The End of a Year

I guess this should be one of those posts that reflects upon 2011 and then looks to 2012. It should talk about the goals I set and accomplished, as well as those not yet reached. It should talk about my goals for the new year and the hopes and dreams I have.

Yep. It should. But I'm just not in the mood for it. I realize  that this is the last day to really be in this mood, but it just isn't happening for me. I don't feel reflective. I've tried to decide on goals for 2012, but I get nothing. Nada. So, this year, my New Year's resolutions will have to come sometime other than the New Year.

As for the past and the future....last year was a year. Next year will be one, too. And I'll do my best to do my best. And I'll come up short at times. And I'll go above and beyond at times. But mostly, I'll just plug along, day after day, doing what moms, wives, homeschoolers, seminary teachers, Latter Day Saints, friends, and relatives do. That is just fine by me because it will mean that I am living my life. I can't think of anything more important to do during 2012, can you?

Speaking of traditions...oh, I guess I wasn't, but I am now. I am a German Yankee and German Yankees eat pork and sauerkraut for New Years dinner, along with mashed potatoes. This was to bring good luck and prosperity. Keith is a NC Southern boy. He had pork jowls, collard greens, and black eyed peas. This was to bring good luck and prosperity. We do a bit of a compromise...well, more my way than his because I am the one that cooks! We will be having pork (not jowls, but loin) - in the crock pot, crocked with sauerkraut. We will have mashed potatoes. We will have black eyed peas. We will NOT have collard greens. I can't stand the way they  taste and the smell while they are cooking - let's just not go there. I will add to that biscuits, homemade cranberry sauce, and sweet potato pie. All are welcome to stop by!

In other news - Claudia and Eric are on their way to California where they will make their new home. They will be dearly missed. I can't wait until they come for a visit - possibly over Easter. Definitely during summer break. What to bake, oh, what to bake?!?

We really will miss these two!

Funny for the day: Keith has eczema in his ears. The doctor prescribed an ointment to put in his ear canal at night. Last night, he said the tube just didn't feel right in his hand. He looked down to realize that he had just put toothpaste in his ear.

The Slowdown

The daily Christmas event calendar is complete. Christmas came and went with happiness and fun and laughter. I couldn't have asked for a better time.

On the 23rd, we had the opportunity to have all 4 grandchildren for several hours. We baked cupcakes, played games, cut snowflakes, drew pictures, played the piano, played outside. It was fun. It was exhausting. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Time to decorate the cupcakes, and the hands, and the elbows, and the table!

Eric really liked the sprinkles. Want to guess which ones were his?

That evening, we had Kyle, Faith, Gena, and Jaxson over for Christmas. It was nice to see Faith and Kyle. We had not seen them in several months. I got 2 new cookbooks, which I will definitely use. In fact, that is on my list of things to do - find a few new recipes.

Gena started playing the violin this year. We got her a violin ornament, a violin book, and 2 "how to draw" books.

Jaxson sold over $600 in popcorn with the cub scouts this year. We got him a popcorn ornament. He also loves to read. We got him a subscription to National Geographic kids and then a book on submarines and one on the solar system.

Matthew got home on Friday as well. It was so nice having him here. He felt the same - mainly because of the food. He was even excited over leftovers for lunch! He just kept saying, wow, there is so much food in this house. He has been on the poor boy diet which includes a lot of rice and beans. He lost 13 pounds since August and didn't need to lose any. I was very glad to feed him. And was highly distressed to know how hungry he had been and hadn't called home. I remember trying to do it all myself at that age. 

Christmas day was wonderful. It started with breakfast, went on to presents, then to church. The kids went on to their dad's house and Keith took me to the Carolina Hotel Christmas Buffet. It was incredible. They had food that I couldn't pronounce and definitely food I'd never afford to try anywhere else! Keith thought he was trying some kind of jelly with crackers. I tried not to laugh - it was caviar. He seemed to enjoy it even when he realized what it was! I ate entirely too much dessert. The dessert table was 30 feet long and went down both sides. No one could pick just one.

Here are the appetizers. You should have seen the rest of it!

Church was lovely. Wonderful music. Truly enjoyable. I did get two laughs though. We had several narrators reading to us from the scriptures - mostly in Luke. One very southern gentleman read the part where the angel said hail to Mary. However, the accent made it sound like he swore at Mary. (say hail slowly and with a southern accent....get it?)  I couldn't look at Matthew because he was trying not to laugh as well. Then there was the part about the espoused wife. Except it was said exposed wife. Once again, I couldn't look at my kids. Or the people in front of me. Or behind me.  Thankfully a song came immediately and I was able to recover completely.

Monday we saw our friends Vaughn and Karen. Today we got to spend time with Keith's oldest daughter, Kim.

So, as Christmas comes to a close and I enjoy my decorations for just a few more short days, I am thankful for the wonderful season, for family, for friends, for all my many blessings, for the ability to help others during this season, for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And for the last time, until December of 2012, I wish you a Merry Christmas and all that goes with the season.

Long Past Due - More Christmas!

Well, I had high hopes that I would post almost daily during this wonderful Christmas season. And yet, here it is Dec 21 and I haven't posted since we put up Georgia's tree on the 6th. Shame on me.

Lots of those days were spent decorating - the outside, the inside, and eventually the tree. I love putting up my tree. The kids get ornaments every year that they will eventually take with them when they have a home of their own. I love looking at them and remembering. The year Kimberly was so into Barbies. The first year Rebekah was in a Christmas Carol. Katherine's first Christmas ornament. The year we saw the lighthouses on the NC coast. Flamingos. Penguins. All of Keith's nativity ornaments. The star I made when I was 5. The Love ornament Keith got me when we were dating. We have a lot of history on our tree. Oh, and the strung popcorn. We string it every year. I love it. The girls tolerate it. But I just can't imagine a tree without popcorn!

Don't you just love the 3 beautiful ornaments at the bottom of the tree!

We also went to Apex and saw a nativity display - over 800 different nativities. It was amazing. And overwhelming. In 3 days, they had over 5000 visitors! We got there while a group performed Handel's Messiah. It was beautiful. It put Keith in the mood to find more nativities. We now have one that is white and says Joy with the nativity in the O. We also got one that looks like little children - reminded him of the years he used to do the Christmas Pageant - as a small boy, he was the "Littlest Shepherd."

We also made our own cards this year - 61 of them. That is a lot of cards. A lot of cutting. A lot of stamping. And a lot of addressing! But we've heard nothing but good reports, so it is definitely worth it. We borrowed a friend's Christmas stamps this year and that gave us a lot of new variety. Katherine is the best because she is patient and willing to work long hours to finish her share. She is very creative. I tend to find one or two varieties that I like and then I make all of them that way. Kimberly loves stamping. Rebekah likes each of her cards to be different and delights that she is able to do so. And calls me a slackard for not doing the same!

Let's not forget the snowflake cutting. We decorate the hall between the bedrooms with hanging snowflakes. My girls think they are outgrowing this - well, Katherine doesn't think so. She likes to make hers very intricate. I have no idea how she makes them. I'm still stuck at level 1. She must be a level 5! This year, we had the joy of having 2 grandchildren help us - Eric and Claudia. It is so fun to have little ones around. It even got my older kids to cut a few - but don't tell them that I told you!

Isn't Eric cute? And concentrating so hard!

Ta da!

Claudia is a beautiful child - and no, I'm not biased or anything!

I'm sure you are ready for me to be done, but I'm not. So, head on to the bathroom. Get yourself another cup of cocoa and a cookie or two, and then sit back and read the rest of the post!

We baked a lot of cookies this year. Double batches of the following: Sugar, choc chip, mint choc chip, oatmeal, ginger snaps. And then a quadruple batch of my grandma's Sour Cream Date Drops. These are to die for. I had woman at church rushing me as I left the building with a few left on the platter. I was lucky to make it out alive! This is the first year that I've made them because I just got the recipe from my mom. I'm sure that they will be a yearly cookie now. And, of course, we always do our sugar cookies. Rebekah thinks they look childish. I think they look like Christmas. I'll show you a picture and let you decide:

And what do we do with all the cookies? Go caroling, of course! We catch a few neighbors and some friends. We have a few folks that expect us now. I wonder how they'll feel about the addition of the date cookie? I guess I'll have to take a poll.

So, what's left, you ask? Well, we are going to play Secret Santa tonight. No pics, of course, because then it isn't secret! We are, if the rain has stopped by then, going on a hayride to look at Christmas lights on Thursday night. We are having Claudia and Eric over on Friday morning, and Gena and Jaxson over on Friday evening. I still have to watch my Christmas movies - Rudolph, Frosty, and Grinch. We are having the missionaries over on Christmas Eve for homemade soup and homemade bread. I figured it was significantly different than what they'd get Christmas day! Matthew is coming home on Friday. There's the Christmas story to read Christmas Eve. And of course Christmas Day with presents, our Christmas breakfast, and a lovely service at church.

Well, folks, that is it. That's what we do in December. It is busy. It is crazy. And I love every minute of it!

In Remembrance

We inherited a lovely, designer tree several years ago from my dear friend Georgia. Georgia had colorectal cancer and knew she was going to die. She put up over 20 designer trees every year. They were her children, as she liked to call them. We were blessed to adopt one of her children - the Santa tree, aptly called because of all the various Santas.

Santas, sleighs, reindeer, flowers, grapes, bows, balls, glass ornaments, gold masks, beads. It is beautiful, don't you think?

She was around to see the tree in our home for 2 Christmases - the year she gave the tree and the year after. She passed on in September of the following year, about the time she would have started decorating. She said that all the "ber" months were game for Christmas decorations. (SeptemBER, OctoBER, NovemBER, and DecemBER).

This one tiny, little tree has 3 rubber maid containers of ornaments. That first year, I had no idea how to get them all on the tree. We called Georgia several times to get pointers. She finally told us that she had faith in us and that was that - we were on our own. It took us 6 hours to get that tree done. She visited and said it was prettier than when she had done it. That was very sweet, but we didn't believe her for a minute. She had a designer's eye and all her trees were beautiful.

The second year, it only took us about 4 hours to put up the tree. Georgia, once again, came to visit her tree and make sure the adoptive parents were doing the tree justice. Her smile said we were doing just fine.

Keith added the train 2 Christmases ago. 

You'd think that trying to get them all to smile AND look at the camera would be easier now that they are older. Umm...no.

 Now we have gotten the decorating down to about 2 1/2 hours. It would be shorter if we had a prelit tree, but I just can't bare to let anything of Georgia's go away. For now, at least, I'll carefully string lights up and down each branch and watch everything take on a magical sparkle.

Here's to my friend Georgia. May her memory always live on in the hearts of those that loved her.

Georgia and my son Matthew before he left on his mission to Germany.

Fa La La La La La La La La

First of all, yes, there are the right amount of "La"s in my title. I know, because I sang it as I typed!

I love the Christmas season. I truly find it joyous. I love thinking about my Savior. And I love sharing Christmas traditions with my family. And traditions we have!

December starts with our count down calendar. We make it each year from last year's Christmas cards. We cut out pictures that represent what we will do that day. Then we hang it on the wall and the countdown begins.

Day 2 is my Christmas village. I have been collecting my village since 1989. I have 81 pieces now. Candy shop, clock shop, taylor, coal shop, grocery stores, bakeries, churches, book store, music store, city hall, opera house, police and fire, school and library, and the list goes on. I did notice that I have no medical personnel and no pharmacy. I'll keep looking - certainly there is a doctor's office somewhere out there. This year's addition is the German castle my son got me for Christmas while he was in Germany. It sits up on a hill and looks down majestically over the village. It is beautiful, if I do say so myself. I love looking at my village and pretending I live there. I imagine going into the shops, stopping at the train station to pick up relatives, heading on over to the Christmas tree farm, chatting with  the farmer as he saws logs, listening to the choirs practice O Come All Ye Faithful. I have a picture - it won't do it justice, but it might give you a small feel for it.

The castle is on top of the hill. My first piece is the Tudor house on the very right side of the tier below the castle.

This is the center of town. In the gazebo is a little man playing the violin.

Day 3, yesterday, was the Annual Sanford Christmas Parade. I love parades - even cheesy small town parades. You know you live in a small town when one of the trucks from the road division of Sanford has a brightly lit snowman on the back. Or one of the local plumbers has a float with a toilet on the back, water spraying out of it, and a man standing there with a plunger looking confused. Really. It was there. 2 marching bands. A few dancing and gymnastics groups. The karate group. Church groups. Very loud motorcycles. Some 4 wheelers. The community college. Several beauty queens for things like Miss Pinecone and Miss Brick City. Police and sheriff and fire engines galore - all with sirens blazing. We even had a semi from a local trucking company. It all ended with Santa riding in a 1925 fire engine. We bought the kids cotton candy and popcorn. We made quite an evening of it. The only problem was that it was too warm. It didn't FEEL like a Christmas parade. Ah well, you can't have it all.

Before the parade. Have you ever noticed that my mouth is HUGE? It takes up half my face.

I will be writing about more of our traditions as they happen. Suffice it to say, you may get quite tired of the Clark household before the season is over!