I resolve...

I've never been good at making New Years' resolutions...   yeah, I should probably lose that last 5 pounds... it was 10 yesterday but the flu is good for something right?  I should probably teach my kids to cook - and I should probably spend more time in religious reflection.  Somehow though - writing these things down on a scrap of paper never does the trick... maybe a tattoo?  Oh wait, maybe not...

this year - I am resolving something, you see this has been a little bit of a “come to God” month for me - with two dear friends/relations who are incidentally YOUNGER than me suffering from maladies that I have formerly “poo-poohed” being as I am far too young and vibrant to be victim to such things... well - apparently I am not because both of these people were younger - and more vibrant than I!  (and no, they're not being victim to these things - they're doing great)  With complete respect for their various trials I will not go into depth, but I'll take the warning to heart and this year I resolve to get a check up - my doctor won’t recognize me it’s been so long, but I’ll be making that phone call.  I'm willing to endure a little pinch/squish/look the other way and pretend that this is not the most uncomfortable procedure in the world for that little peace of mind.  

So - to my two dear friends/relations who have inspired me - I love you and thank you - and if you need a meal brought in I make a MEAN homemade chicken noodle soup!

I have a curious craving for Blancmange...

- and I don't even know what it is!  I just finished reading Heidi Ashworth's new book Miss Delacourt Speaks Her Mind - and enjoyed it thoroughly!  Some of you may have paid enough attention to remember that I won this book in a random drawing just a few weeks past and until yesterday my life had me a little too busy to devote the proper time... so I began reading it last night... and finished it this morning - 263 pages of amusement, delight, snickering, and joy.

Note:  this is SO outside the usual genre of book that I read.  I knew that going in but given that Heidi (I have a strong desire to call her Miss Ashworth after reading this book) has quite the bloggy wit I decided that it was worth the risk.  

The book is labeled a "historical romance" and reminds me of reading Jane Austen... except I hesitate to say that because while I fully enjoyed this and found it an easy and relaxing read - Austen can be taxing to my psyche.  I thought the characters in Heidi's books were great - there were a few that I would enjoy having for supper and a few that I would cross the street to avoid!  Her obvious familiarity with the works of Shakespeare had me so involved in their "recitations" that I almost forgot I was reading a work of fiction!

My only suggestion for improving the book - a recipe for blancmange so I didn't have to go look it up on Wikipedia right now :)   Oh... hmmm, maybe I'll just have a cookie... that looks difficult to make!

A little of this, a little of that...

This is as close as we could get - M, like many a young child is a tad bit afeared of the man in the red suit...  so when we were hanging out at the Elementary school waiting for H's party and he walked in, suddenly I had a 4 year old to carry around.  She's getting a tad bit heavy to be carried around constantly so I tried to talk her down.  "look, Santa's nice right?" "yes, he brings me presents" "wouldn't you like to go and tell Santa thank you" "no" "what do you want to tell him" (thinking I would get her wish list...) "I tell him that T is naughty" (my oldest son, not ME of course)...  Poor T must have really ticked her off that morning!The Ham Junkie - because I was feeling bad that W was so under-represented in the blog until now I was paying special attention to him with the camera... well, that and the fact that this kid was so excited for Ham that he was doing Happy little dances all over the house!  I think he even wrote a song devoted to the heavenly meat!  He even requested that we save the ham-bone... not for use in a delectable soup - but he just wanted to gnaw on it later.  

My favorite Christmas gift!  Some of you may know that for the past... ermmm - let's call it 3 years I have been asked what I wanted for Christmas, my birthday, for dinner - and without fail (well, maybe not for dinner) I have answered SHELVES!  I'm an avid reader - and I love not just the stories but the books... a good hardcover with pretty end-papers sets my heart a-flutter more than Edward Cullen!!  Anyway, as always I had "shelves" at the top of my Christmas wish-list.  Actually, aside from the lovely book light that I also received it was the only item on said wish list!  Come Christmas morning I was afraid that I was going to have to put it back on the birthday list yet again...  because honestly - how could the Man Of The House (I would abbreviate that - but who wants to be known as MOTH) really sneak in a carpenter to build the shelves I wanted?  In my own defense, 3 years ago I wanted simpler shelving...  but leave me long enough to dwell on it and now they have to be built in!)  Well, M.O.T.H. came through and although they are not done, he has found a carpenter and so Christmas morning I found a piece of butcher paper taped to the wall with many books drawn on it... the titles he chose were absolutely hi-Lar-E-Us... but mostly inside jokes so I won't go into that :)

The Mess:  5 weeks of shopping, 5 hours of wrapping, 20 minutes of opening...  Worth it?  yep.

A long time since they were recognized!  As we were enjoying our Christmas Dinner and toasting with the Martinelli's Sparkling Cider M.O.T.H. (this might stick... sorry hub) notices their label has their "awards" listed...  and just in case you can't make them out from the photo - the awards say:  Sacramento 1890, San Francisco 1894, Atlanta 1895, Buffalo 1901, Seattle 1909, and San Francisco 1914 - Impressive?  I have no idea if it's impressive - but one does wonder why there have been no awards in nearly a century to brag about?  I hereby award the Martinelli's company with my own award... heck, even this teetotalling family needs a little holiday cheer to toast the holidays with!  Check it out, next year under the ancient awards it just may say "You Asked for It 2008"!

Another Photo of W - hey, he's a cute kid right?  Yesterday we braved the cold out of town and drove up to do some sledding.  W had a little time to practice with his snowboard on the little hills - we skipped the canyon because we just weren't THAT brave!  The kids all had fun, hit a few little jumps, and learned that the new "snowfling" toy also doubles as an emergency trumpet... much to the dismay of our fellow sledders!

The twelve months of 2008... (a.k.a. - our Christmas letter)

No, you don't have to sing...

On the first month of 2008 my favorite (humor me) blogger gave to me an 11 year old sledding on his knee!
On the second month of 2008 my favorite blogger gave to me - two boys in gloves (okay, so we ALL wore gloves... and boots... and as many layers as possible - it's cold at the cabin!)
On the third month of 2008 my favorite blogger gave to me - leaves falling by the tens (of thousands... I don't know why the tree won't drop its leaves in the fall like a normal tree - we have a fun but messy spring)

On the fourth month of 2008 my favorite blogger gave to me - a big party for the herds (Q celebrated the big 4-0 with a surprise 80's party... he was a good sport and is EXTREMELY young and spry and didn't even make me say that!)

On the fifth month of 2008 my favorite blogger gave to me - Five home runs... (W & P both played ball...  I'm not sure about the actual home run number, but hey - do you really believe all the stuff people tell about their kids in their Christmas letters anyway?)
On the sixth month of 2008 my favorite blogger gave to me all the kids at the sand dunes playing (June is HOT around here, but we had to try out a new vehicle at the rental place... only got it stuck twice!)
On the seventh month of 2008 my favorite blogger gave to me - seven people camping but not swimming... (too cold)


One the eighth month of 2008, my favorite blogger gave to me one maid left at home while other were off at school a-milking (hey, they had milk with their lunch - you want Keats go read another blog!)
On the ninth month of 2008 - my favorite blogger gave to me - the nine year old advancing. (Yay! P is a Bear scout!!!)
On the tenth month of 2008 my favorite blogger gave to me - great weather we are keeping
On the eleventh month of 2008 my favorite blogger gave to me - the thankful turkey to quash the griping!

On the twelfth month of 2008 my favorite blogger gave to me - (finally!) that picture of her haircut that we voted on in February (oh, it was November?  yeah, well that didn't work with the meter of the song!  get over it)

And because this post will also serve as a Christmas greeting for the many friends, family and strangers on the street that I invite to come by (and because I'm noticing an absence of H is any of the years' photos) I hope that people will click the following links for a little closer look at the family and their antics this year :)  Merry Christmas - Happy New Year... and no, this is not just a pathetic ploy to get more readers for my blog... but yeah - if it works that way I'm okay with that - come back anytime, leave me a note to say hi - I'm always here :)

Q

T

T (the teenager) or this... if you're into laughing at how short I am... 

W must be an angel because his blog appearances are all brief and sweet

P 

H

M

and honestly - I'm just lucky to have such a great family that doesn't mind me sharing the funny moments of our lives with the world!  Q's a great husband - T's a teenager of the best kind - W really is a super kid with a super sense of humor - P is an early bird without an inside voice but also a heck of a lot of fun - H is my mini-me and gives the best (and most) hugs and kisses this side of the Mississippi - and M... sweet little M, I can't imagine what life would be without her keeping it interesting, fast-paced, and LOUD!

An Ode to Snow...

I freely admit when it comes to the snow

I am known as somewhat of a Grinch

I refuse to go out when it gets too cold

Below 60 and I start to flinch

I've been there - I grew up in Colorado

Where Jack Frost does nip and does pinch

We're not prepared for bad weather you know

So what do you do in a clinch?

Closing the schools when the wind starts to blow

In the desert - that should be a cinch

I have to admit though, it would seem more apropos

Had it snowed more than one measly inch!

In all fairness to the school district - this picture WAS taken last night when the automated phone calls started pouring in to let us know of the cancellation - by this morning there was slightly more accumulation... but let's be honest - rhyming "2 inches" is a lot harder than rhyming "inch"!

What???

Just a little FYI - mostly for Heidi's sake - that I DID find my camera cord (who put it back in its original packaging in the camera box? I was supposed to look there?) and surprisingly enough - the process is actually just as easy as popping my SD card into the Printer/Scanner/Copier/Card Reader that now only functions as a Printer.  Expect LOTS of pictures this week :)

Neighbor Gifts

You know those things that we all think "oh, SO cute" and then shove onto the counter with the rest of them...  the "I felt obligated to give a gift but we're obviously not family so this is what we came up with - hope it's not too useless" type of gift.

Some can be really cute - One year (when the entire neighborhood had come down with the flu just before Christmas vacation) we delivered Snowman bowls and cans of chicken noodle soup...  along with some really cheesy poem about sharing the spirit of the holiday without sharing germs...  I would have shared it with you (because I AM a packrat and it IS here... somewhere) - but one of the downsides of "blogging by the seat of my pants" is that I didn't think of it until I'd already typed it!  Just trust me that it was witty and appropriate to the season!

I was shopping earlier today and the local scrapbook store had a short list of ideas... only I wasn't willing to shell out the $1.50 to buy it, especially since I didn't even get one of them - not because I'm not brilliant, but because the photo didn't show what was IN the bag that went with the saying (and no, I don't remember the saying - only that it was generic)

So - as part of my frugal plan for the day - you all are going to share the cute/crazy/ingenious things you've seen out there!  Ta-dahhh... SO much better than spending the buck fifty right?

To start it off I'll share all the ones I can think of:

Bag of Mini-Marshmallows - "you've been naughty this year - so here's the scoop, all you're getting for Christmas is Snowman poop"

Scented Crayons - "hope you have a stinkin' great Christmas"

Tide or Joy detergent - "... tidings of comfort and Joy"

Big Red Chewing Gum - Hope the Big man in Red brings you all you wish for

Deck of Cards - "Deck the Halls"

Martinelli's Sparkling Cider - Hope your holidays Sparkle with good cheer

Measuring Spoons - Wishing you joy beyond Measure

Paper Christmas Plates - "a bit of disposable Christmas cheer! What could be better? No dishes my dear!"

Jolly Rancher soft chews - "we chews to wish you a jolly holiday"

2 litre of Sprite - "May your day be Merry and Sprite"

Bagged Salad/Dressing - "tossing out a wonderful Christmas wish to you and yours all dressed up with Christmas Cheer"

Cookie Cutters - "cutting out a perfect Christmas wish for you"

Box of Kleenex - "We Tissue a Merry Christmas" 

Chex Mix/Cereal - Santa Chex his list twice - hope you made the cut!

Symphony Candy Bar - just a note of sweet Christmas tidings

Toaster Strudel - May your holidays be warm and Toasty!

Bagels/Cream Cheese - "spreading a little Christmas Shmear"

Scented candle - have a scentsational Christmas

Bounty paper towels - May you receive Bounteous blessings all year long!

Oh for crying out loud - that's probably more than I needed right there!  Oh well...  please share your own - or groan along with me at some of these...  some I've encountered personally - some I stole from a newspaper article (deseret news - 2006) - and I will lay no personal claim on any (except the chicken soup one that I can't find)

Next year - FOR SURE - we are organizing as a neighborhood and donating all the "neighbor gift" funds to the local homeless shelter!!!  That way everyone wins!