Tuesday, December 28, 2010

JOY! JOY! and more joy

         the joy of celebrating Mark's birthday when he and his family drove in from Minnesota.

                  the joy of having baby Saige in our home for her first Christmas.

the joy of warm days before Christmas to enjoy a day in the park


...and to enjoy a day at the beach just before the weather gets colder
                  the pure joy of running through the water with a grandchild
the joy of loved ones reunited (Walter home from the Carribean!)

                                    the joy of making gingerbread houses
...and seeing Andy and KayLynn celebrate their first Christmas as newly weds

the joy of our traditional Christmas Eve dinner (soup and rolls by candlelight)

the joy of Christmas morning when little ones are there



These are the things that fill my heart with joy as we celebrate the birth of our Savior through whom all  good things come.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

and so the Christmas celebrations begin....


We  met at Sharon and Bill's home for the annual party for the children of Maxine and Art. 

Carl and a his Texas siblings (one is in heaven, one is in Pennsylvania, one is in Utah -- for a total of 8 children of Maxine and Art

a few of the cousins (I claim the one on the far left. The rest are nieces and a nephew.)
After Carl gave a presentation on family history, we did our traditional "White Elephant" gift exchange.
Bill is totally thrilled with his "White Elephant" gifts, especially with the hamburger patty maker. He can barbeque those hamburgers in style, wtih his new redneck hat and sunglasses.


Monday, December 6, 2010

the chemist in my kitchen

Yesterday, my favorite chemist had a wonderful birthday suprise for me. He stayed home from church, recovering from a bad cold, and when I came home and walked into the kitchen, the smell was heavenly.
My dear husband had baked a cake from scratch for me. He had never baked anything in his whole life.  A previous attempt at making something had to be thrown out when he used a cup of salt instead of a teaspoon. But, this time, a miracle happened. With the help of a recipe he found online, the cake was edible, and in fact, quite good. He even made a glaze--from scratch-- to go on top.

Besides making this cake, this weekend, my chemist helped with  the rocket science of using a pressure cooker canner. (Steam comes out of a vent as pressure builds up inside and then a little thingy-majiggit on top of the lid starts madly rocking, as the pointer on a guage inches ominously upward -- and all you can imagine is the contents of the canner spewing all over your kitchen and the thingy-majiggit blasting a hole through your ceiling as it takes off for outer space.)
I hadn't used this canner for more than ten years, and was very nervous.  So dear hubby read all the directions, while I made the applesauce. He was in charge of operating the potentially explosive canner, so, as you can see, things turned out great.

This weekend, we also enjoyed the first harvest of broccoli from our garden. I planted it, but my science guy concocted the compost that helped it grow so well.

All this blogging about food has made me hungry.  I think I'll grab a piece of that cake.....