Merry Christmas

This was a quiet week leading up to Christmas. Tom continued to do Tithing Settlement on Tuesday, but had no meetings Wednesday and Thursday.

Monday I had an early morning chiropractic appointment. I was wearing shoes that seemed lower on the outside so my feet tended to roll out.  As I left the chiro appointment I thought I’d stop by the cobblers.  Yes.  They could put taps on to give more height there.  Yes, it would be inexpensive.  But… I’d have to leave the shoes. Hmm.  I was just going home after that.  So I took off the shoes, took off my socks, and drove home barefoot.

Monday night Tom and I went to the new Star Wars movie.  We liked it.

I’m moving a Roth IRA account to a new company –TD Ameritrade.  Since it’s in an LLC, it’s complicated with lots of paperwork.  I also want to shift some money from a traditional IRA to this Roth IRA.  But I can’t just move the stock over. I have to cash in the stock, move it to the IRA holding company, transfer it to my LLC and send it to the new account. GAAA. So complicated.  Now I know why I held off doing this. Tuesday was spent filling out paperwork and calling people.

Wednesday we awoke at 6:30 to tornado sirens.  The radio assured us they were about an hour south of us… but the siren encouraged us to spend some time downstairs anyway.  Miranda and family arrived in time for dinner on Wednesday.  I had café rio chicken simmering and Miranda came and made dressing and other goodies to go with it.

Thursday I got up early and made cinnamon rolls and some dinner rolls.  Tasty! We did last minute grocery shopping. I love cell phones.  We must have made a dozen or so calls to Tom, and then Dan, saying, “Oh! Can you get this, too?”  Thursday we made pizza curls and wrapped the last of the presents.  We had a short Christmas Story reading, and after the kids were asleep, out came the gifts.

Our neighbor left to go on a trip on Monday.  Another neighbor was to dog-sit, and we agreed to keep an eye on things and the dog-sitter is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.  Apparently he is not the most reliable one either.  Christmas Eve he called and said, “Someone is coming to visit me tomorrow, I can’t take care of the dogs.”  It was nice that he called…but not so nice that he won’t answer any of our calls back to him.  So we’ve had lots of chances to pet, water, feed, and love on 4 big dogs.  I’m not sure if the neighbor is returning home in a day or two or closer to 5 days.

We had a lovely, relaxed Christmas morning.  The little McClellan boys were delighted with their stocking candy and toys and were perfectly content to wait until after the turkey was in the oven before we opened presents.  They delighted in giving their presents to each other and were really very nice about sharing, waiting their turns and playing with toys.  Miranda and I made a few pies and then worked on all the rest of Christmas dinner.

We had the missionaries over about noon so they could Skype their families.  I planned dinner about 1… but it was closer to 1:30 by the time we sat down.  I forgot the potatoes again, but decided to take the 5 minutes or so to make potato pearls (instant mashed).

Andy and Kera and family opened presents at their house in the morning and then traveled up to our house.  They arrived a little before 2—before we’d put Christmas Dinner away… but after some people had vacated their seats.  It worked out perfectly.

Miranda’s and Kera’s kids play well together.  So they went roaming around outside on the 25^th and 26^th until it started raining. While Deborah and Jonathan have borne the brunt of this storm, we have mostly gotten mild to medium rain—about 3 inches in two days.

Jonathan called on Saturday evening—about 6ish to say they had an inch or so of water in their basement! It was coming up from a drain pipe in the utility room.  Also, blocking the culvert with a cattle panel had caused the culvert to come up out of the ground and prevent them from using their driveway.  They were housebound!

We discussed options and suggested a sump pump.  So a neighbor took Jonathan to town to get one. (They had a place for a pump and an electrical connection for it… but no pump installed.) Once the pump was in (80 gpm) it took about 2 hours to pump all the water out and now it seems to be effective in preventing flooding.  The bishop and a few other members came over late Saturday night and pulled up the carpet and padding and moved all the food storage upstairs.

Andy and Kera planned to go home on Saturday, but we were having such fun playing 5 Crowns and Wacky Six and other games… they decided to stay until Sunday.  So they got some Sunday clothes from Goodwill and the kids looked cute.  The kids enjoyed bead stringing, and constructing and painting.  Somehow we got a good deal of glue on the kitchen table—wood glue, krazy glue, and I don’t know what all.  So I sent them outside to finish while I scraped glue from the table.  It actually came off pretty well.

It was such a delight to go to church and have family fill up the entire pew. I love my family!

The sounds of Christmas

Tom loves Mormon Radio and all through December you can click onto 24 hour Christmas music. We have that music running in the background most every day. The computer times out after about a half hour, so we get periods of silence... until we wake it up again. It has really brought the Christmas spirit into our house. That, and having it all decorated early.

This week I worked on a paint can lid sealer technology. It's certainly lower tech than the nanodots, but also delightfully easy to understand. It's a one whack paint can sealer. I wanted them to call it "Thunk-n-done Sealer" but they went with the more pedantic "The Paint Can Sealer." Faster, better seal so the paint last longer, and the paint in the lip won't splash out on you.

Monday night Tom and I went to see the last of the Hunger Games movies. I think it had a better ending than the book- more resolution. But I didn't like the fact that all through the book she was a pawn for someone else. It was unsatisfying. I wonder, to what degree are we pawns of a "master game-maker."

Speaking of that. As we were driving in Branson this week, we passed a sign that said, "Feed the Sharks."  Tom said, "I thought we did that every time we paid taxes."

I had been thinking of visiting Mom in January. I saw cheap tickets ($268) and decided to go for it. So I called Mom and Cynthia and Susan to check on their lives and schedules. It took a day or so to get everything settled. Then tickets were nearly $400. Yikes. But I remembered the stock market. It goes up and down randomly. And airplane tickets do too. So I checked back and on Saturday they were down to $248!  So I grabbed them. Perhaps they'll drop to $199... but I won't know it. I've stopped checking.

Tuesday I made cranberry nut bread for my visiting teachees and for us. A loaf was still warm when I picked up one of my sort-of-active sisters and took her to the Relief Society Christmas dinner. We had a very special program about women in and around the birth of the Savior. We also witnessed again the miracle of the loaves and fishes as they expected maybe 35 and ended up with 55 sisters in attendance.

Wednesday we finished the Christmas cards and got them ready to go out. Tom had picked up a trailer load of logs from a church member who cleared the forest to build his house. The logs were 4-6 feet long and typically about 2 feet in diameter. So each day Tom went out and cut some of the logs to size and split them. I helped stack them and we got maybe a cord and a half of wood. It's been warm and we have not burned a lot of wood this year.

Thursday we went to Branson. We were meeting some of the kids and grandkids at Silver Dollar City on Friday. We thought we'd go up early and do some shopping and see the shows and stores we wanted to see so we could focus on Friday on what the others had the interest and attention span to do. We dropped off cranberry nut bread at sisters houses and work, dropped off the truck to get fixed and mailed letters and packages on the way out of town.

It really was a delightful, low-stress day. We snacked on the way up. Had "lunch" at Andy's, and visited some stores. We found Christmas presents we were looking for... and some that we hadn't known we "needed." We got to Silver Dollar City about 3:30 and wandered through stores, enjoyed the lights, and saw the parade, and then the musical, "It's a Wonderful Life."  It was about 7:30 pm when the show let out, and it was snowing tiny flakes of snow. It was such a delightful Christmassy feeling to walk in the cold, all bundled up, with tiny flakes coming down.

(If you look carefully at these soldiers, you'll notice only the ones in the middle are real.  The others move their legs in proper order... the feet just don't touch the ground.)

Friday we wandered through Dick's 5 & 10 cent Store. Alas, not much was between 5 and 10 cents, but they have such an amazing variety of things in there. We asked. Inventory takes a full 2 weeks with extra hired help.

Getting family together at Silver Dollar City was more of an ordeal than I had expected. Miranda and Dan were coming and between us we had 3 extra tickets. We invited Deborah to come with her three little ones that didn't need passes. Ian planned to come, too. Then we realized the park didn't open until 1pm. and Deborah would need to leave soon after to pick up kids. So we invited Kristy and her two kids that were at home.

Then Kristy's kids started getting sick. Then on Friday, Ethan wasn't feeling well. So Dan stayed home with Ethan and Miranda, Alex and Camden came. Kristy was slowed a bit with car problems and the danger if a sick child, but she soldiered on.

We first saw Dicken's A Christmas Carol and the kids seemed to enjoy it. Then we went on the Lost Mine ride. They measured Alex and decided he was tall enough... but he was unhappy at the end. It has some dark places and a bit of a roller-coaster ride. That didn't set well with Zachary either. Well, probably it wouldn't have mattered. He puked.

Then he settled into the stroller and was the best sick kid I've ever seen. Others went on rides or played in the ball pit. He watched, slept, zoned out, and occasionally emptied his stomach again. As night came, we watched the parade of lights and the Christmas tree do some of its lights and singing and then headed home. It was a nice time.

 

 

Saturday I caught up on my six zillion emails. I ordered my tickets to go to Mom's and Tom made snickerdoodles. We went to a baptism at 5 pm and then to the Ward Christmas social at 6. We had cookies, Christmas song singing, and a living nativity. I loved the shepherds with missionary badges on... and the sweet infant baby Jesus of our and Mary and Joseph- a young couple in our ward and newborn son.

Santa also came:

 

Today I opened the back door and saw a gray streak running to the barn. I think we now have THREE cats. This one looks like a young one-- couple of months old.

Today at church we had mostly music for our Sacrament meeting. I was beautiful and spiritual.

Cream Cheese Ranch Roll-ups

CREAM CHEESE RANCH ROLL-UPS

INGREDIENTS

·   2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened (I used reduced fat and didn't notice any difference)

·   1 package ranch dressing mix

·   generous ½ cup finely chopped red peppers

·   scant ½ cup finely chopped green onions

·   1 small (2.25-ounce) can chopped black olives

·   4 12-inch flour tortillas

INSTRUCTIONS

1.   In a bowl, combine all ingredients except for tortillas. Lay out tortillas; evenly distribute cream cheese mixture among tortillas and spread just shy of the edges.

2.   Roll up tortillas; wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Slice into ¼-inch slices before serving.

Mini Pizza Rolls

Mini Pizza Rolls

yield: ABOUT 12 PIECES

prep time: 10 MINUTES

cook time: 10 MINUTES

 

total time: 20 MINUTES

Ingredients:

1 can Refrigerated Crescents (or Pizza Dough)

1/4 cup pizza sauce or marinara

3/4 cup shredded Mozzarella Cheese
Pizza toppings of your choice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover a cookie sheet with foil and spray lightly with cooking spray.
Lightly flour a large wooden cutting board. Roll out dough onto the floured surface, pressing seems together as you go.
Spread pizza sauce evenly over the dough, to the edges.
Top with shredded Mozzarella and your choice of pizza toppings.
Roll pizza width-wise (the longest side) and seal the and slice into 1 inch pieces.
Place pinwheels on the prepared cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 9-11 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.
Allow to cool for a couple of minutes then serve with marinara or ranch for dipping.

For larger pinwheels, roll lengthwise (the shortest side). You'll want to make sure the fillings are the same for the whole pizza if you choose this method.

Temple trip

This was a great week!  We had all the Christmas decorations up by Monday afternoon. And then I worked on baking. We’d invited the Empty Nesters over for Family Home Evening (FHE) at our house that evening. I tried a new recipe of pizza swirls—kind of mini pizzas in a spiral shape. They looked attractive and were tasty and easy. (So I made them for Tom’s Bishop Youth Discussion (BYD) today-Sunday). I also made cream cheese ranch rollups with tortillas. Tom made fudge and wassail… then forgot to take out the fudge. Was it an accident?

We had a small group for FHE, but had a good time. We talked about the gifts we would give the Savior this year.

Tuesday morning I had my AWAI Mastermind group call. Most of the people in the group are still struggling to get their first job and I wonder if it’s worth continuing. But I always get something out of the meeting. In the afternoon I had a chiropractic appointment and then went and did a little shopping.

I finished my disposable pH reader website and wrote up notes on a possible technology of mine on an improved battery. I don’t know that it’s enough of a breakthrough technology to move forward with. In so many areas progress seems to be made daily. What’s new today may be outdated by next week.

Thursday Tom and I drove to the temple in St. Louis. It seemed an especially lovely time. Both Tom and I spent some time napping in the car so we were refreshed when we arrived. We did an evening session on Thursday and then went to Trader Joe’s and Five Guys for dinner. Friday we did two more sessions. We were the witness couple all three times which perhaps made it more meaningful. And we took family names and there’s a special spirit to getting our own ancestors’ work done.

On the drive home we stopped a Panera Bread Co. for a late lunch and Aldi’s for groceries. We got back home about 7pm—enough time to catch up on emails.

Saturday was balmy. Actually we’ve had great warm weather. Tom had spent much of the week at one of Rebecca’s houses where the tenant moved out. Tom said it looked like the dog had taken up cribbing on the window sills. (Cribbing is when horses nibble on stall doors and fences.) In the afternoon Tom finished weeding the garden. So it’s mostly put to bed for the winter.

The primary was having a “primary store.” People donated gently used goods for kids to “buy” as gifts for their parents and siblings. Deborah drove over so her kids could partake. Then she stayed for lunch and some grandma-grandkid games. Little Hailey is growing and looking adorable. Of course all her kids are cute.

Today was a sweet day at church. I love to start the morning with choir practice. Then we had a good sacrament meeting. I went to family history and think perhaps I’ve finally found a link to with someone on the Donop side and work that may have been done. Tom had BYD after church. It’s rainy and gloomy outside and we are delighted to feel snug and warm inside with twinkly Christmas lights.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It’s been a Merry Christmas Week. I love the chance to turn to Christmas Holiday festivities. I have to admit, Tom has been the diligent one this year. He took charge of almost all the gift buying for our family. He shopped, he wrapped, he boxed up and mailed out. I am so blessed to have his help and support.

I finally got out and went shopping this week. Now I remember why I don’t do it so often. It’s expensive!  But it was also fun. And then I got a chance to wrap and take delight in imagining the joy of someone on Christmas morning.

I have been finishing up some work projects, but not seeing any big projects come in. I finished a website and have another to start. I finished an article for my executive coach and he’s about to go into a different direction. So I don’t know what’s next. I sat in on my first conference call with a technology from UCD. It sounded promising to me, but it looks like it might be a tough market to break into.

Still, good news. I will start doing publicity for some of the technologies that are further down the pipeline. Their Plasma technology that allows big trucks to get 20% better gas mileage was featured in Popular Mechanics. That brought them a lot of attention and they’ve recognized the power of publicity. So I’m excited to be a part of that move forward.

Tom and I decided we needed to do a better job of going out. So Friday we went out to breakfast. Then we went to see the Midway duplex and its new carpet. And we stopped to look at new fireplace inserts. They are a bit pricy. Maybe next year. Tom spent the afternoon beating leaves into submission and then drove the truck for the church float in the town Christmas Parade.

Saturday we put up Christmas decorations. The house looks festive. We got the tree up and lights and garlands on. I need to do the ornaments on Monday as in the evening we are having the senior Family Home Evening at our house.

Sunday we had good meetings. Tom is busy with tithing settlements Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday after church, but he enjoys meeting with individuals and families and visiting with them.  I stopped by Mollie's to wish her a happy 99th birthday. Tonight we watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. You’ll be able to find it on lds.org. It was very festive!

Happy Thanksgiving

The weather is finally telling us winter is coming. But we’ve enjoyed the extended fall. Tom has tons of leaves to clean up from the lawn… and still the trees have some leaves. But this weekend it has been rainy and cold.

The week started out nicely. Monday I worked on some websites. I’m learning about airline maintenance and a new technology that can take all the information that goes into the “black box” and use it to predict when something is starting to go wrong. Then it can be fixed before it actually goes wrong. I also have a gun sight invention that I’m trying to figure out how it really works.

Sometimes these websites seem to be a moving target. I get things written and then the owners come back and say, no, that’s really not how it works. Or, that’s not what we’re going to focus on. It makes me crabby, but I’m realizing this is a moving target. The companies are so new, they are just coming to understand the technology themselves. They want the website up early so they can have something to show investors. And that means sometimes new information comes along that changes things.

Tuesday I went to glaze some pottery with my friend Marian. We always have a lovely time chatting as we work. Whenever I go I always want to do more with pottery. Then I come back home and other things seem more important. But I enjoy working with clay.

Tom has been doing tithing settlement this week and will continue through the end of the year. He enjoys visiting with families whether or not they are full tithe payers. It’s just their chance to report to the Lord’s representative.

Wednesday we prepared for Thanksgiving and for Deborah and children’s arrival. I made pumpkin, apple, and pecan pie. When Deborah arrived, she made a chocolate pie. I cooked up some yams from our garden and they were sweet and tasty. Tom made green jello with cottage cheese and pineapple. Thursday we added turkey, stuffing, and gravy. We were about to sit down to eat and I realized I had not made mashed potatoes. Actually, nobody seemed to miss them.

Ian drove up early Thursday to join us and we invited our neighbor Barb over for Thanksgiving dinner. The kids seemed to have a good time. They had forecast bad rain and storms, but it didn’t happen Wednesday… or Thursday… or Friday. Finally Friday night we got a little rain and drizzles through to Sunday. But no storms and perhaps a total of under 2 inches.

On Friday we watched a Percy Jackson Movie. Sarah had been reading the book— Sea of Monsters, I think. Ian braved the crowds and went shopping for us on Friday. He left that afternoon to get home in time for work on Saturday. Deborah went out in the evening for some Black Friday shopping. She took baby Hailey and all the other were in bed. An easy babysitting job for us.

Saturday we visited and played games with the kids. Then Deborah packed up and headed out. She stripped beds and started laundry so it was pretty simple to get things back to order after they were gone. We thought we might have the mission president and his wife spend the night, but they did not. It was nice to relax. We watched “Silent Night” the movie about how the song came to be. It was a good introduction to Christmas.

Sunday we had two new converts and a missionary speak in sacrament. I worked on some family history the second hour. Then the mission president and his wife spoke to all of us for the third hours. It makes us really want to be better missionaries.

Fun with Grandkids

We continued to have fun with Camden and Ethan this week. I left Monday morning and drove to Jonathan and Kristy’s house. We got to see their new little piglets. So cute and tiny. But boy they squeal when you pick them up!  The moms seemed pretty laid back about our being around their babies.

The boys had a great time there. Isabelle took them around on the four-wheeler. They shrieked and ran about the house like banshees with Zachary. And Kristy and I had a fun time talking. I left Tuesday morning about 9am. I wanted to get Camden back to at least some school on Tuesday.

It poured rain- sheets of rain—on the whole drive except for the last 10 minutes. That was nice. We were able to drop Camden off at school in just a drizzle. He seemed happy to go to school.

Ethan and I hung out most of the rest of that day. On Wednesday after Camden left for school we went out shopping. I’ve been looking for Red Vines candy (like red licorice) and can’t seem to find it!  I went to Walmart and Target, both of which said they had it online… but they didn’t in the stores. We went to Sprouts and stocked up on chocolate covered cherries and almonds and other healthy stuff.

In the afternoon the missionaries knocked on the door. They wanted to do service, so they raked the front lawn. Camden and Ethan enjoyed playing in the leaves and then riding their bikes up and down the sidewalk in front of the house. I went out and helped rake and bag.

Sister Burt is from El Centro. I told her the best Carne Asada I ever ate was in El Centro and I’d looked for years for a recipe that tasted like that. She said, “Oh, you just need carne asada seasoning. I have a big jar. I’ll bring you some.”  Oh Joy!  I’m so excited. She said, usually you marinate flank steak with lemon and the spices, but I just sprinkle it on my hamburger. I need to try it and see if it matches my memories.

Miranda and Dan arrived home about midnight on Wednesday. The boys were up early on Thursday, just delighted to see them. Miranda shares some of her loot and some of her pictures. Then she left about 10 to go and pick up Alex and I left to head home. I stopped at Deborah’s for lunch and a visit. Then I stayed to listen to a 2-3:30 webinar with Clayton Makepeace. I needed the computer to do that. When I got home, Tom was off doing tithing settlement.

Friday I sort of puttered and played catch up. I should have been more productive. Saturday night was a freeze and any remaining tomatoes are not toast. I helped Tom move a rick or two of firewood from under the barn overhand to under the side overhang. It was the last of the wood from the 2009 ice storm. With most of the leaves gone from the pear tree, I saw there were still some green pears hanging. I meant to get them, but they were out of reach. Now, they are frozen, too.

Saturday and Sunday were stake conference. Saturday morning I went shopping to get food to make lunches for the visiting guests to the conference- mission president and wife, Temple presidency member and wife and visiting 70. I wanted to find cute little cloth bags to put the lunches in. The only ones I could find that were a perfect size were pink with princesses on them. Somehow, I couldn’t envision a general authority with a pink princess bag. I chose ones slightly larger and a little more subdued.

Saturday afternoon we drove to West Plains. Tom had meetings from 2pm on. I had a stake relief society presidency meeting from 4-6. The Mountain Grove ward prepared a delicious taco salad dinner for the leadership and served it between 6 and the 7 pm evening session of conference.

The talks were great both Saturday Evening and Sunday morning. We learned about keeping the Sabbath day holy and making it a delight (Isaiah 58:13). About how our reverence of the Sabbath is a sign between us and the Lord (exodus 31:13).  It’s our way of showing that we know the Lord sanctifies us and we appreciate it.

We were blessed that the Sunday session of conference was again held in Mountain Home at Dunbar auditorium. I feel like I’m getting to know some of the other people in the stake and it’s nice to gather together.