After our traditional Swedish Pancake breakfast, the kids gathered at the Rotary trail for a walk. Greg, who is half Swedish, does the honors of cooking the pancakes at every special family gathering.
We all look forward to his Swedish Pancakes with Little smokies. They are enjoyed with sour cream and real or not so real Maple syrup plus fruit syrups, especially boysenberry which has been impossible to find in recent years!
Lots of stray golf balls were found in the brush.
Later that evening it was taco night at our country bungalow.
The dish washer was going full speed ahead for several days!
A Very Happy New Year to All! Welcome very soon to 2026!
This is my Happy New Year Post for Hodgepodgers. This post card was sent to Greg’s Great Great Aunt Emma. The card was sent from Chicago to Denver in 1906! It is a hundred year old Happy New Year greeting! The stamp was one cent. The written greeting is in Swedish.
1. Did you make resolutions or set goals for the year we’re waving goodbye? How did that work out for you? Will you set any goals for this new year, new season, or new month? Share one or two if you’d like to share.
The only goal I set for 2025 was to read the Bible through alongside Everyday Gospel, A Daily Devotional Connecting Scripture to All of Life by Paul David Tripp. I found it to be a good combination and encouraging. One other highlight was using our Church History Study Bible with notes stretching back from the first and second centuries and reaching forward to the twentieth century. As the introduction states about the contributors in the notes, ‘these are theologians, pastors, poets, laity, all offering perspective on God’s Word’ to aid us in escaping the ‘tyranny of the present to see wisdom from the past’.
The Puritan John Owen (1616-1683) offers us this encouragement:
If you have any regard to the constancy of your faith, to the comfort of your life, the honor of God, or the salvation of your own soul, labor immediately to get your belief of the Word better founded. Read the Scripture constantly, study it seriously, search it diligently, hear it explained and applied by others, meditate on it yourself, and beg of God an understanding of it and a right faith in it.
2. When did you have the most fun this year?
This was the family Christmas card photo this year taken over Thanksgiving weekend.
Hands down the most fun always happened when we were together with family or dear friends! The joy, the belly laughs, the support, the one liners, and the love flowing made for memorable moments all through the year!
One of the belly laugh moments of 2025!
3. What’s a song or song lyric you’ll associate with 2025? Tell us why.
Phil Wickham’s Hymn of Heaven because it is the hope that encourages me in my daily life. Songs of life that are filled with truth inspire me and cause me to worship God. This is important to me. Artists like The Getty’s, Chris Tomlin, Phil Wickham, and others who sing what is true to the Bible are my favorites. I’m not a fan of imposters. It is my prayer that these and others stay true.
4. Best (or a favorite) bite of something delicious you tasted this year?
I grew up on my dear mom’s blintzes but I’ve not made them for several years. This year I made them twice and they are so good to my taste buds and memories. I choose them for my best bite this year!
5. What do you want to do more of in the new year? Less of?
I would like to read more good books this year. I would like to decrease my sugar intake this year.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
Happy New Year to all my friends who stop by my blog. I appreciate each and every one of you! Wishing you a new year of peace and joy down in your hearts to stay…
Christmas day started quietly with just the two of us enjoying a Fancy Egg Scramble. I was able to set the table and make a few of the food preparations before the two sleighs from across the mountains arrived 3 minutes apart. Soon afterwards the Colville kids arrived and quiet was replaced with joyful chatter and anticipation of what Christmas day holds at Baba and Gramps’.
(A fair warning: This is a many many photo full post)
The centerpiece.
No white Christmas for us this year.
The birthday cake for Jesus arrived with the Bayles Mountain crew. Designed and planned by Addy and JJ and brought together by their mom. The stable, the star, Joseph, Mary, Baby Jesus, sheep, shepherd, 3 wise men and a donkey were all included!
Use your imagination and you’ll be able to see all the main participants. It took me a while to figure out that the marshmallows with the little bit of pretzel were the sheep!
This little guy was hungry and excited to see it was time to carve the Prime Rib Roast. He said, “that smells good!”
(A shout out to our local grocery store, Super 1, who offered their prime rib roasts at only $9.99 a pound, cut and tied. )
The menu consisted of Prime Rib, Yorkshire Pudding, Roasted Vegetables, and Creamed Corn (not from a can).
This year the readings were from Luke, Hebrews and Philippians.
Christmas Crackers ready set Pull!
Presents and time for belly-laughs! Even though this was a ‘stocking gift’ year, the gifts seemed endless.
Time for comfy jammies or putting feet up watching a video sent to Addy and JJ from Great auntie Christina.
A Marco polo. Do any of you or your kids participate?
Here are some of our photos for our Christmas card greetings that we took over Thanksgiving weekend.
And that is a wrap of our preparing for and enjoying the day of celebrating the birth of Jesus with Angels watching over us all.
Boxing day and our For-Tea will be separate posts coming in the New Year!
1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1 pkg. 4 serving size jello instant vanilla pudding
4 eggs
1 cup applesauce
1/2 C. water
1/4 C. oil
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. all-spice (optional)
1/2 raisins finely chopped (optional)
Combine all ingredients in large mixing bowl of electric mixer and blend then beat at medium for 4 minutes. Pour into well greased and floured 10 inch tube or fluted tube pan. (I’ve used a bundt cake pan and angel food cake pan). Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. DO NOT UNDERBAKE. Cool in pan for 15 min. remove and cool on rack. When the cake has cooled and before I serve it I give it a dusting of powdered sugar.
This goes really well with whipped cream or a good vanilla ice cream, too. This has become a favorite in my house and is requested for birthday cakes very often.
We are going to celebrate four birthdays on Saturday evening, our December girl and our January boys and girl. We will have 4 individual mini cakes for the event. Two of this Spice cake, a lemon cake and a Chocolate cake. I’ll have lots of photos and posts in the coming weeks of all our Christmas time and beyond celebrations!!
I hope Jesus was at the center of all the Christmas festivities with your family and friends!
These kitchen helpers took over and whew after a few hours things got done.
Addy has mastered the art of kneading. She says it’s because she helps her mom make tortillas often.
After chopping nuts, JJ decided it was more fun to wash the dishes. He said it is fun to wash dishes the ‘old fashioned way’.
We had to wait for a couple hours for this dough ball to double in size. In the meantime we also managed to get one tray of Russian Tea Cookies done. I did not have a resident photo taker available and sticky hands did not help for me to take photos. My helpers went home for lunch and we went out for Chinese giving the dough time to rise.
When we got home from lunch the dough was ready. The finished product will be delicious but both loaves cracked. I think I rolled the dough too thin before rolling it up and baking it with the nut filling.
I need to make these more than once a year so I can master the method.
Today is Christmas Eve Day. The main celebrations start tonight into tomorrow. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas.
…the occasion of a person’s birth. A picture carving or model representing Jesus Christ’s birth.
Even though the Wise men from the East did not appear on the scene till months after the birth of Jesus they are depicted in many traditional Nativity scenes. I like to try to put them far off as if they are still traveling.
“My Christ he is the Lord of lords,
He is the King of kings
He is the Sun of righteousness
With healing in his wings.
My Christ, he is the heaven of heaven
My Christ what shall I call?
My Christ is first, my Christ is last,
My Christ is All in All.”
I had to wait till dark to get a good shot of the nativity set we like to put above our front door.
When JJ was here last Monday afternoon, he set this Little People Nativity on the window ledge.
‘Welcome to our wondering sight,
Eternity within a span!
Summer in winter! Day in night!
Heaven in earth! And God in man!
Great little One, whose glorious birth
Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth.’
Quotes taken from Christ’s Glorious Achievements, What Jesus Has Done for You. by C. H. Spurgeon
Here are the last few sentences from this book:
“I hope that among those who have read these pages there will be many whom the Lord Jesus has specially redeemed with his most precious blood, and I trust he will appear at once to them, and say, ‘I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.’ By grace omnipotent may you be made to yield to the Lord with the cheerful consent of your conquered wills, and accept that glorious grace which will bring you to praise the seeking and saving Saviour in heaven.”
May the miracle of Christmas and the redemptive, saving work of Jesus Christ on the Cross lead you to repentance with belief and new life in Him. He alone gives us grace and peace.
Deck the halls with boughs of holly Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la, la, la
’Tis the season to be jolly Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la, la, la
Here are a few Christmas treasures scattered here and there around our home.
On Monday, I’ll share our nativities.
Hopefully I’ll get some baking done next week. These are on my list.
These “melt in your mouth”. There is no other way to express it.
Russian Tea Cookies
1 C. butter
1/2 C. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2-1/2 cups sifted flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup nuts, finely chopped
Cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla, flour, salt and nuts. Mix well. Form into small balls and flatten a bit. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 F 10-14 minutes. While still warm roll in powdered sugar. After cool, roll again in powdered sugar. Yields 3-4 dozen.
What is on your list for Christmas baking, if anything?
Our Christmas tree was finally adorned with ornaments old and new. We do not do ‘designer’ Christmas here. We do a more traditional look, using old and new touches, vintage and modern. As you can see, the presents under the tree are a mish mosh of bags and boxes and wrapping paper. Not much matching going on.
The angel topper has been with us for many years and I’m sorry to say I’m not sure who made it for us and the first year it became our topper.
The ornaments on the tree have no overall theme. Some are from travels to Great Britain.
Beatrix Potter’s characters are represented.
The first Christmas ornament we were gifted as a wedding gift and some early family ornaments represent these special times in our history.
Josh and Dan’s sport photo ornaments have gone to live at their homes.
I’m not sure which one of our 3 kids created this walnut half ornament in Sunday School years ago.
This one above has been around for many of our 51 years of Christmases. The one below is newer but has still been around for years!
Our ‘Grands’ have a representation on the tree, too.
This was our very first Christmas tree at our apartment in West Los Angeles. That is our niece Jenna. We had only been married for 20 days. The fern next to our tree was from our wedding. We had two ferns at the altar for our wedding flowers. After finding these old photos it dawned on me that in our first month of marriage we had both sides of our family over to our apartment for a meal/gathering, including Greg’s paternal grandmother and my maternal grandmother!
This was our Christmas tree in the first home we purchased in 1975 and our second Christmas as a married couple.
Catching up with some events from the last week. The super moon lit up the sky and our acres. So bright, it was almost as if we had street lights.
Addy’s last basketball game of the short season was on Saturday morning, the 6th of December.
As usual she played hard and well.
After the game all the ladies and JJ took in the Lady Lion’s craft fair in Kettle Falls. When we saw all we wanted to see we met up for lunch at TJ’s in Kettle Falls. Addy and JJ sat across the table from me and I took this shot of them.
Before the rains came and while the snow was still good enough for sledding, our Colville kids searched out their Christmas tree for 2025.
On Sunday while on greeting duty, I took this photo of the entry at our church. The Joy is real.
Our son planned a very special weekend in Nashville to celebrate Laura’s birthday. When they arrived an unexpected surprise for Laura was that cousins David and Kristin joined them for the celebration. It was an epic weekend for the four of them.
This is Nashville, not Iceland. Ice at Gaylord Opryland Resort.
All four of them described this weekend as unforgettable.
Monday was cheesecake baking day here at our country bungalow. I made two for our annual Staff/Deacon Christmas dinner which will be on Tuesday the 9th. While I mixed and baked our Christmas CDs were playing. While I was finishing up we got these two photos of our grands helping their Great Grandmother decorate her little corner tree.
This was our comp dessert at our anniversary getaway last week that I wanted to remember. It is a cotton candy sundae and it was delicious and unique.
In other news, I’m happy to report that our Christmas cards were mailed on Monday. This always comes with a sigh of relief and a smile of satisfaction.
Hopefully, I’ll remember to take photos at our dinner party tonight along with the finished cheesecakes.
Together around the table to enjoy Greg’s Swedish pancakes. This is a family favorite!
Lights
We enjoyed some Christmas lights at the Coeur d’Alene Lake Resort
Silver
Our silver and gold Christmas wreath.
Vintage
Christmas Angels from Greg’s mother Verna’s Christmas stash.
Neighborhood spot (quarterly)
Barmans on Main Street in Colville all decorated for Christmas with a Santa Sleigh, too.
I’m in the process of decorating for Christmas here at our Country Bungalow. Trying to get inspired to write our Christmas letter and get going on our Christmas cards!
How are you getting along with Christmas readiness?
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 