Egad, We're Mad for Plaid

So this week was full of plaids, get togethers, and fun. I loved this pic that Britt posted of Charlie, with her doll, all resplendent in a red plaid, so perfect for start of the week.

I started with a luncheon for ladies in my neighborhood, and based it on the 12 days of Christmas.

The food was all based on the 12 days as well.  The dessert, top left, included reference to 3 verses. A ladies' finger base (Ladies dancing), with Grasshopper pie filling (Lords a leaping), and a white chocolate swan floating on top (swans a swimming of course)  Upper right are the 'golden rings', in the middle you'll see the French Hen soup (French Cut green beans and chicken) and the Piper's piping bread sticks.  On the bottom is the pear salad, and the chicken pot pie (Four (and twenty) black birds baked in a pie).

It was so fun that Joyce agreed to come.  I had invited her to all my holiday functions, but this was the only one she was interested in.  You see here with the bags filled with the 12 days of Christmas gifts I sent home with her to open until Christmas.

Hurrah says Charlie

On Tuesday I had another luncheon, my third meal in three days, when you count the Bethlehem dinner on Sunday. This time it was with my book club ladies.  We had read Highland Christmas, about a small town Scottish detective.  I was thrilled because it meant I would get to use  the plaid dishes I bought in the spring.  I also cut strips of plaid wool for the ladies who didn't have any plaid to wear.  Here I am with my renter, Lillian.

So here is my place-setting.

and center piece.

I even borrowed Dad's sport kilt.

I ended up adding the soup bowls too, as one of the gals showed up with classic Scottish carrot soup.

I even ran across the bubble lights that morning, happily, as they always lift my spirits.

Here are Ann, KD, Carolyn, Suzanne and Stephanie.

Also Sandy, Brittany, Heather and me.

First course was the soup, followed by a green salad, 2 Types of Scottish potatoes, Vegetarian Haggis, Morgan Rolls, and smoked Salmon, a favorite in Scotland at Christmas time.

After lunch we moved into the living room for our book gift exchange, done white elephant style.

To the left you see Cheryl and Lillian, who I didn't manage to get in the table shots.

After our book exchange, we had desserts, including twix bars, like Nell used to make, with a Scottish short bread base.  Also Clootie dumpling with ice cream and deep fried Mars bars.  All traditional favorites in Scotland.

That night we met up with Davin's family for an art show.  It was fun to see Elias' works of art.

He is so cute.

I loved these.

Another of Elias' pieces.

and I was lucky enough to win this original painting in the art auction.

We went to Cubby's afterward for dinner.  Sadly Ian doesn't work there anymore, but we like their vegan options.

On Wednesday morning, I met up with Ann to go snow shoeing, at Peteetneet. 

But at the end I couldn't get my shoes out of the snow shoes, so I took them off and walked in my stocking feel to the car ... brrr.

Dad went to Darby's, and when he got there, the driveway was completely blocked by what a snow plow had deposited, going down Redwood road.  He parked in the median, and got out and started shoveling away at the crusty embankment.  When along came a white knight on a, well not a white horse, but a green deer, John Deere that is..  What a nice neighbor.

On Thursday, Dad picked my up after work, and after his temple shift,  and we headed to Salt Lake where we attended a wedding reception for one of our former missionaries.  We ran into the Shurtz, the office missionaries that trained us for the office. 

Here we are with Annika Quick and her husband, Kody. 

Here are some other missionaries we served with.

We stopped by Darby's on the home to see the new laundry closet set up.  She showed us a bit of decor she plans to add.

Friday was my second day to go snow shoeing,  we went to Peteeneet again.

Its such great exercise. 

That night we took the van to Trevor, for his charity trip before heading to Thanksgiving Point for Becca's Movie Night.

Mac loved the great Spider Man.

It was also fun to see the testimonials before the movie.  Here are Hannah and Becca,

and Barb, how fun is that.

Saturday morning, we picked up our 11 year old grandsons and went the Tracy Aviary to help with the Christmas Bird Count.  Its the oldest continuous science project in the nation. Spencer and Van met us there.

These are the birds we saw, Black cap chickadees, House Finches, two kinds of seagulls, American Coots, Canadian Geese, Mallard ducks, a Hooded Merganser and lots of starlings.  It was fun to find out that in the 1800s a Shakespeare enthusiast went to England and caught all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare's works, including starlings, and brought them back and released them in Central Park.

Fun was had by all, and Van was the youngest bird counter to participate this year.

We stopped at DI in Sugarhouse on our way to lunch, where I found a beautiful gray kilt.  I am so excited. 

Elias bought himself a short length of pipe at DI to use as an icicle harvester.

While we were at Sushi Groove, where we had lunch.  He brought in the great icicles he had harvested.  The sushi was great and the restaurant is where Uncle Kelly works.  So now we know he normally comes in after four, we plan to go there to eat again, no sacrifice there, so we can see him.

Then Saturday night there was another Finnish missionary's wedding reception, Callie (Hollingsworth) Mann and her husband Kody.

Isn't her veil just stunning?

We also ran into another missionary there, Kali Godfrey. Its always lovely to make such connections.  It always takes us back to the wonderful times we spent in Finland.

After we got home, I decoupaged plaid wrapping paper on the little tin I had brought home from the shop. I would love more of these, but I've had no luck finding them.  So I covered it while we were watching a Christmas romance. 

... and just for fun, I thought I'd include a picture of the goodies that Trevor and Nell and their family are taking to Mexico for their humanitarian project.

It was also fun to get this picture of the loaded truck that Sam is currently driving to the tornado damaged towns in Kentucky even as I write.   It feels so good to know that our children care about such things, and I love how they support each other in doing such good works.  Love you all.

and just to finish up, or should I say just to Finnish up, I thought I'd leave this bit of Finnish art of a little girl in a plaid skirt.  The Mother Teresa quote seems to be perfect as well.  Dad just happened to choose it for a post on FB this week.  It kind of brings all this week's themes together, Plaid, Service, Finland and Christmas.  Hope yours is amazing.