Twas the Night Before Christmas...

OK, we won't win any Oscar's for cinematography, but every year growing up my Dad was the one who read this story.

I hope you enjoy,

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Christmas Memories XII

So every year, either the 22nd or the 23rd, once in a while on Christmas Eve, we try to have a cookie decorating event for any and all that want to come make cookies for Santa....or any other cookie afficianado.

Some years we only have two or three and some years...a few more...

 Can't say I complain about the finished product...

I admit that while I make the sugar cookies, I do buy the pre-made icing, color it and pre bag it with decorating tips. It makes things a little easier.

Sometimes, I wonder why I drive myself crazy trying to do all this stuff for Christmas

Then I start looking at a few of these pictures, and I realize why. I want all these children to have awesome Christmas memories like I do



Christmas Memories XI

WORST CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEA EVER!!!!

One year, back in the  90's my sister Nancy got the idea of "dollar Christmas". It was when a few dollar stores started popping up, and we were getting a little big to still be buying everyone gifts. Harriet opted out (smart move)

Needless to say there were a ton of presents under the Christmas tree that year....unfortunately most weren't even worth the dollar!!!!

What a disaster...we didn't do that again.

Christmas Memories X

Once upon a time, we had to drive all the way into church on Gunnison Avenue. Then after the stake was split we ended up in the Stake Center for a couple years while they built a new chapel for 10th & 11th Wards on Orchard Mesa. My Dad was the Bishop when they started and dedicated that building. He put a lot of time into making sure that building was designed for a growing ward.  After Daddy died, Brother Jay Olsen and a couple other men in our ward petitioned Salt Lake to plant a tree with a plaque in memory of my Dad. It started out as a little bitty Blue Spruce.

One year my cousin's wife Lynette had her children make ornaments to hang on the tree. My Mom started putting those little ornaments on for a couple years, but the tree just got so big it started to swallow them up.

So, I decided that I would surprise my sisters and my Mom, by having Jason and Casey, along with my kids decorate the tree with red Christmas ribbons.

Over the next few years it became a family tradition to decorate that tree, but it kept getting bigger and bigger!

(Oh yeah...fat Allison helped too...) 

 We had someone complain, so we stopped. I'm not really sure why they would...but..

Anyway, I probably will start this tradition again, I still have all the ribbons, I just need to get a cherry picker, because the tree is pretty big now!

Christmas Memories IX

One of the Christmas traditions that Scott and I started with our children were to make gingerbread houses every year. Some years we get them done early...but, we have been known to actually make them on Christmas eve also. It's just one of the things that marks the traditions of Christmas for us, I admit we use the little kits. If I had to actually make the gingerbread....yeah...we would never do this!

Christmas Memories VIII

Candy Cane Cookies!!!

Since my Dad was a diabetic, my Mom didn't make a lot of baked goods. But....

at Christmas time, she always made these cookies.

They were a little sticky coming off the pan, but I increased the flour a little and if you use parchment paper they work pretty good. My nephew doesn't think I should share the recipe, so keep it to yourself!

1C Butter

 1 1/2 C Sugar

2 Eggs

3 C Flour

2 tsp Cream of Tarter

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Vanilla

1 C Crushed Candy Canes

Cream butter and sugar, add rest of ingredients. Chill dough 1 hour, roll or cut into 1" balls or squares. Bake exactly 8 minutes at 350 degrees.



Christmas Memories VII

Christmas Dinner isn't Christmas Dinner if it isn't served on Desert Rose China!

This pattern was my Grandma Whitings. I think she must have had service for about 60, plus, it turned out that this is also my Mother's pattern. So, when my Grandma died she had always insisted that my Mother get her china.

 Did I mention she had a lot? And this is after my Mom has given each of us service for 4.

Now, I don't know which grandchild broke this dish. But I always remember this cracked serving dish with either olives or little pickles in it (Note: The pickles were always sweet, I don't know how many times I popped one of those in my mouth before I remembered that Grandma Whiting always bought sweet pickles!)

Oh, there's a couple of ladies that will be happy with that pic! But...notice the plates in their hands...

Christmas Memories VI

I don't have any pictures for this one!!!

When I was little, I must have been around 5-6 years old, my Dad got an idea. I don't know what international crisis motivated him. He cut out of paneling, the words "PEACE ON EARTH". Then we spent a family home evening, covering the letters with glue and silver glitter. These letters had to be at least 3 feet high each. Then he hung the letters on the north side of our house, where they could be seen from Kannah Creek Road, with spotlights on them at night.

I only remember them up for about two years, but my niece Jackie says she remembers them being up. I really wish we had a picture.

UPDATE:
Upon further review (I sound like an NFL ref)

I believe, after further investigation, that there may have been two separate sign events. I distinctly remember making signs in my parents family room, because we had linoleum in our family room, and that is where we made them, and the glitter was all over that linoleum for months after. Plus, I remember it being before my mother got the "throw-up" carpet. I think the first set of signs were MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Then, I believe that during the first Gulf War, my Dad and family made a second set that said PEACE ON EARTH, because my niece Jackie remembers that and Nancy remembers making them in the silver barn, which we didn't have until I was about 6.

Isn't that the trouble with memories?  Sometimes they get all jumbled up.

She's a Real Live Girl!!!!

I wonder when people talk about the challenges of teenage girls, that so isn't my daughter. Not to say our lives have not had issues, but overall we have been blessed with a pretty awesome daughter. But, anyone who knows her realizes she is a good girl, sometimes I think she is a little too good. (I know, as if that is a problem).

Anyway, yesterday we were shopping with Nancy and Kassie, and had stopped for lunch in the cafe court. Emily was conversing with us about Christmas presents when all of the sudden she said, "Well, what if I gave you a big ass...." immediately Nancy and I had eyes the size of Harriet's infamous self made video. Emily knew as soon as it was out of her mouth...she stopped...grabbed a napkin and covered her mouth. It rolled off her tongue so easily....

I know it's wrong, but I think it's funny. I'm so glad I have a real live girl!

Christmas Cows & Adventures in Pig Land

Oh the joys of animal husbandry....

Last Saturday the cows arrived in my Mom's field. Jason and Harriet lease out the field in the winter to some boys in Whitewater that put about 50 head of cows in for a couple months.  Last Tuesday when I was coming home I thought I had missed the memo on a meeting because they were all clustered around my little walk gate behind my house. Turns out they were all just watching Jay and Jason fix the water leak that formed Lake Harriet.

Then yesterday morning around 7am Scott said, "Wow, did you hear those cows? They sound really close, I hope they aren't leaning on the fence". About 15 minutes later I went out to water the animals and found that the Christmas Cows had visited us in the night. They ate about 100# of the pig food we had so generously bought and apparently left for them, then they left us cow pies all over our back lawn! The Whitewater boys came out and got them back in, they even replaced the pig food! So all in all not a huge deal.

When I got home from town I went out to feed the pigs some expired milk that Nancy had for them. As I started out I saw Pearl out in the pasture waiting patiently at the walk through gate to come back in. Strange. So I got her back in, and started pouring the milk in, when I looked up and she was out AGAIN!

This time it was a little more to get her in. Then I thought I found the spot she was getting out, and while I was getting it it fixed, both pigs managed to get out, because they know how to open gates that aren't latched. So I had to chase them over behind Nancy's. I just got them back in again, and they escaped...damn magic pigs!! This time I  chased them up to Harriet's, then in and out of Scott's garage...this was going well.  We got them back in, I was fixing the fence...Scott had come home and was helping when that stupid Pearl escaped again.  At this point, I didn't care if I ever saw her again as we watched her head out in the field over to the herd of cows. We gave her a salute and wished her luck...

Then, suddenly we heard Pearl squeal and the mass of cows started mooing all at the same time. Now if Scott hadn't seen this also, I think no one would have believed me...but all of the sudden here came Pearl running for her life and every one of those cows were chasing her. She ran all along the bottom of the field from the old big cottonwood tree, then straight up the fence to the gate where Scott intervened and Pearl collapsed from exhaustion. I so wish we would have got that on video.

She was so tired that we couldn't even get her in the pen. So I left her out to calm down and then see if we could get her in. She was showing some stress signs so I went to get the pig book from Nancy. I was over there a couple minutes when Scott came looking for me because that stupid pig had gone back in the field and the cows had chased her up to Harriet's.

This time, Nancy (the pig whisperer) came and got Pearl right in. Where was she the last half dozen times?

This morning I went out to see if Pearl was still alive and...she was out again.  She must have been tired and cold because she went right in, and I realized I had put the clips a little high on some of the fence I fixed yesterday. So I went and got the supplies and fixed the fence...again...did I mention I was in my bathrobe? and it's snowing? 

Man, I wish Scott hadn't insisted that we get these animals...

Christmas Memories V

Unwilling young men. Every year we recruited some shepards, wise men, a Joseph, and sometimes even a King Herod. They weren't always very happy about it.

Daniel, Jason, & Brandon

Oh yeah, that would be Matt, the infamous truck driving sheep herder. (what ever gets them out there). Yes, that was during the actual nativity.

Lastly, my own son, who obviously looks absolutely thrilled. One of the few joys in this world is getting the chance to force your children to do something that you had to do as a child.

Christmas Memories IV

So many of my Christmas memories revolve around my Dad, because he absolutely loved Christmas.

Every Christmas when I was little we spent at my Grandma Whiting's house. The little silver tree on the right of my Dad was Grandma's "money" tree. Every year she decorated it with $5 bills inside special envelopes that only showed Lincoln's face.  Then at the end of the night every grandchild got one. I wish I still had a money tree, and not just on Christmas.

Christmas Memories III

I don't remember how old I was, probably around 10 or so, a couple days before Christmas, my Dad and Uncle Rod drove over to Salt Lake for the day.  When they got back, there was a full sized pool table and full sized air hockey table in the back of the truck.

They were awesome!!! Plus a Pachinco game, which none of us had ever played with before...

Anyway, the pool table took up prominant residence in the family room and the air hockey table...amazingly got taken up the stairs to the middle bedroom.  There after that room was forever referred to as "the air hockey room" even years later when there wasn't an air hockey table in there.

That was a fun Christmas, I think we even had a pool tournament

Breaking Traditions

I know, usually I use this little corner of the internet to bash those lackadaisical members of either my family or faith who don’t step up and keep “tradition” for the next generation. But, I realized today that my daughter is both older than 16 and a senior in high school. Tradition in my family dictates that at some point in the next 6 months she should receive…a cedar chest. Due to my poor parenting skills, if I were to ask Emily what a cedar chest was her response would undoubtedly be, “…a chest… of cedar?...” obviously… but if I were to further question her as to the traditional purpose of a cedar chest she would just stare at me.

Alright, I am willing to concede that there are traditions that can die, and this is one of them. Growing up my sisters all had cedar/hope chests, my Mom had a cedar/hope chest, and I’m pretty sure my Grandma had a cedar chest. For those not familiar with the purpose of a cedar/hope chest, it was designed to fill with future home-making items that would be used when a young woman got married and magically became domesticated. Kind of like a house hold trousseau. Such wonderful things as embroidered dish clothes, custard bowls, and quilts were common hope chest items. Also, they held treasured items that you couldn’t quite throw away but didn’t know what to do with, such as the cap and gown from you graduation, your high school prom memorabilia, etc.

Growing up my sisters and I would occasionally comb through my mother’s hope chest, and be amazed at how tiny some of her treasured clothes were, the old wedding announcements or even question why one of my Dad’s old suit coats were in it. Then came the day when I got a hope chest, it took up space in my bedroom and being so domestically minded I immediately wondered what in the heck you were supposed to put in there. Over time it eventually became a catch-all for things well intentioned people gave me that I had no idea what to do with, like a set of nesting Tupperware bowls, some china and a really big crocheted afghan with giant roses on it. Currently it still holds that afghan, my wedding dress (which was also my mothers’), a cap and gown, some baby blessing clothes, and….I have no idea what else. Over the years that darn thing has followed me everywhere and like my sister’s hope chests, has become a decorating challenge and an item of scorn by every Elder’s Quorum brave enough to help one of us move.

I can’t get rid of the darn thing, it’s my hope chest. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it either. Donna bravely got rid of hers after 40 years, and it was hideous early 1970’s style, I think it had been through about 93 moves. My mother has hers in her garage, and Ellen’s at the foot of her bed, Nancy’s is at the foot of her bed, and so is mine…because that is what you do with them. But, in a break from my tradition I do not plan to buy (aka saddle) Emily with a cedar/hope chest. Somewhere a future husband should thank me.

Christmas Memories Part II

I plan to do a bunch of Christmas Memories, and since I've lived a really long time, they will probably tend to bounce around on the time scale.

On Christmas Eve, my family typically has a large family dinner. For a few years we had Christmas Eve out in the red barn, while the Hanging W was still around. It was right at the end of the evening when Erik took a dive right off the stage and....a gorgeous Christmas Shiner!!

Great Pictures for Christmas Morning!

Christmas Memories Part 1

I must have been around 4 or 5, and I still remember where this was sitting in the front room. I didn't get the clothes washer, which is on the far right, but the other three saw lots of use over the next few years. I wasn't much on dolls, but I did have a lot of fun with this set. Weird, you would have thought I would have known how to cook when I got married.

In A Nut Shell

When you say this to me, it usually means that you have rambled on about something that most people will find completely irrelevant. Then, to supposedly summarize, you say, "in a nut shell" and I immediately think, "what size of nutshell?"  After all there are a lot of sizes, will your summary require a coconut shell? or will it fit into a pinon nut shell? So the next time you attempt to drag on something you are telling me, then begin to sum it up with this phrase, don't be surprised if I ask you what size.

Things I Learned at My Mother's Knee

(Note to Harriet: Read the whole post before you get mad, ok?)

A couple Sundays ago Cheryl Condit gave a Relief Society lesson about teaching our children.  It was a very nice lesson, and since I love Cheryl, I even participated a little. The sisters were all giving examples of their mothers setting them down and teaching them some great gospel principle or patiently showing them how to do something domestic and of course the perfect ones were giving examples of their own handiwork. Harriet, Nancy, Fern and Shirley were all absent, so I sat alone in our back row spot. (Oh everyone has their designated seating, you know it's true)

When I got home, Nancy was quizzing me about the lesson, after I told her about it and some of the comments made by the other ladies in our ward, we talked about teaching our own children. Thanks to this blog I regularly share my not so picture perfect parenting experiences. Obviously, the more you attempt to make the perfect setting, the more it never seems to turn out like the Hallmark channel. So as the conversation progressed we started talking about our own childhood experiences.

Now my mother wasn't exactly the patient, let me gently show you how to do something kind of Mom. Nor was she the "sit at my knee while I expound bible stories" type either. I remember when I wanted to help in the kitchen and some of her most quoted sayings were "watching is helping" and "would you just get out of my way". While growing up I didn't know how to cook, as evidenced by my frantically calling Aunt Lois and asking "Does scald the milk mean burn it?". I remember Mom insisting that I take sewing and cooking in 4H, but after my third attempt of putting in a zipper, she just did it (I got a blue ribbon on that by the way). Anyway, so Nancy and I started to ask each other about what did we remember from our early learning...and then it got quiet...and we stared at each other. "Do you remember Mom showing you how to cook?" "No, I learned in HomeEc, did she teach you how to sew?" "No, Mrs. Nostrand did that in 4H, did she show you how to clean?" "No...what did she teach us?"  So we wondered...and then I had to go home, because it was late.

The next day I did remember one time when I was about 5, in the forest behind our cabin she showed me how to make a lean-to shelter, in case I ever got stranded out in the woods. I called Nancy and told her, she was happy I remembered something. I'm not sure if she did. Later when I talked to Donna and asked her, she remembered that Mom had shown her how to vacuum the stairs and clean windows with newspaper. So then the conversations turned to what our Mother was doing the whole time we were growing up...

After turning this over and over in my mind, I determined that the things our Mom did teach us were pretty difficult to define. My sisters and I decided that our Mom taught us by example.  Growing up my Mom was busy; she herded cows, kept the books for the ranch, cooked, cleaned, farmed, gardened, wall papered, permed hair, traveled with kids, sorted cows, helped fix fence, and raise 5 daughters, including one with an extremely rare blood disease. Our Mom taught us that you basically cowboy up and shoulder on, you roll up your sleeves, get it done, and try to have a sense of humor and fun along the way. My Mother wasn't a drama queen who lounged around and whined, she didn't nag, she just did it. She took extra good care of her husband, told her daughters to "dry up" when they felt sorry for themselves, and she did teach us a lot of clever sayings, like "didn't have a pot to piss in, nor window to throw it out of".

So while I don't have picture perfect memories of defining moments of learning from my Mom, I do know that she did teach me a lot, and for that, THANKS.