forever and for always

On this day, a few moons ago, I married the love of my life.

Our philosophy has been: Don't wait for a light to appear at the end of the tunnel, stride down there...and light the bloody thing yourselves. -Sara Henderson, b. 1936

Be happy now, in the moment; create the moment each and every day. Do not postpone your happiness. Mr. R has always said what a great team we are...so much stronger and better together; we compliment each other.

It's been quite a ride!

Even with our offspring, and by the grace of God,
we triumph at the end of each day.
Celebrate! for a way good day, year, and life of love.

mistletoe

"The kissing ball is a charming tradition harking back to the 18th-century England -whenever a young lady standing beneath the ball received a kiss, she removed a berry, until all the berries (and Kisses) were gone," Williams-Sonoma states.

How fun to put the berries back and continue to receive kisses!

soup

Our school district food service makes wonderful soups from scratch.  My all time favorite? Cream of Potato.  I have long said anything made with cream and potatoes is always going to be delicious.  And this is.  I am not alone in my culinary tastes.  The school nurse, I am told, brings her very own bowl from home twice a month to ladle a double serving of this deliciousness.  (I realize that on a school Styrofoam lunch tray, it may not look good but trust me, it is divine.)

That afternon I had a very unusual visitor to the classroom; the nurse.  I asked if she needed to see someone.  She said, "No, I brought this for you."

The actual recipe.  Wasn't that thoughtful!  I believe someone has penciled in a smaller kettle recipe.  One of these snowy evenings we shall be serving homemade, in our kitchen, cream of potato soup for a way good dinner!

gifts

"What are you giving?" "As service or to the community or to the greater good of the world?"

That is what I ask of students when they ask me, "Know what I want?"

It is also what I ask myself. I have an answer but cannot share that portion of Christmas until the day or it would not be a secret anymore.

As I do know what I (we) am (are) giving outside our home, I will share what I would love to have. Maybe you will want one too; thus, I am sharing so you can ask Santa Baby for one, if it is your hearts desire, as far as earthly possessions go.

Ready? Maybe you want some clues.
It will bring mug upon mug of earthly enjoyment.
It was designed after the contraption that sat upon the stove in our villa on the Lido in Venice each summer; the "thing" we had no idea what its use was or how to use it. (The new one is much more refined as to the non-electric, rudimentary apparatus we had). If it was wintertime I am sure we would have been more motivated for a hot drink. Either way, we were always fascinated with it.

Have you guessed yet?

It is a Bialetti hot chocolate pot "that produces incredibly rich, frothy hot chocolate crowned with creamy foam. Just fill the clear upper chamber with milk and shaved chocolate or cocoa, then watch as the mixture is heated, blended and frothed to perfection."

If the Williams Sonoma Santa can find one in his workshop or bag and leave it under our tree, you are invited to join us as we play games and drink "the most extraordinary hot chocolate you've ever tasted" for a way good day!

darkness...at church

Mr. R and I had prepared our lesson for Sunday School and it was a fine one-we were excited to learn and share in Sunday School class.  

However, when we arrived at church, the lights had gone off approximately ten minutes earlier. Kinda fun.  Kinda exciting.  One starts to think that we will go home for the entire afternoon.

After a few minutes the bishopric signaled us to join them with something along the line of, "Please join us in the chapel."

It was the first time in my life that I was being welcomed into the darkness.  And at church.

We all used the light from our cell phones; however it was still 

d-a-r-k.  I did think of the pioneers but I do think they had windows in their homes or place of worship.  My friend, Mrs D., I call her that because she works in Guidance at one of the middle schools where I sub a lot so I always greet her every morning with, "Good morning, Mrs. D."  I greet her the same way at church.  When we chatted at school Monday morning, she said she had thought of the song "Silent Night."

I thought when the Bishop announced from the pulpit that we would have an abbreviated church service that we would partake of the Sacrament and go home.  Ummm...no.  

Or, it would have been great to have the Sacrament passed and then sung  Christmas hymns. No again.  I felt so bad for the speakers as they gave their talks, you could tell they were so well prepared.  

I will say I pondered...maybe this is the way to worship, in the dark.  We may not see our own and each others flaws as clearly as we do in the light, maybe we would have more compassion. Maybe we would hear more, really listen, not only with our physical ears but with our spiritual selves, too, since one really couldn't see the speaker.  

Maybe it wouldn't matter so much what we wear...gosh, maybe we wouldn't even have to put on makeup if we couldn't see each other.

So many new thoughts on this Sabbath day.  

But if I had to come into the light and confess my sins, I would have to declare that I was saying a little prayer that the power was not going to turn back on until we were released and on our way home.  Come on, what a gift on a Sunday...no shopping, no errands to run in the holiday bustle, just go home and spend a Christmas Sabbath afternoon together.

After all these thoughts, it was time for the closing prayer.  I love prayer, but this was a rather lengthly closing prayer.  Usually we say, "Amen" at the end of a prayer, meaning we are in agreement with the words that have been communicated.  My anxiousness and joy to go home two hours early were evident when in my mind I was thinking, "Amen, already."

We opened our eyes to...darkness.  We giddily drove home to take a long winters nap.  It was a waaay good day!

door decorating

At one of our middle schools a "Door Decorating Contest" is held annually in December.  I was subbing for Mr R, no, not my Mr. R., although he would have been an excellent educator and coach; rather a different Mr. R.  Mr. R.  knew I would love helping his students decorate the door.  He had left all the supplies for us: paper, scissors, markers, tape, lights, etc.

After attendance, I quickly inquired what we were going to do and how we were going to do it. Specifically.  And whom was going to do what.  They would look at me and I would say, " It's your door, you decide."  And they did and we got to work.  

They covered the door in white so we had a clean canvas on which to work.

                        Drawing and cutting out the palm tree.

                        Cutting out the fish, in multiples.

A student brought in a plate of cookies.  I really thought he wanted to put these cookies under the tree, on the wall.  You never ask those types of questions directly because it is harder to work around it.  I suggested he pass the cookies and share them with his classmates as there were just enough and then we could make paper cookies and put them on one of his plates. 

Isn't it awesome?!  As I had some of our surfing photos on my iPhone, I shared with a group of students how you make the "shakra" sign while surfing.  Notice Santa surfing on his "Rudolph" surf board sleigh giving a holiday shakra wave.  They all wrote their names on a fish and added them to the sea.  I did suggest, as we didn't have glitter, that they use the foil from the cookie coverings and tuck it behind the waves for some glistening water.

Ya gotta have "Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun" shining down upon the scene.

The bottom of the tree with the paper cookies; don't they look like his delicious shortbread cookies filled with jam?  I made the glass of milk...out of an overhead transparency.  I took a Sharpie and drew the cylinder shape of the glass then put a white piece of paper behind it.  Aren't the packages and bows all made from paper darling?  Every one's ideas were included..isn't that what it's all about?  The class did all of it except for the glass of milk.  I believe they earned an A+ for the day.  Always work together to make a way good door! 

This is my very good friend Mrs. R's door.  She teaches Social Studies; perfect theme!

Back to the gingerbread theme, this is on the Guidance office door.  Oh, Mrs D. and crew, you did an excellent job!  The chimney is spewing chocolate chip cookies.  

Please follow the advice on the door and "Have a Sweet Holiday!"

holiday guest

We are having a guest from New Orleans join us in our home for Christmas.  Good times will be had by all, I have no doubt.

tree trifecta

Happy December girls.  Enjoy the photo for a way good day until you arrive home!

the rest of the story

Whoops. I need to include this photo of two cute, cute, great girls, Claire and Ashley!

This is a Home Ec teacher at one of our middle schools. She is such a kind, generous person, and loves her veggies! Notice her sweater has gingerbread men on it? The other Family and Consumer Science educator in the building, Nina, gave this sweater to Cyndy once uopn a time because Cyndy loves anything gingerbread-y. Nina generously offered for me to borrow Cyndy's sweater for the church party. Aren't they supportive?! (I did wear the sweater for the party!) I then took this photo in Cyndy's classroom with her poised in front of the display of gingerbread men that all middle schoolers make.

Through the years students have left some of their creations behind. Cyndy and Miss Jules, at the other middle school, let me borrow a bakers dozen for the weekend. I then attached them back-to-back, onto measured cut dowels and set them in a canning jar. At the party the jars had big fat cute bows around them. (Honestly? This photo was taken at home after the party in front of the dirty tablecloths that I was getting ready to throw into the washing machine. That's why the linens are wrinkled; from being gathered off the food tables and put into a box to be carted home.)

Monday, for Family Home Evening, my dearest Mr. R and I made our most delicious homemade chocolate frosting (I showed him how to pipe the frosting onto the brownie), he frosted them all and then we sprinkled them with crushed candy canes. I made some of the paper gingerbread men into my thank you cards. We then drove to many houses and delivered our plate of thank you goodies. Jennie and Heidi for cutting the tree limbs for us to use as gum drop trees; Heidi, one of my Visiting Teachers, for picking up and stapling all the milk cartons closed; two of the Ballstaedt girls for coming to our home Saturday morning and cutting ribbon, taping parking lot signs and whatever was on my list. Of course I also took some to school for the fabulous sewing ladies!

I made my great friend Michelle a "kit" for her family of four handsome little boys as a thank you for starting the gathering of milk cartons and making two sets of life sized gingerbread boy and girl.

Mr. R and I stopped at the store Monday evening as we were delivering the chocolate/peppermint treats, to purchase the frosting and items for Michelle's bag as well as a gal I visit teach. She has three elementary children and wasn't able to be at the party so I made them a "kit" too.

These are the three different wreaths, there were two of each kind, for three different sets of doors. I had gathered all the items and then a wonderful gal made the bows and put them together. We took her a tray of goodies Monday evening, also!

By Tuesday evening we had taken the wreaths apart and hung them outside on our windows which has been our tradition for years. It is always funny for me to see them hanging inside the church as we purchased them years ago for our families outside wreaths. Shows how flexible "things" are.

As Paul Harvey states, 

"And now you know,

the rest of the story."

Christmas Party

After a delicious dinner the Primary performed "The Nativity" which included scripture verses and songs.

It was fun to sneak a peek at the mama's and papa's watching their little lambs and angels on stage.

This was my vantage spot as I was perched next to the piano to ward off unsuspecting little fingers trying to give their own rendition of "Away in a Manager" during the performance. The cutest/funniest antic this year was one little sheep, whom must have had an itch on her back, as she laid down on her back and then started moving back and forth, as in scratching it. This little lamb must have liked what she saw on the ceiling and her appointed spot on stage because when the sheepherder came to gather his sheep, she would not budge. The herder discovered how hard it is to gather all the sheep, not just the ninety and nine. I am so grateful that we reenact the Nativity; if we had to choose only one portion of the evening, I would choose the Nativity, always. Why else gather? This is the reason we celebrate. This helps children feel the Spirit and hopefully begin to understand the humble beginnings of the Savior. This helps us to better understand the magnitude of Mary and Joseph's humility and commitment to the Lord. To Mindy, who organized the Nativity, Lisa who led the music and Amanda who accompanied the group, "Thank you!"

Following dinner and

the Nativity we made the gingerbread/graham cracker houses. I had said it was a "D. D. Activity." It would either be "delightful" or "disastrous." The time had come to find out.

Here are two of the "Senior Choir" boys. They are awesome! These two guys also decorated one of the gingerbread men, can you see it? I missed Daniel and Kevin. They were wandering around somewhere at this point.

The "N" family, we are in Sunday School class together, making their creations. One is building a tall structure.

Our dear friends twins with their Grandpa. Did they ever have fun! (In this photo, you can see our gumdrop tree centerpieces, one gingerbread man left on the tree as an ornament, the ribbon on the jars and the marshmallow garland on the red tables. On the white table cloths we had gumdrop garlands running the length of the tables. Thanks Amy and Tricia!)

Ohhhh, here is Christopher, another one of our favorite younger ones. He loved decorating with the mini marshmallows. Check out his mom's blog of the evening here.

Ahhh...this little cherub was ready to go home and go to bed. She is the daughter of one of the members of the Activities Committee. Her daddy does all the shopping for our committee; I often question what we will do when he graduates from dental school this spring. I appreciate his service so much.

Mr. Dale, one of our all time favorites, all decked out in his holiday red!

Brother Storm has great decorating skills. Thanks, Brian, for recreating your finger licking decorating techniques. He even has a chimney!

My bestie, husband, best spouse supporter and right hand, ever, Mr. R; Miss Claire, a darling young woman and my Stake Choir buddy with whom I had so much fun; and dear friend Paula with their creations.

Finally, someone really using their frosting. Wonderful Miss Amanda with little Brie (Brie is Christopher's little sister. I had been holding Brie and handed her over to Amanda where she very happily spent the evening.)

Had I sat down to make a house I think I would have slathered the frosting on the house and decorated the entire tray with frosting as snow and added a candy cobbled walkway.

At the end folks walked around and checked out each others building/decorating success.

Overall I think it was a "delightful" evening and thanks to all church members who helped out in any way to make it possible and our s-u-p-e-r- committee for everything each and every member did. And to Mother Nature for providing the 2" of freshly fallen snow that afternoon to add to the ambiance. I hope a way good time was had by all!

the creation of gingerbread men

Soooo, on Tuesday at lunch with my bestest lunch buddies at "M" school, Julie and Laura, they asked how the party preparation was going.  I said very well but was wondering if I needed some type of decoration for the food tables.  (Last year I had items from our home that dove tailed right in to the theme, added to what I borrowed from my ever present Visiting Teachers).

Miss Jules, as I affectionately call her, the family and consumer science educator, said, "I have five minutes to whip something up."

Did she ever make a creation: she cut a gingerbread man out of paper, stuffed it with a pinch of batting and sewed his innards up tight with white thread.  Darling!  And done before the bell.

Whoo boy, did my unsuspecting hubbie and I have our work cut out for us.  At the end of the school day, I went to our local grocery store.  Ah, the blessings of being a teacher.  Almost all the baggers know you.  Sometimes I dread that...I can't dash off to the store looking like a grub.Well, I prefer not to.  

On this excursion, I was greeted with, "Hi, Mrs. Roberts!  What can I do for you?"  (Anything to get out of bagging.  Not really...these are all great kids.)  I went home with 104 large paper grocery bags.  I traced the pattern...until the clock struck midnight.  Mr. R cut the patterns out of the bags until ...2:00 am.  Thank you, honey!!!    

Early Wednesday morning, I ran (ha, with my knee, I am using that term loosely) the box of paired, front and backs, across the school parking lot that separates the two middle schools and laid them on Jules desk with a big note saying, "Thanks!"

After school I went over to her building, thinking, hoping, wishing, praying some might have been sewn.  No. However, my two lunch buddies, plus Miss Jane, were more than willing to help for awhile. How fun!

The birthday Mama Jane, me, Miss Jules and Miss Laura.

We stuffed their bodies and sewed away.  Jane was a 4-H Ohio State Sewing Champ--a stroke of luck!  (However, she must have never entered the food competition because we found out later that evening she does not know how to bake.)  Of course Julie could whip that paper bag pattern into a gingerbread man in a manner of minutes.  Laura did really well, too!  Me? Ahem. Just coughing there.  Let's say for me perhaps stars with straight lines may have been a better beginners project than these round, curvy lines.  Two elves sewed with white thread; two with green; and, I sewed with red thread until it ran out and then also switched to white.  Yes, there were five seamstresses in all. Student Seamstress, Miss Nikki, took the photo as I never show a students face.  She loves to go in Mrs V's home-ec room everyday after school and work on a project, so she helped out, too.  Thanks, crew!  

Julie had a big homework assignment due (as often as I said "gingerbread men" she said "homework") as she is working on her masters degree.  Laura needed to get home to her family.  And then we realized it was Jane's birthday!  Poor Jane needed to bake 11 dozen cookies for her son's preschool.  He attends a private church preschool and they were going to box all the donated, required to be homemade, cookies together Thursday morning to sell for a fundraiser.  Jane had not inked her name on a line on the sign up sheet to supply cookies; however, a persistent committee member had called her and said they noticed she had not yet signed up.  Oh, the pressure starts young!  Julie told Jane to make and bake her cookies at school; ten ovens and cookie sheets sure bake the cookies faster than one dozen, one cookie sheet, at a time at home.  

Oh yes, I shall never put in print what we scavenged for a snack, let it suffice that it hit the spot! I was going to have some food delivered but Laura left, Jane's family was taking her out to birthday dinner and Julie went into the gym to work at the wrestling tournament.  Food being delivered just wasn't in the mix. 

While Jane started to mix her cookie ingredients I needed to leave for twenty minutes to drop off something for someone for the church party.  Lest you forget why I ended up spending eight total hours sewing pesky, err, I mean, jolly gingerbread men; the church Christmas party.

When I returned to school, I looked in Jane's cookie dough bowl.  Blech.  Not looking good. Jane is a math teacher, surely she had measured the ingredients correctly to double the recipe. Um, yes she had done that but she had NOT read the directions.  Jane just measured and dumped ALL the ingredients into one bowl.  She was floored that she was supposed to cream the butter and sugar together first, etc.  Oh my.  Jane washed and used her hands to knead and coax the ingredients to adhere together. She was all alone, it was her birthday and this coerced cookie baking activity was not going well.  My gingerbread men could wait.  Jane needed help, her cookies were "due" the next morning and it was her birthday.  I started rolling balls of dough with my hands and it really sped up the process.  I asked Jane in which oven to put the freshly made bits of sawdust (I mean cookie dough) to bake.  Let's just say that we are l-u-c-k-y the building wasn't evacuated as smoke began pouring out of the oven.  I asked her what in the world had happened.  Jane calmly stated that while she was baking the previous batch a few cookies had rolled off the baking sheet (and were now turning into charred bits on the oven floor).  I looked at her incredulously.

Jane said, "I didn't know they would burn."

Soon after, her husband and four young boys burst through the door, bringing renewed energy to the room and a birthday gift for their mama.  Her boys were so helpful and polite!  And, they got to draw on the chalkboard.  With the newly formed cookie brigade, Jane finished fairly quickly and they departed for her dinner festivities.

I continued to sew.  Alone.  For hours.  On end.  The good news?  Practice really does make near perfect.  Wow; I really got good!

Miss Jules was tired after the wrestling tournament finished so we called it a night.  She did not finish her homework.  I did not finish the gingerbread men.

On Thursday, I zipped over to their school and furiously sewed during my lunch; Jane helped, too!  Yes, she got her cookies to her son's preschool.  I believe he is still enrolled; they can't kick him out for his mama not being a good baker.  It is a Christian preschool. 

I returned at the end of the school day (you could still smell the burnt cookies) and after sewing alone for a few hours because Julie was working on her homework, I finished!  I also stayed an hour and a half and helped Jules finish her homework assignment for her class; it was the least I could do to show my gratitude!  

Everyone helping each other out makes for such way good days! 

ribbon shopping

On Monday, after school, after driving home from Mississippi, after attending a sweet baptism for two fantastic eight year olds on Sunday after church and then after singing in the most angelic choir at the dedication of our new stake center Sunday evening (and what a beautiful building it is), I went to pick out ribbon for the church party.  They were so many displays and bins of ribbons.  I wanted to keep in line with our theme of "Ginger Bread."  After I finally choose the three types of ribbons, I needed to lift and dig through all the containers to find enough of each type.  It took three hours but aren't they beauties?  Oh, I believe they will make way good bows and decorations!

milk cartons...lots and lots

For our congregation, I am currently serving as the Activities Chair. For our Christmas party, coming up this Saturday, our theme is "Gingerbread Houses." In the past, it has seemed to me, that the teenagers were asked to man booths for the young ones. I am all about the youth providing service, I just feel that these gatherings should be for everyone. Young, older, one or many. I felt we should do an activity as a family, again, whether that is one, two or everyone who would sit at a table. The more the merrier. So, we decided to make gingerbread or really graham cracker houses. Where one uses a milk carton as the base. Hmmm...where to get the milk cartons? From the teacher in the group, of course. My great friend, an art teacher, has lunch duty, daily. She and the principal were aware the purpose of my gathering and goal of 200 cartons. For a few days Michelle collected around 17 cartons. If I was not in her school, I would stop by at the end of my teaching day and collect them from the lunch area. The nice thing was Michelle had the students rinse them out so I collected them clean; however, at that rate it would take too long to get to the end goal.

One day, soon after, I had two lunch duties, 7th and 8th Grade.

Ah, Carpe Diem! Seize the moment at hand! I explained to the custodian that I needed to collect ALL the milk cartons that day. He pulled on his rubber gloves (this should have been a b.i.g. red flag). He and I tried to grab the milk carton from every student's tray. Students, as well as all of us, get in a flow and stick to it; they are in the habit of throwing away their trash when done eating. They stroll up to the huge garbage cans and chuck their trays into the mini black abyss. To suddenly try to stop them as their arms are extending to throw away their unwanted pasta, salad and milk was like stopping the momentum of the Titanic.

A few students exclaimed, "Mrs. Roberts, you're doing the garbage?!"

Nothing is beneath the Lord and as we are really serving him, who was I but to cheerfully, smilingly explain that I was collecting the cartons for a project.

"Are we using these in Science class?"

"No, a project for community service."

"Oh."

Many different voice inflections as this conversation probably took place over 200 times.

"OH."

"oh."

"O."

Oh, cool!"

I asked a student, "Xxxx, do you want to help me? I sure could use your help." (I didn't say, "Xxxx, would you please

help me?" because I thought he would think he didn't have a choice.)

"Sure, Mrs. Roberts!" he enthustically replied. He has a mega watt smile so I knew that would increase our success.

He truly was a help and later that afternoon, when I had him in class, presented him with an award of candy with a note written to him expressing my gratitude for his service in helping me. I made sure to tell him to show it to his mother.

I then double bagged the cartons and drug them through our largest middle school, all the way across the entire school to the classroom.

At the end of the day, I realized they had leaked a little, so I re-bagged them in yet another layer of plastic and cleaned the floor up.

I hauled them home, up the stairs, and started to rinse out. every. carton. I rinsed out each carton, twice. Then I gave them a quick soak in a clorax bath. I was tired and had only reached the bottom of bag one.

These are the hours where you think...where is my committee? (They would have helped, I am sure, had they known I was collecting them this day, had I known I was collecting them this day.) Who can I call to help? Why am I doing this when my husband is in Asia and will not walk through the door to help? Cry me a milk bath. I will say my knees were killing me. Mind you I had already taught school all day aNd collected the cartons. I knew I had to forge on and win the battle of the milk cartons (could be a new scene in the "Nutcracker") or they would sour and then I would have to do this all again. That's a motivator so I turned on some holiday tunes and sang my heart out as I rinsed and tossed the cartons into the tub.

After repeating the same procedure with the 8th Graders bag, I then stacked them all upside down in the tub to drain. My back had quite a crick at this point.

After a few days of drip drying, I boxed and counted them; 267!

Hats off and many thanks to my student; the most upbeat custodian in our district; and my friend, Michelle! It is indeed a way good day when we can all help each other in life! (If I had little ones at home, we would have predicted and then counted how many of each type of carton (chocolate won hands down!) and made graphs. That is fun to do, too!