Dougall Family Fitness Challenge

It's that time of the year to set goals and make new year's resolutions. Those of us home for family dinner tonight thought it might be fun to do some kind of a fitness challenge amongst the members of the family and work on increasing our overall health. For some that might be losing weight or for others maybe just increasing cardiovascular endurance. I know we are all busy with jobs, schooling, raising children and what not, but there's always time to squeeze in that 30 mins of exercise whether it's playing tag with the kids outside, taking a family walk, or parking the car a little farther away. They even say you can accumulate 30 min of exercise doing short bout of exercise throughout the day so no more excuses for anyone!
For those of you unfamiliar with the benefits of exercise here they are:
Reduces the risk of heart disease by improving blood circulation throughout the body
Keeps weight under control
Improves blood cholesterol levels
Prevents and manages high blood pressure
Boosts energy level
Helps manage stress
Releases tension
Improves the ability to fall asleep quickly and sleep well
Strengthens muscles, increasing the ability to do other physical activities
Sounds good right! So I'm thining as a family we can help to encourage one another and even get some of the older grandkids involved( Brandon, Tanner, Troy, Mason, Jessica, Sarah, Tyson and Conner ). For every 30 min of exercise you'll get a point that then adds up to different rewards(water bottle, sweat towels, t-shirt...). Then come July when we gather for the family reunion we'll all check in and have a fitness challenge- maybe a 5k race/walk for fun to check up on our progress. Come the end of 2008 there will be a grand prize for the person or family that accrues the most points(gift card or short stay at one of mom and dad's timeshares are a few ideas).
What do you think? Would anyone be interested in joining in on the fun?? Send your comments or suggestions and if it comes back positive I'll post a final draft of the plan soon so we can get started!

A Night in Bethlehem

Times have changed here in Portland. In some ways it will always be the same with Alison around with early morning wake up calls and cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate for breakfast, but long gone are the days we ventured to Mt hood for Christmas Eve and held Christmas our tradiational program. This year for Christmas Eve we celebrated "A Night in Bethlehem" complete with costumes(bathrobes and bed sheets), mediterranean food(spinach pie, pita bread and hummus, olives, meat skewers etc), and a props to immitate the setting(like the canopy set up over the table to represent the marketplace). We watched clips from the nativity movie to help the image become more real.

It was a very memorable night and I'm sure will be repeated for years to come. So if any of you are planning on coming to Portland for Christmas next year you can look forward to our new family tradition!

Is it over yet?

In London today is still a holiday. December 26th is Boxing Day, historically the day to deliver gifts (a 'box') to friends & domestic helpers. Now it is the day to recuperate & recover from the stress of the season. I'm sure that when we were young, by the time we hit mid-day on December 25th Mom was ready for a day off to relax.

The first picture is from 1973. The family was pretty young, and fairly small at that point. But it sure looks like we managed to have quite a pile of presents and wrapping paper. I think I can see a bit of exhaustion in Mom's face.

This picture is from 1979, same situation but more kids. . . . Mom seems skilled at keeping us focused & contained here. Maybe the gift opening is just beginning, or maybe we had paused to organize the room-- I can't say I ever recall the living room looking so tidy on Christmas morning. Two year old Kathryn is thrilled with her little toy car. I also seem pretty excited with things, so excited that I don't even notice that I have no pants on.

Geoff's Family Christmas

I belive most of you have seen pictures of our house earlier this summer - I'm too big an idiot to figure out how to turn these pictures the right direction so don't crink your neck looking at them.

Anyhow, our open top HVAC system was fun for a few days but had the kids scared of monster squirrels before it was all over - Tyson became convinced that squirrels were going to jump into our house and attack us at night. Personally, I came appreciate how much noise a little bit of insulation can block out.

After too many months of grinding through this we finally saw a bit of light around Thanksgiving. Little did we know how much more time all of this was really going to take!


Well our family is thrilled to nearly have this project complete. As it currently stands our floors will get finished the two days after Christmas and hopefully our appliances will get hooked up shortly after that.

So this will actually wind up being more of a birthday present to me than a Christmas present to the family, but we will surely remember this chaotic Christmas as we've juggled trying to establish Christmas traditions here in Portland along with a remodel.

We have carried on some longtime Dougall traditions and have begun to establish a few of our own. Peacock Lane is certainly one of our kids' favorites. We have watched the Christmas ships each year here - although this year was certainly an adventure - maybe a later post will elaborate our experience of having a fire on MAX while heading downtown. We really enjoy seeing all of the lights that the Zoo puts out each year. I've been unsuccesful getting anyone to attend the Tuba Christmas - so if any of you up for it - it's generally the 2nd Saturday in December!

Merry Christmas to everyone this year!

Before We had the Internet

A short time ago I was speaking with David about the way we made a Christmas tradition out of poring through the pages of the Sears Catalog (also known as the Wish Book). Yes kids, before there was a world wide web, and before Amazon.com came into existence, Americans shopped from home with the guidance of catalogs published by Sears & other stores. For generations and generations, this brought children loads of fun, and the Dougall children were no exception.

I recently came across a website were someone has scanned and posted all of the pages from a number of old catalogs. Finding the 1985 issue was a fun walk down Memory Lane. I remember the cover with the excited child (yes, I would tear open the pages with the same amount of excitement & awe that this child displays). I remember having to flip through too many pages of terrible fashion for women . . .

. . . until finally finding the toy section!!

In 1985 there were lots of Transformers and other common toys that excited us. But for me and David there was one item that stood out amongst all the rest, the OMNIBOT2000. We were obsessed with this thing, and dreamed about what life would be like with our very own robot. We would study this particular page everyday, memorizing the features of the little guy (26 inches tall, a vocabulary of 140 words!), and wishing we had $499.99 (roughly equivalent to $1,000 in 2007) so we could have this handy little device to "bring us things like drinks and hors d'eouvres". I wonder if this childhood fascination planted a seed that eventually led David into the field of robotics.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas at the Dougall's...

Another memorable Dougall Christmas traditions? Our Christmas Eve program.

Highlights always included:

• The Man Who Missed Christmas


• The Grinch Who Stole Christmas


• The Gift of the Magi


• Numerous Christmas songs, both reverent and rowdy (that Rudolph piano duet...)


• The Night Before Christmas


• The Christmas Story (the Biblical version, not the 1980s cult classic)

Remember how we'd dole out roles and rehearse as though Guffman* were to attend? And remember how we'd throw in the same clever comic relief year to year? ("throw up the sash" and "turned with a jerk," if you need a refresher...)

But I think we kept the Christmas Story relatively reverent, minus the year Heather played Mary and birthed baby Jesus, played by 6-week-old Brandon.

Sorry, no pictures of that year. Instead here are pictures from the mid-80s:

*If you don't get the Guffman reference, ask Rob.

Somebody help me name this post

December is a month when young adolescent hearts are all a-flutter. I don't know about current trends, but I do that in the 80's and 90's, young lovers saw the month culminate not with Christmas day, but with the annual bash known as "The New Years Eve Church Dance".

This picture shows Heather with a couple of eager young men struggling earnestly for a bit of her attention. Good luck, Brian. Good luck, Jay. I hope the Santa hats help the cause.