Game time!

Tim called me from Pennsylvania a few days ago to recommend a game to me that they had just played, Buzzword. I told him that we had fun playing Blokus on Christmas day. Today, at Books a Million, I found a trivia game that I might actually be able win. It is called, 'Eat It' and everything is about food. How many stripes on a Keebler Fudge Stripe cookie? Complete this jingle... etc... I can handle that better than ancient history, sports, or geography questions. I may have to buy that for our get-to-gather next Thanksgiving.

If I had only known that someone would get rich off of the idea of Buzzword. I used to play that game in a chat room on line years ago. Someone thinks of a list of words that all have one other work in common. Like: trail goods news towel..... and the common word is paper.

Hey, you can play Blokus on line, just click on the link above!

~~~~~~ A New Year ~~~~~~

HaPpY

2 0 0 9 !

Photos by: Paula

The Cat's in the Cradle

Mike and I watched the movie 'Click' with Adam Sandler the other night. You probably remember it. It's the movie where Sandler's character has a universal remote control that lets him fast forward through his life and he gets to look into the future as to what becomes of his family while he is a workaholic who spends little time with them. It reminded us of when our two were little. Mike worked a lot of overtime and if I thought he was missing an opportunity to spend quality time with them, I would just pass by and say, "The Cats in the Cradle". Mike and I both love that song by Harry Chapin and he would most often get my message. The chorus is:
And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon, Little boy blue and the man in the moon."When you coming home, dad?" "I don't know when, But we'll get together then, son.You know we'll have a good time then."

Merry Christmas from Greece

When Mara told me that she had mailed an ornament from Greece, I didn't know what to expect. Just in time to go on my tree before we took it down, my little Nikolaos ornament. It didn't translate too well for the scan, the picture is really much clearer, but it is of little Nik doing his 'beauty queen wave'. So cute!

Family History

Golden Prairie Congregational Church, Ryan, Iowa

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J. A. Thomas' brick home, near Golden Church and cemetery, near Ryan, Iowa. J.A. donated the property for the church and parsonage in 1869. In 1862, J.A. Thomas drove 950 sheep from Michigan and kept them there for 7 years, buying 100 acres more land each year from the profits of his flock. Land was cheap and the wool market was good owing to the war and the Jones Woolen Mill. The post office and hamlet of Almira was named for Mrs. J.A. Thomas. The town of Ryan was started by J.A. Thomas, Arthur Flint and A.E. Anderson. (*Information taken from A History of Delaware County, Iowa by Belle Bailey)

My great grandfather was W. A. Thomas. J.A. was, I believe, an uncle of his. Who knew when I named my son Ryan, that there was a Ryan in the families past, albeit a town.

Thankful

We got just shy of an inch of rain early this morning and we sure needed it!

Time to relax!

Ahh, Christmas is over and for the first time ever, I have my tree down early and my house back in order. Now I can enjoy the rest of the week and not dread the tasks ahead. Thanks to Mike who helped me put everything up, it went rather quickly.

Brayden's First Christmas

It's fun to have a little one in the family. We had fun with Brayden today. As you can tell from the pictures, he was the star of the show. He got lots of goodies, but his favorite seemed to be a red cardboard box.

Tacky Christmas Sweater Party

Garry with his prize for winning the best tacky 'guy' sweater.

Maurine and Andy: Andy as the guy from the Christmas Vacation movie complete with moose glass.

Karaoke Time!

Ryan, Jared, Austin

Sarina and Jeanie
Little Sarina was adorable and was content to be passed around to everyone. (Keely and Scottie with baby Sarina.)

James showing off his reindeer sweater.

Garry wearing the tackiest 'guy' sweater complete with Christmas tie!

Maurine and Jim hosted a Tacky Christmas Sweater Party last night. We had lots of fun, great food, and wacky fashion. Garry won the tackiest sweater for the guys complete with his toilet glasses and I won for the girls. Sorry Kim, since I wore your sweater! but it was the combination of the sweater, earrings and my lacy socks worn outside of my boots that did it for the total tacky look.

Sorry for the mismatched captions, I couldn't get them to stay where I put them!

Shutters

Our first window dressing for the dining room window was a housewarming gift from Mema and they were peach colored mini-blinds that were custom made at the time, long before they became available at every store. Several years ago, I spray painted them taupe. They were okay, (pretty tacky, actually) but it was a time to change. Now some twenty seven years later, we got plantation shutters. Don't they look nice! My Christmas cactus is blooming like crazy too. Mike bought me the nice plant stand since my cactus would not fit on the window ledge anymore. And the light fixture is one that Uncle John made! He is so talented!

More genius from Paula

Kara and Joey

Here is more of Paula's work. Cute couple!

Christmas cookies

Here is one of my favorite recipes for Christmas cookies. When my kids were young, I was invited to a cookie exchange. The host, Jan Tucker, made this recipe but she made gingerbread men. I decided to personalize it and I have made gingerbread reindeer for many years. This has become a tradition at our house. This is the best gingerbread recipe that I have ever tasted. Recipe follows:
Jan's Gingerbread Cookies
1 cup butter 1 1/2 cup sugar 1 egg 4 tsp. grated orange peel (in spice bottle)
2 T dark corn syrup 3 cups flour 2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp ginger
2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp cloves 1/2 tsp salt.
Cream butter, sugar. Add egg, orange peel, corn syrup. Add remaining ingredients. Cover and chill in refrigerater till cold. Roll out~ cut out. Bake 375 for 5 to 6 minutes. Decorate! Enjoy! Red hots as part of decoration add a great flavor to the gingerbread.

Another great picture from Paula. She said it took some time to get Maggie the pooch, still enough for this picture with Jessica. Paula wrapped all the gifts in the background for a great Christmas scene! She is dripping with talent.

Another one of my great nephews, Brayden. Isn't he adorable?!

Now that's more like it!

Family photos that show how it really is. This is one of Paula's latest works. Love the caption! Check out her website at www.paulalovelacephotography.com

Sore throat?

Gargle twice daily with a solution of six pressed garlic cloves mixed into a glass of warm (not hot) water. Follow the regimen for 3 days. A recent study shows that fresh garlic juice has antimicrobial properties that fight pain-causing bacteria. The warm liquid soothes inflamed tissue.

I found this on line. I have not tried it myself, but if you try it, let me know if it works for you!

Brrrrrrrrr!

Kara and I were driving back from Dallas when the cold front hit, with its 30 to 40 mile an hour wind gusts, and the temperature plummeted some 30+ degrees in a very short time. We got in the car when it was in the upper 60s and got out at home with a temperature of 34. It's not too much fun driving in high winds. You sure don't want to take both hands off of the steering wheel. Brrrr.

Memory Tree

Janice made me a set of these cross stitch ornaments about 30 years ago.

Uncle John made the Madonna above.

Jenny made a Santa and this wooden soldier.

Mema made this Chrismon ornament.

This was Aunt Lola's. I'm sure it was red at one time, but it has faded to pink. Ryan made these in school.

Kara made this one in school

When Mike and I had our first Christmas in 1978, I painted these plaster of paris ornaments. A few of them have survived the last 30 years.

~ Merry Grandsons ~

Got this in the mail today from Tim (my oldest brother) and Rhonda. Pictured are their four grandsons in birth order. Andrew (Eric and Leslie's), Caleb (Jon and Kelly's), Owen (Eric and Leslie's), and Nik (Mara and Arthur's). Andrew is a clone of his dad, Eric and I think Owen looks the most like my Dad's side of the family. Caleb has red hair too, but not as bright as Andrews. Nik (they live in Greece) is the little one who just had his second surgery in less than a year with another on the horizon in a few months. Please keep him in your prayers. .... and they are expecting two more grandchildren in '09!

Full Cold Moon

Dec. 12, might be a good time to take in a little astronomy. According to NASA, the moon will be at perigee (it's closest point to the earth) at the same time that it is full, promising a spectacular view (provided there are few or no clouds) of the largest full moon of the year! It will appear 14% larger and 30% brighter than other "normal" full moons. Info from this blog.

Mike heard the above info on the local weather, so we went outside to take a look at the "Full Cold Moon". It looked really neat because there was a jet stream right through it that was long and bright too.