Christmas Wonders 2011

The first wonder of the season....Shannon showing grandpa her ultra sound pictures.

2nd wonder - Brian the Chef for our Christmas Eve feast.

3rd wonder - Brian's ski mask

4th wonder - Kitty the flying shark!

5th wonder - Zoolights @ Pt. Defiance Zoo with Brian, Shannon, Grandpa Burke, Fred & me.

6th wonder - Richard's baptism in Utah

7th wonder - Temple Square Christmas lights in Salt Lake City

8th wonder - Families are Forever - The Salt Lake City Temple

Richard's Baptism

A very happy day.

Christmas & New Years Highlights

On New Years Eve we met up with my brother Craig & his wife Lynette for dinner. The dinner was delicious and it was really a wonderful time to be with all our children and their spouses. A first of many more I hope. We ate at the Gateway Mall in Salt Lake City at a restaurant called Z'Tejas Southwestern Grill. Yummy! I got a picture of everyone eating except Ben & Corinne. They were sitting right next to me...sorry about that. I will sneak some pictures of you two later on when I get to Fred's camera.


Here is my oldest brother Craig and his wife Lynette. I am so thankful that they are a part of my life.

The sole purpose of this family time was my grandson Richard's baptism. Here is Corinne with all three of her sons before the baptism.

Here is Richard before dressing in his white baptism jumpsuit. He is a very sweet boy. He will always hold a special place in my heart. My first grandbaby. I remember the first time I saw him lying in his crib. So tiny and sweet. I couldn't keep my hands off of him. I had to hold him. It was such an exhilarating feeling that I had never felt before.

More to come.

Our Gift to Christ this Christmas season

Here is the cleaning crew after our two hours of cleaning - look we are all smiling. It was a great feeling to be a part of something that made a postive difference.

After stacking tables, putting volleyball nets in tubs and all other general tidying this is the result. The stage is still an ugly place, but at least it is not a hazardous zone for now.

This is the after photo. As I said - only a woman's touch.

This is the before photo. This is what happens when no one cares.

This was how the stage looked before we started.

Apron #2

This is my second apron. I used the same pattern , but I should try a different view if I make another one. The daughter of my friend who I gave the last apron to really liked her Mom's. I decided I had another reason to sew another one. Found out her daughter's favorite color "electric blue" and this is what I came up with. The button says "smile".

Christmas 2011 humble decorating

Here is my decorating method as taught to me by my Home Interiors Consultants from 25 years ago. You place your decorations among your regular decor. So here you have it.

Fred buys me poinsettas every year. There are three lush and beautiful plants plus the second little scrawny one is the one I took to work and over the first weekend it shriveled up. I brought it home and am trying to revive it.

Scott made this for us one Christmas. By the looks of the tee shirt he is wearing it was around 1997. I think it's the tee shirt that had the name Derek on it. That was the name of Corinne's boyfriend that year.

This is our little 4.5 foot artificial tree. Since Scott is not home to put together our big one....this is it. At our staff Christmas party on Friday, the two little trees there were decorated with just poinsetta picks and I thought how darling and easy that looked. So I dug out my Home Interiors poinsetta candle rings and this is the result. Just as pretty and easy.

This is a little angel star ornament given to me by a work friend in recent years that I found today. I thought it was a perfect topper for our little tree.

The end.

Suzy Foodie Maker

I'm not sure why I got the idea to make a quiche for today. I haven't made it in years.... So I bought the swiss cheese last night. I knew I had frozen pie crusts and chopped up ham at home in the freezer. So before church I pulled out a box of fiber blueberry muffin mix, but it did not include the streusel topping. What's a muffin especially when next to an egg dish without streusel. Suzy came out and looked up a recipe in a cookbook and whipped up a special home made batch of buttery, sugary topping. Thus I walked into the church right at start time.

After church I pulled out the pie crusts - argh - expired like February 2011. Pulled out my mother in law's pie crust recipe. No plain shortening....the can downstairs expired in 2008. So I went ahead and used butter flavor shortening that was good. Do you see a pattern here? I don't bake anymore. boo hoo....

Even though this is a picture of leftover food.....it was quite heavenly and I always feel so good when I go to the extra effort to make something from scratch.