Thanksgiving Mosaics

This is a big week in the U.S.A. with our annual Thanksgiving Day on Thursday. My mosaics this week are all about Thanksgiving.

A few weeks ago I went to a sign making class and it was fun to make the sign above and then find a spot in our home for it.

This mirror has moved around our home but it’s always the spot for our THANKFUL blocks.

Gobble gets it’s spot on the hutch closest to the table where we will gobble our Thanksgiving Meal.

Some different settings over the years.

The food that our plates are never big enough for. Always turkey, always stuffing, always candied sweet potatoes/yams, and always gravy. We can take or leave mashed potatoes or something green. Desserts include pumpkin pie and or pecan pie.

The most important thing is to have people we love sitting around the table. Most years besides our immediate family we have my sister and her hubby with us. She’s the only one of my 7 brothers and sisters that live in the state of Washington. We’ve also had my brother Tim and his wife Letty fly up to spend Thanksgiving with us.

Most years we have two gatherings one at home on any day before or after the big day and one at our friends home with all of their family and friends on the actual day. We work around our kids for this big day. Every other year Josh and Laura trade off being with us and being with Laura’s family. Next year Dan and Jamie will stay home with their new little one. It’s hard to trek 5-1/2 hours over the mountain pass to get here. Andrew missed a few Thanksgivings because he was in Afghanistan or at his base in North Carolina. Katie spent a few Thanksgivings without him by her side.

When your kids get married and have more than one family to enjoy you have to let them have the freedom without nagging and guilt to enjoy holidays elsewhere. We are happy to celebrate anytime we can with our kids. It doesn’t have to be on the given day.

Growing up in my family celebrating Thanksgiving was not a given. My parents immigrated to the U.S. after WWII and it took a while for this holiday to set in. Then the church we were part of had annual conventions over Thanksgiving weekends so the meal was big and in a church hall. Dear and I spent most Thanksgivings after we were married at his mom and dad’s. After we moved our family from California to Washington state we started hosting Thanksgiving. This next photo was our one and only Thanksgiving in Washington State with Dear’s family with us. Dear’s father died in 1985 a couple months before our Katie was born. We moved Dear’s mother up to Washington with us in 1988 and built a mother-in-law apartment for her in our daylight basement.

I’m guessing this was 1989 or so. Dear’s brother and SIL at the head of the table, to the right their two oldest girls (they have one more daughter born in 1991), our three, BIL Steve with glasses that rival mine, sister Lana, me, brother Leonard (Lana’s twin) and Dear’s mother Verna. We left this house behind in 1997.

If you live in the U.S.A. where are you celebrating Thanksgiving this year? Do you cook or are you invited elsewhere?

I’m going to link up with Maggie from Normandy Life for Mosaic Monday and later this week to ABC Wednesday for T is for Thanksgiving with additional thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt and Roger’s team of ABC’ers.

ABC Wednesday is close to starting their Farewell Tour in Blogdom and we were challenged to come up with our first ABC Wednesday Post.

You can see my first post in February of 2008 by clicking on, D is for…

Meeting Halfway…

…or Over and Back Again.

Our young marrieds planned a weekend trip meeting halfway with our DIL’s family and our family. At the end of this month they will have been married 1 year!

We all gathered in Leavenworth, Washington. Everyone else arrived on Friday and stayed till Sunday. Dear and I traveled over on Saturday morning and came back home Saturday evening.

Our family above and the whole crew below.

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One of the main events that was planned for the weekend was a river rafting trip for the brave amongst us.

Here’s the crew ready to go!

Our three sons pulling together!

While this crew were river rafting, Dear, Laura and I shopped about the town of Leavenworth dodging the crowds that flock to this picturesque Bavarian like town with the Cascade Mountains as it’s backdrop. I bought a few little treasures from the Russian shop, a free trade shop and a kitchen shop. We survived the Kris Kringle shop, too. If you love all things Christmas, this is the shop for you!

Dear, Laura and I enjoyed lunch at the Icicle Brewing Company while the rest of the crew enjoyed a barbecue spread after their river rafting experience.

We had beautiful weather on the eastern slopes of the Cascades while there was a lot of rain on our western side of the Cascades!

We all got together and enjoyed a potluck taco meal on Saturday evening and on Sunday morning the crew enjoyed a potluck breakfast together.

On the final morning of the weekend our guys got together for some miniature golf fun. Not sure what the girls were doing but I’m guessing they did some shopping.

So thankful to God for all these dear people that we get to enjoy life with. That includes all of life, the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful. Joy and sorrow with the comfort of the God who created us and loves us more than we can comprehend. Love one another, forgive one another, keep moving forward together with the hope of a glorious reunion with our Lord and Savior. Yes, and Amen!

HT: Rafting photos courtesy of Osprey Rafting Company.

Favorite Five on Friday

The Lord is good to me and my family. Last Friday I flew from Seattle to Southern California to visit family and friends while Dear traveled to Chicago for an Oncology Conference. When I exited the plane in Santa Ana, California, my sister Lana was at the gate ready for her flight to Seattle. She is a beloved passenger on Alaska Airlines from John Wayne Airport and her friends at the gate decided I was special because I’m her sister so they booked me in first class for my return flight to Seattle. Yes and amen to that!

Here’s my baby sister with her sassy new hairdo. I’m so thankful that she shares her flying privileges with me. She’s a million mile traveler with Alaska Airlines and she doesn’t lord it over the airline employees but treats them with kindness and love and that trickled down to me.

My brother Leonard, Lana’s twin, and my sister Vera met me outside of baggage claim to take me to lunch. Yes…my family is always there for me. We had lunch at South Coast Plaza before Leonard and I headed out to Neuvo, California to visit another brother and his dear wife.

Spending time with my dear old Pop (93 years old) and meeting my sweet little grand niece (5-1/2 months) was a treasured experience while I was in Southern California.

I also spent a few hours over lunch with my Russian Baptist best friend, Heidi. Upper left hand photo from 2016 and the rest from the 1970’s. We were marveling at God’s goodness to us in allowing us to survive some crazy choices we made.

My flight home in first class was very nice. Beautiful views of the California Coast with a nice meal and more great views of Mt. Rainier when we reached Washington State.

Home again, home again, jiggety jig! We are working on a new phase of our yard project putting a border along our front planter.

While I mowed and weed whacked Dear worked on digging out the trench to add the blocks for our new planter border. Woohoo! Hard work with us now sitting and wondering how we can manage getting up and down with our aching muscles!

Thank you to Amy at Love Made My Home for Five on Friday and dear Susanne at Friday’s Fave Five.

V is for Vera…

Vera is one of my older sisters. She was recently widowed and has moved into a 55 and over community not far from her old home. While I was visiting she had an open house to share her new home with friends and family.

Her manufactured home is open concept with 9 foot ceilings that give it a spacious feeling.

There are 3 bedrooms which include a large master suite with a walk in closet and large bathroom with a separate tub and shower. My younger sister Lana lives with Vera part-time when she is in Southern California working. Lana got to decorate her own room. Since Lana was in Washington while I was in California I got to crash in her room. My brother Leonard from Texas was also staying with Vera and he got the bedroom/office and the blow up mattress.

It was good to see some of our cousins and old friends during the open house. Vera used an old email list for her invites so if she missed you she apologizes.

It was a nice day and we set up tables and chairs in the carport. I did not get photos of everyone, oops.

On Sunday Leonard, Vera, and I met some of our family for brunch in Newport Beach at Sol Cocina.

Leonard and I got to meet our newest grand niece for the first time.

Ellie with her Baba, my SIL Kelly.

Later in the day some of my family gathered at Vera’s again for more food and fellowship.

I’ve posted this photo before but I love it enough to post it again, Pop (dzeda) and Ellie. My dear old pop made it out to Vera’s twice and he lasted for several hours which was good for him.

My pop with 5 of his 8 children.

Leonard and I managed to be with our pop for dinner at Kathy’s on Friday night, open house on Saturday, Dinner at Vera’s on Sunday and then we drove out on Monday morning to go out for breakfast with him and my sister Kathy and to say goodbye to him until we meet again. He got his 2 eggs sunny side up with hash browns, sausage, white toast and coffee and even though it was at Coco’s instead of Denny’s he said it was good. He also insisted on paying. He says he needs to get rid of his money. From breakfast we headed straight to the airport for Leonard’s flight back to Texas. I still had 24 hours left in California.

The fun just kept coming. After I dropped Leonard off I met up with my BFF from my Russian Baptist days and we had lunch and a few hours of catching up. Would you believe from this meet up I headed to the third restaurant of the day, Zov’s, to meet my sisters for dinner?

Kathy and I split our Kebob dinner and we all shared the dessert tray. Kathy, this could have been your late birthday celebration if my brain wasn’t completely fogged up by then! Oye!

When Vera and I returned home Dear’s brother and SIL stopped by for a brief visit since they couldn’t come to the Open House. It was good to see them face to face. BTW, Dear wasn’t with me in Southern California because he was working at a conference in Chicago.

I’m now home after flying first class and that’s a fun story all by itself. This post is way too long already. It’s good to be home and I thank God for watching over me and giving me valuable moments to treasure with my Pop, family and friends.

Since it’s Wednesday and ABC Wednesday is on the letter V this post will be linked up for V is for Vera! Thank you Mrs. Nesbitt and Roger with his team of ABCers.

She Flew the Coop…

…and is spending time with another flock.

Getting lots of hugs in and catching up with my brothers, sisters, pop and friends. Three states represented in the photo above, Washington, Texas, and California. Hope your weekend is going well.

It Was the Best of Times…

…it was the worst of drives!

On Friday I got a rental car and drove north on I-35 from San Antonio to Austin. The goal was to meet up with my brother Leonard and his family. I made it to Austin to the spot where we were to meet up for lunch.

This is the original Chuy’s in Austin and it was hopping all afternoon long. When I got here I got a call from Leonard saying they had a flat tire that came with a very long story we won’t go into. The short part of the story is that they got to a Honda dealership in Waco and the dealership gave them a loaner car to continue on their journey to Austin. We had a good meal at Chuy’s and headed to a home of one of their friends to spend some time together.

When I was at El Mercado in San Antonio I picked up a little something for Hope and Andrew. Hope is wearing her flower head piece and Andrew is strumming his gift.

After dinner the kids got ready for bed and my brother drove me back to my car so I could head back to San Antonio. It was real good to see them all face to face.

Now the road drama started for me. After I was out of Austin with an hour to go to get back to San Antonio the flashes of lightning lit up the sky and the rain started. The conditions got really bad for a good stretch of time and I was praying hard. All the cars on the freeway slowed way down. I have never in my life seen so much lightning in such a short period of time. Thankfully there was only one time that I could not see out of the windshield because of water thrown up from another vehicle onto my car. I was so so relieved to finally get to our hotel exit from the freeway and out of the car!

We will be flying home this evening and I’ll share more about the things I saw in San Antonio next week. Hope y’all are doing well!

Five More Hats!

Five more hats that I have worn from college on…

# 1 ~ I was part of a Christian Rock group where I met Dear and we fell in love with each other and with Great Britain in the early 70’s.

“Hymns give way to Jesus Rock in morning assembly at St. George’s Church of England School, in Meadow Road, Gravesend yesterday. The concert was given by the Contemporaries, 14 musicians from the United States who are in the middle of a world tour. They have already completed a number of successful “gigs” in Liverpool. They are all professional musicians but they are giving their services free”…

Dear and I are in the center of the photo on the bottom row. 1974 was the last summer tour Dear and I participated in.

#2 – I was a bride and became a wife to Dear and changed my name in December of 1974.

#3 ~ I was an elementary school teacher in the Montebello Unified School District until our first son was born.

#4~ I’m blessed to be a mother to these three children and my mother in law sheet is complete with two daughter-in-laws and one son-in-law.

#5 I’m an auntie and great auntie to so many lovely human beings! I’m sharing a few photos so I can get all of the nieces and nephews and great nephews and nieces in. I haven’t met two of the latest greats in person yet.

Our family and Dear’s brother’s family from Katie and Andrew’s wedding in 2012.

Dear’s only brother’s family and our family in 2015 at Riverside National Cemetery (missing Jenna, Justin, Skylar and Travis).

My kids and nieces and nephews and grand nieces and nephews surrounding my pop at my mother’s memorial service in 2013.

Our kids plus my nieces and nephews with my youngest niece Hope and youngest nephew Andrew in 2015 at my brother-in-law Nick’s funeral. So let me count. 7 brothers and sisters. 7 brother and sister in laws. 19 original nieces and nephews. Many of those nieces and nephews are married now and I have 9 grand nieces and nephews. I have 4 nieces and 2 nephews who aren’t married yet.

I have one brother (out of my 7 siblings) whose family has estranged themselves from all the rest of us siblings and our families. They are not enjoying the love and support and comfort that the rest of us enjoy when we are together. I’m adding this truth here to let my dear readers know that things aren’t all rosy in my family relationship category. My brother and his wife have 4 kids and we know for sure 3 of them are married. We aren’t sure about our oldest nephew from this family. We have at least 3 grand nephews or nieces that I’ve never met. I also have never met two of my nephew’s spouses and the oldest niece’s spouse. They have chosen to cut off all ties and relationship with us. Haven’t seen my brother since 2009 and haven’t seen my sister in law since 2004. So sad but true. We pray that there will be reconciliation in the future. Gott Kann!

I have a few more current hats to share before I totally bore you to tears.

I’m linking up with Amy at Love Made My Home for Five on Friday and with Susanne for Friday’s Fave Five.

I’ll be on the road for most of Friday and hope to check in once we arrive at our son’s house in Eastern Washington for the weekend later on Friday. Blessings…

Oh What Fun…

On Christmas Eve day we woke up to hear that Snoqualmie Pass, the main route from Western Washington to Eastern Washington was closed due to avalanche danger and trees over the roadway. That was the route that our son Dan and daughter in law Jamie were planning to drive to get to our house for our Christmas celebrations. Soon the DOT was announcing that they did not plan to open up the pass at all this day. Yikes! Our son Josh came to the rescue and was able to book flights for Dan and Jamie to fly from Spokane to Seattle and arrive at 4:30 on Christmas Eve Day. He used miles and we were all so grateful that we would still be all together and that Dan and Jamie didn’t have to miss out on our time together.

Katie got an ugly Christmas sweater to wear to work on Christmas Eve. When she got home from work early she and I headed to the airport to pick up the precious cargo.

We had an exciting text on Christmas Eve morning letting us know that our nephew and his wife had their first little baby, a sweet little girl. My brother and sister-in-law became grandparents for the first time with her arrival.

After we had some of Dear’s famous soup for a quick meal we all headed to a 6:30 Christmas Eve service at church. It was a beautiful service with lots of carols and candlelight and a great gospel message. We came home and enjoyed each others company and then off to bed to wait for Santa to come fill our stockings.

As you can see Santa was very generous!

So much silly fun around the breakfast table and then we opened presents. We decided to take a walk so that we could make room for dinner!

We tried out Laura’s new selfie stick! Some of us wore our Christmas Cracker Crowns!

We started on Christmas dinner preparations when we got back from our walk.

Our centerpiece…O come let us adore Him!

Prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, creamed corn, and roasted vegetables.

Delicious pies made by our new daughter in law, Jamie! She even carried them through security and on the plane.

Apple pie with apples from their trees and pecan pie!

My side of the family enjoyed a Christmas Eve celebration at my sister Kathy’s house in Southern California and here are a few photos I stole to share.

My dear old Pop praying before their meal.

My sisters and one of my brothers. My brother Steve was preoccupied with his very new granddaughter across town!

My pop with two of his great grands!

Time for Vareniki!

Today is Boxing day and the girls are headed for tea at the Queen Mary Tea room for an early birthday celebration for our Katie.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site. All my photos that I stored and uploaded from that site are now big ugly black and grey boxes with a message to pay big bucks to get them restored to my blog. It will take me a long time to restore thousands of posts.

Feeding 50 in Style…

What a beautiful cold day we had for Thanksgiving this year. We drove over the freeway and through the burbs to arrive at our dear friends Dave and Jody’s home overlooking the Puget Sound for our Thanksgiving day celebration.

In the main dining room seating for 21 or more…

In the kitchen nook seating for 15.

In the entry seating for up to 14 kids…

We started with appetizers…

We enjoyed meeting new friends and seeing old friends.

Our hosts daughter Jamie with our daughter Katie.

Dear was the master carver. Jody made a turkey in the oven and Dave smoked a turkey in his green egg. Jody also made “Deena’s Potatoes, and stuffing and gravy and her yearly traditional mushroom lasagna. Her soup starter this year was dairy free, roasted butternut soup and she made special potatoes for our son Josh without dairy. She’s a gem in the kitchen and in hosting huge parties!! Others of us contributed some other sides like yams, broccoli salad, spinach salad, corn bread casserole, and rolls.

Andrew and Katie…

Cousins, Jamie and Matt.

Our hosts Canadian nephew with his wife on the right and our son Josh and hosts daughter Lucy in the middle.

My sister Lana with her hubby Steve.

This little sweetie with her parents is the first grand babe of our friends Gregg and Tami.

My brother Tim and wife Letty.

Our host Dave with Dear.

The beautiful Puget Sound.

My friend Jan brought the dessert for our meal. This fun display along with 4 delicious pies.

Apple, Pumpkin, Berry and Banana Cream Pie!

We had a great time exchanging sentiments to each other on why we are thankful for them in our lives. I didn’t get photos of the annual turkey shoot that is such a treat for the children.

Hope you had a wonderful time, too.

It’s the People…

…that are the church of Jesus Christ. Wherever believers are together you will see the love and the light of Christ. This is my people post. These people came together in love to support my sister Vera and her kids. They came to love one another and to serve one another and to comfort one another.

My sister’s family.

The Bagdanov cousins with a few missing.

Many of the grandchildren with our pop.

Our kids all together for the first time since Dan and Jamie’s wedding.

Dear’s SIL Christina and our nieces Kacie and Annie, with our Dan and Jamie.

Katie and Andrew with cousin Kacie.

Kelly, Christina and Lydia.

Svetlana and Irina.

Tanya and Fred. They are cousins.

John with Nick’s brother in law Alex and sister Nadia.

Nick’s sister Janet with her sons George and Victor. I spent some time with George and Victor in the critical care waiting room at Cedar Sinai and was moved by their love and concern for Nick and Vera. They spent hours at the hospital on Saturday and Sunday and made sure Vera had something to eat and drink.

Diane with my cousin Jim and Jeaneen.

Vera and Lee, a friend from our days at Evangelical Free Church Huntington Beach.

My cousin Katrina with Jaydee.

Heidi with my cousins Nina and Helen.

Paul, Diane, Vera, Valia, Christine, and George. Valia is my cousin and Vera is her aunt. Paul is Vera’s son. Diane says she and Vera were my Sunday School teachers when I was in kindergarten at Bethany Baptist Church. Diane and Christine are sisters. George’s parents were good friends of my parents from their time in Iran and after they immigrated to the U.S.A. We were in youth group together, too.

My cousin Tanya and sister Kathy.

Milla with her husband Ron and my girlfriend Shirley’s husband Chuck, friendships that started at Bethany Baptist Church. Milla’s mother and my mom were good friends in Tehran and in the U.S.A.

Cousin and cousin’s of cousins, Milla, Tanya, Manya, Shirley and Vera.

The couple on the left whose names are Nick and Vera met at my sister Vera and Nick’s wedding back in 1969. They started dating and were later married. Fun story. John and my cousin Valia are on the right.

My best friend from Bethany Baptist with her daughter and our son Josh and dil Laura.

Laura, Nicole, me and Heidi.

I missed taking a photo of many others that attended.

There are stories behind the centerpieces Nick’s kids, nieces and nephews came up with for the tables at the reception. Nick was known for his white t-shirts. He was most comfortable in a white t-shirt and shorts. When the weather was colder he enjoyed short sleeved sweatshirts and shorts. If you ever asked Nick for something or thanked him for a meal he prepared at his house for you he would always say “that will be a quarter” or “just give me a quarter”. There was always a small pile of quarters on the kitchen counter. When Lenny asked for Debbee’s hand in marriage he gave Nick a quarter. He had a bag of quarters in his car just in case Nick didn’t think one quarter was enough for permission to marry Debbee. At the wedding when Nick handed Debbee over to Lenny at the end of the aisle Lenny handed him a quarter.

When I walked up to the casket with my sister Vera she placed this quarter in Nick’s hand. Tears were flowing…

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: Family