The Event ~ Christmas in Sonoma

Christmas 2010 was the perfect opportunity to fly to California and spend Christmas with Alexis.  It was kind of almost a last minute decision ~ about three weeks prior to Christmas.  When Alexis called and invited us to come spend Christmas with her, we didn't hesitate to say YES! 

We flew out of Denver at 6 pm on Thursday, December 23 arriving in San Francisco at 8 p.m.  It's about 1 1/2 hours to her house in Sonoma from the SF airport.  Friday we went out shopping for a bit of last minute gift buying.  It was festive and fun shopping with Alexis.  We were going to eat out, but ended up grabbing yummy franks in a food booth at the outdoor plaza.  Once back at the house, we wrapped gifts, played some scrabble, and Alexis looked on line for church options for Christmas Eve.

We found a 7 pm service about a mile from her house at a Presbyterian church.  It was a beautiful setting with the fog rolling through the hills amidst the white steeple of the church and the eerie moss clinging to tree boughs hanging low.   And then surprise!  We were greeted by the people and animals of Bethlehem as the three kings kept a tight rein on their camel, the shepherds were keeping watch over the flock of sheep, and the calves guarding the baby Jesus with Mary and Joseph in the stable.  The place was bustling with people just like we can imagine the streets of Bethlehem when there was no room in the inn. 

During the service we were treated to a truly beautiful flute solo by a gentlemen playing a variety of renditions of "Silent Night".  A fantastic solo.  It was a real treat.  I have never heard a flutist quite so eloquent and mezmorizing as that performance.    We shared in Christmas Eve communion and a short message by an interesting and laid back pastor that made his congregation and guests feel at ease and welcome with a sense of humor.  The message reminded us again that as we put 2010 behind us, we can look forward to the future with hope and peace when God is involved in our lives.    It was special to share Christmas Eve service with Alexis. 

Following church we went home and all pitched in to make a good dinner of minute steak, macorni and cheese, and wine, followed by another board game.  Christmas morning we opened gifts and just spent the day hanging out together.  We didn't get around to eating out at a nice restaurant as Alexis thought we would.   Christmas day we made chicken noodle soup and butterballs. 

Sunday we had a brunch lunch with guests Lee and Kasey, cousins on the Gallwas side.  Alexis made great crepes with strawberries and whipped cream, and Lee brought  an egg/spinach casserole. It was fun to visit, walk around the Sonoma Square and just hang out.  Alexis taught me a little about hoola hooping, which I hope to get into as good waist exercise!

Adding to the fun was Kuma ~ Alexis'  new poodle dog.    Already spoiled, the dog knows he's so darn cute.   Kuma really enjoyed his special Christmas gifts, and opening his own gifts was as much fun as the surprise inside!

We took Kuma  for a walk around the dog park on Friday morning and then to the town square on Sunday afternoon.  We discovered that there are no strangers when a cute dog is in your company, as many people stopped to chat and visit about Kuma!  A good way to make new friends!

Alexis doesn't get tv channels, so it was especially nice not to have our quality time usurped by the big black box.  Tim actually read a whole book in the quiet time that we had there. 

Alexis has a beautiful vintage character house that is warm, cozy and friendly ~ a fun place to hang out or curl up.  We had a very, very beautiful Christmas together ~ we reconnected, and shared memorable family fellowship!    Thank you, Alexis for Christmas 2010.   It was an eventful family Christmas!

The Event ~ Elvis Revisted

Last nighte Tim and I went to a Joseph Hall concert in Mitchell.  He is the young, newest Elvis impersonator who reached fame and stardom on America's Got Talent about two years ago.  I watched him move up into the final four winners circle on that tv show.  Although he didn't win, he definitely became a hit as he now has his own show in Branson.

I had been an avid Elvis Presley fan in the late 1950's.  Not so much so when he got fat and on drugs  before his death in the late 1970's.  I loved his music and his movies that he was in.

Last nite Joseph Hall did an incredible job with his Elvis character.  I loved the songs and the memories his act recreated.  It was a good concert.  An eventful time!

The Event ~ Passing the Bucket

Several years ago my friend, Mari Schwarzkopf, brought me a Christmas gift which she put into a coffee can wrapped in fabric with a wire coiled into it for a handle.  I thought the creative can was super cool, and certainly too cute to discard. 

The following year, with our little gift exchange between friends, I presented my gift to her in the same decorated can/bucket she created the year before.  The bucket has been passing back and forth every year since. Neither of us kept track of the years or what the bucket was filled with, but we know for sure that this was at least the 8th year, if not the 10th year for the passing of the bucket.   It even still has the same tissue paper in it, with the wire handle tied with the same raffia ribbon!

This was my year to fill the bucket and present it to her.  I did this last nite when we met Mari and Gene, and Ernie and Connie Bussinger for dinner at Mulligan's.  We had a very pleasant and leisure evening, lingering very long after dinner as we all caught up with the comings and goings in our lives.   A fun evening with special eventful friends.

We agreed last nite that it was a fun tradition we want to keep alive as long as we are both able.  Merry Christmas, Mari. 

The Event ~ Branding

While we had the grandkids here for Thanksgiving week, we scheduled the branding of the calves so the kids could all experience the event and help wrestle the calves.  There is certainly nothing timid about these kids, because they all got right in there to wrestle and brand.  It was so much fun.  The whole story can be told in pictures as follows:

Yep, we got what it takes for a good branding ~ the cowboys, the cowgirls, the calfs, the boots, the rope, the iron!  An eventful branding!  Till next year. .  .  .  .  .

The Event ~ Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2010 was an exciting and memorable event ~ a family time, a time to celebrate and give thanks for all the many blessings we enjoy.  The Thanksgiving event started when the grand kids arrived on Tuesday evening.  Turning a home of two into a home of 11 overnight is an event in itself.  We are always eager to welcome them with our "western hospitality"  

They are always eager to come to the farm and enjoy some of the things that they don't experience at home.  This year it was hunting and branding.  Wednesday morning they guys headed out early to go pheasant hunting.  It was Jakob's first hunting outing, so he was very excited.  

The rest of the day was spent in Thanksgiving dinner preparations playing games together, and watching football on tv.  We all have always enjoyed board games, and it's always fun to share that with the grand kids.    We played alot of Nebraska Husker Monopoly, Cribbage, Sequence, and Scrabble.

Thursday   morning I had help in the kitchen finishing dinner preparations.  Mattie, Joe and Ben were a big help peeling 10 pounds of potatoes.    

We got out the desserts, and spread the food out buffet style as we usually do when having alot of company.  Cash was already home. Along with Tim and Janel and the 7 children, also joining us was Tim's parents, Tom, Kathy and Paul, Chris and Mia with Lily and Anya, and Bobby and Alexandra.  There were 24 of us altogether.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Following dinner, of course there was more football, more games, the kids enjoyed some quiet crafty things to do, all the kids ~ big and small ~ enjoyed their own games of football outside several times during the weekend.

 

Later in the day we all had to browse the Black Friday ads in the paper to see what special buys we didn't want to miss out on.  Janel and I got up at 4:00 am Friday morning and joined the other insane people who gather at the retail doors before daylight to take advantage of all those bargains.  As crazy as it is to do that, it is still lots of fun.    We didn't buy much.

On Friday, the celebration and eating continued as Annie and her parents  and sister joined us at noon for lunch and to watch the Colorado / Nebraska football game.  Nebraska won and secured a spot in the Big 12 Championship game next weekend. All the family from the day before returned for day two of the celebration, so we had 27 gathered for food, fellowship, football, and family sharing.   It was exciting to meet her parents for the first time.  Tim and Tom talked hay farming (he was a hay farmer) while watching football and  Beverly and I discussed wedding plans. 

Friday was Mom Stricker's 83rd birthday.  With all her family gathered around, we celebrated that special occasion also. 


We also gathered outside in the beautiful fall weather to snap a family picture.  Someone was missing.  Alexis was not here.  Family gatherings are not complete without her.  She is always in my thoughts and always in my heart when absent from the gatherings and activities. 

Saturday morning Janel and Tim and Cash took us all out to breakfast at the Emporium.  I tried to talk them out of it, since we were planning to treat them all to dinner after church on Sunday.  But they insisted on taking us out for an anniversary breakfast.  I finally relented, and suggested the Whistle Stop or Perkins.  They wanted to try The Emporium, but I didn't think they served breakfast.  So after a quick telephone call, they indeed did serve breakfast, so that was the chosen place.  

To our surprise ~ yes, they pulled it off big time ~ breakfast was a 40th anniversary coffee in which forty - plus of our friends gathered to wish us Happy 40th!  What a pleasant, fun surprise ~ a special anniversary event!  With all our eventful friends!

Saturday afternoon, we enjoyed a branding.  We branded eleven calves ~ 100% of our calf crop this year. 
The branding event is a separate post.  It was so much fun!

Sunday we all attended church together and then enjoyed dinner out for a huge breakfast/dinner brunch at the Gaslight, again in celebration of our 40th anniversary and the celebration of family. 

The entire Thanksgiving week was an event to be remembered with all its celebrations.  We are thankful for eventful family and eventful friends. 

The Event ~ Forty Years Together

Today Tim and I celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary!  There are so many memories of 40 years together.  Marriage is not always smooth sailing.  Marriage is an event that two must continually put the other first ~ on a daily basis.  That is more ideal than realistic, because we all fall short of that ideal. 

Nov 28, 1970

Our marriage has thrived and survived through the ups and downs.  My husband has been a blessing in my life, and he has told me many times ~ many, many, many times, how he believes he is the luckiest person in the world to have me as a wife.

Through 40 years in pictures in no particular order:

Only God knows how many more years we will share together here on earth before uniting in heaven forever.   Tim is my eventful life friend.  Celebrating 40 years together is an eventful event.  



 

Today I will surprise him with our tickets for a Couples of  Promise Christian Caribbean Cruise that we will soon embark on.   I  know he will enjoy and bask in the relaxation of the Caribbean cruise!  These will both be much deserved and enjoyable vacations where we will continue our celebration of 40 years!  

We will look forward to both eventful getaway!

Happy Anniversary, Honey!  I love you!



The Event ~ Today with Trivial Bits and Pieces

Lately I have felt so frazzled!  I sometimes feel I am living my life in bits and pieces, never really enjoying the moment of anything, but at the same time being thanksful for everything.  I feel I have a real long to-do list and no time to do it.  Actually, I do have time, but run out of energy!  Half of my to-do list is dependent on my husband and son to accomplish.  And that is a slow process, too!

As I'm looking ahead to Thanksgiving next week and hosting not only Thanksgiving day dinner for 25 people, but also the next day with a football fest with 28 people, I want all the loose ends of my to do list wrapped up and finished in an effort to put my house in order and make a clean first impression with Cash's future in-laws who we will meet at our house for the first time. 

Is that important?  Not really, but loose ends left undone does not fit in with my organized character.  And lately I feel very unorganized, which leaves me feeling frazzled. 

I enjoy cooking for a crowd, so hosting these two days is something I take great pleasure in.  Which is completely contradictory to my "hate to cook" and "cookbook intimidation"  which is part of who I am.   But before then, I want to paint my front door, paint the mop boards and other touch up painting, install a new kitchen sink,  install the second kitchen replacement window (one is done), mow the lawn one last time, sort through my basket of recipes that I 've collected because they look good to make but have since gotten lost in the pile of collected recipes;  reconstruct the basement bathroom (which won't happen until after Christmas); move the organ out of the house (and hopefully get rid of it by finally giving it away because no one really wants them anymore); perhaps get out a few Thanksgiving or Christmas decor (that's not high on my priority list);  finalize my two-day menus; write a Thanksgiving letter, which I enjoy doing now more than at Christmas time; prepare my surprise package for my husband for our anniversary; start another quilt (for my own pleasure and relaxation); polish my hardwood floors again (they looked so nice for a long time after I did it last spring ~ just a simple mop on procedure); prepare the children's semonette for the 28th with a dialogue for Woody; and more that I've already forgotten that I want to do!

In addition to the above, I must make a cake tonite to take in to a funeral dinner tomorrow.  I am glad to do that.   I also want to prepare something to take over to my dear friends whose father died last nite.  Richard and Cindy Groskopf's father died early this morning, and I want to be there for her.

Last night I took the time to attend a fund-raiser concert for Camp Scott (camp for children with disabilities), featuring a trio of old ladies (Sweethearts in Carharts) singing country music Christmas songs.  It was ok.  I thought it would lift my spirits.  It didn't.

But I did get a hair perm yesterday morning which lifted my spirits.  I haven't had a perm in years, and it's fun to have curls again for however long they will last.  My hair is so fine and straight that even perm curls don't last very long.  This picture is totally not me ~ yuck!  But I'll leave it in anyway. 

Today I am going to lunch with another dear friend, Sharon Kaufman.  She is a good confidante friend who I can share alot with.  We've been prayer partners in the past and walking partners in the past.  It will be good to share lunch together and be a listening ear for each other.  I sense she is feeling stressed at the moment also.  Sharing is good for the soul. 

Alexis called me to invite us to California for Christmas.  The thought had earlier crossed my mind.  Now I am excited about that possibility, but am discouraged because I cannot find affordable airline tickets for holiday travel.  Will have to continue to work on that, AFTER I discuss the possibility with Tim.  The question always is "Who will take care of the cows over the holidays!"

I'm actually busy at work (imagine that)!  My busy time at work is from October through March. 

I just opened my fortune cookie from lunch today, for an afternoon snack.  Sharon and I ate at a new "Tea Garden" oriental restaurant where Country Kitchen used to be.  The fortune read "You can only be happy when you are in the process of achieving a goal."  Hm-m-m-m. . . .  As rewarding as it is to actually accomlish and achieve all the above goals, I can be quite content and happy not doing anything at all!  Because we all need that down time for rest and relaxation, and I can certainly be happy while resting!

Now I will try to pick up the bits and pieces of my frazzled daily life, and attend to completing one or more of the above tasks in the next several days!   Yes, daily life is an event ~ an event to be lived one day at a time, bit by bit!