Snowed in!!

From all reports of the Weather man we were supposed to get 1 or 2 inches of snow in the valley with this last storm. I agree that the lawns were already several inches deep but this morning I couldn't see my driveway or my cleaned off sidewalk or even the road!! This was supposed to be a nothing storm. Poor pity those who had to drive it it this morning because it is almost 1 pm and there hasn't been a road plow in sight!!

Thank Heavens that today was a get lots of meals in my freezer day and sew my new nightie day!! At present I have chili cooking on top of the stove, I have ribs and sauce cooking in the slow cooker and I have funeral potatoes going in the oven. I also have the makings for a big batch of spagetti. All of this is going into meal sized containers for 2 to feed Ed and I with just the help of a microwave over the next couple of weeks.

I WAS going to go up to my dads and out to see Jill but only if they send a snow plow !!

Sad day!! A naked tree

I'm taking my Christmas tree down today and that is always a sad day for me!! Usually it doesn't come down until the 15th or later but since that is the day I am scheduled to have my incisional hernia repaired I figured it needed to come down this week. I love a Christmas tree. I wouldn't mind putting one up and leaving it there all year just changing to ornaments to Valentines Day and then St Patrick's Day and then Easter, etc. I love the soft glow at night when all the other lights are off and I can just enjoy.

As I undecorate it though (as when I set it up), I take a minute to enjoy the ornaments I have. Every time we go someplace new I buy an ornament for my tree!! I have a sailboat and a lighthouse from Portland Head,Connecticut, a gorgeous butterfly and hummel figurine from a little German village on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River where it runs past Cincinnati, An ornament from the Statue of Liberty and a big apple that says Empire State Building, New York. I have a mannequin head in silver brocade and an actor's masque in purple and gold and green from New Orleans. I have an old fashioned Santa that I bought at the Old Post Office in Washington DC. I have a seashell from one of my trips to Hawaii and a wooden nativity cut-out and and a gold metal cut-out that says "the Cradle of Liberty" from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I have a Lennox china snowflake from San Marcos that I bought at the factory outlet stores just South of town. I have a blown glass hummingbird and a birdfeeder that reminds me of my mama and several trains that remind me of my dad.

I have a metal Cinderella Castle that Dirk and Da brought me back from their Honeymoon to Walt Disney World. I have ornaments that Ed brought me back from Germany and I have a beautiful glass ball full of sand from the Cayman Islands that Kelly and Jamie brought me from their cruise in November. I have other ornaments that Mauri and Kecia have given me through the years. Mauri gave me some darling glass snowmen that will remind me of our fun mom and daughter dates. I am also crediting Mauri with some cute red metal ornaments that look like a tricycle and a childs rocking chair with adorable bears sitting on or in them. Kecia gave me a cute snowman from California while on her mission. And Kris and Shawn have given me some wooden ornaments with pictures of my grandkids in them. I also have one of Adrie Anna when she was about a year old. Then there are the jewel like ornaments that I think Kris helped Mickey make. And then there is the crystal heart she gave me the year my mother died - with the heart came a beautiful poem that tells me she is waiting for me on the other side - and that she still loves me. I have snowflakes that I saved from my sister Merrilee's ornaments - and little tiny nutcrackers that remind me of my growing up years. I have a counted cross stitch ornament that I myself made about 25 years ago! I have a crystal that hangs on a thin wire and catches the lights as they glow. I THINK I bought it in Arizona but I am not sure. One of my close friends gave me a gingerbread man in a brown paper sack that is sooo cute; Even the pink sparkly [:-)] poinsetta flowers are a memory because they were part of a whole bunch of corsages I made for our Ward Christmas Choir the year I sang in it... and ended up with pneumonia!!

What I am saying, in my wordy over much way is that it is a tree of memories. Each time I look at the different ornaments I am taken back to a place or time in my life where I have happy memories. Ed and I have had a lot of fun traveling to a lot of different places here in the US of A and each of these ornaments reminds me of those different trips. This is just one of the reasons that I love Christmas so very much - and why I hate to take my tree down as the season comes to a close. I gave Kecia my big tree last year and got me a tall thin one that I love (and it doesn't take up so much room), but the tree is getting more crowded each year. I keep thinking that I need to stop buying memories...but I enjoy them so much I just can't.

Grandma Gets to Babysit

Kecia drove up to Layton today (January 2, 2008) to get her hair cut and I got to babysit -





















I am sure these aren't the first pictures of Emma in 2008 but they are the first ones I have taken - so enjoy!!












She entertained me for hours and then got to go home to Aunt Jamies house while mom and dad went to the Jazz game!! Wonder how Jamie and Kelly are holding up!

Fun Day

Merry Christmas to Mom from Mauri!

Mauri gave me a day out with her for Christmas and we had fun! We went the morning of New Years Eve...we hit the movie theatre first and watched National Treasure - Book of Secrets. Good movie. We both learned something though - DON'T buy the large drinks - 44 0z - we both had to run out a couple of times during the movie to the ladies room!! Bummer!! Trying to figure out a slow time during the movie when we wouldn't miss too much - not fun!!

After the movie we went to Marie Callendar's for lunch. We talked and visited and ate and had a good time. Then we shared a slice of their caramel cheesecake apple pie! YUMM!! Thanks for the fun time Mauri, I love you.

Emma Lynn

Mauri took this picture with her new camera on Christmas Day - I love it. Poor Kecia looks like she feels horrid and Glenn is just relaxing with Emma - and Emma is loving it. Good job Mauri!!

Gorgeous gift

Double click on the picture so you can see the detail

Last night was my Nielson family party and it was so fun to sit and visit with my Kelly and Terry and Jeff and my dad and Jill Pill - along with Shawn and Kris and Kelly and Jamie. I had to show off my newest decoration - made by Jeff!! Usually Teresa does a major part of the craft work but since she is in Idaho with Skye and Katie Jo at her parents home, Jeff put this one together for me, which surprisingly enough makes it even more special!! Teresa is so meticulous and makes sure that the lettering etc is done perfectly and she will be proud when she sees what a great job Jeff did with mine.

As you can see it is one of the new type of signs - a steel sign, with the Vinyl lettering. When I realized they had Ed and Susan (us) for Christmas I really really hoped that they would make me one of these gorgeous signs, but I had no idea what I wanted it to say! Jeff says that so far this is the only temple he has but will shortly have a lot more of the different temples. Lets see, I would need an Ogden Temple, a Bountiful Temple and a Mt Timpanogas Temple for the three of my four that were married in a temple. Kelly and Jamie were smart enough to get married in the SL temple in the first place. ;-)

When I opened this gift last night and saw that he had done the Salt Lake Temple for me I could have cried. Ed and I were married there in September of 1967 - 40 years ago...thus the

Willden
Established 1967

I am emailing a copy of this picture to Jeff so he can post it on his web site. You are welcome to go see all the fun stuff they have to offer. They attend ALOT of super saturdays in Northern Utah every fall helping ladies make their own favorite signs. You can be that I will be taking it to the next enrichment planning meeting we have to see if anyone wants to get together for a spring fling instead of a super saturday;...these would make marvelous mother's daygifts! Hey, Kristanne - here is an idea for you to use as Enrichment leader.

http://www.teresascustomcreations.com/

I just figured out how to link that web address to the actual site all by myself!! Amazing. Now if I could only figure out how to add my picture to my 'comments' on someone elses blog sites...

Anyway - this is a favorite gift. Along with all the other special things I received this year for Christmas (like the cute sign Jamie and Kelly gave me, and the pillows from Kecia & Glenn, and the 1 night stay at the Anniversary Inn(!!!) from Shawn and Kris, and the emergency water storage kit and gift card to Barnes and Noble from Dirk and Da. And I am sure I will do a whole blog on Mauri's gift - it is an afternoon for the two of us to go shopping together or to a movie and then out for lunch....FUN!! I AM SOOOO SPOILED!!

Grandkids and the Treehouse

Caleb, Jerod, Joshua and Adrie - precious grandchildren

I mentioned in my last blog about how fun it was to watch my grandkids's faces as they opened their Christmas gifts. Well - Mauri took her kids to spend a few hours at the Treehouse Museum in Ogden where they now had membership for a year (thanks to grandma susan :-) and it looks like they had lots of fun.



This is Caleb - one of Mauri's five year old twins. Looks like he is having tea!\













Here are a couple of WashingtonTerrace's finest firemen hard at work!! (Caleb and mom, Mauri)












And here we have Miss Adrie - the old (hee hee hee) schoolmarm
















and here we have Master Jerod doing the teaching with Joshua as a student.

Kids did you know that your grandma Merritt probably attended a class room much as this? He was telling the story at last nights party about being in the lower grade classroom (It was a two room schoolhouse with grades 1-4 in one class and grades 5-8 in the other classroom!) Grandpa is color blind but no one knew too much about it in those days and his teacher got sooooo mad at him for not coloring his picture with the proper colors. She thought he was just being a smart alecky kid!! Grandpa Merritt says that it wasn't until his induction physical on his 18th birthday that he was told he was color blind and they explained it to him!!!!! WOW!