Grandma Hanna

There was sort of a recurring theme

this year for Christmas.

That theme was Grandma Hanna.

Mom sent me a wonderful surprise.

Yes, it's upside down, but it hangs on
a pin, so when you look down,
you can tell the time!

This was Grandma's watch

some 40 years ago.

It came with it's own story!

Dear Collette:

This little watch has an interesting history.  It

belonged to Grandma Hanna in the 1970's.

Later in the '90's she decided it was a neat item

 and she'd like to wear it again, so she took it to a 

jeweler in Butte for a new battery.

He very kindly suggested 

"Let's just wind it up!"

Hope you enjoy having it.

Love,

Mom

Isn't that a great story?

Unfortunately, simply winding doesn't

seem to do the trick anymore,

so I'll be taking it to a watch repair

to see if they can get it working again.

I'd LOVE to wear it when I teach!

Meanwhile,

I wanted to send something special

to Mom and each of my sisters.

I was looking in my cabinet and

spied just the thing!

Some of Grandma's recipe cards!

In her handwriting.

And obviously well loved.

I went through and found 4 that

were written on matching little cards.

(Not that it mattered, since I

was sending them to 4 different houses)

Then I found 4 little black frames

and some dark grey paper to

mount them on.

I think they turned out cute!

(Rod scanned them for me,

so some day I might make

a complete set for MY kitchen!)

On top of being a fun gift,

they cleared up a mystery!

Mom KNEW she had Grandma's recipe box.

She had looked EVERYWHERE!

Who had snagged it?

I've got it!

I've even featured it in a couple of blog posts.

I LOVE it!

(But I didn't snag it, Mom gave it to 

me when we were both packing to leave Tucson.)

A year or so ago I took out 

Grandma's recipe cards

and now it is chock full of the recipes

that I use for my family.

It sits in a place of honor on my

kitchen counter.

I use it daily.

I think Grandma would approve.

LOVE YOU GRANDMA!

MKMESMYL

Saturday morning I was driving up the interstate

to run all my weekly errands.

There was an out of state car in front of me.

His license plate read:

MKMESMYL

Took a minute to figure out it

said "Make Me Smile"

And of course, it made me smile.

LOL

I've thought about it a bunch today.

There are LOTS of little things

that make me smile on a daily basis.

Like just now, I was posting

medical payments.

A man just paid a $34.65 bill

using check #3465.

Couldn't do THAT twice!

(although I do see it once in awhile.)

(I post an average of 600 checks each day

so stuff sometimes happens...)

And then I opened another envelope

and a bunch of Christmas glitter

fell out!

Not enough to make a mess.

Just enough to make me smile.

SMILE today!

We are all supposed to start exercising

for the New Year.

They say smiling uses a bunch of muscles.

So there you go!

Boxing Day

Happy Boxing Day to all my

Canadian family!

Boxing Day.

The day you box up all the extra stuff,

left overs,

etc

and share it with those less fortunate.

(ie: the kitchen / wait staff back in the day)

Boxing Day.

The day you show up at work

and do all the junk you stuffed in a box

for that one day when you didn't have

anything else to do.

LOL

We had a nice Christmas.

Christmas Eve was the traditional

"Santa on the Fire Truck"

with the traditional horrible pictures.

I think Kyle got a nice couple with his fancy

new camera, but I don't have them...

That's Rod and Kyle.

Maybe.

Or Jim and Sabrina.

Maybe.

It's not me.

This is our tree BEFORE the gift opening.

It was actually pretty nice and low key.

Jim and Sabrina showed up around 10:30(ish)

we opened presents and enjoyed a yummy

scrambled egg/omelet thing Jim made.

(And some bacon Rod baked.)

I did not participate in the cooking.

I was ensconced on the couch

with my feet happily stuffed in our new

Shiatsu massager thingie.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh.

(Thanks Mom & Dad!)

If you are ever looking for me in the future,

Look there first.

Made two big bowls of Pop Pop's famous

fruit salad (with his approved ingredients)

and two big pans of family approved

dinner rolls (Rhodes dough).

(That's not cheating, right?)

Headed to Scott and Janis' for dinner/lunch

at 2:30.  Enjoyed a yummy meal with

lots of good company, laughter and conversation.

The kids entertained us with a rousing game (or 15)

of digital/phone charades.

It got a little crazy, but they had fun.

Jim, Sabrina, Rod and I left about 5 so we could

feed the animals and they could go let their dog out.

Kyle stayed and played with the cousins until later.

Relaxing evening watching the last of this year's

cheesy Christmas movies on Hallmark channel

and eating leftover fruit salad with

cheese, salami and crackers.

YUM!

Rod is "celebrating" Boxing Day by donating

plasma first thing and then climbing up on the

patio roof and peeling everything back so he

and Kyle can replace the roof.

(Who invented the FLAT roof in Florida???

Stupid idea!)

I hope you all enjoyed YOUR holiday!



Small Town Christmas

This past weekend I got to substitute in a little

town called Miami Lakes.

It's a tiny suburb of Miami

really exclusive

really fancy

and totally all in for Christmas.

They don't like traffic in their little town.

If you look at their map

it looks like one of those little pencil mazes

they draw in the back of kid's magazines.

Thank goodness for GPS!

(But I was still lost most of the time...)

When I FINALLY found my hotel on

Saturday evening, I headed back down

and wandered along Main Street

and enjoyed the Christmas Spirit

for a little while.

It was all decorated nicely,

there was an elementary school

choir singing on the corner.

Lots of people walking up and down the

sidewalks and streets.



It was fun to spend an evening in a small

town enjoying the atmosphere.

(My small town has a beautiful tree all lit

up in front of the fire station and the town

hall is all lit up, but we don't

have a "downtown"... it's a farming

community.)

Hope you are enjoying the build up

to Christmas!

Mom's Spiced Punch

I was at the health food store the other day.

I love to drink decaf Chai tea.

I mix it with chinese Oolong tea,

almond milk, apple pie spice

and a dash of cayenne.

YUM!

But a NEW box of tea caught my eye.

The "red" part is Rooibos, which is a

naturally caffeine free tea with all

sorts of wonderful properties.

Rooibos is thought to assist with nervous tension,

allergies and digestive problems.

Two flavonoids found in rooibos, quercetin and luteolin,

have been known to have cancer fighting qualities.

Traditional medicinal uses of rooibos in South Africa include

alleviating infantile colic, allergies, asthma and dermatological problems.

~Wikipedia

I bought some.

And it sat on my shelf at work for a couple of weeks.

This morning a co-worker wanted to borrow some

Chai since she forgot hers at home.

I offered her some of my regular or said she

could be the guinea pig and try this new stuff.

We brewed up a cup.

Oh my goodness!!!!

We BOTH said

"Mom's Christmas Spiced Punch!!!"

(We are from the same generation)

HER Mom used to keep a pot of it

simmering on the back of HER stove

for when friends stopped by over the

Christmas break too!

(I didn't ask if she ever exploded a glass

coffee decanter thing on the stove though...)

So if you want a quick trip down memory lane

(that tastes REALLY GOOD)

brew up a cup!

Merry Sipping!

Bacon Makes Everything Better!

Today both Rod and I have our annual

office Christmas potluck lunches.

I signed up to cook a turkey.

Don't be impressed,

it's easy

and cheap.

Rod somehow got assigned

bacon wrapped asparagus!

He did these himself.

Quite the culinary masterpiece!

(of course, this was BEFORE baking...)

Looks yummy darling!

When are you making some for US???



Twig

In our church

there are Stakes

and there are Wards

and there are Branches

But did you know...

there are also TWIGS!

That just makes me giggle.

We have a twig.

(If you want to get all technical,

I think we only qualify as a leaf,

but twig sounds cuter...)

This weekend I got to go with Rod.

He is "the" home teacher for most of

the families that live in a little

retirement community to the south of us.

Because many of them are retired

and many of them are single women

it can be a struggle to get into town

on Sunday for church.

We got approval from the Stake to

start a mini branch (twig) down there

once a month.

It is slowly growing.

This weekend we had 17 people

(not counting the presiding Bishopric reps and

the set of Elders who administered the sacrament.)

Pretty good turnout!

It helps that we only have Sacrament Meeting

and Sunday School.

Following by PIE!

(A big drawing card for the 65+ crowd...)

It's really nice to worship in a tiny group like that.

Almost nobody falls asleep (ahem, ALMOST)

and nobody is playing on their tablets.

Less formal.

More interactive.

VERY Spiritual.

The music is "canned" which means you

are stuck with the tempo SLC assigned.

And it turns out the 65+ crowd sings slowly.

But it all works out.

Being December, and all, the hymns were all

Christmas Carols.  The sister on the front row

has a beautiful, clear, sweet soprano voice.

Reminded me of Mom's voice.

Except that she was 3.5 notes off the ENTIRE song.

We call that "strong and wrong". 

But still beautiful.

She's a convert.

Gave the first talk.

About keeping Christ in Christmas.

With a large section devoted to an admonition to

NOT drink and drive this Christmas season.

LOL

It was well intended, and ended with a suggestion to

make that a subject of prayer this week.

(Helping OTHERS to not drink and drive)

Good save.

After Twig we stopped by briefly and visited Rod's

"families" and brought a plate of brownies.

Ending at our friend's (snowbirds) who just arrived

from Utah.  Enjoyed a lovely bowl of soup

and a walk around their little lake.

All in all, a really nice Sabbath!

Hope you all enjoyed yours!

Friday...

Sometimes I just name my blog post something.

And then I forget to change it.

I often have no idea what I'm going to write

about until I start writing.

And then the title just sort of presents itself.

But I need SOMETHING up there...

We'll see what happens today.

Random stuff:

Kyle has a new camera.

HOLY TOLEDO!

That thing takes amazing pictures.

I think he cheated and took a picture of a moldy

cantelope and made it black and white.

Who knew the moon had a navel???

He went out last night with his new camera

and tri-pod and took a bunch of pictures.

This was the best one.

He's always wanted a camera that would

take awesome pictures, mostly of the sky.

He loves sunsets (as we all know) but

gets so frustrated that the camera changes the colors.

This one seems to be truer to color.

We'll see.

Since he got it, we've had some boring skies.

Speaking of skies.

The Orion rocket went off this morning.

The sky was FULL of clouds and it was

raining in the north end of the county.

I was pretty sure it wasn't going to go.

I didn't even pay attention.

Not that I could have seen anything

but clouds...

But I guess the sky was clear over the Cape!

Congrats to the Orion team!!!

And if you don't follow me on Facebook,

I stole this picture from an old Calgary friend.

This is a GREAT nativity!

Love the creativity.

And Batman is the BEST ANGEL!



Slug

It's December.

NO WAY!!!!!

Yup.

It's December.

It comes every year.

Right after Thanksgiving.

And this year I've had 2 weekends off

In a ROW!

(With one more coming...)

And what do I have to show for it?

NOT A THING!

My house hasn't got a single Christmas decoration.

Not a single one!

Although there IS some extra rabbit in the freezer.

There is NO extra chicken/rooster.

And I didn't ride my horse.

And I didn't walk in the woods.

I HAVE worked out for 3 days in a row.

So there's that...

I guess I'd best get BUSY!!!

Hopefully on Monday I'll have lovely pictures

for you of our gorgeous tree.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

(I have pictures from last year, if all else fails...)

Hope you are doing better than we are!

SEND FAIRY DUST!

Oh, and I spoke in church last Sunday.

That was my excuse for not doing anything on Saturday.

I was "writing" my talk.

In my head.

(I didn't write anything down...)

(I spoke on Charity/Pure Love of Christ)

(Mom's story was a HIT!)

And then I couldn't do anything on Sunday.

Cuz I was recovering from speaking in church.

And Rod misplaced some decals he made for a client.

So he cleaned the entire office.

It looks AWESOME!

And once it was clean,

he remembered they were in the Trooper.

So, a double WIN!

(Yup, I'm riding HIS coat tails... HE was VERY productive...)