This and That but Mainly the Holidays

First off, our nephew Jacob got engaged yesterday. Congratulations Jacob and Susan! We are excited for you and hope you will be very happy.

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OK...had a great dream the other night. Eric kept coming into a room where I was and I noticed that each time he came, even though it was only minutes apart, he had on different clothes and looked different. I tried to question Eric about it, but he just kept giving me his famous mysterious Eric smile and didn't say a word.

I was trying to figure out what was going on and then 2 Eric's came in at the same time and then a short time later a younger Eric came in. It dawned on me that he had invented a time machine! The thing that made the dream so great was the level of happiness I felt because I knew the level of happiness that Eric must be feeling...I was just so happy for him. And I really felt that happiness. It was great.

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Now on to the holidays and some pictures:

One project that I had Hannah take charge of was making snowmen out of nutterbutter cookies by dipping them in melted chocolate. For those of you who watched the "Psych" Christmas special, that's our Gus in the middle.









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 My parents stayed with us for a few nights while they on their way to spend Christmas with my sister. While they were here we had the annual "pajama party" with my in-laws. It included dinner and the kids opening the pjs and clothes that my in-laws got for the kids.

Eric, Alex, Hannah, and Ryan in their new sleepwear (and daywear since they...especially Alex...seem to think it's great to stay in your pjs all day).











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On Dec 21st there was a lunar eclipse. We thought it would be too cloudy to see, but the clouds cleared up. Everyone went to bed but Eric, who watched the whole thing and took this picture (along with others). I believe Glen climbed out of bed once to go look and I did the same a little later...about 1:30 and saw with my own eyes the wonder of it all. Fun stuff.






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Every year (for at least the past 20) the family goes Christmas caroling. This year we went on December 22nd...and our success rate of finding our neighbors in was not too high. But, the college kids were with us and we had a great time...and it wasn't even too cold.

This is Ben, Jacob, Maddie, Eric, Alex, Ryan, Kathy, and Alicia in mid-song.

It's kind of like reverse trick-or-treating...we play a "trick" on them by singing (this year one little boy even covered his ears while we were singing "Silent Night"), but then we leave a plate full of goodies for them to make up for the fact that they had to listen to us. I think we have actually improved over the years and occasionally sounded quite good. It's hot chocolate and doughnuts afterwards at Grandma and Grandpa's.

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On Christmas Eve we worked on our gingerbread houses. Hannah's (on the far left) had a great pretzel fence that doesn't show up so well in this photo since it was one of the first things to get eaten. Next is my barn...I made a silo but had so much trouble getting it to stay up that I gave up on it. I made great hay bale stacks using frosted mini-wheats that don't really show up here. Then comes Ryan's house. He's always a minimalist... as is Eric. Notice the little stack of wood made of pretzels to the left of Eric's house. Alex's has a nice fruity pebbles roof. Good time had by all.
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Christmas Morning:
The kids are hunting for the hidden pickle ornament that Eric made in school many years ago. Whoever finds the pickle chooses the first present under the tree to open and starts the gift opening process. Ryan found the pickle this year...even though in this picture Eric (in green) is probably just inches away from where it was hidden. It took them about 10 minutes of hunting to find it this year as the tree was really thick and hid it well.

 Hannah is wearing the Santa hat...meaning it was her turn to open a gift. Once the gift is open, the person wearing the Santa hat picks a present out from under a tree for another person, gives them the present and the hat and it's his/her turn to open a gift. We do that until all the gifts are opened. To the left, Ryan is showing his complete Calvin and Hobbes comic collection.

 Alex is opening his gift while Eric is looking at a book of poems he received (it looks like Marvin the Martian is also reading Eric's book, doesn't it?).

Ryan is showing off a new DS game.














Later in the day we got to talk to Andrew. He is doing great and we look forward to next Christmas when he will be with us again.

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I'm a "Charlie's Angel"

For Christmas I opened a gift from my parents and it was a beautiful necklace. Later when I was talking to my mom she explained that my Dad (Charlie) had bought the gift for me...and one for my sister and one for my mom. So the three of us are Charlie's Angels. Now to figure out who is Kate Jackson, who is Farrah Fawcett, who is Jaclyn Smith or Cheryl Ladd or even Shelly Hack or Tanya Roberts...

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LIEBRARY--it's a game Eric got several years ago for Christmas and we played it several times. It is such a riot, that I decided to post about it. It probably deserves it's own post, but here it goes. You take turns being the librarian. A die is rolled to choose the category (fiction/nonfiction or mystery/horror/suspense or romance or children's or classic) and then the librarian reads the plot of the book. Everyone then tries to write down a plausible first line for the book. The real first line in on the card the librarian has and he/she writes down the real first line. After everyone is down, the librarian reads all the made up lines and the real one and the players vote on which one they think is the right first line. You get one point if someone guesses the sentence you made up, two points if you guess the correct first line, and three points if you are the librarian and nobody guessed the correct answer. Next time we play I will have to post some of our sentences.

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Glen and I went for a walk on New Year's Day. We didn't have a white Christmas this year like we did last year, but it started snowing on January 1st. I love walking in the quiet of gently falling snow. By the afternoon the sun had come out and much of the snow had melted. Gorgeous.
















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How my new pressure cooker saved our luck for the New Year.

We burn a bayberry candle all the way out on Christmas Eve (it's lit at sunset at 4:36) because it's a tradition in my family. It's supposed to bring luck in the New Year.

We also eat ham and black-eyed peas on New Year's Day with a dime placed under our plates for good luck. Now, do I really believe I'll have a bad year if I don't do these things? No. But I have to do these things because it's tradition...

So, on Christmas Eve, we burned the candle without a hitch.

On New Year's day, I went to get one of the 2 cans of black-eyed peas I would have sworn were in my pantry and couldn't find any. (Is it possible Hannah hid them because she hates black-eyed peas??? Maybe she'll like them now more that I've informed her another name for black-eyed peas is cow peas? Doubt it, even though she loves cows.) "Luckily" I remembered my big gift for Christmas this year was an 8 quart pressure cooker. Black-eyed peas don't even need soaking and only 11 minutes under pressure. Even though the jar the peas were vacuum sealed in was labeled "older than 1998" (and therefore at least 13 years old), the beans cooked up just fine and my luck for the New Year is not endangered. Phew. Disaster averted.


Happy New Year everyone!