New Christmas Ornaments 2014

We add at least one ornament to our tree each year.  I like to find an ornament that represents something we did that year.  Here are the ornaments we picked up this year:

Seth made this cute little gingerbread boy ornament at the Steiner House when we visited a few weeks ago for Museums by Candlelight.

This ornament does not show up very well on our white Christmas tree!  It is a snowflake made of salt from the Great Salt Lake.  I got it at This Is the Place Historical Park when we were in Utah this summer.  This ornament will always remind me of our wonderful family reunion, which included a service project at This Is the Place.  I remember the day we were there was such a perfect summer day...not too hot, although it got pretty warm when we were pulling weeds!  Cooling off at the splash pad afterwards was a blast, though.

My secretary in RS made this ornament for me.  She is a talented quilter.  Isn't it beautiful?

The boys received ornaments from Grandma & Grandpa Pew too, of course.  I will have to get pictures of them sometime also.  In the meantime, I am keeping a written record of those ornaments so they will know what year they got each one.

I love our hodgepodge of a tree!  There are so many great memories wrapped up in it!

Weekly Review December 26 '14

Merry (day after) Christmas!!

Can't believe this will be my last weekly review for the year 2014.  

Our days were pretty full this week.  All those little last minute Christmas things can take up a lot of time.  I hope someday I'll figure out how to simplify more.  

We still have unhealthy people at our house.  Seth and Jared are improving at last.  Neither one of them made it back to school, though (last day was Tuesday).  I finally gave up and had Frank take them both to the doctor on Tuesday.  Not because I thought they'd be able to do anything to help them get better faster, but because I figured they'd missed so much school it would be a good idea for them to have a doctor's note.  Plus I wanted to make sure neither one of them had developed any kind of secondary bacterial infection.  They did a strep test on Jared, which came back negative, and an influenza type A test on Seth, which came back positive.  Just as I suspected!  They didn't bother to test Jared for influenza also--it was kind of a given that if Seth had it, he had it too.  Anyway, they are both doing better although Jared still has a decent cough.  Now the rest of us don't feel so well though.  Tanner came home Sunday and by Wednesday was feeling sick.  Frank and I both felt not the best off and on all week but we've been trying to ignore it and keep going...too much to do!!  Frank seems to be worse today, though.  I'm not too bad but my throat is feeling pretty irritated.  Frank had a flu shot, by the way, so hopefully he will not get a bad case.  I tend to fight things off pretty well so hopefully I won't get worse.  Tanner seems to be holding his own as well, although he doesn't feel great.  Gotta love it!  At least we don't have a lot of places we need to go this next week, so hopefully we'll get some rest and everyone will be healthy again soon.

We are very happy to have Tanner back home with us.  He got back late Sunday evening.  His flight was delayed about a half hour and the traffic at the airport was ridiculous so it took us a while to get from the cell phone lot to the terminal, but other than that everything went smoothly with his flight home.  He is on a very messed up sleep schedule but otherwise seems to be adjusting well to being home.

On Monday he had a visitor...a good friend he met at BYU came by.  Her name is Caroline; if you've seen pictures of him with a girl on Facebook, this is the same girl.  Caroline lives in Pittsburgh.  She is going on a mission in February to Argentina and on Tuesday she was going to the temple for the first time.  So on Monday she and her family drove down this way (they were staying in DC overnight) and on the way they dropped her off at our house so that she and Tanner could spend some time together.  They went downtown and got some dinner and did some shopping in the cute little shops that we have in Frederick's historic district.  Then Frank drove her (Tanner went along of course) down to her hotel in Bethesda.  She is a very nice girl (and a very pretty one too!) and we were glad we got to meet her.  

Meanwhile on Monday I made candy and tried to watch the BYU game (at the same time).  Of course, the outcome of the game was super frustrating, but the candy turned out fine.

On Tuesday I baked cookies: 

And here is the fudge I made Monday, minus a few pieces since Caroline, Tanner, and everyone else had to try some:

On Monday and Tuesday Frank and I were also getting lots of last minute shopping and errands done, and I was trying to fit in wrapping presents wherever I could.

Wednesday we had one of our sets of Elders over for dinner.  I started cooking around noon and didn't finish until they arrived at 5:00 for dinner.  Three days in a row in the kitchen...not my favorite!  Plus I love my tile floors but they are hard to stand on for three days straight.  I was aching all over (or maybe that was the flu...not sure!)  The dinner turned out very nice, though.  Not sure why I forgot to take pictures.  The Elders loved it.  They were allowed to stay all evening, since it was Christmas Eve, and their mission president had given them permission to watch G rated movies and the movie Frozen (I guess it's PG).  Neither one of them had seen Frozen yet, since they've both been out over a year, so we watched that and they got a kick out of it.  After that, we got more serious and watched Joy to the World.  Then everyone got to open a present (the Elders got bread and jam) and we had dessert.  I gave all the boys a copy of the book Erick put together a few years ago that is a record of all the things Grandpa Johnson has said in his sleep.  Jared happened to pick that present to open, so he was reading a bunch of things Grandpa said and the Elders were laughing their heads off.

After that, Frank took the Elders home.  They did some service for us, though...helped Frank pick up a Christmas gift that we had been storing at a warehouse of one of his clients.  Since most of the boys couldn't think of hardly anything they wanted for Christmas, we decided to get a larger family gift...a bigger television.  Ever since we got the new entertainment center (a year and a half ago) the boys have been saying we "need" a bigger television.  So I knew they would like to have one.  It was really nice for Frank to have some help loading that up in the car!  He left it in the car until the boys went to bed and then I helped him get it inside.

Christmas Eve was rainy and very foggy.  It actually rained a lot Monday through Wednesday.  Christmas was sunny and mild, which is my kind of Christmas!  I don't care if it snows or not.  Temperatures in the 50s is just fine with me!  Here is what "Santa" brought to everyone:

Seth

Jared

Tanner

Annette

Frank

Everyone

Plus lots under the tree; gifts to each other:

Random Christmas Day photos follow.  First, coming downstairs:

(Seth is wrapped in his new Star Wars blanket--the present he opened Christmas Eve.)

Lots of treats on the table:

I meant to take treats to our home teaching and visiting teaching families, but we ran out of time.  Plus, I'm not sure anyone wants anything from our infected household.  So we have way more treats than we need.

Snickers sniffs his new stuffed squirrel:

Frank and Jared setting up the new television (which, by the way, looks much bigger to me here at home than it did in the store!):

Seth picks a "convenient" spot to build one of his Chima Lego sets:

A Tenkai Knight:

Me trying to figure out my Nook tablet:

Another Tenkai Knight:

The best part of the day, talking to Scott on Skype:

We had a relaxing day, mostly.  We played new games and listened to new music and watched a new movie.  I didn't even cook the food I'd planned to cook because I wasn't feeling too well.  We just ate leftovers from the night before and of course...a lot of treats too.  We had a nice day and feel very blessed.

Since last week I mentioned I was making a gift for Tanner, I should tell you what it is now.  Because I know you're all dying to know, right?! :)  I made him a calendar with photographs from the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  I was actually more excited to give that to him than anything else.  And he did love it!

Today I've been trying to get caught up on some chores like laundry, vacuuming, and updating the budget as well as some general tidying up.  The house is a mess!  Tanner was supposed to take his driver's test but since he has the flu and also hasn't had a chance to drive since he got home, we cancelled it.  Unfortunately, the next time he can get in is February 20th.  But the lady I talked to said we can check for cancellations each morning and we might be able to get him in sooner.  She was super nice, by the way.  I think she deserves employee of the month.

That's all I can remember from this week, except that I also read The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever to Seth and he loved it.  I had to convince him to listen to it, but after one chapter he was hooked.  I love that book too.  It was really fun to share it with him.

We love you all and it was nice to talk to many of you yesterday.  See you in 2015!

Weekly Review December 20 '14

Well, there wasn't quite as much to do this week but throw in a couple of sick kids and a car that wasn't working (again) and it was hard to figure out when I was going to be able to go anywhere.  The end result was that the week was rather hectic again.  But I guess that's just life!

Last Saturday was pretty busy for all of us.  Jared had three performances of the play (the final three performances).  We went to see the play (Shrek, the Musical) on Friday evening and really enjoyed it, by the way.  They did a really good job.  I was impressed with the boy who played Lord Farquad because he had to do everything on his knees!  (So he would look short; they had a clever costume that made the upper half of his legs look like his whole legs, and which concealed the bottom half of his legs.)  Anyway, Jared was gone pretty much all day doing that.  

In the morning I took Seth to a museum here in Frederick...it was the annual Museums by Candlelight event which they have on a Saturday in December every year.  On this day, many of the museums in the county are open free of charge.  Many of them have kid's crafts, special music, and / or refreshments too.  I have made it a tradition to take the boys to see one or two museums every year.  The older boys have seen most of them now so it's just me and Seth.  Because we had a lot going on and time was short, I decided to just visit one place this year.  I took him to see the Steiner House, which is a beautiful historic home in downtown Frederick.  I took a load of pictures!  This museum had gingerbread cookies, Seth got to make an ornament, and they also had a fun activity for the kids...they had to see how many nutcrackers they could find in each room and write it down.  Seth really enjoyed that, and it kept him busy while I got to listen to the docents tell about each room.  (He was a bit interested in what the docents had to say, also, but being able to look around for nutcrackers while they talked kept his mind busy so he didn't get bored.)  When he was done, they checked his paper and because he did an excellent job, they let him pick out a candy cane.  

So here are the pictures:  

This first one was taken in the front parlor.  Now several of the dining room:

 
Love the built ins, and all the little details all over the house like pictures, mirrors, beautiful old dishes, lamps, etc!

Seth counting nutcrackers.  Can you see one?

The kitchen fireplace is huge!

Front entry; Seth is writing down more nutcrackers.  The stairs are beautiful too:

A small upstairs bedroom:

Large upstairs bedroom:

Making an ornament:

Of course there's a great dollhouse too:

Upstairs secondary bedroom:

Another upstairs small bedroom (love the coat on the door!):

Steep old stairs:

Back downstairs, back parlor:

Front parlor:

Foyer again

And now, the summer kitchen out back:

And the side yard:

Front steps:

While we were gone to the museum, Frank was at home installing the new faucet in the half bath and hanging the pictures, so it's finally all done (except we still need to buy a new vent cover):

After visiting the museum, I took Seth to a birthday party.  Saturday was also nice because I had the opportunity to do a lot of small acts of service.  For one thing, my friend whose daughter was having the birthday party told me when I talked to her that morning that her washing machine had just broken and they didn't have many clean clothes.  So when I dropped Seth off at the party, I picked up a load of laundry and took it back home with me and washed it.  Then when I picked him up, I took the clean laundry back.  It was an easy thing to do, but really helped them out a lot.  Another family in our ward had a child in the hospital, so I took them dinner.  Then that evening I took another mom in the ward and her children to visit her husband, who unfortunately is in jail right now.  They don't have a car so they need someone to take them out there.  (While they were visiting, I got some shopping done, and also walked around the mall to get some exercise.)

Also on Saturday we delivered the 12 Days of Christmas box.  This year we had picked out a family in our ward; the parents separated earlier this year so things have been difficult for them.  The problem was, the mom and her children live in a condo where you have to buzz in to get into the building.  So that made it hard to do it anonymously.  So we let another family in on our secret and asked them to give them the box, and let them know it was from someone else but they didn't want them to know who it was.  Well, anyway, a few days before that the father was taken to jail.  They knew that was probably going to happen eventually, but not exactly when.  So of course that was very hard on the kids.  When I found out he had gone to jail, I thought "well, maybe this will be good timing for them to get the box this week."  I was very happy to hear the next day that I was right.  The family who took them the box said they appreciated it so much and it made a huge difference in brightening the atmosphere in their home.  The gift for the first day was a gingerbread train kit, and they said that they made it right away and had so much fun and it really cheered all of them up.  It made us so happy to hear that!  So sorry they had such a difficult week, but since it had to happen, we're glad the timing worked out the way it did, and we feel really grateful that we are in a position to help a little bit.

Ok, I promise I will not have that much to say about every day this week!

On Sunday we had tithing settlement after church and that evening the youth in our ward gave a Christmas musical fireside.  Jared was the conductor for most of the songs, and it was very nice.  I went to it but Frank did not because sometime in the afternoon Seth started complaining that his head and legs hurt, and he looked flushed and had that "I'm getting sick" look in his eyes.  So Frank stayed home with Seth.  We discovered that the only working thermometer in our house has gone missing (of course!)--we have several that don't work for some reason.  So I wasn't sure if he had a fever or not but he looked feverish to me.

I kept him home from school on Monday and later in the day (after Jared got home from school) I went out and bought a new thermometer and sure enough...he had a temperature of 101.6.  Meanwhile, Jared was not feeling very well either and by Tuesday morning he had a fever too.  I kept Seth home through Wednesday when his fever finally went down, but the whole time he never acted all that sick...he was bouncing off the walls most of the time.  Jared, on the other hand, was definitely miserable and had a fever up to about 102.4.  I shouldn't say "had", because he's still sick actually.  He's feeling a little better but he still has a fever, cough, congestion, and sore throat.  Seth went back to school Thursday and Friday and seemed just fine, but then this morning he woke up early and complained of a headache and sore legs again.  I took his temperature and it was back up to 101.6 again!  So it kind of feels like they are never going to get better.

We carpool to Seminary with another family in our ward and their daughter, who is in the same theater crowd with Jared at school (she actually played Fiona in the play), was also sick this week.  They took her to the doctor and confirmed that she has influenza type A.  So it's likely that's what Jared has also.  I was sorry she was sick, but since they both had to be sick, it was convenient that they both got sick at the same time!  We didn't have to do the Seminary drive on Wednesday through Friday.  Actually got to sleep in all the way until 7:00 some days!!  It was also convenient to have Jared and Seth sick at the same time so that I could leave them home together while I did all the things I needed to do this week, and while I drove the carpool boys to school each morning.

I have had a slight sore throat and headache off and on all week (last week too) so I kept worrying that I was getting sick too but thankfully it has not turned into anything significant (keep your fingers crossed!) not only because being sick is unpleasant, but because I had so much to do.  No time to be sick!!

At school Seth was personality of the week which means he filled out an information sheet about himself, took in a timeline with a photo of himself from each year of his life, and took in a bag of his favorite things to tell about.  These activities were supposed to be spread throughout the week, but since he was sick they got squashed into the last two days of the week.  He enjoyed it and thankfully it wasn't a lot of work to get those things ready (the timeline was already put together from previous years; I just had to add a photo for this year.)

Other things I did this week:  we had the Elders over for dinner on Wednesday (the sick ones ate in another room so we wouldn't contaminate the Elders), I had a presidency meeting and book chat on Thursday, an RS visit on Friday, and today I did some sewing (needed clothing repairs) and went through several bags of clothing that someone in the ward donated to figure out who might be able to use them.  (One of my counselors helped me.)  Frank did maintenance for all his clients.  My other project for the week was helping put together 18 baskets to give to single sisters / widows in our ward for Christmas.  I had a lot of help with them this year (one of my counselors did most of the shopping and five of us got together to put them all together) so it wasn't nearly so stressful.  I did end up with all of them at my house for a few days because I was picking up the last thing that needed to go in...loaves of bread.  Then the YM president picked them up from our house so that the YM could deliver them.  While they were here, they took up all the space on our kitchen table:    

And a few had to go on the floor:

We put a few of the same things in as last year, but a couple of things were different.

It was a fun project and I enjoy doing it even though it's at a busy time of year!!

Last night Frank and I left the sick ones at home and went out on a date.  First we went to dinner, then we did some shopping, then we went to a wedding reception, and then we went to pick up my car.  I forgot to explain that early in the week my car started acting up again; same problem with the suspension.  So I took it back in on Wednesday so they could try to figure out what was going on.  Frank was at work but a friend met me at the mechanic's and gave me a ride home.  They had to keep the car for a few days because sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't, but they finally figured out that they needed to replace one more part and now it is fine again.  It complicated my life not having a car for a few days, but we worked it all out.  Anyway, we had fun on our date.  Today we did some more shopping (crazy idea...last Saturday before Christmas!) and now I sincerely hope we are all ready for Christmas, except for baking and wrapping.

Here's the tree:

This afternoon Frank took his drone outside to play with it for a while and he also took a few pictures:

And here is the tree again, this time when it's dark:

Here are the sick boys.  This is pretty much how they have looked all week, sitting on the couch:

 I think that's it, except to note that the US Postal Service has been giving me grief.  I mailed two packages last Friday.  One (to Ben's family) was supposed to be delivered on Monday and the other (to Scott) was supposed to be delivered yesterday.  Well, Ben's package arrived on time but it got damaged, and one item inside was totally destroyed.  (It was insured, but we've got to figure out how to make a claim.)  Then Scott's package has still not been delivered (I've been tracking it).  I was feeling quite concerned yesterday when there was no record of it even arriving anywhere in Utah.  It left Greensboro, NC early in the morning on Monday, and that's the last information they had.  I was starting to get nervous that it wouldn't arrive in time for Christmas (in Scott's mission you send packages only to the mission office and they only deliver them on P-days so it needed to get there by Monday) but thankfully this afternoon the package finally arrived in Utah.  So I think it will get to him in time now.  Whew!

We are excited that Tanner will be back home tomorrow!

That was our crazy week.  We wish you all a happy, healthy Christmas!!