Pajama Party 2018

I had accepted the fact that we would not have all of our kids together for Christmas this year. Erika and her family were going to be in Colorado and Derek was going to be coming from South Carolina for just a short time. Still, I ordered pajamas for those who would be at our house on Christmas Eve.

During the Thanksgiving holiday, Derek had several changes in his life plan and ended up moving home to work with LeRoy and reset for the next journey in his adventurous life. Just a couple of weeks before Christmas, Erika called and told me they had decided to make a surprise visit. All of the sudden we were planning an early mini-Christmas and I was so excited!!

Excited enough that as soon as Erika called, I quickly ordered a set of pajamas for Erika's family and said a prayer that they would be at the house soon enough - just four days away. The pajamas got to the house on the same day that Erika's family did.

♥ This is my eternity! ♥

Though the picture doesn't look extremely different from year to year, there were many new changes: Lilly was born, Derek moved across the country and back, Levi and Daymia are having a baby, Justin joined the Utah Jazz Stunt Team, Nathan and Hyrum each now attend new schools. 

Nathan has just hit a major growth spurt and by next year will probably start moving up the height line. With his current growth pattern, we're guessing he will end up right next to Derek, though Derek threatens him that he better not surpass him.

Even Charlie got in on the jammie dress-up party and gave me a toothy grin for his picture.

I've started my own grandma tradition of a first-year ornament for each new grandchild. I absolutely love this picture with Erika and Lilly!

Hallmark does a great job of providing the cute ornaments and my kids are kind enough to be providing the cute grandbabies.

We are so excited to welcome our first grandson to the family! Daymia and Levi will be amazing parents!

We got a good laugh out of Levi's papa bear appearing to nurse as they posed for a picture. Of course, Levi exaggerated the look...and then we had them switch sides for a more modest pose.

Pajamas seem to bring out the sleep side in some, but Lilly was ready for a few more hours of playtime.

There was enough snow the next day for the kids to go out on the four wheeler. Hyrum put his snow clothes right over the top of his jammies. Erika had taken their van to deliver a gift to a friend and Kailee's coat was in there, but that didn't stop her from finding some warm clothes and getting a good feel, and taste, of the cold Idaho snow.

From Bret's Instagram: Had some fun in the snow yesterday! Kailee got pulled on the sled and drove the 4-wheeler with me. She also ate lots of snow and said "mmm this snow is so delicious"!

December Decorations: Part II

The decorations of December were what I had always wanted and everything seemed in it's perfect place. However, I had an unsettled feeling and I couldn't shake it. As the month continued, I gradually began to understand what was missing.

I started reading the Book of Mormon on October 9th with the intention to finish by December 31st and to highlight each reference of Christ as challenged by our prophet. I had never read the scriptures this way but I found that it was so inspiring as I focused more on Christ rather than just stories. As Christmas grew near, I realized that in all my cute decorating and holiday stuff, my small nativities seemed inadequate for His celebration. The big tree in the living room actually seemed to encroach on my space, which is odd since we live in such a big home.

As I sat in my living room looking at all the decorations I had collected over the years, I realized that I wanted a large manger. I wanted a focal point that would remind us of Christ in all our holiday preparations instead of focusing on the gifts and parties and decorations. After looking through several online pictures and not finding what I wanted, I commissioned Derek to build me a manger.

We went to the shed and found scrap wood, printed a picture that was closest to what I had in mind, decided on a height and he drew up some plans with measurements. The scrap wood worked perfect for the legs, but we wanted a more raw wood (instead of finished) for the sides and we also decided on nails instead of screws to make it feel more carpenter authentic. So, a quick trip to Home Depot and $11 later, he was back to the saw.

Hyrum helped him with the finish work and together, my modern carpenters built a manger.

It is more perfect than I had imagined. The size is spot on. The raw wood is beautiful.

I initially planned to leave it sitting next to the big tree but I still felt that the tree was taking up too much space, both literally and spiritually. So, I carefully dragged the large tree to the center of the room to see if I would like a different arrangement with the manger as the focal point. I moved the "Jesus Tree" over by the manger and gathered up some treasured nativities and kept the hand print tree to represent our family in the Christ centered setting.

It came together so well that I decided to take the large tree down all together. I undecorated it, took it apart and began hauling it downstairs when I realized that the top section of the large tree fit perfectly sitting next to the manger. So, there it remained.

I was a little nervous about how the kids would feel of my drastic redecorating. Hyrum did express that he missed the big tree but later told me he loved the manger. The others didn't seem too phased by it. After all, we do have five other trees around the house, albeit small. In brief explanations, scattered among questions, observations and conversations, I explained my reasoning and each child seemed okay with it, though not verbalizing support or disapproval. I'll still put the large tree up in a less center-of-attention place next year but this year, the new tradition was set and I will have the manger as the focal point for every year to come.

Above the manger is my favorite Christ-child picture with the phrase "The dawn of Redeeming Grace" on it, as well as nativities that hold special meaning to me. From left to right, the nativity set from Sarah d'Evegnee, the Holy Family from Kellie Boyd when they were living in Africa, and on the far right, a stable scene that Terra Sargeant burned into a wood ornament for me.

I hung in the manger a sign that Sarah d'Evegnee gave me with the scripture from the Book of Mormon, "Lift up your head and be of good cheer for . . . on the morrow come I into the world". That one phrase represents the first Christmas in the Nephite land when all the unbelievers had set aside a date for all the believers to be killed but in answer to prayer, Christ gave this comfort. The night with no darkness and this promise represented His birth to the people of the Americas.

LeRoy and I put all the gifts around the Jesus tree and manger for Christmas morning. Our family loves to use large boxes to disguise the size and shape of gifts so the gift giving always looks so big, but this year they did not seem to take away from the focal point of our celebration. I loved watching Hyrum and Daymia take the gifts from around and in the manger as they handed them out Christmas morning.

After all our gifting was over and a quick tidy was done of the room, I tossed Nathan's stocking into the manger because it was empty and I didn't want it lost among all the other stuff.  My mind had me take a second look as I noticed how appropriate it was for this particular stocking to be sitting in the manger. After all the singing, story telling, partying and gifting, He is the reason we celebrate. He is the subtle giver of grace, peace, joy and love. The real gifts that make up the Christmas season.

December Decorations: Part I

My favorite decorations are the ones that we made together as a family.

Our footprint snowmen were made in 2011 when Vivien was living with us. Each person got to paint their own hats on, giving them personality closer to their footprint owners.

In 2012 we went from footprints to hand prints to make a tree. In 2013 we used thumb prints for a string of colorful lights. We revisited the hand print theme in December 2017 and added cute baby hand prints of our first grandchild, Kailee Jo.

In 2015 we added our faces to cute little snowmen. Erika's is one of my favorites as she holds her pregnant snowman belly, just like she did while pregnant that year with Kailee Jo. The boys were surprised, and gave me a hard time, that we'd only had Charlie for a year and he made the snowman cut but our cats Harrison (age 12) and Oliver (age 6) didn't make the snowman tree.

Trees are my favorite Christmas decorations. I have several and each has a purpose.

My favorite tree is the one that we decorate with pictures and names of Christ. It stands near the stairway lit with white, reminding us of His light and love.

I also love the tree that is designated for the kids picture ornaments. It holds time still each December as decades of school ornament projects show me their young faces and I'm flooded with memories of my babies.

The big tree in the living room represents a stage of life that I get to decorate my own tree while the little tree in the stairwell holds the yearly Hallmark ornaments that Grandma Hawkins gave to the older kids each year.

Trees also line the mantle and the runner above the couch is my latest sewn project, also full of trees.

Our window nativity is guarded by simple trees as our homemade paper snowflakes sparkle the window sky.

Poinsettias have been my favorite table decoration for the last couple of years. The vibrant red brightens our white-out yard and wood brown kitchen.

I do love the Christmas holiday and over the years I have shopped clearance sales after each Christmas to gather all of my decorations. The house feels cozy, well lit, and joyful. However, this year was different. I love the whole set up but something felt off. Something was missing.

Christmas Gingerbread Houses

With pounds of sugar and a mess of candies, we created a sweet little village scene using our creativity and imagination.

Per our usual, laughter and silliness were in abundance, as well as finger licking and sugary snitching.

This was Derek's first time doing gingerbread houses with us. His building skills came in handy but he found that depending on icing for stability was much less dependable than his usual nail and screw structures.

Fall Decor

Fall is my favorite time of year to decorate for. 

I love the orange, red and yellow of fall leaves. 

I love pumpkins and owls and the occasional lingering October decorations and I love the fact that Jesus is here for me through every holiday.

I love the pilgrims and indians for working things out to have a peaceful meal. 

I love harvesting my garden and prepping it for the next year. 

I love focusing on gratitude and I love these cute little turkeys.

Sweet Lilly joined the turkey rafter this year.

Garden Harvest

July was a yummy month full peas, spinach and a few strawberries. By the end of the month we were also enjoying such a bountiful raspberry harvest that we had to call in neighbors to relieve our bushes of their red, juicy goodness while we were in Georgia.

We left the land of Georgia peaches to come home to boxes of Idaho peaches, which were quickly preserved for a winter treat.

August was also produced an abundance of beans, onions, a few beets, the best cucumbers I'd ever had and so many tomatoes that we couldn't eat them fast enough.

The daily picking of Sun Sugar Tomatoes lasted nearly a full month before I pulled the plants, not willing to fight the frost for them. I will never plant red cherry tomatoes again. These were heavenly and I'm pretty sure I will crave them right up until the next harvest

I decided to face my fear of the pressure canner and made myself bottle the beans this year. It was the first year that I was actually home when the beans became ripe instead of missing the perfect picking to find dried out, oversized, undesirable beans that only fed the compost pit, so I had to be a big girl and get those perfect gems in jars.

Overcoming the pressure canner boost my ego to the point that I made myself some bottled stew. It took a great amount of reading, planning, and tweaking, but I finally gave it a go. I openly admit that the look of cooked meat in a glass jar is not very appetizing but the taste by far outweighs the looks.

Delicious! I have loved having a bottle ready to open on days that I haven't thought ahead enough to make dinner. 

September melons are divine! The cantaloupe and watermelon were the perfect sweetness and tasted so much better than what we usually find in the stores.

With the weather cooling, it was time to clear the garden and bring in the remainder of our spoils.

My helpers were quite entertaining as they danced around and made up a harvest dance and song to go with the day. I appreciated their help so very much! While they clipped the tops and roots of onions and carrots, I cleared the weeds in preparation for a fall tilling of the ground.

With a quick wash and air dry, and Hyrum making water fountains for a good 20 minutes, our carrots were ready for winter storage. I had tried to store carrots in buckets of sand last year following direct instructions from a neighbor, "store them in buckets of sand". After throwing away a moldy, stinky mess in the spring (partly because I completely forgot about the buckets), I decided to get better instructions. Four layers of damp peat moss and carefully placed carrots later, I'm ready to try again.

When I built a sturdy wooden box for Kellie about 16 years ago, I had no idea that it would come back to me and after sitting in the guest room for several years, it would become the perfect winter box for carrot storage.

For future reference:
*  Damp peat moss lets the carrots have moisture when they need it and absorbs moisture when they don't (pretty smart stuff).

*  Don't let carrots touch each other or the sides of the box.

*  Store in cool, dark place where I will remember that they are there.

I also want to give kudos to the army of workers that spend all spring and summer pollinating our trees, bushes and garden plants. None of this would happen without them! As we were clearing our fall harvest, the bushes bordering our garden were humming as our friends gathered the last of the seasons pollen for winter storage of their own. I'm so grateful to my neighbors who have multiple hives all withing two miles of us. They are a huge part of our success.

Check out the pollen on his legs! I hope to have the dedication of a bee in my own endeavors.

Miss Malibu

Our time has come to an end.
Miss Malibu has served us well.

At the end of her journey,she faces the fate of the skilled surgeon who will determine if she is to be patched up for a short while or will become a mechanical organ donor for others like her to live just a little longer.

She came to us in the cold spring of March 2010, in time for two months worth of Levi and Erika fighting over her for school, dating, work and escaping with friends. The battle ended with Levi’s move after graduation.

She courageously served Erika through the year of Wendy’s greasy shoes and a smashup of bumps after a minor collision at an intersection.

After only a year with us, she spent the next two years valiantly serving in greater responsibilities as our family vehicle, instead of simply the teen car, to replace our pricey, gas hog of a Yukon during our economic struggles of construction and back surgeries. We spent those years with her rythmic clicking ringing in our ears; grateful that she kept on going regardless of her imperfections: missing sun visor, broken door handle, temperamental air conditioning, peeling paint.

She overcame the smells of dirt, mud and moldy coffee after providing Levi a couple of months of reliable transportation to work at a local nursery.

She painstakingly recovered, as did Derek, from a moose attack and a cow mishap on the dark country roads heading home, only to be beaten yet again by a mailbox during an icy slide off.

School friends were so kind to decorate the missing mirror with a cow and to draw cow spots on her side, with a mooing caution written on the window.

The moose really did hit the Malibu, not the other around.

a - big dent where the moose had his legs knocked out from under him and his body rammed into the side of the car

b - shattered and bowing windshield ready to fall
c - fur (and more) that was ripped off the moose as he rolled off the opposite side of the car

A couple of times, she safely escorted our favorite Europeans, Vivien and Gabor, on their Idaho Falls adventures.

* Notice the missing sun visor and the broken door frame, which made it clumsy and awkward to close the door.

She reliably ran early mornings and late evenings with Justin for school, cheer and work, and eventually graduated right along with him to a new state for more school, cheer, and work.

A rainy, spring day of hydroplaning left her with a lovely new swatch of white on her front bumper, yet severely out of alignment and in need of more repair. After minimal adjustments, she survived a few months longer until a worthy replacement could be found.

Come rain, snow, sleet or hail, she was our dependable trooper.

She may not have always been able to give us the comfort of heat or air conditioning but she never failed to get us where we needed to go.

She hobbled back to Rexburg for her last Edwards hurrah, constantly fighting the urge to overheat until she could resist no longer. After a steamy rest, she held her parts together long enough to briefly land herself again in her rightful parking spot of eight years.

Thank you, Miss Malibu, for your years of safe service and seemingly self-healing abilities. You will live on in our memories and stories, still leaving us to wonder: purple or brown?