December Doings--2010

Noel, Noel...we celebrate the birth of our Savior once more.

The Christmas Season is such a wonderful time of year...full of beauty and joy and special music and lights and great holiday foods and toys & goodies and especially opportunities to gather (in person and on Skype) with the family. It's stressful and hectic at times, but always worth it. This year was no exception. Dad took lots of nice photos and I'll try to document the activities here...going backward through the month of December, starting with Christmas Day.

Christmas Morning...Santa came!

Mom, ready to open gifts.

Beautifully wrapped presents from the Provo people.

A crocheted gingerbread house (how clever) from Airie and Abram.

A blackberry baking dish (with a Very Berry Crisp mix) and a darling mushroom (of course!) hanging ceramic birdhouse from Autumn for me and a new Tom Clancy book for Dad. THANKS! You guys come up with such good ideas.

A new stocking ornament and flashing gift card to Best Buy (good choice) for Dad from the Hillsboro Barkers. That will be fun to use. THANKS!

Columbia jogging jacket with lots of nice features for Mom from Briton & Robin. Thank you for thinking of me and choosing such a great gift.

Lots of goodies from the Lehi Barkers: a Santa cookie jar (we didn't have one), grandma (gardener) and grandpa (snowman) dated (2010) ornaments, and a wedding photo of Almy and Valois Barker beautifully framed using Valois's own white buttons. What a wonderful idea! Brielle selected gifts for us using her own money...a sand-covered bird for me (I love it) and a snowman snow globe for Dad. THANKS for everything.

Autumn, happily contemplating some Christmas packages.

Airie and Abram, ready to see what Santa has brought for them.

Ah, the ham buffet!

Digging in!

What a feast...

Oh, the tasty treats, and no calories of course. Thanks Autumn, for the cheese ball and Airie for the sugar cookies and Baron for the bubbly.

Colby making a tower of brightly wrapped toys.

Baron reacts to his annual fish ornament...a good-looking pufferfish this year.

Colby playing with his Monster Truck Wrastlin' arena.

Brie and Colby going on a treasure hunt.

Time to go home for the Lehi Barkers. Thanks for dropping in to celebrate the day.

Good night to the three A's. So glad you could join us for the feast and merry-making.

All is ready for the morrow. We drove out to see the neighborhood lights and luminaries and now Dad and I can sit back, breathe deep, (I enjoyed a bubble bath!) and soak up the candlelight and calm of Christmas Eve.

the mantle

deer on the shelves

the tiny colored lights on the tree, reflected in the window

the star atop the tannenbaum.

Sunday, December 19th, after church (great choir program.)

That night we had our traditional family Christmas party with clam chowder, shrimp, sausage-stuffed mushrooms, and the cheese bread.

The bubbly, looking lacey.

Ready to indulge.

The other side of the table.

On to the family talent show. Baron, Donette, Brie and Colby performed (with great guitar accompaniment,) " I'm Gettin' Nuttin' for Christmas" with many actions, fancy dance steps, and props, including bags of coal (chocolate) for everyone.

Broke my bat on Johnny's head...

hid a frog in sister's bed...did a dance on mommy's plants

eat a bug, ink on the rug

Surely these two smiling cuties haven't been bad!

Autumn played guitar (very nicely with tapping toes) and led us in singing all verses of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen...quite a Christmas story.

Colby and Brie are singing along.

The annual sock puppet rendition this year was Dean Martin (with the suave black hair) and the Rat Pack's version of Rudolph (with the shiny red jingle bell nose.)

Puppets taking their bows. Airie and Abram put a lot of feeling into it and delighted us as always.

Mom and Dad proved they are not afraid to make fools of themselves by performing the Gayla Peevey (a 10-year-old) 1953 song, "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas."

The kids had been asking all night if was time for the Nativity. At last it was.

Took the group photo first...then on to the reenactment.

Angel antics...prior to the interpretive dance.

Angel announcing the birth to the shepherds.

Shepherdesses and sheep.

Mary and Joseph.

The 3 wise people.

Ta-da.

Time to don the antlers and await Santa's arrival.

Colby with lumps of coal.

Are my antlers on straight?

Watching Mr. Claus.

A right jolly old elf!

Sitting on Santa's lap.

The green lights...we decorated 9 trees/bushes. Thanks to Autumn and Airie for their help.

The house is all aglow.

Peeking in the living room window.

December 18th...dinner with our friends Rob & Naida Stayner and Randy & Melanie Lewis.

The table is set for chicken enchiladas, shrimp ole, Naida's green salad with mandarin oranges and almonds, and Melanie's chocolate cake with and peppermint frosting.

Don't forget the 7-layer bean dip.

It was fun to spend the evening sharing food, memories, opinions, etc. with friends for nearly 40 years.

Autumn said I should document my Nativity Puzzle project. So here are a few of the details. Even though it was stressful and hard at times, I really enjoyed making this gift for everyone.

The 2nd counselor in our bishopric has been out of work most of this year and someone thought ward members could help him out by purchasing these puzzles. Woodworking is his hobby. I thought they were so fun, clever, durable, cute that I bought 4, without much thought about what I was getting into. I got them around Thanksgiving and couldn't start working on them until December. After purchasing 25 bottles of paint and a half dozen brushes, spending some time with a friend for instructions, and enlisting father to sand all 52 pieces, I was ready to go. I haven't done tole painting in a long time and it isn't as easy as looks, for me at least, even though I had some photos to follow. Luckily you can paint over your mistakes...yes multiple times. The really hard part was trying to keep each set together as I painted assemby-line style, all of the camels, then all the sheep, etc. Actually I don't think I succeeded, but in the end it somehow didn't seem to matter. I used Q-tips and toothpicks and Sharpie markers, too. One of those markers ended up being almost a disaster. When I got to the varnish stage, on the first (luckily) piece I started to paint (a cow) the eyes, nose and ears smeared all over the face. (Also, the cow was the only color I had mixed paints for, brown and red, and I was very lucky that there was still a little of that paint dried up in cup that I was able to revive to redo the face.) Plan B: Spray on the varnish. After a search for the right stuff, I spent a full morning spraying each piece 4 times (tops then bottoms with double coats) in the garage. The time-consuming part was I had to haul the pieces back and forth, 2 at a time, from the garage to the kitchen for each pass, so they could dry. (The spray cans said to use at temps above 60 degrees) and it was somewhere around 30.) I needed to get them all done in time to mail the Oregon set for Christmas arrival and somehow I made it. I actually enjoyed listening to a lot of Christmas music and shows (I didn't see them, I just heard them) and thought a lot about the nativity story as I painted. I feel they turned out fairly decent and I hope they will be enjoyed and last for many years. Originally I had planned to do 5 sets...one for myself. Thank goodness I dismissed that idea after I got the instructions! I won't be doing any more tole painting for quite a while, (I figure it took at least 20 hours per set, 80 total, to complete the project,) but I'm pleased I did these.

Varnishing the animals.

Drying in the kitchen.

4 sets completed.

More birds. Here is a red-shafted flicker telling the smaller birds to back off!

Another shot of the flicker (woodpecker) with black bib and forked tail.

Bunch o'quail. The group on the bottom is anxiously anticipating their turn at the upper level where the seeds and peanuts originate.

Mr. Sharp-shinned Hawk.

Checking us out.