A Christmas Carol

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach."

GHOSTS of CHRISTMAS PAST

"For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself."


Eric 12/88

Eric and Ryan 12/90

Evan, Eric and Ryan 12/92

The Hardesters 12/94


GHOSTS of CHRISTMAS PRESENT


"I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy... A merry Christmas to every-body! A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!"

Elder Ryan Hardester 12/09

Eric, Evan, Claire 12/09 (and yes that's Jos - and Andy was on the field too)


GHOSTS of CHRISTMAS FUTURE

"His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him."

Eric - car designer extraordinaire

Ryan - music mogul

Evan - rich guy...with a dog

Claire - BYU student

"It was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, "God Bless Us, Every One!""

Christmas Puzzle

This is not a standing tradition but sometimes we get ourselves (myselves) a holiday puzzle or two - one for passing pre Christmas time and one for after Christmas before the New Year, to finish New Years Eve or around then. This year I saw these really fun looking Folk Art puzzles. They were being sold at Costco - two in a bag. There was an assortment. I picked a Christmas scene and a San Francisco scene. Generally, I would wait to pull the puzzles out until the kids are out of school but this past Monday I was so bummed to find out that my missionary son may not get any of his Christmas packages until January! that I just wanted to do something simple. The Christmas puzzle won - it is a snowy village scene with lots of elaborately decorated Christmas trees.

So - I pull out the edges, and as I'm putting them together I notice one tree has "Ute" decorations on it. I wondered to myself "Are there other colleges that refer to themselves as Utes?" Ah Ha - on the other side of the puzzle I come upon a piece with a "blue U". I grab the box, to look closer - This is a Utah scene! Maybe Park City? Duh. A totally fun puzzle!

Ever heard of Eric Dowdle? He's the artist. This is his "Festival of Trees"


See the Ute Tree? We think there's a missionary bear on the "Bear Tree." Or are they Gingerbread cookies? We don't know...


On to BYU.


Is that a proposal going on near the "Family Tree"?


Look at the skiers!


Love the Savior.


Happy Day to everyone.

Hot Chocolate Talk

"What Christmas songs do you love the most?" Blog amongst yourselves...

What brings back memories? What are your new favorites? What makes you verklempt?"

As for me - Gotta love Barbara! It's not Christmas without her! "Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle all the way..." no breathing allowed during this song.

Andy Williams is also a must for me.

Amy Grant makes beautiful Christmas music.
"Grown up Christmas List" (her's was the first I'd heard of this song)
"Breath of Heaven"
"Heirlooms"
"A Christmas to Remember"
"Christmas Lullaby"
"The Night before Christmas - "...but you don't have to be an angel to sing harmony. You don't have to be a child to love the mystery and you don't have to be a wise man on bended knee. The heart of this Christmas is in you and me..."
I could go on and on with Ms. Grant - I love her music (plus I think she's an alto, thus it is easier for me to sing with her music...)

Carpenters! (another alto!) "Happy Holidaaaaaays....."

Love the soundtrack from "Elf"

Relient K - "12 Days of Christmas" This is on a "NOW that's what I call Christmas" CD - it's rockin' - and some screaming which I don't like but it's fun and crazy and reminds me of my crazy rockin' garage band kids.
"...what's a partridge? and what's a pear tree? I don't know so please don't ask me
but I can bet they are terrable gifts to get.."

MoTab - everything - beautiful - and even fun - such as the 12 Days of Christmas "A Musicalogical Journey Through the Twelve Days of Christmas" each day representing another genre of music through time i.e. On the first day of Christmas...is a Gregorian chant and the last verse is played out in the grandiosity of a Sousa march!

And Josh Groban! I waited and waited and finally he came out with a great album and I was not disappointed. It was an instant favorite.
"Angels we have heard on High"
"Noel"
"Thankful"

You can see, I have lots of favorites. Music is such an important part of my Christmas. I will always cherish my memories of singing with my family - caroling to friends, riding to Sacramento, standing around the piano. I still sing those harmonies. They are a part of me.

Happy holiday listening and singing and harmonizing...

Love you all.

"Snow? In San Jose?"

Welllll, sort of.

This is a "foothill" in front of our "big" mountain - Mt. Umunhum. It is cold here. Ha - I know you're all saying "boo hoo" but it is cold. And the snow of course is exciting. And it is supposed to be colder tomorrow.
This is a shot down our street.
It's the same foothill just a different view - I'd say it could have been snown close to the land fill.



OK - I found this picture - see that very first foothill? That is where our snow is!!...was...

Yay - the last one!

Evan did his Eagle Project on Saturday - repainting the map of the United States on the Noddin Elementary School black top - it is our neighborhood school. We were worried about weather. It was a very cloudy morning and as Greg and I left for the temple with the ward I wondered if he'd have to postpone. It rained on us on our way up to Oakland, but San Jose was dry when we left - just looked worrisome. When we got out of the temple it was beautiful but as we came closer to San Jose it was cloudy and dark. It was noon and Evan was scheduled to set up at that time, work was to begin at 1:00. He kept asking what he should do. We kept telling him he needed to decide. I did not have much faith that it wouldn't at least drizzle making the ground too wet to work on. It really did look like it was ready to rain on us. Greg looked at his handi dandy Iphone current weather update and the phone said - "No rain today." So Evan loaded up and off he went. Within 30 minutes or so it totally cleared up - not a cloud in the sky - not for the rest of the day and the temperature was even pleasant. Granted it is San Jose and it usually is pleasant this time of year but the paint needed to dry! You'll see why.

So - here we go - Evan's Eagle Project... and famous quotes from the day

Before picture

Evan, to every suggestion anyone made (in the tone of a whining little kid): "I'm in charge." He said it for laughs, and we did laugh.
Everyone: "What can I do..."
Evan: "Don't back sass me Claire."

Claire: "Is it time to paint Utah yet?"

Everyone: "Where are the doughnuts?" Evan: "I brought fruit - it's better for you."

Kathy to Claire: "Don't get paint on my cell phone."
Probably everyone: "Oops!"


Evan: "I like it. It looks kind of whimsical"



Evan: "It's finished!"


We are so proud of Evan for accomplishing this goal. Just as we were finishing he said "It's all done! I feel so good!" I said "It's been weighing on you your whole life!" and he agreed. He's so happy. He's a new man.

He and neighbor friend Brian sat out by the map with pizza in hand until it grew dark. He took the caution tape down Sunday night after dark. He said there were foot prints on Alaska. We find that funny because the caution tape "protected" only part of Alaska. I can just imagine some stubborn kid going "well the tape doesn't cover this spot..." stomp, stomp, stomp...

Lights Out!

We had a wet and windy storm on Tuesday. And Tuesday evening around 5:30 - "POP" - a line went down in the neighborhood and the lights went out for the rest of the night. So what did we do...

We had dinner by candle light. The gas stove made it easy to make dinner, I just had to light it by hand. It's really not so dark yet but whatever...
Greg left for meetings right after dinner.

Kids did homework. Claire was listening to her IPod music with the IHome. Evan was very bothered that she'd use all those batteries to do that. He talked her into using her headphones instead. It was so dark in her room, I kept suggesting we go to Jensen's but she was game to stick it out in the dark - Evan too. It was an adventure for them.



Evan played with gadgets - my goodness - all of the fancy flashlights we have and the solar/wind up radio that I love to use so much when I'm gardening but haven't been able to find for a couple months - all showed up in his room. It was like magic but a little frustrating as well. I said, "Evan, you have got to clean your room. You have all this stuff..." and he said "I know where it all is. I have a special drawer for special things." UGH! This light - it's on his forehead.
Same light - just with its "red" light on.


More homework but better lighting in the kitchen than in Claire's room. I quizzed her on Spanish.
Evan did Math.
Claire danced while being quizzed.
I was totally amazed at this fabulous radio. It is excellent as a solar radio but it really works as a "wind up" as well. It would go for an hour before we had to wind it again. I'm not exaggerating. I bet it went longer than an hour before we had to wind it again. I tried to get a picture of the name so you could see what it is but I don't think you can read it all that well. It says "freeplay Driven" on the handle. I highly recommend it.


Homework done - time to play. Egyptian War anyone?
How about a little PSP.
The master making hot chocolate for all of us.
Yum
And some shadow puppets! Evan has so many talents!

Guess Who?

OK - so it isn't hard to guess
I scanned this for an RS event we're having tomorrow night. One of those, "find a picture of yourself - we're going to play a game with the pictures" type deal. I think this is a cute one. This is written on the back.
"Eddie in his first jacket and Kathy just keeping him company. Oh - how they are growing.
10 Hiltingbury, Chandlersford England 1968"