The Girls Got Glam

Well, as glamorous as getting your toesies done...

I haven't had a pedicure in almost two years. But when I walked into Star Nails, the place I used to go regularly, Tiffany greeted me like an old friend. (I can't believe she remembered me!) She even remembered the last time I'd brought family in with me! This time it was Sarah, Lisa, Vanessa, and Trinity getting pedicures together with me.

Trin, Sarah, and Vanessa went first, leaving Lisa and me to watch the soap opera on the big screen TV while we waited. Since we were too far away to hear the lines or read the closed captioned text, we amused ourselves  by making up dialogue for the characters. (We thought we were pretty hilarious. Regardless, it was fun!)

Vanessa's pedicure was finished first, and she took this picture of the rest of us in the spa chairs, relaxing and having our toes prettied.

I sat in that chair and wondered why I hadn't done this for so long! Hopefully I won't wait another two years.

Pie - Again!

Thus far, in the past week I have made three cherry pies, two lemon meringue pies, and two Hershey pies. I will be making two more Hershey pies shortly for a total of nine pies this holiday season.

I've used my two newest pie plates for most of them. One used the plate I got from Sarah and her family with the family saying, "Now THAT'S Pie!" inscribed on it.

Naturally, the first pie I baked in it was cherry!

My favorite pie, and my grandmother's recipe. 

Jessica takes a picture of Lisa taking a picture of the design Grandma Honeywell always used to vent her cherry pies. I have followed suit, as did my mother.

The other pie plate that I was given this Christmas came from the Smith family; I've had two of their girls in my classroom. This one is very tongue-in-cheek and sure fits my classroom climate!

I made Lisa her birthday pie in it - lemon meringue. The other lemon meringue pie, for Andrew, was made in the "Now THAT'S  Pie!!" plate.

Somehow, I think that saying may be my epitath!

Happy Birthday, Lisa!

Happy Birthday, Lisa!! Today is her golden birthday, and she had almost all her family here to celebrate with her.

 My beautiful daughter!

Lisa was due to be born Christmas day, but wasn't born until December 30. I thought about naming her Noelle in honor of the holiday. (I still think that's a beautiful name. )

Tonight we had family over to celebrate. Vanessa took a photograph of us all. (Ever since the family dance party hosted by JC and Trinity, Flurry the snowman has been included in family activities.)

Grandma made a very special gift for Lisa and I love this series of pictures of Lisa unwrapping it.

 Look at her watching Lisa - she cannot wait to see Lisa's reaction.

 And she has a beautiful smile - you can tell how excited she is to give her gift to Lisa.

 A beautifully embroidered apron!

Grandma glows as Lisa tries it on.  

As I drove her home tonight, Grandma was very happy and kept telling me how blessed I was. She's right!

Happy Birthday, Lisa! I love you!!

Makin' Your Mama Cry

Children should never, ever make their mama cry... unless it's because they surprised her and came up for a visit like this guy did!

 The doorbell rang around 9:20 this evening, and JC went to answer it. I was stunned when Cole popped through the door! Sarah, Jessica, Lisa, and I all burst into tears at seeing him.

 I'd made three cherry pies and there was just one slice left. Naturally Cole got it.

I was in the process of making two Hershey pies at Jessie's request. As I was cleaning the kitchen, Cole wandered in and promptly took care of clean-up. Whatta guy!

Cole had been in Texas with Emily's family for Christmas, but had had to return home and work on Thursday. (Emily will fly home next Wednesday.) Since he is off Sunday through Wednesday, he decided to surprise us with a visit, letting only Curt and Vanessa in on the secret.

I am so glad to have my guy home!

Girls Only Shopping Trip

Today the girls in the family headed to Indianapolis to shop. (Sadly, Grandma stayed home due to the ice and snow, and Trinity chose to go to Chuck E. Cheese here in Lafayette with Todd and JC.) We headed down to Keystone at the Crossing and shopped Nordstrom, Coldwater Creek, Williams and Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and J Jill.

I ran into former student, Cassidy Routsong, and her family, and then Emma Penix and her mom, too. Who'd have thought I'd travel to Indy and run into kids I'd taught? Both girls are sophomores at Harrison and looked so grown up. (Actually, I see Cassidy weekly at church, but I hadn't seen Emma since she'd left 5th grade!)

The plan was to eat lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, but the wait was an hour and a half, so we walked across the parking lot to PF Chang and got seated right away.

Jenny, Lisa, Jessica, Leslie, Sarah, and Vanessa.

We had a really fun server - when giving us our drinks, he was tossing straws across the table since it was hard to reach everyone. (We were in a corner and it was crowded.) Sarah made a comment that it was raining straws, and that started the fun - he tossed the rest up in the air over our table along with a bunch of extras, too!

Then, when he handed out drink refills and Lisa grabbed Jessie's by mistake, the server tried to tell her that that was the wrong drink. When she realized it after taking a sip, we all got the giggles again and he chastised her a bit in jest.

As he handed out the fortune cookies at the end of our lunch, he surprised us by tossing handfuls into the air so they, too, rained onto the table. They were EVERYWHERE. We laughed and laughed, and he thanked us for being fun to wait on. (Hey, it was a two-way street!)

The drive home was a little dicey as there had been flurries all day long coupled with some wind. As we got onto 865 in Indianapolis, a car in front of us had just slid off the on-ramp and into the grass beside it. Then, when we exited at the Brownsburg exit for a bathroom break, it was onto a road covered with ice. The semi in front of us tried to stop and began jack-knifing. Trying to avoid him, Sarah began sliding and but was able to turn the wheel so she went on the opposite side from the sliding trailer. Fortunately both slides were minor and no one was in any danger - it was a little scary, though! We saw another car in the ditch there, too; fortunately the driver got some help and was on the road by the time we'd finished out rest stop.

 As we got closer to Lafayette, the roads were in better shape and we arrived home without incident.

Party!

A busy day today. We spent part of it waiting on my new Christmas dryer (a gift from our kids) to arrive - turns out the delay was caused because Pooma, my brother, Steve, and the kids were all in cahoots to get us a new washer, too!

 Todd and Andrew did most of the installing with help from Curt and Sarah. I've been doing laundry since they finished - just for fun! And things dry so much faster - less than half the time that the old dryer took.

Curt and Vanessa made Italian Wedding Soup and crostini for lunch. DELICIOSO!!

 My dishwasher has had difficulty keeping up with all the meals!

JC and Trinity disappeared upstairs for a while in the afternoon, and then hand-delivered an invitation sealed in an envelope.

 Everyone in the family got one, and we had to show them at the door for entry.

The guests prior to entering the party.

The door to Boompa's office was all decorated with silver streamers.

 Inside JC and Trinity had set up a table with drinks and snacks and had music going.

 I'd given them my New Year's Day hats and blowers, too.

 We all danced and laughed. Even Flurry joined us!

After the dance party, the kids, Craig and I ate some dinner while the others went to Nine Irish Brothers, a favorite spot to visit when they are all in town. We wound down the day with JC and Trinity, and JC commented that it felt like Groompa Camp. It sure did!

Christmas Rounds Two and Three

Sarah, Todd, JC, and Trinity arrived today and we had a second round of gift opening this morning.

 JC and Todd wait patiently to open their presents.

 Trinity puts some of the ribbons from her gifts in her hair.

 A paint-by-number Breyer horse from who else but me!

 Sarah and her family had a pie plate inscribed with the family exclamation, "Now THAT'S pie!" The card was addressed to "Grammy Cherry."(An old nickname of mine as a nod to the fact that I bake a lot of cherry pies for my loved ones.)

 Lisa gave Sarah a very special belated birthday gift - one sure to make Sarah laugh. 

 And it did.

A Michael Jackson birthday cake from O'Rear's bakery! (When Sarah was 8, my parents got her a birthday cake with Michael Jackson on it from O'Rear's Bakery. It has remained a legendary story in our family.)

We spent the time playing games together during the afternoon. Todd, Trinity, Craig, Sarah, and I played a couple of rounds of Skip-bo. I love this picture of Trin.

 She has a play off her stock pile and is stewing as she waits, hoping no one messes her up.

 Her dad thinks hard, then makes a play. Sadly it messed up the one she wanted to do.

 By the time dinner was ready, the living room looked quite well-loved. Andrew and Jessie cooked a delicious Thai dinner for us all.

 You can tell there are a lot of family members in the house!

 We used our new balloon launcher to throw snowballs into the lake. I guess it works very well!

After dinner we had round three of Christmas gift opening because Curt and Vanessa had arrived back in West Lafayette. They'd been in Madison, Wisconsin to visit her side of the family.

 And the gifts seemed to just keep on coming!

Curt loves how Vanessa labeled one of his gifts.

After dinner and gift opening, we played Dance Central on the Kinect and board games until late into the evening. I love having my family in town!

Snow!

This morning we woke up to a winter storm warning, expecting up to 5" of snow and blowing and drifting. (Poor Jenny in Indianapolis was under a blizzard warning.) The snow started falling around 8:00 AM.

The snow fell so fast it made the outdoors look hazy. 

 This is the view from our front porch. It's hard to see Peter and Ping Wey's home across the street.

My gourd snowmen and the pine garlands are all frosty.

We ended up with four inches of snow - the most we've had in two years (last winter we had little to no snow.) 

Christmas Poem - Part 2

When my favorite author, Madeline L'Engle,  died a few years ago, I kicked myself for never having written a letter to her thanking her for her book A Wrinkle in Time and sharing that I'd vowed to read it to my students after my own 5th grade teacher read it to me. (And I kept that vow - I have read it to every class of kiddos I've had.)

So, after writing that blog post about the poem Christmas Present, I decided to write its author and thank her for the poem and share how much it means to me still. To my surprise, I got a response almost immediately.

She wrote:

Dear Lynn,

What a lovely message to receive the day after Christmas! Thank you for loving that poem over so many years.

That poem and others that you might also relate to are included in my poetry anthology, SEASONS OF THE HEART available on Amazon.com.

The "rainbow years" do, indeed, fly by all too quickly. Little did I guess when I wrote that poem that the child I wrote it for would become MY "Ghost of Christmas Past." She predeceased me. So, it's no longer my mother's face I see in that role, it's my daughter's.

Happy wishes for 2013--
Lois Duncan
--

Dear Ms. Duncan,

Since 1985 when it appeared in a magazine, I have carried your poem, Christmas Present, in my wallet. At the time it was published, I was a young mom with five children; a sixth was added later. I connected with that poem deeply, knowing that some day my children would grow up and then I, too, would be their ghost of Christmas past.

"How swiftly fly the rainbow years" is so true - it is now twenty seven years later! This Christmas, as I spend time with my children and their families, I find myself connecting with the last verse of your poem. Their memories wear my face, and I am delighted with that.

Thank you for writing and sharing such a wonderful poem. My best to you and your loved ones.

Lynn Isenbarger
West Lafayette, Indiana

Christmas Poem

I cut this poem out of Ladies Home Journal or Good Housekeeping in 1985 and have carried it in my purse ever since. At the time, I was a young mom and the poem resonated with me as such. Now, as an empty nester with five grandchildren, I see it in a different light. Regardless, it still touches and moves me.

Christmas Present by Lois Duncan

I saw the Ghost-of-Christmas Past
Glide by our lighted tree.
Her arms were filled with dolls and toys,
And all were meant for me.
I sensed the rustle of her skirts.
Her blouse was trimmed with lace,
And when she turned to smile at me
She wore my mother's face.

Just as this vision slipped from sight
I heard my daughter call.
Wild footsteps clattered on the stair;
Shrill giggles filled the hall.
She burst into the gift- filled room
And squealed in glad surprise
And all the Christmases-to-come
Were mirrored in her eyes.

How swiftly fly the rainbow years,

Like splintered shafts of light,

As fragile as the gentle ghosts

Who whisper in the night.

I draw my child into my arms

And hold this moment fast

Against the time my face will be

Her Ghost-of-Christmas Past.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2012 dawned cold and sunny. We had Lisa, Jessica and Andrew here to celebrate with us. Since it was only adults, that meant we could all sleep in a bit. (I was surprised to wake up at 8:00 - far later than I have slept in a long time.)

I love this picture of the main floor all ready and waiting for the Christmas rush to begin.

A close-up of the tree with all the gifts waiting to be opened.

 Those gifts have been wrapped and sorted into family piles in our bedroom for several weeks.

My policy is to wrap as soon as the gifts are bought; I cannot imagine sitting down to wrap everything at once!

Jessica and Andrew say hello over the railing. This is their first Christmas together as a married couple.

Lisa was so excited to finally be the youngest child at Christmas.

That meant she got to come down the stairs first. (Actually, I'd told them all to come downstairs any time they wanted, but I guess they wanted to follow past tradition.)

Lisa was goofing off and exclaiming over her presents as I took pictures.

But I was excited to see how much she looked like she did when she was a little girl. (I think that joy on her face is real. Takes me back to when she was a little girl.)

Jessica said they did not eat much candy but that they loved cheese and sausage assortments. So that's what Santa put in their stockings!

After opening gifts, it was time to get ready for Grandma, Jenny, Leslie, Rick, and Pooma to come for dinner at 2:00. Everyone pitched in and made something, and we had quite the spread!

 Ham, turkey, gravy, corn casserole, broccoli salad, mashed potatoes, poppy seed bread, white bread, green bean casserole, homemade apple sauce, olives, pickles, spiced apple rings, peach jello, baked beans, and a seven layer salad were the choices! For dessert we had cherry, pumpkin, and pecan pies, Christmas cookies, fudge, and Twinkie-like cakes.

We had a smaller crowd this year - only ten people, but with the addition of my new card table, everyone fit into the dining room at one seating arrangement.

Sadly, I did not take any more pictures - just too busy! But we opened gifts and then played Dirty Santa together before people began leaving.

Supper was leftovers whenever you got hungry, and we spent time laughing and talking together. What a wonderful Christmas it has been!