An improved picture of Pam

I put two sizes up because the smaller one is a little better quality, but the bigger one is easier to see.

Happy New Years

I am not much of a New Years person, and I don't feel sentimental about it. I have never thought much of that day as "the day to make goals." Setting goals should be a continuous process and there are not very many goals that have one year as a good time frame. It is a good time to evaluate, but that is about it.
I have not established very many traditions to go with the day. The most enduring tradition is aebleskivers, but that goes with every holiday. We always pop bubble wrap at midnight-it sounds like fireworks. We usually drink sparkling soda.
We used to play Candyland with real candy on some of the places. The goal wasn't to win, it was to land on one of the candy spaces.
This year for New Years we played an really fun game called Telestrations. It is a cross between Telephone where you whisper something to someone and they whisper to the next person, etc and Pictionary. EVERYONE loves this game. We also played Monopoly Deal until right before midnight and then popped our bubble wrap. Some of us tried to stay up and watch Aristocats, but we all promptly fell asleep. Annemarie had to go to work at 11:30 so she wasn't even here at midnight.
Anyway, Happy New Year to you all and I love you.

School Christmas Parties

Carianne's blog prompted me to blog. I have fond memories of school Christmas parties, too. I was Annemarie's room mother when she was in 2nd grade. It was the first and last time I did that. One Christmas party cured me of ever wanting to be room mom again.
That year it was decided that all of the classes on each grade level would do the exact same things for their parties. So the second grade party was planned by a committee of incompetent mothers-all trying to look like the perfect, supermom. No one heard anything I said. The Christmas "craft" was to ice a waffle cone with green icing and put candies on it. They asked moms to bring store bought icing colored green. The icing was runny and guaranteed to permanently dye everything it touched green. Being runny, of course, it didn't stick to anything but clothes and hands.
Annemarie's teacher had just quit teaching because she was very sick with Aids and the new teacher came that day. The main sounds heard during the party were fighting and crying.
For the gift exchange all of the kids were supposed to bring books. One book was an adult story made to look like a childrens book. In subsequent years, the school ruled that only school supplies could be brought for the gift exchange.
Meanwhile, in Julianna's kindergarten class the brilliant mothers had decided the children would paint ornaments for the tree. Julianna painted her bear ornament blue. The problem was someone brought oil paints for the kindergartners to use. Of course, it didn't dry for days and got all over the kids and their clothes and then the mother's hands and clothes and it was guaranteed not to be washable. Because it was not dry the ornament was ruined by the time we go it home.
In subsequent years I attended the parties for the last few minutes and participated as little as possible.
I made up for not being room mother by volunteering in the school in other ways. I would tutor, assist in the classroom, and do things like make copies and do bulletin boards. I found this was a lot better because I would see my kids at school on a regular basis and I got to know their teachers a lot better.
The pictures are of my kids making gingerbread houses-I don't think I have any of the school parties.

Elder Hinckley and Me

On Sunday we went to church with Tina at the Snow College Institute. Elder and Sister Trythall were there, serving a CES mission. Beckie and Debbie were friends when we lived in Germany. Debbie told me she had a picture of her and Paula and me with President Hinckley. It is amazing that I have no memory of this incident, but isn't it a wonderful picture. Thanks Debbie.

A New Recipe

I tried a new recipe today and I loved it. I will post it here, and post it on the Family Recipes later. I noticed Beckie just posted to the Family Recipes 2 hours ago and I don't want to knock her recipe off-it sounds too good-especially since I have some 3 day old turkey in my fridge. I will try it tomorrow.
I had some boneless pork chops to cook for dinner and wanted to try something new, so I just googled "easy baked pork chops".

Stuffing and Pork Chops

8 pork chops
1 box stuffing
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 tbsp butter or margarine

Spray baking pan with nonstick spray. Put pork chops in pan and season with salt and pepper. Pour stuffing over top of pork chops. Dot stuffing with butter. Mix soup with 1/2 can water and pour over stuffing. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for one hour.

If you love stuffing like I do, you will love this easy recipe.

Joseph

Actually, Annemarie will post pictures of Annabelle. We tended Joseph while Katherine was in the hospital. I love tending my nieces boys. Joseph was so cute during the night. He would wake up and just wander around the house until he was ready to go back to sleep and then he would just lay down where he was and sleep. He did that three times during the night, but he never cried. Can you imagine a baby who never cries in the night.
Actually when Dutch stayed with me he really didn't cry either. He would wake up in the night and make that funny noise that I think was supposed to be crying and then he would lay by me and go back to sleep. That was fun, too. It is fun being a great aunt and it will be fun being a grandma.
By the way Annabelle is beautiful and looks a lot like Carlye.

A Baby Shower

We are planning to have a baby shower for Katherine on Thursday. I am not sure if she even knows about it yet. Hopefully she can attend. If she is the hospital we will postpone it. We are having it this Thursday so that Doreen can attend. Everyone in the family is invited, so I will be expecting you.