"If you fall, I'll be there." - floor

As we enter the shopping season

Last night was the first truly cold night we've had since moving here. It got down to 24 outside and when I got up about 3:00 it was 54 inside. I knew it was going to get cold outside and in, so I had everything ready to fire up the stove. By 4:30 the thermometer on the table by our chairs said 65, which is livable if you're dressed in layers and have one of our chair blankets around you.

If you're wondering why I'm up at 3:00 I'll refer you to an earlier post and Pam's cold.
She can snore on both inhale and exhale. Amazing.

Talked to both sets of kids today. I'm thankful for my family.

We met Robin and Anders for a surprisingly good Thanksgiving dinner at Shari's, a PNW restaurant chain. They moved here just over two weeks ago from Duluth, MN, know no one here, and are feeling very homesick. We met them at church and suggested we get together today so they wouldn't be alone on their first holiday in OR. Nice couple with two little girls, 5 and 1.
It was interesting to compare our experiences moving to the greater Eugene area. They can't believe how crowded everything is - the roads, the stores, the neighborhoods... And people here seem intense, not the mellow they'd been told to expect.
Uhm....moving here from Phoenix has us thinking just the opposite.

Duluth, MN - pop. 86,000
Eugene, OR - pop. 160,000
Phoenix, AZ - pop. 1.5 million

We had a good visit, given that our first real extended conversation came in a crowded restaurant on Thanksgiving day.

The next step on the coop is painting the coop itself and the trim prior to its install. But this cold snap means we're not above freezing until noon and it starts to get dark around 4:00. That's a problem.

We're now both in a tryptophan stupor. The Green Bay/Chicago game is on TV and the wood stove is cranking out the BTU's. All is good.