Well, she’s here! Our darling granddaughter arrived on December 2nd, 2 1/2 weeks early, giving us a little extra time to enjoy her. Julie went into preliminary labor starting late Sunday night. All through Monday and Tuesday there were signs and symptoms that things were progressing. Tuesday night the contractions became regular so we went to the hospital around 3 am. Her water broke in triage, her contractions became more intense and Jake and Julie were handling them well with breathing exercises. Around 7 am labor went into full gear, at 8:30 am Julie was pushing and Paisley appeared at 9:34 am! It was fast and furious but Mama, Daddy and Baby were all fine. Paisley is, of course, the cutest and most perfect baby ever – she’s nursing and sleeping with only an occasional cry when she is getting changed. She is an angel and she posed for that role when she was about to leave the hospital. 
In between holding and cuddling Paisley, Doug and I are doing all the planning necessary to get on the road in January. We are looking forward to all the festivities of this holiday season and, at the same time, the excitement is building. We just heard that our motor home was delivered to the dealer in California. We’ll be making arrangements to take delivery in Nevada around mid-January. We’ll learn how to drive it as well as how to work the many systems that make it such a remarkable home to live in. Sometime soon we’ll also be purchasing our tow vehicle, packing up the items that will be moved into the RV and getting in as much Paisley-time as we can.
Life here in the Portland area has been very busy. Our calendar is full of special times with our family. The weather here is cold and rainy – almost every day. I’m trying to get used to it and be reconciled that you can’t have these beautiful trees here without suffering through this weather but my feet are never going to be warm again! Our plan to follow the sun sounds even better now!