groups, and 19 huge marching bands. It was the first time it rained on the parade in 20 years. There were lots of raincoats and umbrellas !! 

Before the parade even ended, The Orange Bowl football game began. This game was especially interesting for us as the Oregon Ducks were playing against the very tough Texas Tech Red Raiders.

First off, we turned on our "lucky lights" that shine above our "Go Ducks" decor. The game was being played in Miami Florida in the Hard Rock Stadium. Oregon looked pretty good and was ahead 6 - 0 at halftime. The second half brought crucially timed interceptions, a field goal, two touchdowns, and . . .  the WIN, 23 - 0 !!

(Unfortunately, our Ducks got beat in the semi-finals ending their season)

After the game, we had our New Year's Day lunch

Homemade sub sandwiches, pistachio salad, fruit salad, with chips 'n dip. 

Saturday 1/3

Yesterday, we began taking down all the Christmas decorations.We have 12 large totes filled with all our indoor decorations so it's a big job. Each box is labeled with what goes inside (Some even have pictures), so that helps.

 Taking down our new tree was a challenge. It has three sections. Once we finally got them apart, we had the problem of getting it all back in the box. As you can see, even just one section looks too big for the box. A lot of pushing and shoving was involved, but we did it! We only hope that we didn't damage any of the wiring in the process. Steve ran the vacuum cleaner before we moved the furniture back in place. It is all done now and things are back to "pre-holiday" condition.

Sunday 1/4

On New Year's Eve Matt and Jen came out to help us install a new door handle set on our front door. It hasn't worked right for quite a while so we finally decided it was time to order a new one and replace it.

First off we had to remove the old, non-working, handle. The set screw was stripped out so Matt had to drill it out. Once that was done he was able to take the rest of the pieces off. The new hardware didn't match up exactly so Linda did a little bit of painting. To speed that process up, she used her blow dryer. Now that the "old set" was gone, Matt started on the installation of the new set.

He set the template in place, drilled a couple of new holes, chiseled out a spot for the new latch faceplate, and placed the new mechanism in the hole.

He set the new exterior handle in place, and then screwed the interior handle on. It looked great, but to our dismay, it didn't work right and we determined it was a defective handset. Right then, we ordered a new one, which arrived today. To make a long story short, we took the hardward off the door, put the new hardware on, it didn't work, took the new hardware off, put the 1st new set of hardware, that Matt installed, back on and this time it worked! Not sure what happened or what was different, but now it works and we are happy!

Monday 1/5

Last month when the refrigerator repairman was here, he discovered our ice maker was defective and ordered us a new one under our warranty.  It arrived late last week and today it was installed.

Ben, the technician, removed the defective unit from the fridge, disconnected all the wiring, and removed the old ice maker from it's frame. Next he did all of that, in reverse, with the new unit and installed it. The "before" picture shows the ice cube tray was always at an angle with the back lower than the front. In the "after" picture, you can see the tray is now level.

After taking down our Christmas decorations, our front porch looked a little bit plain, sooo . . . . Linda ordered a couple of things she could use to create a winter decor item.

This is what she ended up doing. She glued together the "hello WINTER" blocks and snowman but it was very lightweight and we worried about it blowing down and getting damaged. Steve cut a round disc from a piece of 1/4" wood that he had laying around. Linda covered it with some moss she had in her craft things. She glued it all together, added the cardinals, pinecones, etc. Even though it was much more stable, Steve still decided to secure it with a screw. It looks great in this space by our front door.

Monday 1/19

One of the things we received for Christmas was a "Hot Chocolate Bomb & Mug Set"

Tonight, we decided to use it !!

We have never used a "bomb" of any kind before so this was a new experience for us.  We followed the instructions written on the box by the "Elf on the Shelf" . . . it was a fun activity and the chocolate tasted great !!

Friday 1/23

For the last few weeks, Steve has been going for a walk each afternoon

It is too cold for Linda so she stays inside where it is warm but Steve gets all bundled up, grabs a walking stick, and off he goes. He walks one mile and is gone for 1/2 hour. 

Wednesday 1/28

When we got up this morning . . . .

there was SNOW!! It is the first snow of the season. it was only about an inch and didn't last very long, but it was a welcomed sight!

Saturday 1/31

This morning, Steve was out in the garage and found this piece of wall décor. We totally forgot we had it. It was made by Linda's sister, Karen, back in 1991 when we lived in Bend. We had it hanging up there, but when we moved it got put in a box and forgotten. 

Today, we found it and decided to hang it by our front door. Thanks Karen !!

January has flown by and now we move on to a new month and we hope to see lots of snow falling in the mountains during February . . . we NEED it !!