A merry Christmas

Joanna and Ben arrived on Saturday, Dec. 22.  That was our candymaking day.  Rene and Joanna made divinity and fudge.  I had made another batch of fruitcake and some cookies earlier and Joanna and I made our caramels that day.

Sunday, we had a very nice Christmas program at church.  There were quite a few visitors, mostly young people who had grown up here and were now visiting their parents with their own little families.  We enjoyed visiting briefly with Casie and Joseph.

Ben and Shannon and Co. came over for dinner that evening.  Since Sadie was sitting in the high chair, Russell sat on Grandpa's lap.  Grandpa did sneak him some bites of food, but he's still pretty little to eat much.

On Monday, we started on the dinner preparations.  Joanna made two pies, cherry and pumpkin.  We also had sweet potato casserole, turkey and stuffing, potatoes and gravy, a relish plate, rolls, cranberry sauce and our traditional grape drink.  Most of it was homemade, including some of the pickles Rene made this summer. 

Here's the table.  The beautiful centerpiece was sent by Preston's mom, Brenda Franzen.  We have had "crackers" (the English version) for several years now.  One year, we had friends over for dinner and the mom, who is from England, brought crackers and taught us how to use them.  Now they are part of our celebration.

After dinner, we had our traditional FHE, although it was short this year due to the attention spans of a three year old, a one year old and an 8 month old.  After FHE, Shannon gave Sadie and Macey each a present and said they could open it.  (It was their Christmas pj's.)  Sadie cracked us all up by opening hers entirely with her teeth.  The three little ones changed into their Christmas jammies, we took a few pictures and B&S took their girlies home to bed.

 

On Christmas, we got up (not very early) and enjoyed a few gifts.  We skyped with the Franzens and the Manassas Scoresbys.  Then we packed up and went to Stevens Point, where we opened more gifts and enjoyed the day.  We played games several times over the week, sometimes with cheating and sometimes without.

Ben and Shannon came up again on Friday night for dinner.  We enjoyed being together.  Macey watched TV and read books.  Sadie denuded the Christmas tree of candy canes and enjoyed them.

On Saturday morning, Ben and Joanna packed up and went home, despite some snow.  We are so glad they could be here.  Christmas is always better when kids and grandkids are involved.

This December, we have tried two new recipes we'd like to share.  I made some of this soup to take to a new family in the ward and some for us to eat at home:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Creamy-Chicken-and-Wild-Rice-Soup

I read the comments and did add diced celery, carrots, onion and mushrooms to the butter before making the white sauce.  I also used part skim milk instead of all cream.  I also used a rotisserie chicken; one chicken was enough for a double batch of soup and enough for a meal for Rene and I, too.  It was filling and yummy.

Most of you know that I don't make candy.  That's Rene's forte.  But this year, Sarah told me about this awesome microwave caramel recipe.  So Joanna and I made it.  It turned out perfectly, although we did have some issues with sticking to the waxed paper, but that was our fault, not the recipe's.  Here's the recipe:

http://www.food.com/recipe/microwave-caramels-367414

Yum!

I'll post more later with pictures of our Christmas activities.  But let me say that we are profoundly grateful to be part of wonderful families and to have the best family in the world as our own!

I used to sort of wish that I could pick out our children's spouses for them.  I thought I knew what they needed and that I could do a pretty good job of matchmaking.  I gave that idea up long ago.  The Lord has done a much better job of matchmaking than I ever could and we love our children-in-law and think they are absolutely the best.

It's always fascinating to see how these eternal marriages have come about.  A year ago, Janet was still in the "I'm a fifth wheel" phase.  She had dated a fair amount, but never anyone she was really happy about.  Her roommate and best friend Candace was getting married, changing the dynamics of that relationship.  Janet would be graduating soon and was wondering about what to do in terms of a career or more schooling.  In February, she went to a ward Valentine's Day dance and got to know Jacob better.  Amazing for these reasons--she hates dances, she has a low tolerance for loud or smart-alecky people who tend to dominate those kind of events, and she is not a flirty type of person (none of our girls are).  Their relationship progressed from there to dating, then engagement and marriage on June 30.

We were fortunate enough to meet Jacob in April when we went to graduation.  We only met Tracy a day or two before their wedding and Rene only met Preston the day before those two were married.  So we were thankful for the opportunity to spend time with Janet and Jacob and to get to know Jacob better.

 

Jacob is the oldest of 10 children.  Strangely enough, some of my siblings know some of Jacob's family, so he came highly recommended.  (In fact, I told my sister and her husband that they might need to recommend us!)  He served in the Washington Seattle mission, spending some of that time in Ferndale, which was part of our ward when we lived in Bellingham.  He is studying landscape architecture, which means that he and Rene have a lot in common.  He plays the piano beautifully, which is always makes a Mom's heart glad.  During that first visit, when we got to know Jacob, one of my favorite moments was when we gathered around the piano and I played and Janet, Jacob, Sarah and Brian sang.  Wonderful!  Jacob understands that Janet is my baby and will always be.  He is not a real nerd (although I started to wonder during the whole "ice cream" vs. "jellybean" discussion) but just enough to fit into this family of nerds.  He loves sports, t-shirts and athletic shorts, making him a perfect fit for Janet.  We have yet to see how he will survive basketball with the Bens, but I have confidence in him.

We are most thankful that Jacob is well grounded in the gospel and that he values family.  We know that he is not perfect, but we have yet to hear of anything as exciting as the Squaw Peak or VEET episodes.  Welcome to our family, Jacob, and here's to many more memories together.

In the meantime, Tracy is a little sad that she has lost her last chance to have someone displace her as the oldest of the siblings.  Don't worry, Trace--we still love you!

Thanksgiving 2012

We had a lovely trip to Virginia for Thanksgiving.  I'm so grateful for the health and strength and the resources to be able to travel to see our kids and grandkids.  Here are some highlights:

 Yummy dinner, prepared by J&T.  Here's the turkey a la Alton Brown.  The PPP ratio was also good--5/4.

 Afton, ready to EAT!

 Tanner, not waiting to eat

 After dinner

 Also after dinner (look carefully)

 Next day outing to C&O/Great Falls Park.  Joseph kayaks here.  It was packed.

 Cutest kids at the park

Blogging from then 'til now

 

With some down time over the past few weeks, I have enjoyed going back and rereading our family blogs.  Started in 2007, just before Joanna left on her mission, our blog covers lots of precious family history.  We have added three wonderful sons-in-law since then.  The last two of our own children have graduated from BYU, and we have had graduations from professional schools.  All nine of our beautiful grandchildren have been born since we started the blog and the first pictures of them are priceless.  I hope that some kind of technology will let all these blogs be saved so that our grandchildren can read and enjoy them to help them know us all better.

These posts have chronicled joy and sorrows, silliness and excellent performances, work and play.  There are many trips contained herein--to Memphis, Manassas, Mississippi, Mexico, Minneapolis,  Aberdeen, Alaska, Arizona, Sydney, Sunapee, Great Falls, Ohio, California, Chicago, Texas and, of course, Utah and Idaho and points in between.

There are stories of lessons taught and lessons learned, of service rendered and service accepted, of baptisms and blessings, of sweet family home evenings, of ancestors who have lead the way for us.  We have enjoyed a variety of healthy hobbies--reading, cooking, sewing, crafting, couponing, basketball, football, hiking, kayaking, gardening, running, and ice cream.  The inauguration of the Scoresby Scamper is here.  Will anyone but Preston ever win?  There have also been numerous exhibitions of nerdiness.

We have enjoyed great quotes, clever odes and haikus, and entertaining stories about the past.

We have helped each other with Super Cute Sundays, haircuts, lists,  ideas for parenting and for health.  Remember the cutting of Afton's mullet? These pages are peopled with a motely crew:  Casie, Jodi, Tiger, Coco, Grandma, former seminary students, Candace, Aaron, old friends, new friends and our own special little characters.

I love our blog.  I hope it will continue to allow us to share the mundane and the exciting; the happy and the sad, the new and the old.  And most of all, I hope it will help us to stay close to each other and continue to know each other's hearts.  I love you all!

(Doing this made me ask this question?  Why don't we have a search function on this thing?  It took forever to find all those links.)

 

 Yep, it's that time of the year in Wisconsin.  Before we know it, the "Welcome Hunters" signs, all sponsored by beer companies, will be going up.

 

 Joanna, Ben and Russell came to visit.  Later that week, Sarah and Camille came to visit, too.  As always, I was very thankful to have them all come.  It's always great to be together.

 

While Sarah was here, both the turkeys and squirrels came to visit, too.  It seems that there are many more black squirrels this year.  It reminds me of this:

 

The Brain: Quiet Pinky, I'm getting ready for tomorrow night.
Pinky: Why? What are we going to do tomorrow night?
The Brain: [Irritated] Guess!
Pinky: Oh, try to take over the world, right.

My Uncle McKay passed away on Oct. 5, my dad's birthday.  He was the last of the brothers in my dad's family.  He was 97 and has been blind for several years, due to macular degeneration.  He was an extraordinary person who loved and served others.  He was immensely creative and talented.  He moved his family to Boulder, Colorado in the early 1950's, becoming a pioneer in the establishment of strong Church units there.

I was able to travel to his funeral with my mom and brother Forrest and his wife, Cathy.  Because I have not been feeling good at all, Ben was kind enough to drive me partway to Aberdeen, where my mom met us.  Forrest had work in Pierre, SD and in Rapid City, so we just tagged along and waited around, then traveled on to Colorado.  I had a great time--it's always so good to be with my family.  Poor Cathy had to endure hours of us reminiscing about our early lives in Springville and Greeley. And believe me, Forrest remembers all the details of everything!  My sisters Miriam and Emily met us there.  Here are some pictures of the trip:

One of the governors of SD

A president (I think it's George Washington)

After picking Emily up at the airport, we drove up to Greeley.  Here's Meeker Jr. High, where Forrest and I both attended school for one year.  It's an apartment building now.

The house we lived in in Greeley. It was much nicer then and seemed much larger, of course.

This is not a very good picture, but here are the mountains to the west of Boulder.  The rock faces are called the "Flatirons."

When we got back to Aberdeen, we enjoyed an evening of playing Boggle and Name that Tune.  I'm thankful to have been able to go.  I had a great time and appreciate more and more the wonderful family to which I belong.