Christmas Cheer

The sweetest cheer

They're tiny, but if you look closely you can see the baby Jesuses. A tradition at our house is the kids having to find all of the Baby Jesuses from the nativities (which I hide on Christmas Eve) before they open their presents Christmas morning. This morning they were sitting all together on the fireplace mantel. Not very challenging but the tradition lives on.


Coolest cheer
A friend of ours, DellaRae, came to dinner this afternoon. A friend of hers, Rose, gave her this cool purse.
Can you tell what it is made out of?



Silliest Cheer
Any chance you've seen video recently of children being ungrateful for early Christmas present? Granted they were set up by their parents...poor kids :-( Well, in his stocking, Evan received a roll of aluminum foil(a couple of weeks ago we had talked to him about making a ham and he needed foil and he didn't have any). As he pulled out the foil he announced "You guys are bad parents!" So funny - but we missed videoing it of course and thus proceeded to try and get him to do it again but he wouldn't so what we have is Ryan making comments and others in the back ground making comment and Evan refusing to act up for us.

And can you tell what Evan's doing? Was a gift from Claire.


Funnest cheer - I have no pictures of this but we hosted the family for Christmas dinner. Our guests were:
Mark, Claudia and Kelly Laugenour
Scott and Nancy Jensen
Dave, Megan, Katie, McKenna and Brooke Jensen
Clint, Mary, Cameron, Parker, Jace and Garret Jensen
Amy, Arthur, Maya and Kade Yuan
Don Jensen and friend Esther Haws
Steven and Susie Jensen (whom left late afternoon for a honeymoon cruise)
DellaRae Schader

Nicest cheer


Happiest cheer

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Memory

When I was growing up, every year at Christmas, a row of 7 small ceramic pillar boxes stood on top a narrow wood frame that went around our living room fireplace. The pillar boxes were souvenirs from our having lived in England. 7 pillar boxes; 1 for my parents, and 1 for each of us kids. As we married we were given our memento.

I'm looking at my pillar box right now -



Have a Merry Christmas!!

We had an Anniversary

Our 26th Anniversary was Dec 18th.

Greg brought me flowers on the 17th. So pretty.

A little reminiscent of this -



We now share our Anniversary month with our nephew and new niece - Steven Jensen and Susie Jeffries. They were married yesterday, Dec. 21st.



Steven and Susie add their names to a list of other family members who chose December for their special day.
Beverly and Wally Jensen - Steven's grandparents celebrated 61 years of marriage yesterday.
Joy and Alan Busath - Steven's grandparents were married on Dec. 18th
Jan and Gregg Wright - Steven's aunt and uncle were married on Dec. 18th
Lili and Jason Wright - Steven's cousin married on Dec. 18th

At the reception last night, they had a December weddings dance. Couples who were married in December were invited to join the bride and groom on the dance floor. At one point, Steven and Susie switched partners with his grandparents. It was very tender, very sweet, very fun.

Gettin' some Exercise

I decided to take a walk yesterday afternoon and lucky me - everyone wanted to come along!
Ryan brought along the Chex Mix I'd made that morning. They were all happy for the trail treat to eat and to chuck at each other. Well, started out that they were trying to catch the mix in their mouths but it's always fun to have a moving target.


We took the longer yet not as steep path up.

We stopped to...I don't know - take pictures. Goof around. Chuck more things.











On our way down, the steeper part of the loop.

Stopping to chuck yet some more things.

Taking a look at Quicksilver Mine history.

Quicksilver Mine buildings in the background.


Was a nice hike. A good way to stretch our legs.

The Boys are Back in Town!

The boys are home and they're so helpful.

Eric ready to get the Christmas tree.Evan fixed a faulty light switch.


All of the groceries in on one trip.

Ryan brought us In and Out and other goodies.
Eric, Ryan and I decorated the tree.
Evan and Eric put up the lights.
Ryan played beautiful music for us.


Have yourself a merry little Christmas!!

All Better

:-)

So Tall

Actually, kind of too tall. I walked into the kitchen Tuesday morning to find that the Amaryllis had fallen over - and I was not the first person into the kitchen - I was the third. But no one noticed. Oh well. It needs to be supported - can you see the banana rotting post being used to give some sort of brace? I need to do something more stable, and more aesthetically pleasing. It wasn't that the pot wasn't "heavy" enough, (though it probably isn't), the stem actually bent :-( And, maybe we'll need to make a hole in the ceiling to give it room to fully grow. ;-)

I have to admit, I don't think I have raised it properly. I should have read "How to Keep Amaryllis Stalks Short" instead of "How to grow an Amaryllis". But I didn't realize I was at risk of growing a bean stock of an Amaryllis. Anyway, it appears the kitchen is too dark and too warm.

Hey - maybe if it grows taller we can use it as our Christmas tree!

How are the holiday plans coming along?

I put up decorations in the house the week after Thanksgiving.
No tree yet - I put it off for a bit but now it is time. I've done this for the past several years, stewed about getting a fake tree. The fake trees are so beautiful these days and with the lights on them already?! Should be an easy answer - get a fake tree. But I can't seem to do it. I love the smell of a real tree and when the holiday is over we just set it out on the curb.

Do you have all your decorations up? Real or fake tree?

I've done most of the shopping but there won't be many surprises for the kids this year. Eric, Claire and Ryan know pretty much what they're getting. I did a bunch of shopping online. Nice to get it done that way but within a day of making the orders our neighborhood watch leader sent out a warning email saying that packages are being taken from doorsteps. Niiiiiice. Granted the shopping online eliminates having to go out to the store but I didn't want to be kept from going out at all!

How is your shopping going?

Do you participate in a Secret Santa exchange?
We don't. Bah humbug ;-)

The music is good. I listen while driving around town. I bought David Archuletta with MoTab - it is nice but no new favorites from it. I still am loving Josh Groban.

Anyone have a new favorite Christmas song?

All the college boys will be home by Thursday night. They are just happy to have a break from school.

How are your kids doing with Christmas anticipation?

Steven's getting married in a week!
We are very excited for that.

Mele Kalikimaka

Nooooo - I'm not in Hawaii. I could have been but I'm not. Greg is though - just for a couple days and he sent me pictures of a lovely site from where he's having dinner and his fancy meal.


I should have taken a picture of the view from my window and what I had for dinner but I didn't. It's dark now so won't work, and I ate my dinner :-) It was a lovely day in San Jose though. And Top Ramen was delicious!

Teacher Appreciation

It's "Teacher Appreciation Day" at Leigh today, and Claire's leadership friends invited her and the "Cupcakes by Claire" crew to make cupcakes for all of the teachers - proceeds to go to "Sixty-five Roses." Our kitchen was a hoppin' place yesterday. She had several friends help with baking cupcakes. They were delivered at various times in the afternoon. And the evening was spent frosting and wrapping.

Mixin' frosting.
Sadie on fondant flowers. (just fyi - Sadie made Claire's darling reversible apron)
Matt and Jessica on wrapping.

Sunday Music

Up on the House Top

San Jose is experiencing high wind. We were warned about it on Monday and it started to bluster yesterday and it really is very windy - the wooshing sound in the sky kind of windy. We have corrugated plastic sheets covering the sky light in our entry. Too much sun and heat for the summer so we cover the window. Winter - we take them down. Well - one of the boys, usually Evan, takes them down (and puts them up for that matter). The wind has been rattling the sheets. It was noisy and I also worried they'd blow away. So, when Claire got home I made her go up. Actually, I got the ladder out and said I needed her to hold it but she graciously volunteered to go up herself. Up she went, and then she sat, and then she sat and sat. She liked it up there! Like Evan likes it up there.

Thanks Claire. And Evan - you still have your "put the lights up" job. :-)