HOME SHOW

This is our home.....

This is our home in winter......

This is Chuck and I at the home show looking for ideas to tweak our home to perfection......

While Chuck is stopping at booths featuring home security systems, water softeners, landscapers, solar panels and all sorts of other practical items, I had a different agenda........

Finding food to eat and a comfy place to get off my feet.

I was also interested in displays of holiday decorating.....

And a cute Valentine garland made from  cupcake liners.......

THE LONG SLOG

It's really called snow shoeing, but it feels like slogging.  Is that really a word or did I just make it up. It is fun to do, and convenient- right out  our back door.  And truly, with this deep fluffy powder its the only way to get around our back yard and visit our neighbors......

After spending some time outdoors with the hubby-

It is wonderful to come home and have homemade soup.  Ham and bean from the leftover Christmas ham.

IT'S FOR THE BIRDS

So you know those bird seed ornaments that I made for Christmas neighbor gifts, that Chuck thought were so lame that I changed my mind about giving them away? I decided to hang them in my own yard, to see if I could coax any local birds out of hiding.  Although I've been told that the only birds that winter over here are the Magpies and the Ravens, I have heard other birds even though I haven't seen them.

Interesting side note: I did give one bird seed ornament to a sister in the ward that I visit teach.  She was the one who told me all the local birds flew to warmer climates for the winter, except for the Magpies- then she exclaimed "I hate Magpies! They are chattering, hateful birds!" The back story is that she was raised in a rural farming community back in the 40's and farmers considered magpies to be destructive to crops. She was too young at the time to know specifically what damage the magpies did, just was aware they were considered a nuisance.  She said she and her brothers grew up hunting magpies with their sling shots. For every dead magpie they brought to the country store they would be given a nickel. 5 cents was plenty of money back then to buy a candy bar or a small toy. I find it interesting how childhood prejudices linger.

Chuck and I put on our snow shoes a couple of days ago and ventured out to hang my bird seed hearts in the pine trees out behind our house.

Well, by the next morning all 5 seed ornaments that I hung were gone!  I think these guys had something to do with it.

These elk are relaxing about 25 yards from my back door. Don't they look well fed?

JANUARY 2ND- A TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD DAY!

January 2nd is THE MOST depressing day of the year.  It is the day each year when we take down the Christmas tree and put away all the lights and decorations.

The decorations go up each year the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  It is a HUGE job and takes all day. Getting all the decoration boxes down from the rafters, going through everything to remove broken ornaments and lights that no longer work.  Putting up the tree and decorating it is Becca's specialty. We have an artificial 9 foot tree that requires a ladder to decorate, and every year at least one strand of lights has given up the ghost and needs to be replaced. Putting up the outdoor lights is Chuck's domain, although this year I helped by hanging a garland and lights on an outdoor balcony over the garage. I do everything else- mantel, stair banister, table tops, linens, dishes, candles, etc. Stripping the room of the normal decorations to make room for the Christmas things, and then the major cleanup after the decorating is done.

However, the excitement for the coming holiday season is motivating, and then you have the reward of a beautifully decorated house when you are done. I love my house with Christmas decorations- it is so cozy and festive!

On take down day you are going through everything in reverse, but there is no motivation, nothing to look forward to when you are done.  And even though you bring back the normal decorations the house looks stark and barren by comparison.

This year both Chuck and Sam spent most of the day helping me with take down.  The messiest part of all was taking down the live cedar garland on the banister of the stairs and loft that was totally dead and brittle within 48 hours of being hung.

It looked and smelled wonderful for the first 24 hours, after that it was nothing but a fire hazard that hung there for a month.  I am just not used to this dry Utah climate. Washington humidity would have keep it fresh for at least a couple of weeks.

I have since done some research on Pinterest (where else?) and have gotten hints on how to make it last longer. But as it was, all you had to do was breathe on it to make it disintegrate into a shower of green needles.

Sam unwound the lights from around the garland, while Chuck stood below in a hail storm of green, sweeping. Many thanks to my two helpers for taking on the messiest (and itchiest!) job. 

A SPARKLEY NEW YEAR !

Happy New Year to all! May this be the best year ever....

We wrapped 2015 up in style by delivering boxes of sparklers to all our neighbors.

This was in response to the outpouring of gifts/treats  given to us at Christmas by our new neighbors/ward members. I had made bird seed Christmas tree ornaments to give to others which Chuck thought was a lame idea, since everyone else was giving us food.  He was afraid someone would think they were granola or something and try to eat them. The first one I gave to a sister I visit teach, and she promptly told me all the birds around here fly south for the winter (oops!). Shows you how much I know about the local bird population! So I decided maybe it was a lame idea and bagged it.

Chuck and I continued our tradition of going out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant for New Years Eve.  We met up with Dick and June Elder at a restaurant in Draper for a fun dinner in our own little booth in a private alcove.  We felt pretty special.

Afterwards, Chuck and I attended our wards "empty nesters" party, playing board games, watching bowl games and getting to know people in the ward. Great food and great people, we had a really fun time.

It is so weird attending a ward activity basically for seniors.  I am really having a hard time wrapping my head around this "getting old" stuff.  I walk into the room thinking Chuck and I are the youngest in the room, only to find out through conversation others are much younger! I wonder if I look as old to them as they look to me?

My mental image of myself is not aging as quickly as the reality of my physical self (sigh).

WHITE CHRISTMAS!!!

Well, I got the white Christmas I was hoping for!! Chuck made this snowman for the Grandkids, however, before they ever got to see him he was buried in snow!

It is SO exciting to be knee deep (or more) in snow! We are having so much fun, and to have it snow on Christmas day was a bucket list wish fulfilled!

The snow didn't keep anyone away from our Christmas gathering: Sam made it home from school in Idaho, Becca made it here from Bellevue, Chuck's sister Linda drove up from St. George and Rachel and Nate were able to come with the grandkids for Christmas Eve.  So we got to see everyone but Jared and he was sorely missed!

On Saturday, Becca and I decided to be adventurous and go snowshoeing out our back door!

We used the 2 sets of snowshoes I made when I was young women's president in the Somerset ward a million years ago.  Rod Beacham had the necessary equipment and taught me and the Laurel's how to make them. After we were done constructing them, we had a Laurel's retreat to a cabin at Crystal Mountain that we had to snowshoe to- there was no road to the cabin in the winter.  All of our gear, food and supplies had to be backpacked in.

We had a great time, and Young Women leaders that were up to the challenge to trek in on foot, like Sue Dixon and Terri Skeen.  I remember Sue's van actually got stuck in the snow on the way up the hill and had to be left right on the road, where it was towed the next morning so snow plows could get through.  I have no idea how much it must of cost to get her car out of impound!

Those snowshoes have held up over the years and have been the source of a lot of entertainment in the snow- and they are getting a new lease on life!

THE FORCE IS STRONG WITH THIS ONE

I drove up to Idaho last week to celebrate my grandson Douglas' 4th birthday.  Since his party coincided with the opening day of the new Star Wars movie, the theme was an obvious choice.

Rachel did a great job coming up with related activities for the party: storm trooper bowling, jedi knight training (she made light sabers out of wrapping paper tubes and hung balloons from the ceiling that looked like Baba Fett and storm troopers for them to whack, and then a paper craft where they could make their own R2-D2. Culminating with a storm trooper cake. It was a cute and creative party!

While I was there, I picked Sam up from college to bring home for the holidays. As he is now off track he will be here until April. Giving us the opportunity to go see the new Star Wars movie together as a family, minus Jared who is still in Washington.

Douglas (sitting next to Rachel not looking at the camera) wore his Darth Vader Costume to the movie!! So cute!