Christmas Week 2012 - Part One

Christmas Week Part I

 Here we go ... its Monday and Christmas Eve ... I am busy getting Bethlehem Dinner prepared, with the help of Dad, when he is not distracted by his boys .... Sam brought up his trombone, so Spencer went and got the one he, Trevor and Davin had shared growing up... then back to the attic for Dad's trombone ... and we have an impromptu trombone trio.  Sam even worked with grandpa Carlo, until he got him to toot a few notes ... Grandpa had a delightful time, though he was concerned when Beckie was bothered by the volume of sound and said they should not "scare the little cowboy" ... guess Grandpa knows about Beckie's Texas roots.

The table was laid in our wood and pottery best, with rough woven clothes and candlesticks.

Then we gathered the pilgrims, both those that came to Bethlehem to be taxed, as well as those who came from afar following a star.  There were locals gathered there as well, such as the Inn Keeper (Who was repeatedly scorned for his lack of Inn-keeperness) and local shepperds who came to see what all the hullabaloo was about!

 Above are the three kings from the orient ... to the left is Joseph and the 'baby Jesus'.

After Dad read to us from the Gospel of Luke, we watched the boys participating in push up wars, not really sure where that came from.  But as you can see it was Elias, who topped them all, so to speak.

Christmas morning fell on Tuesday.  We had sweet rolls and hot chocolate while we opened gifts ... having Beckie there made it extra fun and we appreciated Emily and Sam's willingness to join the rest of us upstairs ... Spencer was even there in body (if not in spirit, he spent as much time the whole weekend texting and skyping with his friend Brit)

Darby and Beckie open favorite gifts.

Here is Spencer opening his gift from Britney.

And this is Grandpa with his memory book from Emily.  She put it together to help him know the people is is around most of the time.  He has really enjoyed it.

 

Since there are so many pictures already, I decided to do this week in two segments.  The other segments starts with our Christmas lunch.

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?