December

The winter break could not come soon enough for Christian. As soon as it was over, we had Marian come over for dinner. We did not know when we would be able to visit with her as we did not know what our schedule was going to be like for the rest of the month. We were anxious to go up and visit with our girls but they had nearly another week of school.

We had a nice dinner and exchanged a few gifts with Marian. We got to catch up a bit as we do not see each other as often as we used to. She brought over some things for us to take over to the girls as well.

I didn't put up a tree or even put up lights on the outside of our house this year, but I did put up a few token decorations on our mantel. 

Over the next couple of days, Christian worked on getting the back seat of the TJ put back in so that we could take his father out for a drive. The back seat has never quite worked right since we got it. We would take it on and off depending on what we were doing. It is such a little vehicle that there is very little room for storage with all the seats installed. The last time we took it out, in was such a pain in the butt that we swore we would not put it back in until we figured out a way to fix it. On top of that, a bolt broke off and will need to be drilled out or something in order to fix it.

Christian had taken the seat apart last month or so and finally figured out what the problem was. A spring had popped off. That is what releases it from the bracket that holds it down. Actually there is one on both sides and both were not engaged. Luckily, it was still attached though, so Christian had to figure out where it was supposed to be attached to. Then he removed on the rust on the frame and painted it so that it would be protected. We also steamed the foam at the back of the seat so that it restored some of the fluffiness. We didn't end up doing the other part though because it was too difficult to remove from the covering without possible damage. All this took a lot longer than we anticipated and we frankly put it off for weeks after that because the dog next door would just bark and bark at us as we tried to do anything in our own garage or driveway.

When everything was ready, we drove down to visit with Terry. We drove him out to Coyote Mountain. We came here with the girls a couple of years ago and it was really neat. Christian wanted to bring his dad but I thought the trail might be a little too rough and scary for him. The trail turned out to be worse than we remembered. It has definitely taken a beating over the last couple of years. 

We explored a bit trying to figure out the trails. It didn't really pan out as we expected and it took us a while to backtrack back out. We picked up a quick dinner on the way back as it was getting a little late. We visited for a few minutes with Jackie when we dropped Terry off at their house and headed home.

Christian spent most of the next week working on his 3D printer. He has not had the time or inclination to touch it in months. He mostly needed to wire up all his components. He actually got it up and running...at least mostly. It was enough to at least print PLA. And even without really tuning it, it was printing better than the tuned Ender...which was already pretty damned good (at least when it worked, which was not consistent or often).

We had been watching the weather all week, trying to decide when to make our trip to Idaho. Of course, as our luck, there was a storm system moving in for the week we intended to be there so that we could actually spend Christmas with them.

Christian printed me a few ornaments. They were pretty neat. He printed a few kit cards to send out to a few friends. We had plans to visit my mom the next day to celebrate the winter solstice. My sister and her family were driving down from S.F. Since the printer seemed to be working quite nicely, we decided to print the younger niece and nephew a puzzle for them to work on. I say "younger" but they are in college. We only got Collins done in time. It was a saber toothed tiger.

Anyway, we went early to help my mom with the food. Norman and Lauren showed up shortly after. Debbie and Collin were working and would arrive later and Wendy and her family were a little delayed from the traffic but all made it safely at some point.