Thursday, December 18, 2008

Ali's Winter Band Concert

Alison and Teagan - the two flutists from St. George
Ali ready to play
Full of concentration and playing beautifully
Had to get the gorgeous footwear - my daughter's feet are officially bigger than mine :-)




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Thursday, December 11, 2008

Christmas Baking with Dad

Jack and Kitty are having a bake sale at school that is just for Father's and kids - soooo much fun! We poured over recipes and discussed techniques and finally settled on thumbprint cookies with a Hershey Kiss in the middle - yummy :-) Good luck with the sale y'all, if nothing else these cookies are full of love!!


Kitty is ready to get the baking started - she is doing her thumb exercises in preparation!

Jack is diligently looking for the 1/4 teaspoon and big sister Ali is offering her advice

Found it! Now let's measure the salt

The dough - gotta love the KitchenAid

Dad and Jack finding distractions in the kitchen

Kitty and Dad holding up the lovely tins that I bought last year after Christmas for .50!

Making the thumbprints was by far their favorite part

Looks great y'all. Job well done :-)

The finished product! Of course, Dad and I had to taste sample and let's just say, "Um Um Good"

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Sunday, December 7, 2008

Frosty December Day

The landscape is frosty, but not a lot of snow....


Here are my beautiful babes fresh in from the great outdoors!!!






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Friday, November 28, 2008

Turkey Day 2008

My beautiful brined 15 pound turkey!! It was so moist and yummy :-)

Where else but the kitchen...the hub of all activity on Thanksgiving or any other gathering for that matter.

Mum taking care of a little pre-dinner clean up

My station by the stove

Time for a quick cuddle in between duties :-)

It's gravy time





























The whole gang enjoying being together before the feast

Me and my girl Tannis

Mum, Me, Tannis and Esther - what Thanksgiving is all about :-)

The babes are ready to eat!!

Looks good...
Oh no, Jack is falling out of his chair with joy ;-)

Dennis' plate for when he returns from the Ukraine...straight to the freezer















A little gift for the ladies and I have no idea what story I'm telling...

Love this picture of Tannis and Esther

The 4 Gage present and accounted for...just missing Big Daddy

We switched on the holidays lights, turned on the Christmas carols and let the countdown begin before I even started the dishes... A wonderful end to a fabulous day. Thanks to the Webers and the Nichols for making a special day even more so. Love y'all!


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Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving Officially Became a Holiday in 1863

Most people believe that as Americans we celebrate THANKSGIVING because of the pilgrims and the Indians. While I do think that the feast to celebrate the first successful harvest, certainly does make a good story...I love what President Abraham Lincoln had to say when he declared the first thanksgiving holiday more. One hundred and forty five years later his words still ring strong and true!

Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation
Washington, DC—October 3, 1863





Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863.
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well as the iron and coal as of our precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.


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Sunday, November 23, 2008

Twilight

Finally, I have seen "the movie"!! It was very true to the book and I even grew to love the actors that played my beloved characters - even though they did not match the ones in my imagination - at all :-)

Everyone in my household is a fan and since this film is about kinder, gentler vampires I took the whole crew plus two of Ali's girlfriends from school. We had a great time and I was super happy that I had purchased my tickets online and didn't have to wait in line; except for popcorn, of course!

Here are a few pix from our theater experience...we can't wait for the next book to make its movie premiere. Look out 2010!




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