It's the most wonderful time of the year!

This truly is a wonderful time of year.  We started the season by getting the piano  tuned.  I love listening to music.  Morgan has been most accomadating.  Our ward choir is singing several hymns for Christmas.  Morgan is one of the choir pianist.  I enjoy her practice time.  Although when I took this picture she was playing "Thankful"  a tune from Josh Grobans NOEL cd.

 Randy purchased our Christmas tree  last Saturday.  This week I decorated it.  Life is very different without small children in the home.  All the other adults in the house have been very busy this week.  I decorated the tree by myself while watching The Christmas Box movie.  One of many Christmas movies that I intend to watch this season.

 Our Christmas decorations include a small collection of Nativities displayed on the piano.  This year a found a Precious Moments figurine to add to our collection. 

Bethany

Bethany visited us for Thanksgiving.  We always enjoy her company and were grateful that she made  Banana-coconut cream pie for us to savor! 

 I FINALLY finished her red dress.  November 2010 she purchased the fabric and pattern for a Red Satin dress.  I had not made a dress for her before.  Sleeves needed to be add, bodice and hem lengthened.  Plus, the dress is fully lined.  I had never lined a dress before.  I finished the dress Saturday evening.  Bethany is a grateful woman, and pleased with the way it turned out.  I learned alot. 

We Gather Together!

Thanksgiving was a wonderful time!  We shared the weekend with family and friends. Baking started on Wednesday.  Baking and cooking continued through the night and into the next day.  I baked  apple and pecan pies on Wednesday.  Very early Thursday morning I put a turkey in the oven for the Salvation Army's Thanksgiving diner.  Randy delivered the cooked turkey to the VFW hall around 8am and enjoyed a short visit with a friend.  Then the real cooking began.  Randy smoked our turkey on the grill.  I made potato rolls and Bethany made a Banana-Coconut Cream Pie.  It was the best and first to be eaten.  YUM! 

Mark and his family joined us for food and fun along with Morgan's friend Spencer.  I believe that Grant had the best time of all.  He played cars with Papa, cooked with Morgan, had Nerf gun wars and outside activities with EVERYONE! 

Grant and Cami even enjoyed a sleepover that night complete with Papa's special Star Wars pancakes for breakfast on Friday morning. (See Bethany's Facebook post for a pancake picture)    It was a great family day.  Alison was not able to be with us.  She spent the day with her Aunt Connie.  We missed her and look forword to Christmas time and all of us being together!!!

So many pics!

I have a bad habit of taking pictures and not writing blogs.  Yesterday we had company for breakfast.  When Grant finished eating we noticed that he had cereal stuck to his forehead.  This is the consequence of raising your bowl to your lips to get the last bit of milk out of the bowl.  :)

 Cami enjoying an apple from Papa's tree when she visited for General Conference.

 Shelby and Kara enjoying some quality time together a couple of weeks ago.

I have been hesitant to accept the color of Kara's hair. I have been waiting for it to fall out and come in blond. When she was here yesterday I had to admit that the new hair coming in is probably red. She is just a cute as her brother and sister. I also must admit that I have the cutest grandchildren although I know a few people might have differing opinions.

Honesty

My Primary lesson yesterday was about honesty.  The lesson suggested that I share a personal experience about the consequences of honesty or dishonesty.

When I was a child ( and old enough to know better) I was playing with a pocketknife.  I wanted to learn how to throw the knife so that the blade would stick into the ground.  While practicing in the yard outside my house instead of the knife blade going into the ground it went into the side of my leg.  I removed the knife from my leg and headed into the house to tell my parents.  Fearing the consequences of playing with a knife I lied to my mother and told her that my leg just started bleeding and that I didn't know how it happened.  I was an adult before I confessed to my mother what really happened that day.

The memory and guilt from telling the lie was my constant companion.  When I was finally able to tell the truth the guilt was gone and the burden lifted.  My memory of this incident disappeared.  I had not thought of this incident in years.  I am so grateful for the law of repentance and the peace it brings.

No, I didn't share this with my Primary class yesterday.  It was our CSMP yesterday and our meeting ran long.  We are having behavior struggles in Primary and I started my lesson with a story and discussion on Reverence which only left me 15 minutes for the honesty lesson.

Backyard Play

Morgan and I stopped by Marks home after a visiting teaching appointment tonight.  We were able to bring Grant and Cami to our house for a couple of hours.  We dined alfresco on frig leftovers.  The food was quick, easy and tasty.  The company was priceless.  We played frisbee, ran and chased, rode tricycles, shoveled sand, watered plants and went up and down the slide,  When the sun set Grant cleared the lawn of all toys and laid in the grass.  I got out towels and blankets.  Aunt Shelby brought out glow sticks.  It's always fun when Grant and Cami come.

WHAT was I thinking?

The Bisbee1000 is about 3 weeks away.  Not much prep time left.  So what did I do?  Last monday I got the crazy idea to grab a time and start trying to jog.  After a  warm up walk I jogged for 30 seconds, walked for 2 minutes, jogged another 30 seconds, etc.  I did this for 2 miles.  Tuesday I only had time for 1 mile, but increased my jog time to 35 seconds. Wednesday I biked to my practice stairs.  I did 10 sets of stairs, jogged 2/3 of the way around the building (it's a small building), 10 more sets of stairs, jogged 2/3 of the way around the building, did 10 mores sets of stairs and biked home. Thursday I was jogging 45 seconds and walking 90 seconds.  I'm not sure what I was thinking.  I walk much faster than I run.  Today, Randy decided that he should start jogging too.  It will be interesting to see what shape I'm in on October 15th.

The past two Saturdays I have participated in a Preservation and Encapsulation class.  The curator of our local museum taught the class.  I learned about the proper way to preserve old photos and documents. 

Alison has missed reading my blog and suggested if nothing else to blog about what I cook for dinner.  Exercising doesn't leave much time to cook.  Tonight it was leftovers.  Last weeks menu included tamale pie, lasagna, chicken rice soup, foil dinners, spaghetti, tamales with rice, beans and salad, Shelbys crockpot Ham & potatoes.  I think she was hoping that she was missing out on something.  Truth is Alison is a much more interesting cook!