*DISCLAIMER*

For those of you who received our Christmas newsletter. Mike says he sounds like a rotton sonofagun (sp?) when it talks about not expecting too much out of my blog. Those were my words, not his. Mike is always very nice and doesn't say rude things about my attempts! I take all of the credit for that.

Merry Christmas

Ready or not, Christmas came and it has been a nice, enjoyable day. Last Christmas I wrote notes to myself about how I was going to do things this year so it would be a more relaxed, less-stressful Christmas season. If anything, this year was even worse.

I began December by getting bronchitis and spending the month trying to drag myself around and keep up with the bare minimum. I missed the ward party, enrichment night and my niece Shelby’s wedding because of not feeling good.

I told myself to have our Christmas cards already to go out by Thanksgiving. Didn’t happen. I was lucky to get them in the mail by 4:00 yesterday (Christmas eve). Mike ended up writing the letter this year and I think he now has a new job

I made suitcases for all of my grandkids this year. (I made them for their mothers when they were little and we took a trip to Alaska and they have been wanting me to make them for quite awhile. I think Marisa wanted them for their trips back home from Idaho and that didn’t happen either.) Anyway, I was going to have them done a month ago. I finally finished those up at 11:00 p.m. on the 23rd.

Now that they have suitcases, we are going to have to take everyone on a little trip.

I try to make each grandchild a Christmas pillow case when they are old enough to start using a pillow. McCall’s got finished at 11:30 p.m. on the 23rd just as soon as I finished the suitcases.

Poem that goes with:

December the first starts a magical time,

With all sorts of colors, ribbons and rhyme...

Sugar plum fairies will dance in your head...

If you put this special pillocase on your bed,

The reason it's special, as you will soon see

Is that it's been dusted with Christmas fantasy!

Visions of candy canes, Santa and treasures

Will fill each dream with sweetness and pleasures.

When the time comes for it to be washed,

Do it quickly so no magic is lost.

I made a note to myself to not deliver neighbor’s gifts any later than the 2nd weekend. Ha ha, the neighbors were lucky to get gifts. In fact not all of them did. Some of them got store-bought candy and some finally did get a bowl of popcorn, but not until the 23rd or 24th. It was good popcorn though, (thanks to Angie Chappell for her recipe) or at least I hope it was by the time I forgot to put the vanilla in several batches. I have discovered that I am no longer so good at multi-tasking.

I had to recruit McKade and McKenna to wrap my presents because that was undone at the last minute. But you know what, it might not have been how I planned, but that worked out ok too.

I was very sad to not have Merridee and Ben with us for Christmas Eve. It is our very first year without our entire family. Merridee was going to have to work at Primary Children’s Hospital on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The best surprise I received all day was when Merridee called this morning at 7:00 and said they were on their way home. The hospital had called and she didn’t have to work.

Even though this didn’t turn to be the relaxed, stress-free Christmas season I was hoping for, today we have everything that matters, our family and our faith in Jesus Christ, so it has been a great day!

Red Letter Day for McKade

Today is a Red Letter Day for McKade. He got his Learner's Permit - YIKES! and he got his hair cut. I'm not sure which is more important to him. He was in the school play, Fiddler on the Roof and the director ask that they not cut their hair until the play was over. McKade HATES when his hair gets even remotely long. He thinks it gets in his eyes, tickles his ears and whistles when he rides the 4-wheeler. Of course, the importance of being able to legally drive goes without saying.

Happy 20th Birthday Miranda!!!

Our beatiful "baby girl" is now 20! How did that happen?

By the time a person turns 20 years old, they will and should have left an indelible impression on the people among them. Sometimes it's for good and sometimes it isn't. Parents delight in the child who distinguishes themselves as one of the "good kids". It's a heartache when they don't. I am happy to report that one of those kids that we know has just turned 20 and is still a good kid.

That's not to say that she is perfect, but all around she has been very self-reliant, studious, hard-working, determined, dependable, not a follower, judicious (most of the time--sliding on trays down concrete in the rain and dark was a serious lack of judgment), humorous and "cute".

We are very pleased with Miranda. She has secured our trust in her to make good and righteous decisions. She has come a long way from the pale, frail, white-haired little girl to what she is today. We believe that she has built a very secure foundation that will carry her through all of the difficulties that she might encounter in life. The one trait that needs to be worked on is PATIENCE, but that's a life-long endeavor where we can all do a little better. We love Miranda!!! She is one of our (5) favorite children. We hope she can always be prepared for opportunities when they arrive and seek our Heavenly Father's direction for every decision. (She won't be able to ask any of her earthly family as none of us have any opinions and Miranda isn't known for having opinions of her own. haha) HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIRANDA!!! WE LOVE YOU.

As you can tell, someone much better spoken than I wrote that, but it speaks for both your dad and I.

Actual birthday is tomorrow, the 19th. We posted early because we're headed to Idaho.

We hope you have a great day, Miranda!

Thankful Turkey

This turkey doesn't look all that fancy, but it sure brings back some good memories. Back in 1991 when we lived in California, we made these "Thankful Turkeys" for all of the women in the ward. I was the lucky one that got to cut the turkeys out of burlap. I even broke my favorite pair of scissors doing them. Each year we cut out new feathers and have everyone date the feather and write what they are thankful for that year.

It is so much fun to look back at the feathers through the years and see what everyone was thankful for and how our perspectives have changed. We have a lot of the typical things like the Gospel, family, friends, our country and our house. We have some not quite as traditional like the cats and dogs, books, bottles, McKade's place in-between mom and dad in bed. (That has been a few years ago and he probably had help with that one.)

Tonight for FHE we filled out our feathers again. Since we are down to just three of us left at home, we now have to be thankful for a lot more so we don't have a bald turkey. This year we stuck with pretty typical things other than Mike is so very grateful to have finally paid off his student loan and McKade is grateful that he doesn't have to go to school seven days a week. (Today was a hard, tiring day at school.)

We would also like to take this opportunity to say that we are very grateful for each of you, our family and friends!!!

Ghosts in the House???

Or is it just time for a new washer? My trouble started on Monday night when Merridee called and asked if I had noticed that she had put the sheets in the washer. I hadn't noticed because the long trek downstairs required more energy than I had when I got home. She said that she had just started the washer and left the lid up so they could soak all day and not get sour before I put them in the dryer. I promptly thought "I will just deal with that tomorrow." Our washer has been losing water out the bottom just about as fast as it can fill up so I knew that there probably wouldn't be a lot of water left in it. So that was my last thought about the sheets that night.

The next morning as I got out of the shower, I thought I could hear the washer running. Mike had left for work about 45 minutes earlier and McKade was still in bed sound asleep so with a little trepidation I went downstairs to see if I really did hear the washer running. Sure enough, as I got there it had just finished filling up with water. Boy that really got me going. Now who in the heck had started the washer? I knew Mike couldn't possibly have done it, but I called him at work to see just in case. I think he thought I had finally slipped over the edge when I asked if he had started the washer. I checked McKade and he was still asleep. My adrenaline was starting to go pretty good at this point.

I admit I had all kinds of weird thoughts going through my head. Could something have possibly happened to Merridee that I hadn't heard and she didn't want to leave this mortal earth without finishing the laundry? Could this possibly be Caroline, the ghost, that Merridee and Miranda like to talk about? But why in the heck would she care if my laundry was done? Could it possibly be that midget that McKade, Lainee and Mom all think they have seen in our house? No, there wasn't a chair pushed up to the washer.

After about 10 minutes of consternation and puzzlement over who on earth would have started my washer, it finally dawned on me! Probably every time my washer drained to a certain level, it started to refill. What a relief! (Until I get the water bill) A little help with the laundry on occasion would be nice, but I would just as soon do it all by myself as have the help of ghosts.

I know, I know, you are all wondering about my mental state at this point. I guess my only excuse is that Halloween is this week and I have weird, freaky things on my mind.

A Finished Project!!!

I am so exited. I actually finished one of my unfinished projects this weekend. This is one of my block of the month classes from the local quilt store. Now I just have to finish my winter, spring and summer ones plus numerous other unfinished projects. I couldn't wait to get this hung up and then just as soon as I did, I noticed a mistake and no, I wasn't doing it on purpose like the Amish do. So I guess I will have to do a little unpicking and resewing but I may just let it hang for awhile first.

The Pumpkin Patch

One of my favorite things is when the stores get in their big piles of pumpkins, so naturally one of my favorite activities is a trip to the Pumpkin Patch. The problem is that the last couple of years we keep getting fewer in number. Miranda's last several years of high school she didn't think it was too cool of an activity and then Michael and Marisa moved too far away to go. This year we were without Merridee and Ben, so that takes a lot of the fun out of it. I am hoping that next year we will start increasing in numbers again. Maybe one of these years Miranda will even decide that it is fun, but about the time that happens, McKade will probably decide that he doesn't want to go.

The Last Rose of Summer

This is what we woke up to this morning. SNOW!!! This poor one last rose was left to brave the weather. I love fall and I am just not ready for winter yet. I guess there will be less work now, because it definitely took care of the garden for this year. Here's one last look at the flowers for this summer.

Grandma's Birthday Celebration

Grandma is 87 Years Old Today and Bridger is 10 Months Old

Mom turned 87 years old today. The celebration today consisted of fixing one of her favorite dinners (mashed potatoes and chicken gravy) and Swiss chocolate cake. Our big celebration was last weekend when about 50 members of the family met in Heber City and rode the Heber Creeper up Provo Canyon. It was rainy and cold, but so much fun to get together and visit. The canyon was gorgeous and overall it was a great day.

Mom does amazingly well for 87 years old. She just got her driver's license renewed and still doesn't even have to wear glasses. I have had to wear glasses ever since I got my license.

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

I guess it is about time that I tried to learn how to do this blog. One of my New Year's resolutions was to become more technology-savvy. So far everything that has been done, one of my daughters did for me. Since I only have a month and a half before a new year, I guess I had better get learning.

I have had all kinds of excuses. First of all I needed to get everyone home so I could do a family picture. Then when we got everyone home to do pictures the wind was blowing about 90 miles an hour, so our pictures didn't look too great, but I finally just decided to go with what we had. I think the real problem is that after sitting at the computer all day long, the last thing I want to do when I get home at night is sit down to the computer again. Hopefully, this will become something so much fun that I can't wait to sit down and do another entry. ha ha

Spring Family Pictures