December 2018

December 29, 2018.

We have icicles on our Icicles on our Icicle lights.  Long, pretty ones.

And it is really cold.  But it's sunny!  Not warm, but sunny.

Katie and Casey and family drove from Aurora, Colorado on Wednesday, spent time in Salt Lake with family (Gail, Nick, Uncle Robert's family, Aunt Donna's family) and some good friends (Mike and Ali). Then they drove to Cedar City, but didn't get Casey's brother's home in Cedar until 11:00 pm. There were some very snowy and slick roads along the way. We are grateful they made it safe and sound.

I had to work on Friday, but made it only a half day of work.  That way, we could visit with them in the afternoon.  They came around 12:30 and stayed till 8:30 p.m.  Miscellaneous photos to follow.

One of the games the kids played was cute. Quintin would grab Winnie the Pooh off the front of the plane and make one running loop through the kitchen with it, much to Hailey's dismay.  Then Quintin would had it over to Hailey. She'd replace it on the front of the plane.  And then Quintin would do it again!  And Again. Silly kids.

And after a dinner with just me, Mike and the four kids (who were bribed with Brownies if they would eat dinner), Quintin was so tired.  He just curled up on the kitchen chair and fell sound asleep -- below, he'd been moved to the living room couch.  So comfy, so relaxed.

Katie played for us for a bit.

Mike, Corbin, Katie.

Hailey, trying to decide just what toys to play with.

Poor Casey left home in Aurora with a nasty head cold beginning, and it continued to get worse as the days wore on.  They were here on Friday, so I think it's about the peak, or close to it. All we could do was give him cold meds and let him rest.

I didn't take pictures of kids opening gifts (there were few), but twins got books and this is such a cute picture of Mike reading a dinosaur book to Quintin.

Friday morning, at the Library.  It was a very snowy day.  All day on Friday.  Snowy and cold.  We only got about 5 inches of very dry snow. And then Saturday--Sunshine!!

Katie and family have Rossman activities to do on Saturday and since Sunday seems to be the best weather travel day, they will probably leave on Sunday. And since we have 9 am church, they will probably not be attending with us.

It's been a fun holiday season with lots of family visits.

Today is Saturday, and I'm loafing and enjoying an audio book.

Christmas 2018

 Most of these pictures are out of order, but all took place between December 22 and 26, 2018.
Donna's family came to visit!  They stayed with us, and so did Gail's family. We had a full house.

Butch and Donna and family arrived at our house on Saturday evening, after a VERY long day of travel.  Donna said she was up at 3:30 am that day. Yikes. That's a long day of traveling for sure!

 We had a lovely Christmas dinner together in the living room and in the kitchen (below)

 Gail and Seth and family were in Cedar by Sunday evening. They had been in Richfield with Seth's family.  We played games together

Fun times, playing Games. This one was "Heads Up," an iPhone app game.. It was hilarious and loud and funny.

Eric is showing Elizabeth and Donna the Grandma Autrey quilt blocks I have.

Angela and Mike, Christmas morning.

And of course, we have to have the silly "orange peel" smiles.  I did have our traditional Christmas morning breakfast of "Vegan Cassarole."  It is anything BUT vegan, as it is full of eggs, sausage and cheese. But we do have fruit on the side. Poor Jonathan was sad that we didn't get to open gifts right when he woke up.  Nope, breakfast first and it wasn't until 9 am!!  Mike drove over to pick up his Mom and she joined us for Breakfast and for gifts.

Most of us had on some sort of Christmas attire--a holiday shirt, some Christmas Socks, a piece of jewelry.  But Mike was just wearing an ordinary gray shirt, so he opted for the Christmas Oven Mitt look.

We drove around on Christmas Eve and looked at lights. Mike and I managed to get lost and separated from the other two cars.  But it was fun, anyway. There are some night displays and one computerized out out in Enoch.

We teased Gail about her short "Tyranosaurus Rex Arms."  We really did try to keep the cards and "draw" piles close to her, but mostly we just passed her cards. ha.

Grandma snoozed during the evening visits after church on Sunday and after dinner.

Elizabeth is showing Jonathan some tips and tricks with Pokeman. Or something.

Sunday evening after dinner.

Welcoming Gail's family on Sunday afternoon.

Today is the 28th.  I'm at work. It is SO COLD and snowy. We only have a few inches, but it is way below freezing. I'm glad I'm inside where it's warm.  These are views out the front door of the library.

 You can't see the flakes, probably, but it's coming down pretty good.  The temp is 19 degrees fahrenheit, feels like 9 degrees AND the low tomorrow morning will be 9.  BRRR.  Yes, I drove the car to work today.

There is lots of construction going on to the left (above). I can hear their trucks and lifts beeping and such. Much of the building is shrouded in plastic as they are laying brick and have to keep the mortar from freezing.

Donna's and Gail's families left our house on Wednesday the 26th when it wasn't terribly snowy. Yet. They all headed up north to meet up with other family. Katie and her family were in Salt Lake that night and they looked at lights at Temple Square.

Rossman Family at Temple Square

Caroline, Gail and Katie in the Tabernacle

Casey with Hailey

Corbin, Hayden and Jonathan

Katie and Quintin

Katie and her family will spend some time in Cedar City with Casey's family and with us. (We're meeting today for lunch at my house.)  Donna's family will leave from Salt Lake on Saturday and I'm not really sure when Gail and her crew leaves for Elko--probably Saturday, maybe Friday. 

I am so glad they all got to see each other and spend time together, here and there. I'm glad we got to spend time with as many as we did--without even having to leave home!  I'm not sure if Donna's family met up with Katie's family while in Salt Lake or not, but I know that the Ashwoods were in Provo, with Robert and seeing all those Autrey's. And there's a lot of them now!  Tiffany is back at Robert's house with her little Noah.  Hopefully the Ashwoods were able to connect with all of Robert and Janet's family.  Oh, wait.  Katie did text me on Thursday to say they were having dinner at Robert's house before driving down to Cedar City (in the snow--at night!!), so Ashwood's were probably there, too.  Katie did text me that night at 11 pm (Thursday evening) to let me know they'd made it to Casey's brother's house in Cedar. Whew. Nasty roads to be driving in the dark.  Grateful they had a safe trip. It is a good thing that Katie and her family are used to snow.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

December Tending Dec 16 to 18, 2018

I don't recall this book. Does it belong to one of my kids and got left behind on a visit?  It's really cute. It's a pop-up book!
Rachel found it in the bookcase with the other kids' books in the "toy " room.

Rachel and Logan playing in the "toy" room. Marbleworks is a big hit, but I need some coaching on how to build a good Marbleworks tower. Not my forte.

Singing Christmas Carols around the piano.

Mike reading to Rachel and Logan. He likes to sit on the stool in front of you while you read, instead of next to you. Even if you don't show him the pictures!  He seemed happy to just hear you read the story. Maybe he's just developing a really good imagination of how the story REALLY looks in his head!

Nick and Kaylee planned a little get-away to Las Vegas for a couple of days (Dec 16 and 17) . They came to Cedar City on the Saturday before, visited with us and friends, went to church with us on Sunday morning, then left the kids with us for the next two days. 

For being a first time sleep-away with no parents, they did pretty well.  Sweet kids. Rachel's four, and Logan is two.  They are usually good eaters, play together pretty nicely most of the time, like stories and games.  So my days were full.  And now I know why Nick and Kaylee go to bed so early at their house.  It's tiring. That's why we have our babies while we're younger, right?  This ol' granny was sure tired.  We got brave on Tuesday and ran some errands--WalMart, Bank, Post Office and Great Grandma's house to put up some Christmas decos while she was at the eye doctor.  It was a surprise and they helped!  They set up the little wooden nativity.

Mike has been working on shelling pecans like crazy.  I've candied a lot of them.  I sent some home with Nick and Kaylee, mailed some off to Damian's family, and have some left to give to Gail's and Katie's families when they come, too.  And a few for us, too.  My fingers (thumbs, mostly) sure to hurt after shelling for an hour or two. Not to mention how tense my shoulders/back become from sitting for such a long time.

Nick and Kaylee came home early on Tuesday afternoon.  You have never seen such happy children to see their Mommy!  They wouldn't let her go for a good long time.  Their family headed home shortly after they got back and got the kids, said goodbye to Great Grandma and headed back to the real world.  They did have a nice get-away, though.  Enjoyed eating out (and brought us some Ethel M's chocolate!) and seeing some sights. They saw "Ka" by Cirque de Soliel and really enjoyed it. They stayed at the Bellagio and had a great view of the fountains. Just so you know, when you stay there, you can hear the music that goes with the fountain show in your room by turning on a certain station on the TV. Cool.  I love those fountains.

Apple season is OVER

Wow. What an experience. Mike learned a lot. He figured he must have pressed close to 100 gallons of fresh apple juice. I think it was more because we did drink a lot of it.

The press, sink and disposal/grinder was a good investment. Maybe. Perhaps we should plan on just selling it next time we do this. I dont know that there will ever be such a great apple crop as this past season was, though.

Our fall travels interruped the flow of things, there was a learning curve with the press liners, etc. One disposal died soon after the start...we ran short on containers. It was a learning experience. I'm really glad Pam Christensen helped out so much. She's a champion apple cutter-upper. Larry L. helped, so did Eric. I washed bottles and cleaned up a few times, but that's about it. Mike did the bulk of it, and he had to take days to recuperate after a few hard days of grinding, pressing, straining, delivering or freezing.

Now its time to get all those pecans shelled that we brought home from Georgia.