Life is Not Fair

We have a family gift exchange for Christmas. Each person gets one name and then we send out emails with a "wish list" to help with the gift buying dilemma. When I read Alison's wish list and after seeing the blogs of the Christmas trees, (by the way, Ashley we are still waiting for pictures of your tree :) I realized that life is not fair. I have too many decorations and the girls have very few. I have an attic full of "stuff" that they might want :) I am going to box some of it up and send it to Utah and then take some of it to Oklahoma. Mike, you are the only one at this time exempt from receiving "stuff", but just wait until you actually live some where longer than 6 months :) Instead of sharing the wealth, I can share the stuff. That will make Ron happy. I put out a few decorations at our house. Ron never comments on things like that. GG is always reminding me, "Whatever you get out, you have to put away". I did one new little tree this year and bought a couple of new ornaments when they were half price. I also have other new ornaments but I bought those last January when they were on clearance. The ornaments for my big tree are still sitting on the table- I might get to that project this weekend.

Two new frog ornaments that don't match anything I already have- but they were so cute- I couldn't resist. And my "pear tree". It has a gold bird on top and cute little red pears. It looks better in real life- sorry the picture is not very good.

Snapdragons

My "yard man" spent most of his free time on Friday and Saturday, working (where else?) in the yard. It takes him several hours each Saturday to mow, edge, trim, weed , and ant bait the yard. Since he had an extra day (Friday), he got some extra things done. He has started building an "above ground garden". (I will take pics. and let you know how that progresses later). He started putting out the Christmas decor. When I told him I would decorate the inside and he was in charge of the outside- he asked if he could just put out a "bah, hum bug" sign. I said, "yep, as long as it has lights on it." :) The best thing he did, was he planted some snapdragons for me. (They are a winter flower here in Texas) They are one of my favorite flowers. The reason for that is because I have a special connection with snapdragons. My grandmother, Martha, had snapdragons growing around her house. She would take me to look at them and show me how to carefully pinch them to make them open up. I mentioned on another post one of my particular memories of Faye was frosted flakes and cinnamon toast. With grandma and grandpa Berling we would always have 7Up floats and sugar cookies. The other interesting connection, was that Arika was stillborn on Martha's birthday. If there are snapdragons in heaven- I think Martha is showing them to Arika, too.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, we invited a few friends to come to our house for dinner. Since there was 9 of us, all together, we couldn't all sit around our kitchen table. We used the two picnic tables on our porch. Not exactly "fancy shmancy" (as Alison would say) but it worked okay. Plus, I got to have my turkey sandwich on Thursday evening. The real reason I spend all morning cooking is for my turkey and mayo sandwich on Thanksgiving evening :)

Cryin In My Water...

My friend, Karen has "Cryin in my water music- because I don't drink beer" on her blog. I think there is a song about "cryin a tear in my beer for ya dear"... :) Any way I guess this is my "cryin a tear in my water (also because I don't drink beer) post. I'm feeling rather blue- the empty nest syndrome always hits harder at holiday times. Basically I'm just missing all of the kids and the grand kids- it's just me (and mom) and the "yard man" left. I guess I could have gone to Stillwater, to help Annie cook- but too many cooks spoil the turkey :) I could have gone on the 14 hour road trip with Ashley, Daniel, and Jaden, but there would not have been enough room in the car :) I could have gone to Highland with Alison and Micah, but 1 mom on a holiday is enough :) I could have gone to Cape Town, but after a 24 hour plane trip- there might not even be Thanksgiving there :) I could have gone with Sam and Audrey to St George, but I can already hear Audrey exclaim, "awkward!" Or I could have gone to Denver to see my brothers, but I'm not very good at the turkey "bowling" thing. (Similar to the turkey bowl, but real "bowling".)
Its funny- when the kids were younger, it seemed like we were all alike. We ate the same foods, we did the same activities, we all thought alike. Then as they each got older- their own personalities began to appear. They began to be influenced by other people and other families and other activities. Now they each have their own likes and dislikes, their own activities and other families to spend time with. Which is exactly the way "the plan" works. They are only ours for a brief time, then its time to start families of their own and its just "me and the yard man" left. And that's okay- as long as everyone "blogs in" :) so we still feel connected even with the actual distance between us. And did I tell you that the "yard man" does a great job ? :) He also did the dishes and his usually Thanksgiving job- of taking all of the turkey meat off the bones :)
Life is still good.

Fourth Child- Third Daughter

(Before you look any further- my disclaimer is that, "If I'm going to get into trouble, I might as well do a good job of it :) Audrey, Alison, and Ashley are all together in Utah for the next few days- this post should prove to be interesting to them and to "their guys" :)

Alison was my only hope of one of my girls being interested in fashion design, sewing, and the dress business. Things were going along fairly well- at one point it even looked like she would have a fashion design degree and work at my store. Then... along comes Micah and snatches her off to Utah :) While Alison and I still have an interesting connection in the dress business, she is not here in Houston working at The Silver Hanger- she is in Utah working for Beautifully Modest. (the next best thing)

Alison is an interesting combination of Ron's personality and my personality. While the other kids might tend to favor more of Ron or more of me- Alison is an even split of us both. She is a rare combination of athletics, intelligence, and creativity.

Alison has two famous childhood stories. (sorry Alison, but I have to tell)

When she was about 4 years old, she and Audrey were playing together in our family room. Alison decided it would be fun to jump off of a book case. When she landed on the hard floor she broke her elbow. She always claimed her broken arm was Audrey's fault for not catching her when she jumped.

Later, when Alison was alittle older and learning to ride a bike, she was good at getting started but not good at stopping. We had lots of trees in our yard, so when she wanted to stop, she would ride straight toward a tree- jump off the bike and let it crash into the tree. I think she also tried that same technic with the riding lawn mower :) When she sent pictures back from her mission of her on a bike- we thought, oh no- don't let her ride a bike, she will need a tree in order to stop!

Audrey and Ashley introduced Alison to a wonderful young man, who was one of their neighbors in Highland. Their wedding was a great family event last June. What a cute couple! We love you Micah, oh and you too, Alison :)

Recipe

Sweet potato and apple casserole.
4 med. sweet potatoes, 2 granny smith apples, 1 1/2 cup orange juice, 1/2 c. sugar, 1/4 c. brown sugar, 3 T. flour, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/2 c. butter, 1 c. chopped nuts. Cook potatoes and slice-either pierce the potatoes and place on foil covered baking sheet- bake at 400 for 1 hour- cool, peel, slice. Or peel and slice, then boil for a few minutes until almost soft. Peel and slice apples. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Place apple slices in the pan- put potato slices on top of apples. Stir together orange juice, sugar, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Pour over apples and potatoes. Sprinkle with nuts, dot with butter. Bake at 400 for 45 minutes. (For those of you who might want marshmallows, add those and return to oven- just until brown :) This makes 12 servings- I am going to do "half" of everything for us. Plus I will use the splenda sugar instead of the real thing :) You could also add pineapple- either crushed or tidbits- drained. (Or use the pineapple juice instead of the orange juice).

Getting Ahead of Myself

Since I'm still learning this "blog thing", I didn't realize that when I save a draft and post it later- it doesn't go to the top. So for those of you watching the "titles" to see a new post, I actually have three new things- this one, the Ada Faye one, and the talking turkey one. I don't know if anyone else is enjoying the blogs- but mom and I are having a great time! Everyone is keeping us well entertained- we love the sense of humor that radiates in our family :) ILY all LT