An Ugly Sweater, a Luncheon, a Duece and a half Wrapping it all up..

On Monday Dad had a party at work, an ugly sweater party ... and he wanted to wear my favorite (and only surviving Christmas sweater, the one his mother gave me.)  What is that about.  Unfortunately Tonya wore the same sweater so those that thought it was an ugly sweater split the vote ....

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, someone was busy slaving over a stack of hot presents that needed wrapping ...   I also finished up the Christmas cards, got them mailed and picked up a few more gifts, which I then wrapped.

On Tuesday I spent the day getting ready for my luncheon with my book club on Wednesday.   Davin and Bri came by in the evening with the Deuce ... even Aunt Cheryl thinks he's nuts ... but when they tell you why they got it, it makes sense.  I finished up my long day setting the table for the party and taking pictures of it, and then, yawn ... blogging about the place cards .... yeah that happens a lot. 

 Then Wednesday morning Emily was sweet enough to think of getting the ice and snow off the walks so the book club ladies would dare risk walking to the house.

Beckie obliged by wearing the colors of my luncheon table, pretty cute eh?

 

 

 Another lady chose the roast recipe, which required a meat thermometer and a crust ... whoa, a first for me on both counts.  Ann Shumway, shown center left, got home from her half year sabbatical in Australia and New Zealand (Her husband is a professor at BYU) ... it was so fun to hear all the wonderful stories she had to share.  That is the day that Grandpa refused to wear his glasses, we later found that one of the nose pieces had broken off, leaving a metal shard ... ouch.

I worked on Thursday, as usual ... then came home and crashed. Dad who had been working in Tooele all week, ran down to St. George to get a shelf count on Thursday, stopping to bring my squeekie cheese on his way home. (my hero)   On Friday I finished up a couple of projects for the Christmas basket for Trevor and Nell ... The spell book is for Scott, the craft kit is for Nell. 

I worked Saturday and Dad stayed home to make another batch of dust to cover my wood floor in the kitchen ... OK, he also managed to get some green board up in the bathroom, tear out some trim from a closet upstairs to retrim the door in the main floor bath, as well as assorted other bit projects that took way longer than they should have.

 When I got home from work, he suggested we watch Love Actually ... which of course I love.  It wasn't until I put my feet up that I noticed the socks I had been wearing all day did not match .... silly me.

Since Spencer's Brit is back in NYC he decided to spend the weekend with us and go to church.  It was great to have him, and we had some great meetings.  I had prayed the night before to be able to feel the spirit and I was amazed how the Lord healed my heart, from that one request.  A woman in the ward who has disliked me for years, was standing in the hall, I made a complimentary comment to her, and felt compelled to give her a hug.  Now I am not really a hugger, but at that moment I felt such a rush of love for her, that I knew it was the spirit telling me to just love her and not worry how she feels about me.  It was very cool. And I just have to say, she was quite surprised.

 

After church Trevor and Nell stopped by on their way to Arizona to pick up their gift basket and drop off their exchange gifts.  It was great to see them for just a minute, though we will definitely miss them on Christmas eve and day. Emily and Sam agreed to join us for dinner, and even managed to talk Ben into coming down.  We were 8 at table, plus Beckie ... pretty good for an off week.  After dinner Spencer got up and cleared the table then did the dishes, what a nice treat for me and Dad. 

 So then we were able to run our neighbor goodies around, after which  all the young adults played games. Oh, and Sam wanted to build a fire too, which turned out to be quite smokey, but still fun. Beckie was quite interested in it as well, as you can imagine.

 

Party, Party, Party and Ripping up the Bathroom

Monday was pretty quiet around here.  Dad took Grandpa to Nell's to be tended, as Cheryl calls it.  I stayed home and worked on Christmas cards.  Not sure what I was thinking this year, these little packets of 'scraps' took forever.

 

That night Dad took Grandpa to the Barbershop Show in Salt Lake.  He said Grandpa seemed to enjoy it.  Dad took the pocket talker so he could hear some of it, and he even clapped at the right times.  We hope he enjoyed it.

 

On Tuesday I hosted a girlfriend luncheon here with some of the girls who went to High School with me.  It was pretty low key, just soup and sandwiches.  Debbie, the girl who lived next door to me growing up, and whose grandmother's historic house in Coalville began my love affair with antiques, had been anxious to see the house.  I guess she follows my blog and had seen a bit of it.  This required quite a bit of cleaning as I knew they would want to see upstairs, and I have gotten a little lax since Grandpa has come to live with us.

Wednesday I worked, as did Dad.  He was in Riverton when he needed a vehicle to haul a load, and not wanting to come to Springville to trade cars with me, he called Becca. She offered to bring him her truck to make the trade, and then when he went to trade back, she had cleaned out and vacuumed his car.  When he made a comment, she said, "Well, you are always doing stuff for us kids, I just thought someone should do something for you."  Isn't she darling?

 

That night we had a bit of Beckie time, as you can see above.  She was so cute when Dad was reading to her, every time he turned a page she bent over and kissed it.  Maybe we have another reader in the family?

 

 

On Thursday at work I worked on cutting out more elements for my Christmas cards, oh and I rang up some sales too!!

Dad took the day off on Friday, and really got ripping on the bathroom.  He pulled down the rest of the tile, except the ceiling over where the tub was.  He is going to bed very sore most nights, but he still goes at it like he did as a youngster. 

 

That evening Spencer stopped by to get a hair cut.  After I had cut the sides, but before doing the top, it was easy to take his wavy hair and do a Bendo!!  It was fun to visit a bit, especially since we missed seeing him at Dad's work party the next day.

That night Dad and I took off to Home Depot to choose the tile for the bathroom.  Then did some grocery shopping on the way home.

Saturday, early, we were off to Salt Lake for Dad's work party at Hollywood Connection.  We had Ashley and Andy's kids, as shown to the left are Kim and Show-n-tell.

Ben brought Mindy along and helped keep an eye on Mr. Zach ... Ian was looking especially dapper! (I think he might be the next Indiana Jones, what do you think?)

After the movie I took off to meet my friend Wendy at a Jane Austen Birthday Tea, while Dad took the kids and Ben home.  (Mindy headed to Logan after the event.)

Then after church on Sunday we all got together to celebrate Hanukkah in our own unique way.  Everyone asked how we are Jewish so I told them, My mother, Norma Clark's  father Jonah Clark's mother Charlotte Neal's mother, Amelia Brittingham was Jewish.  I think they were all disappointed to be only 1/32 Jewish.  But since, in Jewish Heritage, the Jewish bloodline runs through the mother, we could consider Jonah to be full, my mother to be half, me a quarter, and that makes my kids an 8th, by slightly warped reckoning.  Hmmm

 
Here we are eating Potato Latke's and applesauce ...

 

Then it was time for Grandpa to read Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins.

 

Next on the docket was Trevor singing Adam Sandler's Hanukkah song, a personal favorite of mine.  Beckie really liked the beat as you can see below, she is really getting her boogie on.

Next it was time for every one's favorite part of Hanukkah, spinning the dreidal to win M and M's ... Spencer insisted on Peanut M and M's this year....

 




















Eva felt pretty good about winning, and it wasn't hard to tell.

It was a fun night, and I even got to hold one of my darling grandchildren while she slept another favorite of mine. This is our youngest, Adilyn, who is slated to show up in the staring role of the nativity ... ya'll come back now ... hear?

Pie Ala Mode, Cheesecake, Pecan Pie, Chocolates and Chocolate Cake .... La La La

Another week has gone down in history and with it enough desserts to send an elephant into diabetic shock!!  I am sure you would love to hear all the sweet and gory details.

 

On Monday the couple that had planned to host our FHE group cancelled, as the husband was ill.  She brought over goodies for our treat ... Dad taught the lesson and we had warm Cutie Pies with Ice cream!!

 

 

On Tuesday I spent the better part of my day helping Emily with a 7 course meal for the Young Women's, Young Women in Excellence program, or whatever they call the end of year gala now.  I provided the china and stem ware for 28 people ...  We went to set up at 4:00 P.M., Dad brought Grandpa home from Nell's about that time, so we left Cheryl in charge of him while we worked.  I came home to feed him, then again to put him to bed, otherwise I was there from 4:00 until 9:00 ... mainly washing dishes, as Emily filled them and served them.  Bonnie Harman did come into the kitchen and join the forces, bless her cotton socks!  We had a lovely caramel cheese cake for dessert.

On Wednesday I took the makings of this family photo garland to work with me and put it together... I was getting ready to finish up my decorating as we were hosting the soup and salad course of a ward progressive dinner the next day.  It was pretty tough though, no treats or dessert ALL DAY!  That night Dad came home early from work and cut down the volunteer pine that had been growing out back, and that we had decided needed to come out back in July ... He set it up and I decorated it in the dining room so it could greet our guests the next day.

 

Here is our table ready for the progressive dinner on Thursday.  I ran home from work to heat the soup while Dad went to the church for appetizers.

 Here we are at Jane Johnson's for dessert, she is our official Southern Girl and so of course she made pecan pie .... yummy!!  Then she showed us some of her husband's butterfly collection. The one Jill Wilson is holding looks like leaves, but it is the underside of a beautiful butterflies wings.

 On Friday I was hanging out at home with Emily and Beckie, Spencer came by to work on a birthday gift for Brittney, so we got to see him for a few minutes.  He is shown here playing with Beckie.

Scott and I had talked about watching a movie that night, after all Friday is date night, right?  He called about three to say someone had called him and asked him to take their shift at the temple ... I told him I was sure he had declined, because if he hadn't he better be prepared to bring his wife chocolate ... lots of chocolate to make it up to her ... and so ....

... I stayed home and tended Grandpa and played scrabble .... YIKES!!

 

Of course chocolates were' my just dessert' for the day!!

 

On Saturday we were off pretty early (for me, not for Dad he had already run 6 miles, showered, and tried to get Grandpa up and going) we headed off to breakfast with Santa at the ward.  It was fun to visit with ward members

 

See what pregnant girls are wearing when they go to church events now?  I thought they were very festive!

Dad got to read a story to the kiddies as part of the program ... note Beckie right at his knee.

Then when we got home the real men with the real tools got going on the real work ... he and Sam ripped off tile and plaster so they could rip out the tub in the bathroom on the the main floor bathroom.  A couple of weeks ago Grandpa refused to step up and into the tub to shower.  Dad has been using a sponge bath method since, supplemented by Becca helping grandpa shower at Nell's on Tuesdays (You may recall Becca got a degree as a CNA and used to do this at a Nursing Home) ...  Dad ordered the shower pan to replace the tub, and it came on Friday, so....

 

Emily fixed them a nice lunch, then it was back to the Salt Mines, so to speak.

 

 I took about 6 hours, but they finally got it out, phew!!

On Sunday, after all our church meetings, Dad and I met up with my siblings and their spouses at Ross' and we had a nice dinner and watched the old family movies together.  It was pretty fun.

And since I know you are wondering, we had this big fat bakery chocolate cake for dessert.  Yummmm.