Christmas Treats

Here we come a-waddling! Why is Christmas so tied up with food? Michael and I both could stand to shed a few pounds, but it is the holidays after all.

Firstly, the Christmas party. It was really fun. That's our bishop in the red shirt. Man, has he had a rough few months with all the extra work and strain the flood brought to our area. Nice to see him a little relaxed.

I love living here and I love our ward, but honestly, the folks up here cannot make food like Texans do. It's probably a case of not better, but different. But I do miss Southern cooking. I always looked for the other Texan's food when we had a ward potluck. But she's moved on.

Speaking of food, I always make a little something for Michael's employees. This year, I made cranberry bread again due to popular demand. They came out quite nicely. Recipe on request.

And the inevitable and important sugar cookies. Even though there are just two of us, I needed to make these. So I mustered up a five-year-old to help me. A new addition to our ward family, her family came back home from the Midwest. I think she said about five times "This is fun!". She had a grand time, loved the dinosaur cookie cutters pulled out of Kroger peanut butter jars many, many years ago, and made a set of cookies for her family. She especially thought about the boys which is surprising because she very frankly told me that they give her a hard time some days.
We're off on Christmas Day to see our family in Texas. And there will be more food there, I am sure. And I certainly hope there's some Mexican food in my immediate future.

The Grandparent Tree

It has been very hard to be away from the grandchildren so much of the time. When Catherine was tiny and so far away, I saw a precious little ornament with her name on it in the Denton mall. Buying it and putting it on a tiny little tree I bought made me feel closer to her. Now there are ten tiny ornaments on our grandparents tree. And it's just ten times as hard now to be living far away from them.

It's funny how the personalities match so many of these kiddos even though I picked their ornaments out when they were all infants.

I realized that the grandchildren have never seen our very cool little grandparent tree so what follows are the photos for them. There are a few extra ornaments just for fun but I've included a close-up for each of the grandchildren (not in any particular order) so they can see their ornament:

The grandparents tree

Closer look

For Seth who brings joy to so many folks.

The first one for Catherine that made me think up the tree in the first place. 

Martin, our only Texas grandchild until Miles came along!

For Joseph who is all boy, a couple of train cars

Mischievous Vivi

Juliet who got oodles of the Denney's Irish charm

For cute and sweet Miles

The Littlest Angel who just happens to be Penny

Eli with a pinata in honor of his Mexican heritage

Eliza, our redheaded fairy princess.