Showing posts with label Holidays and Events. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holidays and Events. Show all posts

Sunday, April 19, 2020

Happy Birthday!


Happy Birthday to son David!  I wish we could all be together to celebrate today, but due to the pandemic we will all have to just enjoy these memories sitting at home instead.




David and Sons 




Get out the smoke machine 




He's always game for some fun.



Grandpa time

More goofy fun!



Actor, vocalist and tap dancer.
What a great time we had watching him perform with the Hamilton Players in Harvey and The Drowsy Chaperone.  He took tap dancing lessons for his part in the musical.  True dedication.
With Grandma Eileen at Harvey performance



Professor and scientist at the University of Montana and Inimmune.
Some of the vaccine team in this photo.   Go team!


Retired Mountain Man and I hope he has a fun and crazy day. 


Monday, December 23, 2019

Four-star day?


Today I bake the gluten-free sugar cookies and the gingerbread cookies.  We will see if the recipe is good.  Gluten-free baking is a challenge.  There are thousands of recipes online and hundreds of cookbooks, but which ones are really good?  

The wreath from Ellie and Bob.  Jon added the lights. So pretty.

Yesterday I baked Coconut Macaroons, which do not contain flour, so no gluten.  I have never made Coconut Macaroons and I'm not sure why because Retired Mountain really likes them.  They did take more time to bake than other cookies, but they are a four-star cookie.  



Next I tried a recipe for the Mexican Wedding Cookies and they are a no go.  Rating of one.  Even though the recipe had a cup of butter, you couldn't really taste it.  The cookies were crumbles and broke apart when I picked them up to roll in the powdered sugar.  All is not lost though as I will dry out the crumbs and use them for a pie crust.  




We added Christmas decorations all day long, both inside the house and outside.  I added a few more touches to the Christmas tree and our sloth now has a red ribbon and lights.  I will say that even though we have added bows and boughs to several locations outdoors, it's still green out there.  It just doesn't quite work for me.  It does make it easier for me to get around since I'm still using a cane.  Much safer for me too so I won't complain too much.



The packages are all wrapped and underneath the tree and I finally got my Smart Home device to work with Alexa to turn the tree lights on and off.  Sweet!

Kathy - 1990?



Tai








 There will be some carols sung even if it's a few days after the official day. 
 Retired Mountain Man's favorite is, "Christmas in Killarney. 



I'll let you know how the cookies turn out.

Sunday, December 22, 2019

May you have the same Christmas spirit as Jon and Clark do.


This is the one.


Retired Mountain Man is a pro at cutting down the Christmas tree. 







Speaking of trees, remember the ones that blew down the day before Thanksgiving?








 It's definitely going to take a lot of work to clean up this mess.  It's sad to see these trees down. 




Jon always has the Christmas spirit.  He came home from a grocery shopping trip with two poinsettias.  

 I had ordered the sparkle ball for one of my white elephant gifts this year, but as soon as I took it out of the box, Jon claimed it.  Sorry, white elephant participants. 

Everyone in the family used to have a sparkle ball because Jon's parents made them and gave each of us one.  They spent hours putting them together and sold them at craft fairs.  We had ours for over twenty years until the lights quit working.  This one brings back memories of those years and Jon's mom and dad.


Decorating the tree requires boxes and boxes of lights, ornaments, ribbon and garland. 




Does the red jacket on the bear look familiar to anyone?


Even our sloth is in a festive mood.  I think he might still need a red bow or maybe a scarf.  To be determined.


  I think we have a Clark Griswold tree this year.


 


There's a tree underneath there somewhere!  Warning:  Lighting overload.

I plan to just wear my sunglasses because it's too much effort to try to take any lights off of the tree.

As I am writing this the sun is coming up over the mountain.  Can you believe it?  
Sunshine!  



Saturday, December 21, 2019

Tree day

As the weatherman told us, a "river of moisture" is moving our way.  Yes, it has been raining and raining.  The inch or two of snow that was on the ground has either melted or turned into ice with water on top, soon to be melted.  



One of the items on tap for today is to cut down our Christmas tree.  Retired Mountain Man has two picked out.  My job is to choose one of them while looking at them from the inside of the car.  Cutting down our Christmas tree in the pouring rain really doesn't bring on the Christmas spirit.  It has to be done though, because tomorrow there are football games to watch and cookies to bake. 

 No, it won't even look like this photo from 2016.  You see, it's green out there.

The answer to yesterday's question:

Did I get my "get out of jail free" card from my doctor?  Yes, indeed, and even more.  My broken femur is totally healed and everything on the x-rays looks good.  Plus, since it has been three months since my first surgery, all of my restrictions on movement due to my hip replacement, have been lifted.  That was fantastic news that I wasn't expecting.  I can drive my car.  My goal now is to continue my physical therapy to regain my strength and also get my stamina back.  Things are definitely looking up.



I will be experimenting with a recipe for my Snowball or Mexican Wedding cookies either today or tomorrow.  They are my favorite Christmas cookie and one that my mom always used to bake.  She baked dozens of them every year and mailed them to all of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren until she was 92 years old.  I have a letter from her that I cherish because the first sentence says, "Now Connie, don't expect to get cookies from me this year, because I just don't know if I can bake them anymore".  She was 85 then.  She never stopped baking them and they were always the first cookies to disappear off the cookie plate.  

Mom at 90

No, the photos of today's tree-cutting will definitely NOT look like this one from 2013.  I call this photo my "Norman Rockwell" Christmas card.



It doesn't matter.  There will still be a Christmas tree, decorated with all the ornaments and even some bubble lights.  Today is the day. 

Monday, December 16, 2019

Wreaths, baking, friends and family.

It's been a very busy and fun weekend.  On Saturday I decided to try a gluten-free biscuit recipe.  I was hoping that the recipe would turn out to be tasty and something I could refine for scones.   I was quite surprised to find out that they were not only easy to make but they tasted as good as the ones I used to make.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of them.

With that success in mind, on Sunday afternoon my plan was to put together a couple of cookie doughs for Christmas to be baked at a later date.

The best part of the day was when our friends, Ellie and Bob, drove up for a visit.  Ellie is recovering from her hip surgery too and doing well.  We are both hoping to get together in a couple of months to play and sing some songs.  Ellie has the most beautiful voice and is well known in our area for her rendition of "Sister Kate".  I can't wait to hear her sing it again.

They brought us a beautiful Christmas wreath.   It's hanging by our front door and I do plan to get a photo of it for my next post.  She reminded me of our yearly wreath-making day.

For the past several years there were a group of us who got together at the community center in Hope to make Christmas wreathes.  Everyone brought boughs and all kinds of decorations to make wreathes.  We spent the afternoon listening to Christmas music and snacking on goodies while we created our wreathes.  



Susan, Ann, yours truly, Michelle, Judy and Jeannie 2017



Back to the dough - I made my gingerbread and sugar cookie dough and they are both in the freezer.  My goal will be to bake cookies and decorate them next weekend.  It will be a busy one too since we plan to cut down our tree and start decorating it.  Retired Mountain Man has two picked out which can be seen from our driveway.  My part will be to decide which one - while looking at them from the car.  I'm sure one of them will be fine.

A little nostalgia.
Christmas 1992?

Speaking of Christmas decorations, I finally gave Retired Mountain Man a reprieve from walking up and down the stairs to the basement to fetch whatever Christmas decoration I was in need of at the moment.  My physical therapist told me that if I really needed to go down the stairs that I could do that simply by sitting on my butt and sliding down them one at a time.

Picture that one.  (I spend a lot of time laughing at myself...)

I did it.  Fortunately, my stairs to the basement have carpet on them.

Once I was down there I looked at all the boxes that Jon had taken out of the closets, and told him which ones we would need for the tree, etc.  I even found my wreath making supplies and decided I might attempt what I would call a modified wreath.  We will see what turns up and maybe I will remember to take a photo of it.

Grandpa's boots - Christmas 1999
That said, getting back UP the stairs on my butt was a little more difficult.  It required a brief rest halfway up and then I needed Retired Mountain Man's assistance to get back up off the floor. ( I have a lot of rules, both from my doctor and my physical therapist, about how to get up and down to protect my hip replacement while it is healing.  I am proud to say that I did not break any of the rules.)

More old photos from Christmas past.

Collin - 1999  He found a can of sardines and to him it was a camera.  He walked around for hours taking photos.  I finally let him hold my camera.
 He was happy with it either way.


The year Jamie and David built a computer.  The first of many.

Now we're going way back to the first Christmas at the Loman cabin.  A sleepy Jamie with his new BB gun.

December 2006, my brother Roy's wedding in Couer d'Alene.

We took the holiday light cruise to celebrate.

Rylee in her princess dress.  Such a sweet photo of a very sweet girl.

I hope you are enjoying the holiday season, all of your memories and those yet to be made.

Collin and Rylee's gingerbread house.