Eating Here and There and Everywhere.

And its Monday, and the tree we set up on Saturday is still incomplete.  Boxes of ornaments pretty much sat out all week, and everyday, I added a few more ornaments.

I had traded days with Julie, and therefore worked that day.

Dad headed to Darby's to do some demo on her bathroom.

It had snowed and it was freezing, when I was driving home the window fogged badly, I was in the inside lane, and turned on the defroster.  The passenger side cleared, but I couldn't really see on the driver side, then I realized I had papers on the dash that were blocking the defroster. I reached down, while leaning to the right to see where I was going, as I pulled the papers out.  I guess that caused me to miss judge my position, because  I felt and heard what I thought was the side of the van being ripped off against the cement median.  I drove home worrying that the van would be in the shop and Trevor and Nell wouldn't be able to use it to go to Mexico.  When I got home, I parked in the driveway in case the door was jammed and I needed to get out the passenger side.  But then the door opened fine, and there was no damage to the van, other than the missing side mirror.  

Dad ordered a new one that night, that was, with shipping, less than $50. He got the new mirror on Friday and installed it in less than a half hour.

I was so shaken that Dad took me out to dinner at Cafe Rio.  Isn't he the sweetest?

After my heart quit pounding that evening, I found this wonderful Handcart painting by Minerva Teichert.  I was trying to find a picture to use as the base for the Green Tomato Enchilada sauce, that I was going to be giving out in the gift exchange the next day. Now I just need to find a print of this wonderful painting for me.

Tuesday was decorating day at the Mosida Lodge.

How amazing is the garland on our lampilear!?

Someone had left a balloon on the ceiling at a previous event and it took some serious ceiling hockey to retrieve it.  Everyone was laughing so hard as it skittered across the room. And LaVern makes the final capture before Elder Munro commits Balloonacide to make it fall.

Sister Munro and I try out the tree skirts.

Sister Jones and Sister Crump hang ornaments on the garland.

The tree looks great.

The girls... Sisters Smith, Perkins, Crump, Jones, Child and Munro.

The boys Elders Smith, Child, Perkins, Crump and Munro.  With the decor done, we set up tables and shared lunch, then did our gift exchange.  It was a lot of fun.

We were at home for a couple of hours before heading up to Clark and Kimberly Sevy's for dinner.  The snow up their way, in Olympus Cove, was much deeper than it had been in either of the two valley's we had traversed.  Here are Janet Boren and Dad.

Then John Boren with Kimberly and Clark Sevy.

We had Raclette, a French innovation, that Kimberly's sister had enjoyed on her mission in Paris.  Veggies are cooked on the grill, and below the grill on each side are four little 'garages', where you park the cheese of your choice to melt, then pour it over your grilled meats and/or veggies.  Sooo yummy.

Doesn't it all look amazing?

On Wednesday I had a date with some girls, and Dad spent some time putting the lights on our fence, a tradition that was started when Sam lived in our basement and went out and bought the lights to do this.  Of course we always remember his generosity whenever they go up. (These of course are the next generation of LED lights that cost A LOT less to use,)

Julie Smith had invited LaVern and me to do some fun junking and lunching with her and two friends the next day.  As it happens LaVern knew one of the friends and I knew the other.  Here we are at Home Again near Gardener Village where we also spent time shopping.  Here we have Jill Chestnut (Dad was in the Branch Presidency with her husband Rick, when they worked with the several nursing homes in our stake before our first mission), then LaVern Crump, me, Julie Smith and Kerrie Bateman who is a neighbor to LaVern in Genola, and a neighbor to Mosida, and is sometimes in Julie's ward.  Yes the Bateman's  have two houses, a farm house and a town house.  Then, just to make it more tangled LaVern realized that she knew Jill too, as she and Jill used to spend a lot of time ministering (Not as in church organized) to the same former alcoholic and antique and doll dealer, who lived in Payson, and was pretty needy.  I actually knew her as well, mostly through doll repairs and her great garage sales. Phew, I know too much information.  

Kerrie Batemen fell in love with these 'German dolls', not, they are Netty's Gnomes, which I collect.  I knew Nettie, she shopped at Treasures for her adorable details.  I told Kerrie about the maker, and that they had been hand crafted by her, a doll artist in Springville, and she ended up buying two of them.

Yep, I'm a fan, this is my Christmas contingent.

We had Mexican for lunch.

There was also some DI shopping in Saratoga Springs mixed in there, for a lovely Midday.  Thanks Julie!!  After our outing I headed straight to work to finish out the day.

  

That evening I got out my angel collection and set them up in the parlor, a first.  They have here to fore found their home in the kitchen.

Thursday was Zach's 14th birthday.  That just feels crazy that he would be that old. Now he is taller than his 24 year old sister.

I finally finished up the tree, but it would take another day for the room to be cleared of boxes.

Loved this cute post of a favorite Christmas elf.

Thursday was a crazy day.  I prepared food in the morning for our Relief Society Activity that night, then did some ministering visits before taking taking the food to the sister who ministers to me, as she had agreed to take my food over to the church for me later.

Then I headed over to the 100 dollar show at the Springville Museum of Art.  I was fourth in line, and got there before 3.  By 4:30 Becca had joined me, then Dad came when he was done with the temple, and had picked up the Indian Food we get every other week, then last of all Titan and Reagan  joined us too.

When I went to the basement to use the restroom I saw this chronology of the art museum's history and conception.  I thought, I wonder if Philo's on this wall, and indeed he was ...

I later took Becca and her kids down to see their ancestor.

Its 6:30 and Here we go ....

Loved this three piece painting of the Sacred Grove.

Titan got the painting he had come for.  I had seen a demo on Insta of the gal painting it earlier in the day.  That was fun.

Here's Dad's choice.

And I bought his portrait painted on stacked layers of glass, with gold leaf on the back of the base piece.  So fun.

Can you see our respective pieces on our art wall?

After the art show Dad went to get Mexican with Becca and the kids and I headed to Relief Society.

This is the poster for our Relief Society activity.

And this is our welcome table. I got to the activity in time to enjoy dinner, including my own green salad and butternut squash soup. 

I was one of 6 woman who portrayed the women involved in the birth of Jesus.  I was John's mother, Elizabeth.  It was pretty touching.

Becca came by on Friday morning and literally picked up the chair she was borrowing for her Pictures with Santa activity.

Then I picked up Ann Shumway and we headed up to the German Christmas Market at This is the Place State Park.  I loved this gal's Santa Lucia costume.

Ann and I did this last year, and loved it.

This is the cute old church there that houses the Olympus Clock Shop for the market.

I really wanted this tiny nativity.  Its French, I think, but the price was too dear for me.  I think I would use it just like this, well I would if I had an antique carved round bread board, anyway. Isn't it charming?

 We had so much fun at the market that we ran out of time for lunch, and just shared a loaf of sour dough bread on the way home.  I am always happy when I run into the Wandering Wheat Sourdough Truck. 

I got home just in time to make the Salmon Soup for our little dinner and Hallmark Movie night at Heuers.

Robin had a Christmas theme snuggly throw for each of us to use.  I thought it was so festive.  Barb and Randy made broiled cheese melt sandwiches, and Robin made Zucchini and Yellow Squash as well as a super fun pie/cookie dessert. 

Dad had run out earlier that day, and used the items pictured, to choose a hallway paint color,

Do you see that blueish green in common here?

He bought the paint on Friday and started painting on Saturday.  

He cleaned up so that we could take one of our ministering families to lunch for their Christmas gift from us. They always choose Mi Rancherito, which we also enjoy.  It was really nice.  They have a son just Zach's age who goes to a school for autistic kids in mid county somewhere.  Sounded like a great program. 

Then we stopped by to see Nina.  She had knee surgery earlier in the week, which I found out when I was trying to get in touch with her to invite her to a sibling dinner on the 13th.  Sarah told me where she was, so we got to visit for a bit.  She is shown here with her friend Ken.  It was so fun to hear that he was the young man she sent a dear John to on his mission when she met your uncle Emory.  His wife passed last year and he tracked Nina down.  It was super fun to get to know him.

and here we are with Nina.  We're hoping she'll feel good enough to come to dinner since she has a week and a half, but I also know how knee surgery is, just from having so many friends who have been through it.

Unfortunately we got to the Festival of Trees at 6, not knowing that that is when they close.  We did get to wander a bit though.

Here is a sign that made us think of Van and Benny.

How long did it take to collect this many spool of mostly green tread?

 I asked one of the volunteers where the Jane Austen tree was.  Ann had told me about it, which is why I had decided to go on the last day to see it.  We missed the day with the kids on Thursday due to the $100 show.  The women I asked had no idea, and no interest in helping me find it, but a gentleman over heard our conversation and called someone who knew, then he took us right to it.

There were lots of books and related Austen items.

As well as the art that was on the decorative ball that Emma had painted in the Gwyneth Paltrow version.

These small books were perfect for ornaments.

I got a kick out of this truck of gifts and a tree.  I'm guessing it was an entry.  How fun is that?

When we got home we had the Indian Food, which is always amazing.  We had considered skipping, but he is going back to India to visit family for a couple of months, so we didn't want to miss out. 

Today we had the Zeeman's who team teach Gospel Doctrine.  They do such a great job.

After church I finished up my mushroom ornaments that I started in Texas, and put together my mushroom tree in the kitchen.  Its the perfect size.

Dad also wanted to post that our friends, the Holopinens are now the Temple President and Matron in the Helsinki Temple.  Dad served with Pekka on his first mission.  Pekka joined the church as a teenager after being friends with Mark Sandberg, who later married my friend and next door neighbor Claudia.  Mark also returned to Finland to serve at the same time as both Dad and Pekka.  (Mark had been there as a young teen with his family, as his Dad was there on a work mission, to build a chapel in Kuopio.)

Dad was also very happy, via my brother Ross, who, along with his son Rudy, are huge U of U fans. The U are now the PAC-10 Champions for the second year in a row and they will play in the Rose Bowl.

And last of all it was super fun to have Susanne Perkins (Former wife of Dad's cousin Marc) send him this picture and others of her with a Martin Fredburg who served as a missionary with us in Finland. They are both Danes, and interestingly, as a young woman she was also red headed. They are both very talented musicians and worked together on this Church Christmas Program.

 So after fasting it was a quick and easy dinner.  We had left-over potato salad from our Mosida lunch, tossed salad left over from the Relief Society dinner, and salmon soup left from our dinner with the Moes and Heuers. 

We hope that you are enjoying lots of Christmas Festivities and that you are eating well.