Christmas has always been a season of light. Lights on houses, Christmas tree lights, the light in a child's eye as they explore the wonder of the season, all make the season a special time. Sometimes when we look around us, the world seems a divisive place, with people constantly at odds, and Christmas seems hurried, and harried, and it's difficult for us to take the time to look for simple ways to make things better around us.
This season, my goal is to take a little time to think about that perspective....very simple ways to serve others and make things around me better. This #LighttheWorld initiative has been started by the LDS church, and has really made me think differently about how I'm going to approach the upcoming holiday.
This video is only a couple of minutes long and explains the reasoning behind #LighttheWorld. There are also short, like 30 second, videos for each day...sort of a "think of others" advent calendar, if you will. 25 Ways in 25 Days. You don't have to be LDS to participate or to get something out of it. I'm thinking it's going to make a big difference in my attitude this Christmas. Maybe it will help you and by extension, others this year.
Our quick trip to Ohio for Gwen's baptism happened over the course of 4 days....2 of which were mostly spent getting there and back. It's a hike, but soon they will be back here. We're pretty excited about that.
This is their church. For my kids and other local folks, it's a clone of the Kimberly Stake Center, with one exception.
This is over one of the entrance doors. Stained glass isn't something you see often in an LDS church, so it was a really interesting little addition.
And can we just talk about the red leaves??? That was one of the first things we noticed as we flew into the airport....clumps of bright red trees that still had their leaves.
Gwen and her parents.
The whole family.
Grandpa and Grandma and Gwen.
She asked Grandpa to perform the actual baptism, which is why he's wearing the white outfit. It was such a special day and we were so lucky to be a part of it.
We left Ohio on Monday, but not so early that we couldn't spend a little time with Elisa, Emmett and Caroline. This was Emmett watching the bus that let Caroline off after morning kindergarten. Exciting stuff. :) We went out to lunch at a little Korean place after this and then were on our way home.
But I had to catch a picture of this tree out their back door before we left. The red leaves....we just don't see this vivid shade of red in Idaho.
We celebrated my Canadian heritage last week by having a dish called Poutine. To be totally fair, the dish is French-Canadian, originating in Quebec, and none of my ancestors or relatives are in any way French-Canadian. Still, we're going to go with the fact that it's Canadian, and since I'm Canadian, or was until I gave up my citizenship so I could vote, I'm going to claim it. I went searching for Poutine recipes when I picked up some cheese curds at a small dairy shop during the sister days and found a good one here. Now, making French fries from scratch is not what I consider fast or easy, so I just used some frozen, seasoned fries and they worked just fine. I followed the gravy recipe and it was good.
Poutine
5-6 medium potatoes, cut into fries
oil for frying salt or seasoning salt, to taste 1-2 c. cheese curds 1 1/2 c. gravy (leftover beef gravy is best, but you can also use the recipe below) Gravy: 4 Tbsp. butter 2 c. beef broth 1/4 c. flour 1 tsp. onion powder salt and pepper to taste
Heat oil in deep fryer or large skillet to 360 degrees. Fry fries in batches (try not to overcrowd) of about 5 minutes each or until golden brown and crispy on the outside. Place on paper towels to drain excess oil. Season lightly with salt and place on large plate/platter. Sprinkle cheese curds evenly over fries and pour hot gravy over the top. Serve immediately.
For the gravy: Melt butter in medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour making a roux. Reduce heat and SLOWLY add beef broth, whisking constantly, until you reach your desired thickness. Add onion powder and salt and pepper, to taste. Serve hot.
We took off to fly back east to attend Gwen's baptism. Lots of points to whoever can tell me the city in this picture, which we connected through on our way to Ohio.
The baptism went well, and there will be more stories coming about it.
We had fun playing dragons with the kiddos.
I got this fun fall plate from Collin's family to commemorate my favorite time of year. Alison made the easel it's sitting on. Totally fun. Just like Elisa is brave tackling constructing things like cute baptism dresses out of a $3 wedding train purchased at a thrift store, Alison is brave about working with wood. She got herself a miter saw last week. Every time she talks about a wood project, my husband feels duty-bound to tell her to wear eye protection and keep her fingers out of the way.
Sent to me from the kids this week....After we left, Gwen got her ears pierced. It was a big deal, and Eric reported that she did really well, with only a few tears.
Alison sent me this picture of James all ready for church. He looked pretty spiffy.
Collin's office had a baby shower for their family, and these 2 stuffed animals showed up as gifts. James laid claim to them fairly quickly. Only a couple of weeks to the due date for the new little guy.
Rachelle sent me this picture of Levi and Isaac in matching outfits. I used to do this all the time with the boys, so it brought back good memories.
Bryce made it home. He flew into our small local airport and didn't have any problems despite the fact that the flight was overbooked. *eyeroll* It's good to have him home, but he'll be headed back to school tomorrow.
So how was your Thanksgiving? Ours was great. I put some cinnamon rolls together the night before and baked them off in the morning after letting them rise all night in the fridge.
Since there were no ducks down on the pond, the guys were home earlier than usual to help wrestle the nearly 22 pound turkey in the oven and were pretty motivated when they saw the cinnamon rolls.
Even though I have a lot of the prep work done before the day, it's still a group effort to finish things off. My husband is really good at peeling. He peeled (and put together) the yams--he's very picky about his yams and doesn't let anyone else mess with them, helped peel the potatoes and peeled all the apples for the Caramel Apple Pie. We were able to use apples off our tree this year.
Bryce did the topping for the pie.
We stuck another leaf in the table and got it set early in the morning, just to get that out of the way.
It was a fairly small group this year....Evan's family, my mother and Bryce. We eat in the early afternoon, after which most of the adults take some kind of a nap, then we gather for pie later in the day.
We had our traditional pumpkin, the caramel apple, and Evan's family brought over a chocolate pecan rustic tart. My mother also made some chocolate chip cookies, which went over really well with the kids. Some of my other kids who weren't here checked in from their various locations.
It was all just a little much for Roger, who fell asleep while we were watching one of the "Star Wars" movies. He ended up using Bryce's foot as a pillow.
And for Quincy, who fell asleep on my husband's lap. What was the best part of your day?
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. I am grateful for those of you who take the time to stop in and read my ramblings. I hope you have those you love close to you and that you get a piece of your favorite pie. :)
Maybe you're wondering how I've been doing with this, considering I haven't posted any pages lately. Maybe you don't card, lol. The answer is that I fell behind by several weeks during the time my family was here in October. That said, it only took a short period of time to get back into the routine and as of this posting, I am current...happiness and joy. I will also tell you that I have been traveling this weekend out to Eric's house for Gwen's baptism, and we are on our way home. It's a hike. So for your perusing pleasure, here are the pages I've done lately. There are still a couple of stories to tell in expanded form here, but most of the pictures will look familiar.
It's my DIL, Rachelle's, birthday today. Happy birthday, hon!!
Somehow I got a bee in my bonnet to organize my fabric cupboard. Making the house quilt blocks, I've had a difficult time going through my fabric the way that it was previously stored. But yay, it's a lot easier now....I hope.
So yes, my husband and I celebrated our anniversary. Marc's comment was, "Wow, 37 years....you guys are old." Thanks, hon. Eric's comment was, "37 is a great number! The first irregular prime. It's also a palindromic prime, which is cool. It's also a hexagonal number. Speaking of old, 37 happens to be the atomic number of Rubidium, an isotope of which is used to find out how many billions of years old certain rocks are." I don't even know what that means. He speaks a different language.
The house is ready for Thanksgiving.
I don't have ton of decorations specific to the holiday,
But without slave boys in residence, it's really hard to motivate my husband to get the bins down from the loft.
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I've been trying to get a few Christmas cards done. Texture paste with glitter added. I'm hoping the vellum will flatten out a little bit. It got really wavy when I embossed the sentiment.
More texture paste and embossing.
I seem to be on a Kraft-colored card stock mixed with white kick lately. This is a lift of a card I saw on Pinterest and the link took me here.
Evan's family was over for breakfast last Saturday, after the boys got home from duck hunting at the ponds. Baby Q was showing off his roly-poly self.
I got this video of Jame saying his ABC's from my DIL, Alison.
Isaac is transitioning to a big boy bed. Rachelle says he kept saying, "I like this bed."
Isaac and Levi playing together. Rachelle said this was a very happy moment for her, until Isaac decided to hog all the block for himself, lol.
I even got a picture from Bryce this week. They got a skiff of snow where he's living. He'll be home for the Thanksgiving holiday next Tuesday, which is pretty exciting.
And lastly this week, I will include this video, which isn't really a video at all. It's a lovely view of my church's ceiling. That said, I sang with a group of 5 other gals in a church Thanksgiving program last Sunday. We really like the song we did and wanted to record it so our family members who live far away could hear us. The song is called "I Shall Not Want," and I am singing 2nd soprano, which is the middle part, although my part occasionally crosses over the first sopranos. This is mostly for my kids, but if you want a listen, you certainly may.
Happy birthday, Margaret! That's her in the middle there. We've come a long way since I bit her when I was like 7, when she tried to steal my Daisy's corn snacks. (And I'm really dating myself here, lol.) Love you!
As is our habit when we're at the cabin, we walk. Walking accomplishes several things. It expends toddler energy, and gets all of us a little exercise.
The little boys have little legs right now, so part of their walk took place in the wheelbarrow.
Which they love.
We wandered while the kids rode.
Over this bridge which has appeared in pictures before. The wheelbarrow doesn't come across the bridge.
A new favorite view for me taken from that bridge.
We have discovered a little sandbar next to the river on a newer section of the property. It's an awesome rock-throwing place for the little boys. We found that someone had been there before us that day. This is a moose track in the sand. Not to be confused with the ice cream.
See those white sticks there? Beavers have eaten the bark off them and left the rest. The things I learn from my outdoorsy husband....
This is pretty much what happens when we are near water of any kind at the cabin.
That and many times, this. Grandpa feeding Isaac a piece of chocolate. He and James managed to eat a whole candy bar in a matter of minutes. Grandpa is not above using chocolate as a vehicle to ensure Favorite Person status.
As you might expect when little boys, rocks and water get together, there was some sogginess involved.
A couple of artsy pictures...
Collin took this one of some settled-in clouds and then put a filter over it, I think. Other people's cameras....
Levi was riding in style with his mama.
And Ollie enjoyed several rousing rounds of Fetch It Up.
We saw this tree on the way back. It's dead because of
It's no secret that we are a hunting family, and this time of year is the prime time for that activity.
Usually it entails getting up before the sun even thinks about making an appearance. I stole some pictures off my son, Collin's, camera to share some of their views as they chased critters last month. Don't worry...no dead things will show up.
There were some rainy, misty mornings during their jaunts. The sun is just starting to rise.
As well as up at the cabin, which made for some settled-in clouds hanging around.
The little boys aren't old enough to go yet, but after the men got home, they found plenty of manly activities to occupy their time. Beating logs into submission was one.
Climbing ladders to adjust the solar panel was another. James is a climber and was up this ladder almost before any of us could blink.
One thing I saw that was interesting was the new growth that had started up with all the rain. Those are all new sprouts. They won't last long, because winter is on the way, but I was a little surprised by this.
Here we are adjusting the tilt of the panel to the winter position. James is wanting to climb the ladder again. Isaac just wants to orchestrate.
And here's Isaac walking with us. He has several rocks clutched in his hands, and his little hop, skip, jump gait here just made me smile.
