Person Of The Year

My favorite place to write postcards is under the magnificent columns on St. Peter's Square. Nothing better than sending a friend a souvenir postmarked Vatican City, from the Pope's~except, maybe, receiving one. Surrounding the walled Michelangelo masterpiece of St. Peters Square, guarded by unarmed Swiss jesters, is the Vatican post office. A good place to buy some awesomely arty stamps.

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Outside the walls, in Rome, pick up a few postcards, maybe a souvenir bottle Popener, and send some Vatican graffiti home. My favorite, the Pope in the backseat of the Popemobile blessing Catholic pilgrims eating pizza.

The first time we were in Vatican City, it was Popeless. Pope John Paul had passed and the conclave was vetting for the new Pope. It's actually quite possible that we were the only two Popes alive that day we visited the Tombs of The Popes under the piazza of St. Peter's Square.

The Popes on St. Peter's Square

Only a few years after Pope Benedict was elected Pope, he "retired". Now probably playing golf on Capri. The replacement, Pope Francis, followed from humble Latin American roots, scrapped the fancy ride for the train. This Pope has dedicated his papacy to the struggle of the poor, the children, and out-casts of society. Recently, he celebrated his 77th birthday after Mass by inviting four homeless Romans to have breakfast with him. What a guy!

Pope Francis deserves the recognition from Time Magazine as Person of the Year.

 Yea Pope!

Day Pass

Today I felt like a visitor in Portland. A good day to see the town in all it's holiday glory. A good day to get a Tri-Met day pass. For a mere $5, we can walk two shorts blocks, tour the town and be safely delivered back by dark. No parking issues, no lame last-minute drivers to deal with, and we can enjoy a beer or two and a hot holiday toddy to top off the tour--> without our car.

First stop, Portland Luggage. Hali has a bag fetish. I don't know what it is: the pockets, the straps, the clips, the zippers? I call her the Bag Lady, me, the Bag Dad. No, actually we're looking to retire my 30 year old Eagle Creek pack for something similar but much younger.

Pioneer Square is considered Portland's living room and worthy of a visit, especially today. Take a seat. Enjoy the magnificent Douglas Fir lit up and serenaded by a symphony of 222 tubas, right in the middle of this living room.

passports and postcards

A short walk away, Saturday Market. A staple downtown open all year featuring local craft and a great opportunity to people watch. You can spot the locals wearing beanies, sporting pork chop sideburns, and tattoos jigsawed over every inch of flesh. The poor tourists waiting in line, in 30 degree drizzle for a donut? I don't get it. There's a Voodoo Donuts a couple miles away on the other side of the river~~never a line. Time for a beer.

Dan and Louis Oyster Bar was packed so we head up the street to a hole-in-the-wall taco joint, Santeria. Is that a voodoo word? Who cares? For five bucks you can get two meaty tacos al pastor with all the fixins' and FREE house made chips&salsa. A craft beer will set you back another $3. Only one beer, this place shares a rest room with Mary's, Portland's oldest strip club. Go ahead, take a pee(k), it's FREE too.

From here we jump on the street car for uptown. In the lobby of the Hotel Deluxe is the swanky, dimly lit Driftwood Room. This is the first place I've ever seen glögg on the cocktail list and the bartender gives us a generous sample, probably because no one outside of Stockholm even knows what glögg is? Glögg was good but we went for the hot toddy beside the cozy driftwood bonfire.

Holiday Toddy

Back to the tram which passes right by Powell's Bookstore. Get off! This store is so massive, each genre is given a different colored room. It's easy to get lost so go for it! Get lost! Meet later at Sizzle Pie just across the street for a slice and a beer. The veggie is loaded with roasted peppers, artichoke hearts, romas, olives, and feta. Pair that with a local IPA. The best pizza pie west of Vatican City.

Sizzle Pie

Walk a block or two to the bus mall and your bus will be there soon. Tri-Met, there's an app for that. Count the Christmas lights on your way home as the bus driver escorts you to your stop.

What a day! One more beer and I just may have gone "local" and tattooed a small backpack on my shoulder at the parlor adjacent to Sizzle Pie. Crap!! I left my beanie on the bus!! Dang Distractions!!

'Tis A Season

Here in the Pope household, Christmas is not a day, 'Tis a season. Starts about a week before Thanksgiving, stocking the kitchen with the staples, butter, flour, eggs; the seasonals, dried fruits, nuts, root vegetables. Season ends when the Christmas tree comes down which happens to coincide with the football season. I have been known to tackle the tree the day after Super Bowl. Most years though, soon after Christmas- like January 2nd.

I knew it was time to get a tree when Holly Jolly Christmas and Feliź Navidad were belting from the stereo and Carli hinted by lighting a pine scented candle. A candle she lit last year while staying in a Southern California apartment with a fake- Christmas tree, that is.

 

Hanging from our tree are decorations we've hung every year. There are the milestone ornaments: my first airplane ride, my first puppy, my first beer, my first house, my first baby girl. This little guy was my first Christmas ornament, 1962. I guess you can call us vintage.

Our household is also ruled Democratically so every year we vote whether or not this cheesy cheeky cardboard cutout goes up. With three of us voting, odds are George Dubya is dangling near the bottom of the tree. Just below a sucker and Mickey Mouse. Brings out that bipartisan JOY to our Holiday Party.

For the moment, we will savor the Christmas season as long the pine aroma lingers and the majority of needles stay on the tree.

At the very least, our Christmas tree will be the centerpiece of our living room a couple Sundays into the New Year. One never knows, as they say, On any given Sunday...

The way the 49ers are playing, this, the last season at Candlestick Park, I may be taking our tree down the first Monday in February.

Seasons Cheer! 

Ephemer-what?

Yes, it's true, Hali and I are still on course of our goal--> selling one thing per week. Last week we sold several declutterables: a small aquarium, 8 cans of sterno, a bag of feathers, a cookie press.

As I read through the wanted section of Craigslist, I came across a post for someone ISO(in search of) postcards, old photos, and ephemera.

I've got a box of postcards, boxes and boxes and boxes of old photos but I'm not sure I have any ephemera. Okay, I don't even know what ephemera is so I replied to this posting~ I've got postcards and old photos and might have ephemera down in the basement but can you give me a clue what ephemera is? I might be able to help. 

As I dug down through that box of postcards, I Found it!!-Eureka!!-Ephemera!! I've got ephemera!! I thumbed through this stack of ephemera and realized that I wasn't quite ready to get rid of that either. 

www.passportsandpostcards.com

Later that day, I went back to that wanted poster and fibbed, I looked all over for ephemera but couldn't find any. I'll keep my eyes open for it and let you know if I come across any. Sorry I couldn't help.

Unclutter Or Declutter

In our attempt to pursue a minimalist lifestyle, I am often confused on which word to use, unclutter or declutter?

Perhaps they could be interchangeable but one is a word the other is not. So I consulted my favorite English major~Garrison Keillor. No, not really, he still hasn't responded to my postcard. Oh well, I went for the next best~Yahoo Answers.

For most, unclutter is a word, declutter is not. However, within the minimalist movement, consensus seems to go with declutter.

Verb--> You need to declutter to leave it uncluttered. 

Consensus has it, we're decluttering .

Snow Day

 Passportsandpostcards

Every winter Carli charts the weather for these~Snow Days!! In grown-up speak~Winter Weather Advisory!!

Last Thursday night Carli wore her pajama bottoms inside out and backwards. Why? A call to the snow gods. She then tucked a spoon under her pillow, What's that for? The snow flurry fairy, she says matter-of-factly, as if I should have known.

What I should have known was Carli had been monitoring the forecast, weather "models", Doppler, and fairy movement all day. She was going to be prepared.

Sure enough, all that preparation paid off and we awoke Friday morning to the snow globe effect right outside our picture window on the front porch.

 Snow Globe Effect

I didn't need to jump up and down hollering, it's snowing, it's snowing!! to get Carli up. She simply propped her head off her pillow, reached under, grabbed that spoon, pointed with it outside her bedroom window, and said, I told ya so:)~

C'sons Greetings

My name is Woody and I'm a tightwad. 

Every Tuesday afternoon us tightwads meet at the 5th Quadrant, affectionately known to us regulars as the 5Q. The place where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came.

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The brewers here brew arguably the best IPA in Portland~C-Note. So named for a bitterness unit of 100(BU) and all seven hops in the recipe begin with the letter C. Out now for the holidays, the Granddad of the C-note~C'sons Greetings. A bigger, bolder beer, inherent goodness in every pint.

C'sons Greetings

 

You can meet us tightwads each Tuesday, Tightwad Tuesday(TT), where a pint will put you back $2.50. After a couple Tuesday meetings, you'll wanna go where everyone knows your name, to the the 5Q.

Nice heated, dog-friendly patio just 12 steps away. FREE bacon for your furry friend, where they always know their name. 

Cheers!

Turducken~Vegan Style

             Baby Granny~ the Apple~

I just read that Portland is the most vegan friendly city in America. Now, I'm not vegan, never intend on converting. I enjoy bacon and cheese too much. Too much in fact, I'll  put a slice of cheese on a thick slab of bacon and eat it~Elvis style, with more bacon.

Many Portlanders think the holidays are the hardest time to be vegan. Not me. Last year, I put together a vegan turducken.That's right, instead of putting a chicken in a duck, then the duck-chicken duo in a turkey, I stuffed a couple delicatata squash with quinoa(keen-wah) stuffing, then stuffed that into the largest butternut squash I could find. Baked it for about an hour then sliced it~strata style. 

The delicatata had this amazing tiger striped skin emblazoned in the buttery gold layer from the butternut, with the rosemary herbed quinoa stuffing in the middle. It looked absolutely awesome.  

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No one ate it, dang vegans! Shoulda put a bacon crumble over the quinoa~Woody style.

Oh, Oh, Oh JOY

Ever try to include your pet in a family photo? You'd think after a dozen years or so Carlos would get the picture. The secret on getting him to pose for the camera?-->bacon grease slathered on the backside of my hand. Everything is better with bacon, including a well behaved dog.

We do this every year~our Holiday Greeting. It's our gift to you. Since becoming digital, the process is pretty simple. The hard part is agreeing on a theme. We all agree on something unique, extraordinary, and irresistible but what do we wear? I thought that since we'll be in Bend, we'll be outside, it'll be cold, let's all dress in flannel. What else says OREGON more than flannel? 

While browsing through online photos of other family's greeting cards, Hali proposed we all wear crisp, white shirts. Like other family's?

Carli agreed with me, Mom we're not like other family's, we're the Pope Family: unique, extraordinary, and irresistible. Let's go with Dads flannel idea. Then she reminded us that it's not the clothes people wear that make the picture, it's the people wearing them. I couldn't agree more. Besides, I don't even own a crisp, white shirt.

www.passportsandpostcards.com

Happy Holidays~~~the Pope Family

ps. Thank you Grandpa Dave for taking the pic.

A Calendar Year

It's Tradition in our family. The first day of December starts with this~ the Holiday advent calendar.

Holiday Tradition

The joy of the hanging gifts, the anticipation of every morning leading up to Christmas, the delight in the smiles and laughter make this a creative, fun tradition for us.

Hali collects simple little gifts throughout the year, wraps each, and hangs them with ribbon on every ring. The gifts are anything from store sample shampoo to show tickets. Today it was a miniature plastic dinosaur. Everyday, something different. This simple gesture, whether Carli's a toddler or a 21 year old, brings out our child in our little girl.

Through the Years