Scapegoat of the week

We did this thing mostly out of desperation. We designated a "Scapegoat Of The Week", and passed the "privilege" around.

It worked really well. When something happened, instead of multiple fingers pointing at each other, we just blamed the SOTW and everyone had a good laugh.

Pixie Stockings

When Mildred and I were first married, as decorations for one of our very first Christmases we got six miniature felt Christmas stockings that we hung on the tree.

I got this idea of putting a little piece of candy in the one that was "hers". When she asked about it the next day, I told her the Christmas Pixies must have left it :)

We continued that tradition until the kids left and Mildred passed away.

I spent the 2008 Christmas season first in Houston and last in Utah, and the kids with kids have kept the tradition alive.

David and Ian playing with lights

When the kids were growing up, there was one thing you could count on if you were in a public place and the lights went out - it was David, playing with the switch :)

That's why I wasn't surprised last Christmastime when I was visiting with David, April and Ian, and the lights went out.... Ian is his father's son.

The International Space Station

I had read that there was always a ham radio operator on board the International Space Station, and that they took time to talk to hams on the ground.

Two weeks ago when I was driving Sally and her mom to Boise (for the birth of our grandson, Tyler), we heard the ISS! It was amazing!

Somewhere outside of the Tri-Cities I was scanning around (the ham version of channel surfing) and got a strong signal, that I stopped scanning for. The operator was talking about being 200 miles above the earth.