Merry Christmas w/a Twist & A Sale….Lynn’s Latest #27

I hope your Christmas was EXCELLENT! Ours had some twists and turns.

On Monday, my mom was at the store when she passed out. She was unresponsive for 25 minutes and it was really scary. This has happened before, but it lasted longer this time. We called the paramedics and she ended up in Community Hospital for Monday and Christmas Eve.

Here is Houston and Mor Mor with my big gift to the family on Christmas Eve….will tell you more about that later.

She is doing much better and was able to come back to my house for Christmas!

Also, this past week, my computer completely crashed. Ugh! If I haven’t been responding to emails that is why.

I am a shopping for a new laptop and should have one soon! Fingers crossed!

Before I forget, we are having a sale….

Save 10% off everything Storewide! Now Through Sunday, December 29th.

We will be Closed Monday, December 30th, Tuesday, December 31st and Wednesday, January 1st.

And 25% off of any Christmas in the store through January 5th!

There is no additional discount on the 25% clearance garage items out back. See you soon!

Now that the sale is out of the way, let’s rewind to last Thursday. If you remember, I was going to a Progressive Dinner.

It started out with Appetizers (Cheese Fondue yum!) & Champagne at Lisa &.Gary Schoeffler’s house. It was amazing!

Then when we went to Susan & Brad Wheelan’s house for dinner. Susan is the better half of our design team here at Lynn’s Consignments! We have a big design install this Sunday in Pasadena. So exciting! Dinner was Chicken, Layered Salad and Twice Baked Potatoes. Delicious!

Final stop, was Jill & Lee Allen’s home for dessert. Such a fun evening!

My mom flew in the same night as the Progressive dinner and luckily Indiana was able to pick her up at LAX and bring her to Ventura.

Indiana got her hair done on Friday (as part of her birthday present). and Mor Mor and I worked at the store. That night we decided to try a BBQ place near my house where I had never been.

Marshall’s Bodacious Barbecue. It was delicious. We are now fans!

Saturday, Mor Mor and I had the day off and I got my Christmas shopping finished. I am never this late! Oh well!

Sunday, we worked and Sandy had text me “What hours are you working today?” and I said “11 to 3”. I just thought she and her son Alex were gonna stop by so I could give her a present.

I failed to mention that I had to pick up our Honey Baked Ham Christmas Dinner at noon and drive it home. When I pulled into my street, I could have sworn that I saw Kirby and Sam (their chocolate labs) in Doug’s truck. It WAS them and what were they doing at my house?

Then Sandy peeked her head out from my front yard, and then Alex and then her husband Doug. “What in the World”? as my dad would have said.

Turns out, for my Christmas gift, the three of them came over to clean up my front yard, trim and decorate my outside tree, rehang my Christmas lights that had fallen and wash all of Cha Cha’s toys. OMG! What an AMAZING and THOUGHTFUL friend! Thank you Thank you!

I mentioned that I had an interesting Christmas gift for my family this year. Well, let me tell you about it! 25 years ago, I took all of the 16mm film that my grandpa had shot back in the late 1930’s. Isn’t that crazy that he had a home movie camera when my mom was a year old in 1937?

Then I found the super 8mm that my mom and dad had shot of my brother and me. Finally, I grabbed all of the Super 8mm that my ex-husband, William’s family had shot. I took all of it into a place in Bellingham to have it put on VHS tapes. Here is what they looked like!

I have been carrying around those VHS tapes, the tape of my wedding, my sister’s wedding, tons of VHS that we had shot of my grandma back in the 1990’s and then the footage that we shot of Houston and Indy when they were little. I was always scared that they would get ruined.

I finally dragged that entire box over to Dexter’s Camera last Wednesday and met with Gregg the owner. Could he have it all transferred to flash drives by Christmas? He looked at me like I was crazy, but said he would do his best.

And boy did he! It was only $20 a tape. It turned out to be about $440 for a priceless Christmas gift. In her hospital room, my mom and I watched her as a toddler. Then when watched their family trip to Sacramento and the World’s Fair in 1939 with a stop over at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Priceless!

Here is my mom climbing on her mom’s back….her mother is my grandma Cheryl Leaf. Crazy right?

And here is my mom with her cousin Gordon playing with a hose in 1938.

Houston arrived home for Christmas on Christmas Eve and we got Marshall’s Bodacious BBQ for dinner and then went up to see Mor Mor in the hospital. We finally got around to that first picture in this ezine! That is the two of them in the hospital on Christmas Eve!

Houston had just returned from a four day bike ride from Los Angeles to Palm Desert along the Stagecoach 400 and he shared the video with Mor Mor. He went by himself which always worries me, but he had a great time. Here is a link to his video if you care to watch. It is very interesting!

After visiting Mor Mor on Christmas Eve, Houston and I watched 3 hours of old home movies out of the 15 hours that I had just paid to get transferred. We watched the entire 1:15 of my mom when she was little and then 1:45 of he and Indy as toddlers. All I can say is….Priceless!

Here is Houston pushing Indiana down the slide at our house on Hawthorne in Bellingham, WA in 2000.

And here is Houston driving Indiana around our driveway.

Christmas day, my mom came home from the hospital. Houston went on a 68 mile bike ride. Indiana, Larissa and Larissa’s parents arrived to Ventura at about 4pm and we had a lovely Honey Baked Ham dinner and then watched more home videos.

From now on, I am going to be doing “experiences” instead of a ton of gifts for Christmas. The time spent making memories by watching old memories was AMAZING!

Here we are cleaning up after dinner. From left to right, Houston, me, Diane, Rob, Larissa, Indiana and Mor Mor.