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!

Our Christmas Letter

The following is what was sent out with our Christmas cards this year that has been updated for accuracy. In a day or two I will take the time to post pictures of our Christmas activities.

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This is the photo I sent out this year. As you can guess, Hannah wasn't totally happy with the choice...but why make faces when someone is taking a picture of you and then be surprised that others get to see the photo? I love the photo (other than the fact that I'm not wearing make-up...so I'm not really picking on Hannah since I don't look my best either...)







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Dear Family and Friends,

Let’s jump right in with the highlights of 2010 for our family.

ANDREW turned 20 in April and has been really enjoying his service as a missionary for our church. He is currently serving in Ames, IA in an Iowa State University Young Single Adult student ward. Since everyone is currently gone due to the Christmas break, he says it's really "dead" there right now...not much to keep the missionaries busy. He has just over 6 months left of his 2 year mission. Boy, has time flown. He should be home about July 1st. Later in the summer we will drive out to see his mission area and some Church historical sites like Nauvoo.

ERIC just turned 19 last month and we are currently working on submitting the paperwork for him to serve a mission.  We are told, however,  that due to his Asperger’s Syndrome, he will be honorably released from serving a proselyting  mission.  We are hoping that he will be able to later go on a church service mission instead.  If that occurs, we will share more about it in next year’s letter. Eric earned his Eagle in Boy Scouts last February…but he is waiting for his brother to do the same so they can share the Eagle Court of Honor ceremony. This spring Eric directed the comedy Cash on Delivery with his cousin Alicia.  Eric graduated from high school in June and just finished up his first semester as a college student at Western Nevada College, our local community college.  He was in the WNC musical production of Cinderella in November where he played the butcher and a villager (click on the Cinderella link to see the pictures of Eric from the play).  He’s a great singer, dancer and actor.  Besides theatre, he also had math, English, and a psychology class this past semester. We are working on his schedule for the spring.

RYAN is 16 and a junior in high school. He’s always loved math and science and says he is now leaning towards being a physics teacher. He was on the swim team last spring and hopes to do so again this next season. He’s been our first child to participate in school sports and it was quite fun to go to the meets and watch him. Ryan got “drafted” to be the Student School Board Representative for all the students in the school district. At the beginning of each School Board meeting (about twice a month), he reports on the happenings of our five local elementary schools, the junior high, and the high school. It’s not his favorite thing to do [as a matter of fact, he dreads it], but it’s great to see him get up in front of people and talk (remember, he’s my one child who takes after me and would rather be in the wings rather than on the stage). To earn his Eagle scout rank, Ryan has finished all his required merit badges and project, but he has one last requirement to do (write up his personal statement of his life ambitions and past achievements). Once that requirement is done, he has to finish up his paper work and pass his Eagle Board of Review.  We are hoping that soon he and Eric will have that double Eagle Scout ceremony.

HANNAH just turned 15 and is a freshman. She became our second child to play school sports when she tried out and made the tennis team.  Now that tennis is over, she signed up to join the track team with the same friend who got her involved in tennis.  She is currently in her dad’s advanced theatre class, along with her cousin Michael. They were both just in Anne of Avonlea a few weeks ago. Hannah was also in Anne of Green Gables the previous weekend. It is so fun to have them on stage together.  She is an excellent student and keeps a very busy social life.

ALEX is 10 and in the 4th grade. We switched him to a new school this year and at first he was sad about leaving his old friends behind, but he has since made new friends and is doing great. His MAP math scores place him at the benchmark they want the 10th graders to be at, so he’s doing quite well. His favorite thing to do still is to play with his cousins--since they live across the street this thankfully happens quite often. Alex is a Webelo in the Cub Scout program and enjoys all their activities.

I (BETH) could probably use almost any of the things I’ve written about myself for the last 3 Christmases and it would still hold true.  I still substitute teach (mainly at the high school and junior high), I stamp, I read, I wish I could keep my house clean and de-cluttered, I went to BYU Ed Week with my sister, I work on my family history from time to time, and I work with the children at church.

GLEN’s general activities haven’t really changed either: church, boy scouts, school plays (this is Glen‘s 22nd year at CCHS), family history, and volunteer county museum bookkeeper. Some of the specifics have changed, however. Some of the plays this year: Room Service, No Body to Murder, Exit the Body, Here Comes the Brides, Cash on Delivery, Twelve Angry Women, Cinderella, Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea.  The theatre is really kept busy.  In May the Swing Dance Club recruited Glen to dance in Fallon’s version of Dancing with the Stars.  He danced the tango to The Assassin’s Tango heard in the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith (you can find the piece on my playlist below).  Receiving three scores of 9, he came in second place by only a half a point. In scouting, Glen was one of the men in charge of the BSA Centennial Jamboree for the Nevada Area Council held in Fallon in August. It was quite the major deal. Glen again (for the fourth year) participated in the museum’s annual ghost walk in October, this year as a local character named Cye Cox.

We are healthy and happy and are grateful for the many blessings we have in our lives.  We’ve had a great year and look forward to the new one…especially since we get to have Andrew home again…for about a month before he leaves us to go back to college.    We hope this post finds you and yours safe and sound. We hope you had a Merry Christmas and will have a wonderful new year!