The Tea Drinkers…

A tea table would not be fun without guests sitting around it so I’m showing you my guests before I show all the tables. On Wednesday I’ll be posting all about my table for Kathleen’s Let’s Dish Challenge.

The theme for our Friendship Tea this year was Snapshots. The church lobby had some great backdrops for photo opportunities.

Behind every snapshot there’s a story.

Our daughter Katie came early and was able to take some snapshots before the crowds came.

Our daughter in law, her mom and grandmother were able to come and share a place at my table, too.

Sisters by marriage and Laura’s dear friend, Shavonne.

Pat, Wilma, Laura, Katie, Susan (Shavonne’s mom), and Shavonne.

Me and Katie

All my guests at my table Susan, Shavonne, Laura, Wilma, Pat, Andra, Judy, Katy and Katie.

More to come from the tea…

Today we had a glorious sunny day and Katie and I took the opportunity to head north to the tulip fields in Mt. Vernon and then to have lunch in LaConner. We even got a little sunburned. Soon I’ll be sharing my photos from the fields, too. Here’s a little tease…

That wasn’t nice was it? Here’s a different view…

Hope your week is starting well…

Friends

My flashback this week is all about friends and family in Persia in the late 30’s and in the 40’s. These two friends got into trouble for applying lipstick before they took this photo. My mother on the left and our friend who we always called Aunt Zena on the right.

The same friends over 60 years later in California. Aunt Zena on the left and my mom on the right.

Most of the people in the following photos immigrated to the U.S.A. from Persia. Unfortunately my maternal grandfather died before he could immigrate. My maternal grandmother came to the states as a widow.

My mom is sitting down on the left. I need help identifying the other girls in this photo. I think some are Katkovs and the girl on the left is Vera (Leleland). Hopefully someone who sees my post that knows our extended family and friends can help me out with some names.

This is my mom on the left, her sister who died young, and her brother Paul.

My mom and my Uncle Paul

My mom and her cousin Luba

My mom on the right with her cousin Luba on the left and the two gals in the middle are Vera Leleland and Lyda Hamzaeff (married last names).

Nicolai, Aunt Nina, my mom and Uncle Paul

The Katkov and Shvetzov families in Persia. My parents and sister had left Persia already for America. My maternal grandfather is sitting on the right next to my maternal grandmother with my cousin Alex standing between them.

My Uncle Paul’s wedding day with my Aunt Nina and her family and friends. All the people in this photo are single except for my aunt and uncle. It was a tradition for the bride and groom to take a photo with their single guests and family.

Here we are in March already. We’re fighting off a cold bug at this old house. Dear is down for the count and I hope I don’t have to join him.

Have a good week everyone!

Valentine Favorites

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! It’s time for Friday’s Fave Five with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story. Here are my favorites from this past week.

1. A surprise snowfall last Sunday. Glad it all washed away on Monday. Sorry for those of you that really wish snow was in your past right now.

2. A safe trip back and forth to Canada on Tuesday to enjoy a nice lunch with some of the Mennonite Girls and a tour of Matthew’s House in Abbotsford.

3. Meeting some dear friends for dinner on Thursday at our local haunt. So good to see them and talk to them. I didn’t take a photo boohoo.

4. A beautiful bunch of tulips from Costco that we’ve enjoyed all week. They are similar to these that were growing in Mount Vernon last April.

5. A no pressure Valentine’s Day plan. I bought steaks for Dear to barbecue and we’ll bake some potatoes and have salad. No fighting the crowds.

This is the start of a long weekend here in the states and for some of you in Canada. We celebrate President’s Day on Monday. Hope you all have a great one!

2013 Recap…the Joys, the Sorrows…

Here are my collages from January to December of 2013. I had to make 2 collages for September and 3 collages for December. September had our high and our low of the year. December starts with Laura’s birthday, our anniversary, Christmas and then Katie’s birthday. Too many events for one collage…

We had a quiet start to the year with our first ever experience with Hoar Frost. Our sons both had birthdays in January turning 32 and 34.

In February Katie came to stay with us for a month while Andrew had cold weather training in California. My cousin and his wife came for a visit, too. After 38 years we finally had our dining chairs recovered in leather. We are very happy with them. We also took a drive to see the Skagit Eagles.

March was filled with wonderful experiences. We took Katie to see her brother’s property in Eastern Washington. The beginning of the Sounders soccer season. Katie, Laura and I flew to Southern California for my niece Debbee’s bridal shower. Such a good time with my sisters, nieces, and cousins. Katie returned to North Carolina to reunite with Andrew as he arrived back from training just as Dear and I flew to Milan, Italy. This was my first time in Europe and we arrived in Milan on my birthday. I went to my first international soccer game and enjoyed traveling to Lake Como to experience a more quaint side of Italy.

The night we all arrived in Orange County for my niece’s wedding we got together with Dear’s side of the family for a meal at our hotel. Debbee and Lenny’s wedding was at the end of April in Huntington Beach, California on a Friday night. Another wonderful gathering with my extended family. On Saturday of this same weekend we planned a 90th birthday/ 70th wedding anniversary celebration for my mom and pop. Little did we know my mom only had 4-1/2 more months on this earth. On Sunday we had brunch together at my sister’s in Huntington Beach and then we all walked to the beach to enjoy the surf and sand.

May brought our Celebrations book launch in British Columbia. Such a good time for the 10 of us to be together. Mother’s Day is of course in May, too and I was treated to 2 beautiful Mother’s Day bouquets from my children.

In June I traveled with the Mennonite Girls to Manitoba for several book events in Steinbach and Winnipeg. Josh treated me to a club box soccer experience for the Panama/USA soccer game. We also were happy to attend Marie’s bridal shower here in Washington and be representatives for our nephew Caleb’s side of the family.

In July we finally began work on replacing all our old floors in this old house. July also brought the news that my mom had flat-lined and was in the hospital. Those of us from out of state flew to Southern California to be with my mom and pop and face the news of my mom’s future on this earth. My mom was released from the hospital to Hospice care at her and my pop’s apartment.

August brought more home improvements with the carpeting going in and new closet organization. We flew to Southern California again for our nephew Caleb’s wedding and while we were there we were all able to say our in person final farewells to my mom. We came home knowing that her time was short. Dear, Josh, Laura and I were leaving for England on September 12th and my family decided that if my mom died we would postpone the funeral till our return from England. Just before we left for England Dear and I were able to drive to British Columbia for a celebration meal with some of the “girls” and their husbands at Anneliese’s parents cabin at Hatzic.

From September 12th until September 23rd we enjoyed a wonderful trip in England with Josh and Laura. We received the news that my mom had passed away just as we arrived in England. We were sorry we could not communicate right away and get details until we reached our first destination with wifi. We stayed calm and carried on knowing that there was nothing we could do. Our trip was filled with many great events and destinations. We went to a Manchester United Soccer game (epic experience for our son Josh) We enjoyed hedgerows, villages, canals, ancient churches and lands. We stayed in the Cotswolds, Wells, Cornwall, and London.

We got home from England and made plans immediately to fly to Southern California for my mom’s services. We all flew in to Orange County airport from different parts of Washington. Katie was staying with us during this time (she arrived the end of August with Andrew and he left back to N.C. on Labor Day) Andrew deployed to Afghanistan the week of my mom’s funeral. We also celebrated Dear’s 60th birthday in September.

In October Marg and John joined us for a soccer game between our team and their team. Their team won. Some of my nieces from Southern California came up for a girls weekend and we had a great time trying to get through all of Downton Abby seasons 1-3. Katie and I traveled to British Columbia again to join the “girls” at the West Coast Women’s show where we had cooking demonstrations on the cooking stage.

In November we had our brilliant Pub night to thank our friend who made arrangements for us to use his parents home in Cornwall on our England trip. We had an early Thanksgiving celebration and met Dan’s girlfriend, Jaimie. Besides a traditional Thanksgiving meal with turkey and all the trimmings we managed to get together at Palisade for brunch the next day.

December was packed full of good times and celebrations. We celebrated Laura’s birthday at Neville’s a British restaurant. Katie and I traveled to Abbotsford, B.C. for the Cookie class that the Mennonite Girls Can Cook put on at Lepp Farm Market. Dear and I celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary at Semiahmoo Resort in Blaine, Washington. Josh and I also went to a board meeting for the Sounders soccer team where we got to meet some of the players. And all of this happened the first 10 days of December!

Katie and I took a train trip up to Vancouver, Washington before Christmas and the day after we had snow at our house! Christmas Eve we helped usher at one of the services at church and then came home for a non traditional meal of hand made tamales. Later that evening Dan arrived from Eastern Washington and Josh and Laura arrived after celebrating with Laura’s family. We all woke up together on Christmas morning except for Andrew. We missed having Andrew here. Christmas was relaxing and fun. The English Cracker tradition will now become our tradition as well. It was so much fun to see what popped out of our crackers and then to read the cheesy jokes and wear the tissue crowns. Fun times.

Katie’s birthday is December 27th so we had a day of destinations that were all enjoyable ending with dinner at this old house with Josh, Laura, my sister Lana and BIL Steve, our nephew Caleb and his wife Marie and of course the master of this old house and his wife…me.

I talked to my pop today who is struggling with pain in his shoulder and is probably facing some surgery to help with the debilitating pain. He misses my mom but still he thanks God for all that God brings his way. He told me he has asked God to shorten his days on this earth. He is weary. We thank God, too, for all He brought our way in 2013. Time will tell what 2014 holds.

We had a very quiet New Year’s Eve until the fireworks started going off at 11:30 P.M. I was in bed by 9:00 and woke up to hear others blasting in the New Year. I rolled over and went back to sleep. Today we are having another quiet day. We watched the Rose Parade and watched a couple New Year’s day soccer games from England and now we are watching the Rose Bowl Game.

Fashionably Late…

Here I sit on this Friday after, Black Friday, It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas Friday, still in my robe Friday but still very thankful Friday!

I’m joining in with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story with my favorites from this past week. Five (or so) faves but lots more than five photos!

1. I’m thankful for this leftover photo of when my kids were all together a couple weekends ago.

2. I’m thankful for our Son-in-law, Andrew, serving his country in Afghanistan. He had to have Thanksgiving in what he calls the sandbox.

This photo is from his cold weather training for Afghanistan.

3. I’m thankful for some leisurely shopping the evening before Thanksgiving with Dear and Katie topped off with Happy Hour at Daniel’s Broiler in Bellevue. I know from here on out it will be crazy out there in the stores. I am still sitting here in my robe on this Black Friday with no intentions of going anywhere.

A good meal with a lovely view with people you love…priceless.

We could see all the way across Lake Washington to downtown Seattle.

I’m always grateful to see a glorious sunset!

4. We were invited to our friend’s home for Thanksgiving. There were forty five of us gathered and the food was amazing and oh so plentiful. I made double the amount of yams needed and I could have fed a whole neighborhood with just the yams. Oye. By the time we ate my memory card was full so I can’t show you the ginormous pan of yams with marshmallows on top browned to perfection. You’re going to have to take my word for it.

The cousins table, the kid table and the collective table. The collective table was for those of us who had the most collective Thanksgivings…translation ~ the old people table! We had those of us starting in the 50’s to two matriarchs that are very close to 90 represented.

Some of the younger guests!

When you see a crowd on the deck poised with their phones, quick, grab your camera and fun out there, too!

There was a cloud layer resting above the Puget Sound and at sunset we got a fun view of the Olympic Mountain range peeking out above the fog with the lovely colors of the sunset above. What you see with the naked eye is very hard to capture with a camera or phone. The view with the eyes God gave me was so much more spectacular than this photo.

5. I’m thankful that with our technology we can talk to and communicate with people across the world and in a different hemisphere than us. Our hosts’ youngest daughter is on a 2 year trek around the world living in different countries. We were able to communicate with her and see her on one of the I-phones from Australia.

Hi Jamie!! We love you and miss you! (Jamie was our Katie’s maid of honor)

Did I mention I’m still in my robe? I love the morning after Thanksgiving when there is nothing on the calendar and I can just dilly dally the day away!

Sunday starts another week of celebrations around this old house. Now that Thanksgiving is behind us I’ll start getting serious about Christmas, too. How about you? Have you started on Christmas?

The Three Birds Pub…

…or Public House. All secrets will be revealed and all projects will finally be shared from the mysterious sewing and planning for this evening of “Celebrating” good friends and good food.

We had a wonderful time at a “Thank You” celebration at this old ~~house~~ Pub on Sunday November 10th. We wanted our friend from England (who now lives in Washington) to know how much we appreciated his offering of his parent’s home in Porthtowan to us this past September. He not only offered their home but also gave us some great recommendations for things to do while we were there. Our guests were very surprised when they arrived to our ~~house~~ Pub on Sunday!

We decided to name our pub “The Three Birds” because of the 3 birds on our stained glass window.

The reader board is from a business our son Josh had when he was in high school. Dear spray painted one side of it with chalk board paint that you can buy at craft stores. We used Union Jack duct tape to frame the chalkboard and frame some other signs that we made for the evening. Our daughter in law, Laura, did all the printing on the chalk boards. The printing on the signs were my effort…oye.

In England a lot of Pubs have Beef and Yorkshire pudding as specials on Sundays so we decided to do the same since our meal was on a Sunday, too.

As you stepped into ye olde pub you were greeted with various scarves from English premier league futbol (soccer) teams.

We had lots of fun with our signage…

We carried the bird theme wherever we could. These sweet birds were in a flower basket that Josh and Laura gave me for Mother’s Day symbolizing my 3 little birds that are all grown up now.

Laura printed the names on the place cards, too. See the bird place card holders?

This was another Chalk Paint project that Dear painted for me. I bought the white photo frame from Michael’s on clearance for $11.88. I liked the shape of the wood frame. Dear took the glass out of the frame and spray painted it with the Chalk paint. We let it dry and waited a few days before we treated the chalk paint as directed by rubbing chalk all over it and then wiping it off. Now it was ready to go. I stuck on the stickers and Laura printed out the menu.

These banners were some of my sewing experiments. The front banner is just a short twine tied between our island pen lights with 3 of the 12 napkins I made for the table. There were only 9 of us at the table so I used these 3 to fill in the air space in our kitchen/eating area trying to cozy things up to look more like a pub. I’ll be brave and show more close up detail on my sewing efforts at the end of the post.

Each place setting had a poppy broach that I made by cutting off individual poppies from a bouquet stem of poppies that we bought at Hobby Lobby. I used wire cutters to do that and then attached stick on pin fasteners on the backs so they could be pinned on easily, or not so easily as it turned out. The reason we decided on the Poppy broaches was to commemorate Remembrance Day/Veteran’s Day since our time together was on Veteran’s Day Weekend and Poppies are worn extensively in England during this time.

The centerpiece was filled with some items that we would see on pub tables when we were in England and some things I added. I wanted to use as much pewter as I could.

I used pewter mugs that Dear and I bought in England in the early seventies for our flower arrangements.

The napkin rings were silver tea pots. All the plates were made in England. I used a combination of three different blue and white transferware.

These are the rough cut napkins that I made from a yard and a half of British themed fabric. I was able to get 12 napkins from the yardage I bought. I trimmed the runner with some bias tape I found in my MIL’s old sewing box. I also used bias tape for the little triangle cut outs that were left over from my original Pub banner.

Now to the most important reason for our evening…our guests!

The lovely ladies with their poppies on. Left to right, Katie, Laura, Gwen, Terri, and Sophie. Terri and Gwen are sister in laws. Terri is married to Gwen’s brother Luke. Luke was too sick to be able to join us. Sophie is one of Terri and Luke’s daughters.

Our guest of honor Gabriel with his wife Gwen and Josh and Laura. It was fun to share our England experiences with our friends and to thank Gabriel in person for his generosity to us and his great suggestions on what to see and eat in Cornwall.

Last but not least was our dessert.

Sticky Toffee Pudding. I will be posting the recipe at Mennonite Girls Can Cook on Wednesday, November 13th.

We said farewell to our guests with our stomachs full and our hearts full. A most wonderful evening. Our kids helped us clean up and we went to sleep content with visions of Prime Rib and Yorkshire pudding dancing in our heads. If you want a tried and true recipe for Prime Rib and Yorkshire Pudding for your Christmas Holidays this year make sure you order one of our Celebrations Cookbooks. If you gift someone with this book you are also gifting children in Kenya who need clean water to live well. All of our author royalties go to this cause.

For the next couple days I think I’ll sit with my feet up and enjoy this book that I first heard about on Vee’s Blog, A Haven for Vee. It finally arrived last Saturday. We ordered it before we traveled to England! What is on your schedule this week?

I’m linking up to Cuisine Kathleen’s Let’s Dish. As soon as her direct link is up for this week I’ll add it to my post. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to link up. Looking forward to seeing what’s going on in Dish world!!

The Stars Aligned…

…last Wednesday. The Seattle Sounders were playing the Vancouver Whitecaps and Marg had wanted to come to a soccer game with a crazy fan like me. Enough of our season ticket holders in our row of seats gave up or couldn’t use their tickets so it was “game on” and John and Marg drove across the line to meet up at my house for an evening of fun.

First we’d join Dear in downtown Seattle for Happy Hour at Boka.

Thankfully Marg and John came disguised as Manchester United fans instead of Whitecap fans since they’d be sitting with us in Sounders country.

Our Happy Hour meal had many tasty choices that we shared around the table.

We made it to the game in plenty of time to get good parking and get to our seats well before the game started.

It was great to hear both National Anthems and see our flags side by side.

We were the best of hosts as we let the Whitecaps run all over us and take away the victory back North…oye. I was happy for John and Marg. Hopefully we’ll see better results for our team this Sunday when we play the Portland Timbers.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend to all the Mennonite Girls Can Cook and other friends across the line. May God give you thankful hearts to praise Him.

Connected…

It was wonderful to see so many dear souls that we have been connected to over the years at my mom’s services.

I didn’t get photos of many of the people who honored us with their presence and their words. It wasn’t easy to relax with my camera in these circumstances.

Hope and I were coordinated in our outfits and had to have a photo together.

After attending this little guys baby shower before he was born it was nice to finally meet him in person with his mommy.

…and with his grandmother, my good friend from Bethany Russian Baptist church.

Katie with Nikki and her Auntie Christina. Christina is Dear’s SIL.

Here’s Dear with his only brother, Terry.

My cousin Vera (from my father’s side), cousin’s cousin Shirley (on my mother’s side), my cousin Jim (on my father’s side), and Shirley’s sister Betty (on my mother’s side).

More dear friends from our Bethany Baptist Days in Los Angeles. Diane, Manya (Shirley, Bobbi and Betty’s oldest sister) Alex and Jaydee with Shirley between them.

Jeanie,(married to my cousin Jim) My cousin Jim, My cousin Vera (Jim’s sister) George (who is Jim, Vera and Katrina’s 1st cousin) and my cousin Katrina (Jim and Vera’s youngest sister).

My first cousin, Vera, from my dad’s side of the family. The rest of this group are all 1st cousins with each other on my mother’s side of the family. My first cousins are on the right end of this group. Valia and Tanya on the right end with my cousin Walter’s wife standing behind them. Bobbi and Shirley are first cousins to Valia and Tania.

Our son Dan with our SIL Letty’s son Derek and wife Amy.

Caleb and Joshua making plans to spy out the Promised Land…Strong and Courageous!

Niece Melissa bonding with our latest grand nephew Thomas.

My Pop with his grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Our kids (missing Andrew) with my pop. Andrew has arrived in Afghanistan with his unit so your prayers for him are appreciated.

Pop with his sons.

Sons and daughters…

Daughters

A very special thank you to the ladies from Whittier Area Community Church and Olive Grove Church who contributed salads and desserts for our meal together. You blessed us abundantly and we are grateful! Everything turned out so well. We were so pleased to be able to spend time with people we have been connected to over the years. Old friends and new friends supporting each other. It’s a beautiful picture of community…

I’ll close my post with the quote my Brother in law Nick read at the graveside…

“There is nothing that can replace
the absence of someone dear to us,
and one should not even attempt to do so.

One must simply hold out and endure it.

At first that sounds very hard,
but at the same time it is also a great comfort.

For to the extent the emptiness truly remains unfilled
one remains connected to the other person through it.

It is wrong to say that God fills the emptiness.
God in no way fills it but much more
leaves it precisely unfilled
and thus helps us preserve — even in pain —
the authentic relationship.

Further more,
the more beautiful and full the remembrances,
the more difficult the separation.

But gratitude transforms
the torment of memory into silent joy.
One bears what was lovely in the past
not as a thorn but as a precious gift deep within,
a hidden treasure
of which one can always be certain.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer”

Goodbyes and Reunions…

Thank you, thank you, to all of you who have prayed for my family during this time in our lives. I really appreciate your kind words of comfort and encouragement and I have felt your prayers. Blessings on you for sharing in our sorrow and rejoicing in our joy that our mom is with our Lord.

There were many times during my mom’s services and burial that the comment was made amongst old friends that it was too bad that it seems the only time we see each other these days is at a funeral. The older we get the stronger this reality.

I want to warn you ahead of time that we had an old world burial and if you get squeamish around caskets and viewings this post probably isn’t for you.

Thursday night viewing at Rose Hills Chapel. Many old friends came to share in our sorrow and rejoice in our hope. My brother Steve gave a message that made me consider God’s hand on the story of my life on this earth.

Friday morning we had a memorial service at my sister’s church in Whittier, California. It was a time of remembering who my mom was and a time of thanking God for who He is in my mom’s life and ours. Brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews and great grand children participated in speaking, singing, reciting Psalms 23 and praying. Our nephew Caleb opened the service with greetings and prayer. Our sister Kathy and our BIL Len sang a duet in Russian of a song my mom requested. Our niece Hope and Great nephew Jackson read the 23rd Psalm. Our son Josh and my nephew, David shared memories of their Baba that they gathered from their cousins. Our niece Michelle sang the first verse of “It is well with my soul” (Baba’s request) and the congregation joined in on the rest of the song. Our BIL Len led us all in singing with great enthusiasm. Our brother Leonard shared my mom’s eulogy with tears and laughter in Russian and English. Our family and friends from Bethany Baptist Russian church joined together for an impromptu singing of “Bless Thou the Lord”. My brother Steve gave the short and insightful message challenging us to see heaven as the place where we will see God and our Savior face to face as our reward. My nephews Levi and Joe led us in “Because He Lives” as the finale to our time.

Eight of my mom’s grandsons were the pallbearers.

We gathered around our Pop, Dzeda to comfort him and support him throughout the services.

We met at the graveside and participated in my mom’s burial.

My mom’s daughter’s, granddaughters, great granddaughter, and nieces placed a long stemmed pink rose on her casket before it was lowered into the grave.

In the old world tradition starting with my father and my siblings we all took a clump of earth and threw it in the grave upon the coffin.

We sang in Russian and English while the son’s, grandson’s, nephews and old friends of my mom’s used shovels to fill the grave with dirt.

We find this tradition of participating in the burial to be comforting and honoring and we leave knowing that we did this act in love.

Our son Dan with Dear.

Josh and Laura

My cousins on my father’s side of the family with their spouses.

The newest member of our extended family.

It was now time to head back to the church for our meal together. Friday was a very clear day in Southern California standards at Rose Hills. We could see all the way to Downtown Los Angeles. Rose Hills Memorial Park is the largest cemetery in the United States and is located in Whittier, California.

In my next post I’ll continue with the good times around the tables over our meal enjoying doing a little catch up with friends from our childhood.

It’s good to be home again. We are still trying to get our bodies on our West Coast clock instead of our British clock. I think a nice full week at home will do the trick. We left a very sunny Southern California and arrived to a rainy blustery Northwest. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

Helping Hands…

…and open hearts that I am so thankful for.

On Sunday we were invited to a get together with dinner on Hatzic Lake in British Columbia. Anneliese and her dear husband put the invitation out for an end of summer celebration with any of us “girls” and our husbands that were available. So thankful for their open home and hearts for hospitality!

Dear and I were the last ones to arrive after a long wait at the border crossing. Thankfully we realized just a mile from home that we had left our passports at home and turned around to retrieve them. Sheesh…that would not have been a sad discovery if we were farther up the road.

Anneliese and her H had made preparations for us and also made sure we had everything we needed while we were there.

Such a beautiful peaceful setting to enjoy time together.

Thankful hands received all that was prepared for us to enjoy starting with appetizers.

Bev prepared the marinade for the salmon that her husband Harv caught and then prepared on his smoker grill for us. So thankful for these generous and helpful hands that are always ready to serve us.

Judy and her dear husband Elmer just home from a trip East brought the famous and fresh Chilliwack corn for us all to enjoy. So thankful for these hands that are always open to blessing me with a place to stay when I come to B.C.

Anneliese prepared several side dishes for us to enjoy with the salmon. Thankful for her generous hands.

I am so thankful for friends that speak my love language of enjoying food together and their hands that don’t tire in preparing dishes for us to enjoy.

We enjoyed the meal together after we sang “Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow”

Our canopy at the dinner table was a beautiful very old Walnut Tree.

We enjoyed several different trees during our time together…

This is an interesting tree that has fallen over but is still producing fruit. Julie wrote a great post about it and if you click here you can read it.

Who knew this swing would be a temptation to our group?

Anneliese and Judy got us going enjoying the tire swing that one of the large trees supported. You can see more fun on the tire swing at Lovella’s blog post.

The fire was lit just before we sat down to enjoy dessert that Lovella’s and Julie’s hands prepared for us.

Lovella made a delicious Coconut Cream Pie.

Julie made her Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake from the cookbook (gluten free, of course!) Rich and Yummy!

Just before we left to cross the line back to the U.S. Dear and I took a short turn on the tire swing, too.

On the road back to the border we were able to enjoy a double rainbow reminding us again of God’s goodness to us.

We had 2 long border crossing wait times this time around but it was worth the time to enjoy these cherished moments with our “Canadian Cousins”.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: Friends