Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving dinner at Glenn and Theresa's this year. Theresa is such a gracious hostess, always pulling off a wonderful meal and making everyone feel welcome and certainly well fed. So much yummy food and she does it all with a smile.

We had a great day of visiting with Mom and Dad, Walt and his friend Deb and Robin (Theresa's sister) and her family. We all have spent many Thanksgivings together, so the crowd is relaxed and easy. There was plenty of football to watch and lives to catch up on as we were scattered around visiting. We missed Bess but were able to Skype with her Daniel for a bit so everyone could say hi. Denmark does not celebrate Thanksgiving, and I think this year was a tough one for all of us being our first apart.

Three of my lovely nieces. So pretty. Love you girls. :-)

I think this was the only picture of Gabe. I asked him for one and this is the best we could manage. Sure hope this no-photo phase passes soon.

So much love and friendship around this table. Thank you Theresa and Glenn for once again hosting our family Thanksgiving. You are the best.

Resurrection Garden

Last year I had wanted to make a Resurrection Garden. This is a miniature garden with a tomb and any other items you want that represent the events of Holy week. A remembrance garden as it were. Time often gets away from me and we never got it done. This year we all worked together and made a nice garden.

Gabe fashioned the tomb for us out of clay. He put a shelf in the tomb where the body would lay and made a big rock that would seal the tomb.



Rachel, Hannah and Dan helped fill the pot with soil.  Brian made the cross from two spikes and some wire.  We gathered some brambles to make a crown of thorns.  We all took a walk down to the brook to gather rocks and managed to get in some rock skipping while we were there.  We found moss in our woods to fill in around the plants. We added a little plastic container for a pond.

I love how it came out.  

This has been a fun and meaningful project.  We will most likely change some elements throughout the week as each day passes and the we read of the events leading up to Resurrection Sunday.

New Year's Day Walk

The weather the last few days has been quite warm. After a very lazy morning, Brian and I decided to take a walk.

We pass the same river several times as we walk along our road and each bend has it's own character. Even though it has been warm, there is still a lot of snow and most of the river is frozen.

I love the sound and sights of the water. It swirls under, over and around the ice, making interesting patterns.


We took a detour over to the falls as it is always lovely. Most of it was still frozen over, but there was a nice splash of water at the bottom.

We appreciate the opportunity to get out, just the two of us, to walk and talk without the bustle of the children. It was a splendid walk.

New Year's Eve

This year we decided to try and let the younger guys stay up until midnight. My online friend Michele has this great tradition of revealing a new activity each hour as her family celebrates New Year's Eve. We decided to give this a try.

We set up nine bags with clocks on them and set them in front of the Christmas tree. We started at 4pm and went until midnight.

The kids were very excited by the idea of this added to the fact that we were going to let them stay up so late.

Bag #1 was a new Wii game. This was a lot of fun and got everyone up and moving to start the night.

Bag #2 was make your own pizzas. We used canned biscuit dough, sauce and many toppings. We had cake for dessert.

The pizzas were a big hit and everyone enjoyed picking out their own toppings.

Bag #3 was a new movie. We watched for the hour and then stopped to open the next bag. Part way through, Bess went to a friends to spend some time there. It is hard to realize that she will not always be with us for family times any more.

Bag #4 was a scavenger hunt. We split the kids into teams and gave them copies of the list. We made the items small enough to fit in a bag and I knew that there were at least two of each item on the first floor of the house. What a mad dash. It was fun to watch them search for things.

Gabe and Dan were the winners but everyone got some chocolate for their effort.

Bag #5 was decorating party hats. We had pom-poms, feathers, glitter glue, and stickers. What a wild assortment of creations. The girls were careful and wanted to make their hats pretty. The boys went wild and came up with the craziest hats.

Ready to ring in the new year.

Bag #6 was going sledding. The kids really loved this one as they do not usually go sledding after dark. Brian set up his work light to shine on the hill and away we went. Brian and I even got a few runs down the hill.

We followed up with hot cocoa and cookies.

Shortly after the sledding, Bess came back home. She wanted to finish out the evening with us. I was pleased.

Bag #7 was new containers of Play Doh. This helped calm things down a bit after the sledding. Everyone got into their pjs and we had a nice relaxing time of making dough creation.

Bag #8 was a game called Guesstures. This is a great Charade type game. I must admit that by now Hannah and Dan especially were getting quite tired and the game probably would have been better earlier, but the kids did great and we had fun.

We opened the last bag about 15 minutes before midnight. The bag contained noise makers, Champagne glasses with paper umbrellas and silly glasses. We opened our sparkling grape juice, put on our hats and watched the clock.

After a countdown, we blew our horns loudly and raised a toast to the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011.

I think this will become a new tradition for us as everyone enjoyed the hourly activities. It kept the evening fresh and interesting and helped the younger guys stay awake.

I hope you all have a terrific 2011.

Labor Day

We had a quiet Labor Day at home. Perhaps we could call it a puttering day, not so much labor. A little of this, a bit of that and overall a pleasant day.

Bess has been redecorating her room. We brought up a desk for her so she didn't have to do all her schoolwork on her bed. Brian built her a shelf and put that up and a few rows of pegs. Bess did some fun stenciling on her walls. She is quite happy with how it is all coming together.

Brian spent time on and off working on his big boat. He and Gabe worked on the wiring and got all systems up and running. Dan blows the horn. :-)

Maybe next summer she will be ready to bring out on the river. This is a cabin cruiser and in theory we could sleep on it. Time will tell whether this will happen or not. I have to admit to being a bit nervous of the idea.

The younger guys enjoyed playing in the new sandbox. It is quite a bit bigger than our old one and has fresh new sand.

It was a bit cool for swimming, so we ended the day with a campfire. Nothing is more soothing or peaceful than a fire.

Labor Day, for our family, marks the end of summer. We will have nice days and still do some summer like activities, but the fall schedule will be begin this week and our leisurely summer days will end. I am a bit sad. Hopefully we will have a nice long fall.

Easter Morning

We had a very full Easter morning. We headed up to the church for the breakfast at 7:30. What a terrific breakfast we had and sweet fellowship with our church family.

There was a time of praise and worship between the breakfast and the regular morning service. I enjoy singing with the praise and worship team.

Pastor gave a terrific message. I love our church family.

The annual Easter family photo session was a bit more comfortable this year than last. I can remember last year the weather being cold and windy. This year, it was warm and balmy.

Here is the best of the shots.

And of course we have to have a goofy one.

Christmas Card Photos

Today after lunch, we had the children put on somewhat matching outfits and we took a ton of pictures for our Christmas card photo. The children really did great. The only time they complained was during the tree pictures. The little girls were somewhat nervous of sitting in the tree. This struck me funny as they climb the trees all the time.

The following pictures are ones that did not make the cut. I won't show the winner until after the cards gets sent out.

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving would be a bit different than most years. We stayed home. Usually we either spend the day at Mom and Dad's or at Glenn and Theresa's. We do not have a lot of room for a large sit down dinner, so this works out well. This year, Mom and Dad were traveling to Ohio to attend Chris and Cayla's wedding on Saturday and Glenn and Theresa were spending the day with her family.

I was all for having lasagna or something non-traditional like that, but after weeks on the road and restaurant food, Brian wanted a nice home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner. Brian, Bess and I had a great time cooking and baking. The chores were shared which made the work light and the company was great. Preparation went along smoothly.

Walt joined us shortly before dinner.

The table all set and ready for the feast. You can see our Thankful Tree on the wall. This has become a favorite Thanksgiving tradition.

Everyone ready to dig in. The food was all so yummy. We had all the favorites, turkey, stuffing, mashed potato, gravy, sweet potato, squash, turnip, fresh baked rolls, pickles and olives. And for dessert, pumpkin and apple pie.

After dinner we took a walk to the show Walt the falls and to burn off a bit of our dinner before dessert. The sun was setting and by the time we got back home, it was almost dark.

We had a very nice relaxing day. We are so very thankful for the many blessings in our life.

Hanging Around

I never mentioned in the last post what Brian's Father's Day gift was. Well, here it is, a hammock. We have several trees that seemed just to beg for a hammock to hang under them. Brian set it up today and pronounced it a wonderful gift.

Of course, around here, you are almost assuredly going to have company from one or more of the children before long. Don't they look so peaceful? I might have to sneak a few moments lounging myself.

Father's Day

We had a very nice Father's Day. After church and lunch, we headed out to buy Brian his Father's Day gift. I know, we should have done this before, but life often gets away from me and I actually like having Brian's input into his gift. We knew what we wanted to get, but we let him choose the particulars.

We stopped for ice cream cones on the way home and ate them at a local town dock. There were quite a few boats tied up on Sunday and we enjoyed looking at the boats and chatting with the owners. Boating people, like camping people are usually very friendly and love to chat about their boats and travels.

One couple was from South Carolina. He is a retired minister and very funny. We visited for quite a while with them and then he took out his accordion. The children were so fascinated by this strange instrument. He played some polkas, Jesus Loves Me and even the Barney theme. He seemed to be able to play anything he had heard.

We made our departure as all the couples gathered for an impromptu "cocktail hour". What an interesting life it must be to have no schedules and be able to enjoy so much time meandering along the many waterways. Maybe one of these days.