Category Archives: Grandchildren

A Grand Day

Our grands came over for a few hours on Monday afternoon. We had some fun activities planned. First off, they both were ‘hungry’ so we sliced some of their mom’s homemade sourdough bread and they enjoyed it with some honey on top. They also enjoyed some hot chocolate with marshmallows in their special Christmas mugs.

Then it was time for the dollar store aprons and cookie baking. I had to take photos fast because JJ was already unwrapping the butter.

We got everything mixed in with their help leveling the sugar and flour with very minimum spillage. Then it was time to roll the dough into balls and lay them on the parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Poking a hole in each round with the end of a wooden spoon was fun.

Ready to go into the oven.

Once they were out with lots of warning not to touch the hot cookie sheet we carefully helped each other put some melted semi sweet chocolate into each hole.

We didn’t taste test till after their mom came back from some alone time and we enjoyed dinner together. We all agreed this was a good recipe. I’ll add the link to Charlotte’s German Hazelnut Cookies here. We did not have hazelnuts so we substituted pecans in this recipe.

After cookie baking, Addy and JJ were given the task to set up a Christmas village with these pop up cards we have received every year from my college roommate and her husband. I told the Grands to be extra careful with them since they are paper and won’t last forever. Over thirty of these pop up cards have survived over the years.

On the day the kids were setting up the village this year’s card arrived in the mail.

A cuckoo clock. We had a fun discussion about Cuckoo birds with Addy and JJ.

The vintage angels were my mother-in-law’s. They are sweet but when I think of angels and the verses in the Bible that speak of angels, I never think sweet as a description. They startled and caused fear and were powerful and not easily described. I prefer my wooden angel on the left.

The three mugs in the back are Josh, Dan and Katie’s mugs. The two in the front I purchased for Addy and JJ.

Today we will pick up our food items for our Christmas Eve and Christmas day meals. Tomorrow our daughter and hubby arrive from the west side of our state and celebrations will continue. Hope all is merry and bright in your corner of the world.

Listening and Sipping Tea Hodgepodge

With gratitude to Joyce From This Side of the Pond for our last Hodgepodge questions of the year.

1. Did you do more talking or more listening yesterday? Was it by choice or by necessity? 

I’m happy to say that I did more listening than talking yesterday. Our grands were here in the afternoon for a few hours and it was fun listening to their banter. JJ had several stories to give us the details on. He talked about his dad’s work on the hot water tank, in detail. Addy filled in anything he missed. He chuckled while calling me, Baa bush Kah, in three separate syllables instead of Baba. Addy read out the instructions on the cookie recipe we made. During dinner together JJ had many things to share. I made the comment that he was quite the conversationalist!

2. Are you a tea drinker? Hot, cold, or both? Flavored? What do you like in your tea? Do you make Christmas tea this time of year? What time of day do you like to sip your tea?
I grew up in a tea drinking household where tea was served regularly and we enjoyed our tea with a sweet cherry syrup or lemon syrup that our mom made and canned in quantity.
At the church we grew up in we’d have meals where tea was served. My friends and I enjoyed making bridges of sugar cubes across the top of our tea glasses before we poured the hot water in. We broke the sugar bridge with the hot water. No tea bags, loose tea steeped. The glasses were hot so the tea was poured into the bowl and we drank the tea from the bowl. At our Russian wedding receptions, Чай не сладкий  (the tea is not sweet) ‘Chai nye slatki’ was a chant that was made while gently tapping our tea glasses with a spoon so the newly married couple could stand and give each other a kiss to sweeten our tea.
I think we mostly had tea in the afternoon or evening.
After I was married I transitioned to coffee and enjoyed tea as an event rather than daily consumption. When I drink tea I enjoy Earl Grey or English Breakfast Tea. No green tea for me. I do not make Christmas tea but I do remember having some in the past.
3. What’s an activity you won’t try, an event you won’t attend, or an athletic challenge you won’t take part in not even for ‘all the tea in China’? 
I will not try bungee jumping. I will not attend a Monster Trucks Show. I will not take part in a marathon.

4. What’s something most people seem to love but is not ‘your cup of tea‘? 

Owning pets.

5. How does your family celebrate New Year’s Eve? 

Hmmm. It has changed over the years and we do not have any set traditions for this eve. Lately we are in bed by 9pm and will hear the fireworks go off at midnight. I used to watch at least one of the countdowns (New York) that were 3 hours ahead of us. Here in Colville the Fourth of July is not a good time to shoot off fireworks because of the fire danger so many folks save their fireworks for New Year’s Eve.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I’m still relishing our Children’s Christmas Musical that was on this past Sunday and this song that the Children sang.

You can have my room, Jesus.
You’re always welcome here, Jesus.
I won’t turn you away to a cattle stall.
You can have my room, Jesus.
You can have it all.
Come in, Come in,
Come into my heart, Lord Jesus.
You can have it all.

A Very Merry Christmas to Jo and all of my Wednesday Hodgepodge Friends!

The First Leon ~ A Children’s Christmas Musical

Here are the parents, who had their part of getting Addy to play practices on Sunday evenings starting well before Thanksgiving. JJ was part of the younger crew and their practices started after Thanksgiving. Hats off to them for being faithful to this responsibility and helping Addy learn all the songs for the performance. Since they had to have Addy and JJ at church early on performance day they were able to save us all some good seats and have some down time before the show began.

An exciting start to the Christmas musical which was so well done.

After the first choir number Addy and her duet partner got ready for their song. ‘If you want to be a Star.’

Addy sang her heart out on her duet. She never missed a beat throughout the many songs that the Children’s choir performed during the play. She was diligent and engaged and learned all her parts early.

An addition to the duet, JJ and several other younger ones came on stage dressed as stars. They had to walk and bob in these cute costumes. They entered at the beginning of the duet and exited just before the duet was over.

 

 

 

This was a hilarious part of the musical when the choir turned their backs on us and then turned around again with their shades on and sang an upbeat version of While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night.

The stars became manger animals backstage and re-entered right on cue, nonchalantly.

 

Time for the animals to exit stage left…

 

One of my favorite songs during the musical was, ‘You can have my room, Jesus.’ It was so tender and touched my heart and I shed a few tears.

You can have my room, Jesus.
You’re always welcome here, Jesus.
I won’t turn you away to a cattle stall.
You can have my room, Jesus.
You can have it all.
Come in, Come in,
Come into my heart, Lord Jesus.
You can have it all.

 

And just like that, after months of hard work, the Children’s Christmas Musical was over for another year. It was a program that shed good light on the Christmas Story and honored our Lord Jesus Christ. We are thankful for the directors of the play and all their helpers that put in so much time and energy for the musical.

Our Pastor closed out the play with a short gospel message explaining Hebrews 2:9.

But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

A fitting conclusion to the Christ honoring musical.

On Monday our grands spent a few hours here and we baked cookies and enjoyed time together.

Only 6 more days until Christmas!

Thanksgiving Long Weekend 2023

We had nine at our Thanksgiving table this year before three more family members made the drive on Friday. My sister and her husband traveled from Texas to be with us locals from Colville. I’m happy to announce that we were pleased with cooking the turkey in the convection oven. It took half the time and the results were good. We’ll make a couple tweaks next year…if we remember.

On Friday, later in the afternoon, this carload of three arrived from their six hour drive and we were eleven for a pulled pork dinner. Our daughter’s hubby unfortunately was under the weather and stayed home.

On Saturday our group split up and spent the morning and afternoon with separate adventures.

The older folk ventured across the line into Canada for some fun in Rossland and Trail, B.C. We had good interactions with the Border Agents again.

The sun was out for another glorious squinty day! Rossland is at a higher elevation and known as a skiing destination. The shaded sidewalks were icy. We tried to walk on the sunny side of the street.

We enjoyed the artwork around town and made some purchases before we traveled a bit further to enjoy lunch in Trail.

Persian food is a favorite in our family and we were happy with the quality of food at Kootenay Kabab in Trail.

Our carload made it back across the border to our Country Bungalow in time to watch the second half of the Cross state rivalry between the University of Washington and the Washington State Cougars, known as the Apple Cup. Having three University of Washington alumni in our family we are Husky fans. We are outnumbered on the side of the state that we live in now. Our Huskies waited until the last second of the game to win! With that win they are undefeated this season.

While we were in Canada our kids enjoyed time in Colville on our local kids’ property.

We all gathered together again for dinner and fun on Saturday evening.

Addy enjoyed time with her aunties and great auntie and JJ enjoyed his Uncle JOSH-SHU-WA. This weekend for JJ, Uncle Joshie was Uncle Josh shu wa.

Ember enjoyed the visiting hands that stroked her head. The large Thanksgiving banner was a great project for everyone to contribute their coloring skills to. Mexican Train was the game of the weekend.

We are thankful to be able to spend extended time together any time of the year but it is always a special time at Thanksgiving. So grateful for all who traveled a long way to get here! We don’t take that for granted.

As you can imagine the last several days have been very busy and I’ve had little time on the computer and for visiting. Hopefully I’ll catch up soon before the next grand adventure the end of this week!

Thank you to all for your visits and your comments. I appreciate every one of you!

Happy Thanksgiving 2023

The table is set and we are getting ready for our guests. The turkey will go in the oven about noon since we aren’t eating until 4ish. I’ll be trying the convection setting on our oven for the first time. (Hope nothing goes wrong!) The yams are boiling and will be ready to peel, slice, and put into a casserole sprinkled generously with butter and brown sugar and topped with marshmallows, then baked to perfection. That is a family favorite. Jamie is bringing pies, her Granny’s buns and brussels sprouts. Linda is bringing whipped cream and cranberry sauce.

My Yorkshire dishes hold even more meaning this year after our walk along the Yorkshire Dales in September.

I saw these photos from 2017 and 2019 from our ‘Grands’ first Thanksgivings and couldn’t resist sharing them this year.

Addy’s First Thanksgiving

JJ’s first Thanksgiving.

Happy USA Thanksgiving Day!

Thanks be to God who gives us all good things to enjoy.

Thanks be to Jesus who died on the cross for our sins and made the way possible for forgiveness of those sins and peace with God.

Thanks be to the Holy Spirit who is with us teaching us and comforting us.

Truth for Today will resume next Thursday. I’ll leave you with this benediction from the book of Hebrews.

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Corn Maze 2023

Uncle Joshie and Auntie Lolo arrived to Colville on Thursday evening last and we enjoyed a few days together. On Friday October 27th we arrived at the Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze when they opened at 4pm.

Addy was keen on reading the map and leading us to find the 9 stations of the maze.

JJ was interested in other discoveries.

We mastered the maze in forty minutes and then it was time to pick a few pumpkins to carve.

Carving happened the following day on Saturday after the pumpkins had time to warm up. We’ve been experiencing lows in the teens and 20’s here in Colville.

Saturday evening we enjoyed dinner at our Country Bungalow with nonstop fun and I even got a back massage by my favorite little boy.

Sunday we were all in church for a wonderful service and afterwards enjoyed lunch together at Rancho Chico before Auntie and Uncle hit the road for home.

A special Fall weekend enjoyed and one that will be remembered. Thank you, Joshie and Lolo for taking the time to drive over the mountains to visit us. Loved our time together.

Happy Reformation Day and Halloween to you all. We are looking forward to our two very special trick or treaters to ring our doorbell tonight!

We’re Still Lagging Hodgepodge

Jet Lag ~ Jet lag is caused by a mismatch between a person’s normal daily rhythms and a new time zone. It is a temporary sleep problem that usually occurs when you travel across more than three time zones but can affect anyone who travels across multiple time zones. Jet lag can affect your mood, your ability to concentrate, and your physical and mental performance.

It’s time again for Wednesday Hodgepodge. Thank you, Joyce From This Side of the Pond for the questions!

1. What’s something that scares you? 

Snakes, wild animals and stupid drivers.

2. Do you care where the food you eat comes from? To what degree? 

I prefer local food especially when it comes to produce and fresh fruit. I want meat from U.S. ranchers. I prefer food canned and bottled and packaged that comes from the USA or Canada. Mexico is fine for certain products that we enjoy, too. I am not obsessive about it. I pray over the food I eat and ask God to protect me from evil. 🙂

3. What’s something you wish you’d spent more time doing when you were younger? 

Memorizing more Bible Verses while my brain was sharp!

4. Let’s play autumn this or that….

Pumpkin spice or apple cider? Fresh pressed Apple Cider, please.

Corn maze or haunted house? Hands down…Corn Maze. We have an amazing Corn Maze in our town that we try to conquer every year.

Horror film or Hallmark movie? Hallmark Movie that is part of the Murder Mystery side of things.

Blanket or sweatshirt? Out and about, a sweatshirt. Inside on the couch, a blanket.

Watch football or watch the World Series? College Football but really and truly Futbol (Soccer) and especially English Premier League games and the Seattle Sounders MLS are my favorite games to watch.

Foliage-red, yellow or orange? This is hard but since I have to pick I’ll go with orange.

5. This time last year where were you and what were you doing? 

We were at the Marcus Cider Fest last year at this time and this Saturday we will be at the Marcus Cider Fest again. Our kids entered their  vintage Ford Thunderbird in the car show part of the Fest. There is a parade and booths and fresh apple goodies galore including fresh pressed apple cider.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

We are still recovering from Jet Lag from our trip to Dublin and England. We arrived home on September 27th. Jet Lag is real and especially for us older folk. We will live with the lag since we love traveling to that part of the world. We finally were able to hug our grands after three whole weeks apart. Our Colville kids came for lunch on Tuesday (yesterday). It was so good to have a meal with them and spend a couple hours with them. The Grands are growing so fast!

It will be nice to come around and see what all ye Hodgepodgers have been up to.

Celebration #1

We gathered in Colville with our local family and friends to celebrate Greg on his actual birthday.

Our kids made fish tacos and delicious salsas and guacamole to enjoy. We had bread pudding for dessert.

The ‘Grands’ enjoyed watching Gramps open his gifts.

Requests were sent out to friends and family to send a greeting to Greg and to send those greetings to our kids’ home so they could surprise him with a stack on his birthday. It worked and what a great stack of cards he received from siblings, nieces, nephews, friends and his own kids and grands.

A very special surprise gift from Canada arrived, too.

So thoughtful and generous. Thank you Terry and Lovella!

After we got home and were able to read each card I decided to display them so we could enjoy them all.

We loved the special artwork created by Addy and JJ.

Our sister-in-law, Kelly, is becoming quite the artist, too.

Several verses from the Bible were shared in the cards that Greg received from friends and family near and far.

Romans 15:13

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 41:10

fear not, for I am with you;
    be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Funny cards and serious cards were all appreciated!

Isaiah 40:31

but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
    they shall walk and not faint.

Jeremiah 17:7-8

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
    whose trust is the Lord.
 He is like a tree planted by water,
    that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
    for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
    for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

This next card made both of us laugh out loud!

It was quite a wonderful gift to receive all of these cards and to read the special greetings and memories in each of them. If any of you who sent cards are reading this post, thank you so much for taking time to write and send Greg these encouraging greetings!

We will celebrate with our ‘Coast Kids’ in Ireland!

Goodbye August

Another week of soccer for these two. Because of our smoke filled week a while back, soccer was extended to next week which will make for a very full week with the beginning of Homeschool Co-op and Awana!

Finally… I finished this puzzle which was harder than many with the coloring and the fact that all the pieces were similar!

It was okay that it took so long since our dining table was not in heavy demand in August. It will be cleared off for dinner tonight with our local kids and grands.

Welcome to September which will be a full month for us. Fall ministries are starting up at church. Awana, Women’s Bible Study, Mops, Women’s Retreat and Connection Groups are all happening in September.  Our Grands and their mom will be full speed ahead with Homeschool and Co-op.  A milestone birthday for someone in the family is coming up. We are also gearing up for a trip to a land we’ve never been to before. More details to follow soon.

What does September hold for you?