Holidays

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Fourth of July: Tennessee Style

July 7, 2010 in Family, Holidays by Sara | 4 comments

In the fall of 1982 I walked into a physics class at the University of Tennessee. The professor introduced himself and I’m pretty sure that was the last thing that came out of his mouth that I truly understood.

This may explain my eventual switch to a nursing major.

I remember little of what I learned in that class. I do remember the prof using a slinky to illustrate many of his points. Something about wave forms and blah, blah, blah………

I do remember a curly dark headed guy who sat on the upper left hand side. He was part of a group of guys I had met the previous spring in a basic programming class in which I learned many things about computers. And which I promptly forgot the minute the final exam was over.

28 years ago I met this guy....

Scott was (and continues to be) one of the smartest people I know. He breezed through that physics class without even breaking a sweat and continued that stellar performance right on through both undergrad and graduate degrees. We hung out a lot. With our group of friends, we spent a lot of time on the lake perfecting our skiing technique and wearing no sunscreen. We were good friends. The kind of friends that you can sit outside in their yellow convertible listening to James Taylor and talk about everything under the sun.

The kind of friends that last a lifetime.

Especially if they end up marrying your sister.

My baby sister

Ann met Scott one weekend when she came to visit me at college. She was 16 and we were all about to graduate. She went home and told my mom she had met the man she was going to marry.

A few years later she did just that.

And now I not only get to spend holidays with my baby sister, but one of my oldest and dearest friends is always by her side.

Thanks to their hospitality and superior boat driving skills, we had a whale of a weekend. As JD so aptly put it,

“That was the perfect 4th of July.”

Yes, indeed it was. Take a look for yourself.

Fresh blueberries picked by our own little hands. Well, not mine. Someone had to make the pictures.

No one was having fun, can you tell?

Olivia meets her cousins (with big brother Clay supervising)

Ben catching some air.

The little peanut herself.

Most of the family. We missed our absent Morgan, Michael and Sara

Daddy and his Baby Girl

Short and Sweet

May 28, 2010 in Faith, Family, Friends, Holidays by Sara | 1 comment

Just a couple of things before we embark on a weekend filled with visits from dear friends, lots of good food and drink and an extra day tacked on to the weekend! Can I have an AMEN on that one!

Some of you may remember me asking for prayers for my friend Candy and her mother last year during a health crisis. True to form, her mom rallied round and did really well for another year. But Wednesday morning after a blessedly short rapid decline in health she died peacefully in her sleep surrounded by her dear family. And although the loss is certainly sad, it is also a time to celebrate her and a life well lived. Please keep Candy and all her family in your prayers as they gather in Virginia to do just this on June 3.

I hope that you have a wonderful weekend surrounded by friends and family. If you are lucky they are one in the same. Luckier still if the friends feel like family.

Happy Memorial Day.

Easter 2010

April 6, 2010 in Family, Holidays by Sara | 1 comment

We had a great Easter.

We had spring flowers.

We had reunions with loved ones.

JD and his beautiful sister Anne

We had cousins to play with.

Please note Gunnar's SERIOUS bedhead. It was impressive.

We had a visit from the Easter Bunny

Easter Loot

We had pictures with cousins.

Gunnar and Katie

Erik and Elena

And pictures with family.

Our little family

The Olsons

But mostly we had time. We had time to reconnect with loved ones we see far too seldom. Who we wish lived 3 houses away instead of three states away.

We’re working on them.

I think the Midwest might be growing on them.

Happy New Year

January 1, 2010 in Family, Holidays, Home by Sara | 2 comments

Know what happens when you put sixteen of my relatives in one house on New Years Eve?

Lots of laughing.

Lots of eating.

Lots of cousins loving on each other.

Lots of Guitar Hero.

Lots of eating.

Lots of stories.

Lots of football.

Lots of love.

Mostly, just a whole lot of love.

(with a little bit of loud thrown in…..it is my family after all and we just don’t know how to do things quietly)

Hope you are starting the new year surrounded by those you love.

2009….you’ve been a very good year. Lots of changes. Lots of challenges. Lots of life.

We are blessed.

Christmas 2009

December 30, 2009 in Family, Holidays by Sara | 2 comments

Some scenes from our first stay at home Christmas

Welcome message for Santa. Elena insisted on building Santa a little stable for his cookies and milk. And that piece of paper to the left? That’s the list of questions that is always left for Santa. This year it included such inquires as “Do you celebrate the elves birthdays?” and ” What is your favorite color?”

Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, Santa.

They all get questions.

I have curious children.

Cookies eaten and questions answered.

Lucy licking her chops over her tasty snowman (snowbone?).

Elena in the robe she asked for. Evidently my girls are also practical as they each asked for a robe and slippers from Santa.

Plus, it’s cold in our house because we can’t quite figure out the heating system.

Sleds from Mimi and Pa. The biggest hit of all. These are amazing and if you have children and snow you should go here and order them immediately.

Even a nasty spill right onto her forehead the next day did not dampen Elena enthusiasm for this present.

Even though the rest of the year I questions the wisdom of having Christmas china, it sure does make a pretty table.

Our dear friends Eric and Kate. We love them. Kate and I swear that Eric and JD are twins separated at birth. I can’t even begin to list all the ways they are alike. Their bald heads are just the beginning. From the back they look exactly alike. Oh, the number of times Kate and I have come THIS CLOSE to patting the wrong husband on the butt.

Running a close second to the sleds was Band Hero. Do you think we’ve started down a path we’ll regret? Elena is enjoying the bass guitar just a little TOO much.

And yes, I have the songs “YMCA” and “ABC” running a continuous loop in my head.

It was a peaceful and joyous time in our house. There were a few pangs of missing our extended family but all in all we enjoyed starting our own traditions.

Plus, my whole family (minus my little brother. We’ll miss you, Mike!) is headed north over the next couple of days to spend New Years with us, so we’ll ring in the 2010 together.

I can hardly wait.

Christmas Cookies

December 24, 2009 in Faith, Family, Holidays by Sara | 1 comment

The girls had some friends over to decorate cookies today. It was a mixture of old friends that we’ve kept since we lived here before and some new friends that the girls have made since we moved back in August.

I thought I remembered some pictures from last time and I found them this afternoon. Looking back, I am astounded that I was even having a cookie decorating party. I had given birth (via C-section) to Elena just a couple of weeks before. One of my friends reminded me that I was also making soap at the same time. I must have been crazy from all the hormone fluctuations. I do remember being incredibly productive during that time. Too bad it went away never to return.

That was then:

Back row: Tia, Sophie, Ellen, Sarah

Front row: Katie and Lily

This is now:

Back Row: Ellen, Sidney, Tia, Sarah, Emily, Maggie

Front Row: Katie, Lily, Elena, Alex, Hannah

I’m really happy it won’t be another 8 years between pictures. And I’m happy they’ve all grown up into such good kids.

We are so blessed.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas. We are getting ready for a house full of people (just the way I like it!) so I may be very sporadic about writing for a few days. I hope that each of you have the happiest of holidays and a very Happy New Year.

“The hinge of history is on the door of a Bethlehem stable” –Ralph W. Sockman

Amidst all the hoopla and glitter and craziness of the season, may we be ever mindful of the best gift and true reason we celebrate.

For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

I Believe in Miracles

December 22, 2009 in Family, Good Ole Days, Holidays by Sara | 4 comments

Well.

That was crazy.

I tried to do some writing Sunday night and when I clicked onto my blog all I saw was a blank page with some sort of gobbel-de-gook message about bad synapses or widgets or something. I promptly threw up my hands a yelled for help.

Girls, I’m telling you that it pays to be married to a self confessed geek.

So, now I’m back and will continue with the post I wanted to do before my synapses and widgets conspired against me.

A CHRISTMAS STORY

I can’t remember the last time we put up a real tree. I know that it has been several years because at some point we decided that the hassle of getting it up only to have to take it down before we left for our parent’s house was just not worth it. The girls didn’t mind. They never thought Christmas started until we got to the grandparents anyway.

But as I’ve said, this year we are staying home and so off JD and the girls went to get our tree. They picked out quite the beauty.

When I was little, Daddy and we kids would take an ax and go cut down a tree out of some field. As far as I know we never paid for a tree in our life. From year to year the shape of the tree would vary greatly. For some reason one year Mama and Mike went alone to get a tree. Mama must have forgotten that our house only had 8 foot ceilings because she brought back a tree that was so tall that Daddy had to cut about 4 feet off the top. After that it looked more like a green bushy rectangle than a Christmas tree, but we loved it anyway.

Mama never got to go get the tree again.

When we got the tree home, Daddy would plop it down in a 5 gallon bucket and wedge rocks down in it to keep that tree straight. We’d turn the thing round and round trying to hide the ugly side of the tree (and there was always an ugly side). Then we’d wrap a sheet around the bucket and start putting on lights. Lights that were multi-colored and had bulbs the size of small eggs. The ornaments I remember most fondly were some plastic fruit that had little scenes inside them that we made one year from a kit and some elf heads on a string. The only breakable ornament I remember was the bell that had my brothers first grade picture in it. Why is it I can remember that and not what I walked into the room to get just a minute ago?

Note to my siblings: I call the elf heads!

Meanwhile, back at our house. JD and the girls returned and we set the tree up in its stand. There was no ugly side as it looked like it had been suspiciously manicured to a perfect triangular shape. The lights went up. The lights were too few in number. There was a trip to the Wal-mart where I discovered that if you wait until 5 days before Christmas you will find no lights. I made a trip to our hardware store. Lights!!! LED lights even! Bought them, brought them home. strung them around the tree, plugged them in, stepped back to admire……

They didn’t match.

LED lights may save you a bunch of money, but they burn a weird bluish color.

The lights came off.

As did most of my Christmas spirit.

At last, the final ornament was hung. We finally had a tree worthy of the beautiful (breakable) ornaments my brother has been buying my girls for Christmas since they were born. They love these ornaments. Whenever Mike makes noises about getting them something else, they protest mightily.

We stood back and admired our handiwork. Even sparsely lit, it was a beautiful tree.

Exactly one hour later it crashed to the floor. No one was within 5 feet of it. It just fell flat over.

Let me say that I could hardly make myself walk over to it. I was so afraid of what I was going to find. I just knew that 10 years of Lennox ornaments were going to be in pieces. The girls were crying their eyes out. The dog was hiding. I think JD was, too.

Ornaments lay in pieces all over. They were broken so badly that all I could do was scoop up the pieces and throw them away.

But only one of Uncle Mike’s ornaments was damaged. Mickey lost a foot, but it was a clean break and with some super glue you’ll never be able to tell anything happened.

We had ourselves our own little Christmas miracle.

But next year?

We’ll be using the 5 gallon bucket.

No One Will Ever Confuse Us With The Griswalds

December 8, 2009 in Holidays, Home, My People by Sara | 7 comments

Since JD and I married we have only spent Christmas in our own house one time. Usually we take time about going to his folks or to mine. The girls have no memory of ever spending Christmas in their own house.

My mom, although I know she feels conflicted about it, has been encouraging us to establish our own traditions. She’s good that way. One of the things I’ve always loved about her is her willingness to let me be independent.

With all the other changes that happened this year, it just kind of seemed like this was the right time to start our own thing. So we are staying home for Christmas.

The problem with this is that I have almost no Christmas decorations. I’ve always just done the bare minimum to escape being a total Scrooge. For the last several years we haven’t even put up a real tree. We just made do with a little 4 ft pitiful thing that held only a few of our ornaments.

Add to this lack of tinsel and bows the fact that we now live on a street that does it UP RIGHT at Christmas and you see my dilemma. For those of you who hail from my hometown, remember Chief’s house? Yeah, we’ve got our own Chief just two houses down. For those of you who don’t have any idea what I’m talking about, just picture every Christmas light you’ve ever seen including, but not limited to, reindeer, a manger scene, candy canes, and Santa and his sleigh on the roof and countless other things all blazing with full color. All on a house that was probably about 1200 square feet (if that). When I was really small I can remember walking up to the porch were Chief would sit dressed as Santa and hand out candy canes to the kids.

So we bought a few things. Some lights and some garland. But by far my favorite find so far are these over sized ornaments I found at Target. Love, love, love them.

This morning we woke to the first snow of the season. It didn’t last long, but it sure made my puny little decorations look wonderful.

Maybe I’ll hit the after Christmas sales and pick up a couple of inflatable Santas and a herd of lighted reindeer for the front yard.

Or maybe not.

I don’t think I have Chief’s artistic flair. Or enough electrical outlets.

Thankfulness 2009

December 1, 2009 in Family, Holidays, Kids by Sara | 3 comments

I have so many things to be thankful for this year. Here are just a few.

JD and I ran the Webster Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. Although I very nearly backed out at least a dozen times, I’m happy to report that we ran the entire 4.4 miles in under 40 minutes and I did not have to be taken to the emergency room afterwards. I am still a little bitter that they ran out of Turkey Trot T-shirts before we got one. I am, however, thankful that the weather was a balmy 48 degrees during the run instead of the normal frigid temperatures that normally occur. Global warming, I’m a big fan.

I am thankful that Katie has continued to love playing the piano and that she and her grandmother can now make beautiful music together. It makes me tear up every single time.

For multiple games of Pictionary and Bananagrams round the dining room table. We laughed so long and hard over some of our decidedly un-artistic artwork. I believe that Elena gets the award for getting the term “Two Left Feet” from her Daddy’s drawing. Although Katie and I did have that thing going for a while where you can just draw a straight line and the other one yells “Easter Island!” and it’s right.

The blue eyes that show up in a boy named Cole and his Uncle.

The gingerbread house competition at the George Eastman House in Rochester. Except now the girls are insisting that we make one of our own and I’m not quite sure how that’s gonna happen and me keep my joyous Christmas spirit.

My wonderful father-in-law spent several hours out in his (unheated) garage on a very cold afternoon (the temperature dropped quickly after Thanksgiving day) helping Katie make this duplicate of the ark. Thankfully she was willing to make a scaled down version. Although you can’t really tell from this picture it came complete with a hinged roof and a deck that surrounded it so that the bears could sun themselves.

Tell me my girl won’t be so happy to have this for all sorts of reasons 30 years from now.

(Notice she gave him slightly smaller billing).

It was one of those visits where everything just went perfectly and fun was had by all. Thanks to my wonderful in-laws for putting us up and feeding us and allowing our dog in their house (I think my f-i-l is quite smitten with Lucy).

Although it is way too cold for me to come live that far north and I’ll never understand the whole white bread stuffing for Thanksgiving thing, I’m happy to call these folks mine. I don’t know what I did to deserve them.

One last thing. On the trip up we stopped at a rest stop to let Lucy out and Katie met another dog owner who, when she asked his dog’s name, replied,

“This is Jelly. He has a brother named Biscuit.”

How can you not be thankful for something like that! You just know that ole boy hails from the south.

Halloween 2009

November 2, 2009 in Family, Friends, Holidays, Kids by Sara | 2 comments

I had such fond memories of Halloween from the time we lived here before that I was afraid I would be disappointed this year. The whole “you can’t go home again” thing, you know?

Guess what? It seems that sometimes you actually can.

Guess what else? If your puppy gets fed various Halloween treats and you have carpet on 2% of your floors, guess where she will pick to throw up? It was awesome.

Here are a few shots from the big day.

I am not ashamed to say that she did indeed wear her sister’s costume from last year. And it was her idea. She scored major mommy points with that decision.

When I overheard one of Katie’s friends saying that she was going to be Lady Ga-Ga for Halloween I just about swallowed my tongue. Lordy mercy. So I was very happy when this is what she picked:

May she stay enthralled by all things historical all the way through high school.