Death of a Friend

Christmas cards are nice, but sometimes as you catch up on friends, you get some sad news. My friend, Linda Duesterhaus, let me know that a mutual friend of ours, Mona, had passed away.

Linda, Mona, and I were horse buddies in my early years in Illinois and spent a lot of time together in the barn with Indy, Sweetzer, and the other horses. Mona had leukemia and was one of the first bone marrow transfusions when it was still an experimental procedure. Mona's illness is one of the reasons I became a bone marrow donor.

We lost touch over the years, but just last year I got a letter from her. I wrote her back, but we lost touch again. Linda let me know that Mona had passed away last March.

Here is Mona's obituary:

Ms. Mona Jean Alverson, 50, of Lebanon, passed away Wednesday, March 12, 2014, at her residence. Mona was born Jan. 22, 1964, in Alton, Ill., a daughter of Judith J. (Coartney) Steele and the now late Edward M. Steele. Raised and educated in Illinois, Mona graduated from MacArthur High School in Decatur and Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.

After completing further studies, Mona worked as a Med Tech at St. Francis Hospital in Peoria, Ill., and the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center. Most recently she worked part time at Wal-Mart.

After living in Wyoming for several years, Mona moved to Indiana to be closer to her family.A devoted mother, she loved spending time with her children. One of Mona’s passions in life was animals — especially horses.

She was a member of Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Hendricks County in Danville.

Survivors include her mother, Judith J. Steele of Decatur, Ill.; grandmother, Jean Peak of Ashmore, Ill.; four children, Linda, Nate, Riley and Seth; brother, Brian Steele of Indiana; sister, Karen Colbert of Lebanon; former spouse, Mike Alverson of Cheyenne, Wyo.; and former spouse and special forever friend, Tim Sickbert of Oklahoma.

Mona was preceded in death by her father and a sister, Marla Jo Steele.

Visitation is 1 to 2 p.m. Saturday, March 22, at Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Hendricks County, 95 N. Jefferson St., Danville. Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at the church, with the Rev. Lynda Smith officiating.

Myers Mortuary, 1502 N. Lebanon St., Lebanon, is handling the arrangements for cremation.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, 9075 N. Meridian St., Suite 150, Indianapolis, IN 46260.

Rest in peace, Mona. 

Sisters Gingerbread House Competition

The girls have a fairly new tradition of making gingerbread houses - which they have turned into a competition.

Lisa, Sarah, and Trinity.

They buy kits with pre-made houses and things for decorating inside.

Vanessa, Lisa, Sarah, Jessica, and Trinity.

Little Man stayed with me, safely out of the way of all those goodies.

And occasionally they took breaks to come cheer on their football teams. Or, work on eating dinner.

Millie, Cambria, JC, Jessica, Lisa, Sarah, Curt, Trinity, Andrew.

Sarah got the idea to put her home up on my cake stand - made it easier to work on!

Trinity's finished nativity gingerbread house.

 All of them together - the poinsettia tablecloth makes it a bit busy.

  Lisa's on the left and Jessica's on the right.

  Sarah's on my cake stand.

Vanessa's and Trinity's.

Mom? Plays Volleyball??

Actually, yes. Or rather, I used to. Just a bit, and never on a team, but I played games for fun and did okay.

So yesterday, when we had a family tournament over at Church, I decided to go ahead and join in despite my arthritis and bad back. I figured I could play at least part of a game before I needed to stop.

Six aces and two hours later, my family was looking at me with new respect.

 Trinity, Lisa, Andrew, and Andrew DeYoung (a new convert who happened to be hanging around so we invited him to play.)

 Sarah, JC, Curt, and me, serving.

 I did really well serving, but going after balls was not my strong suit. Neither was my form, that's for sure!

Friday Fun

Oh, how I wish I had thought to take a movie instead of pictures as Trinity played the piano!

She has taken lessons for years and she plays beautifully.

It made me smile to see that she has her music held in place by my Christmas greenery!

Cole works in the music industry, so it is only fitting that he be teaching his daughter early on how to make music!

Sarah and her family got me this beautiful and intricate horse for my collection while they traveled to Mount Rushmore. The bear on it is reminiscent of Sarah's love of Cherished Teddies.

Curt, Todd, and JC went to the basketball courts at Cumberland Park and played a pick up game with some high schoolers. They won, but that victory came at a price. (As an aside, see Ian in the lower right hand corner?)

 Poor Todd's back began spasming shortly after they returned home. It got so bad that, several hours later, Todd called his doctor and had a prescription sent to the CVS here from Colorado.

Like every other night, we played games after supper. I stayed up until 1:00 playing Wizard with Todd, Curt, and Andrew!

Christmas Dinner and More

We may have sixteen people here for the holiday, but those people sure know how to organize, clean up, and get things done. Within an hour after the grand unwrapping party and kitchen fire we'd had, the living room was cleared out and ready for round two - Christmas dinner and more guests!

Bailey (foreground) and Millie (background) work on their own Christmas treats.

Trinity helped me set up the appetizer/nibble table. I think it looks so pretty! I made that tablecloth years ago but only recently discovered that it is something my children cherish as part of their Christmas memories.

My mother loaned me the tablecloth her mother hand crocheted along with her sterling silver flatware. Cindie made the lovely centerpiece as a Christmas gift.

The other table with a poinsettia tablecloth I also made.

Other family members began arriving around noon.

Granny Slash and Trinity chat.

Julie, Cambria, and JC dressed in their Christmas finery play with Aunt Jessica before dinner.

Pooma, Andrew, and Emily.

Vanessa and Ian.

I took this picture of Trinity just for fun, and it really captured her personality.

 Cole, Craig, Curt, and Sarah work on dinner preparation.

 I had done my part beforehand, and only popped in occasionally to see if anything else needed to be done.

Dinner was ham (Craig), fried turkey (Craig), rolls (Lisa), green bean casserole (Jenny), corn casserole (Jessica), stuffing (Sarah), Christmas Jello (me), spinach salad (Todd), mashed potatoes (Cole), sweet potato casserole (Emily), pecan pie (Jenny), cherry pie (me), and pumpkin pie (Leslie and Andrew.)  Sarah also made two cheese balls for appetizers.

After dinner, we did our annual white elephant gift exchange. It's the kind where your gift can be stolen from you if someone else who hasn't chosen a gift yet wants yours. Then you have to pick another.

Leslie, Millie, and Great Grandma.

Vanessa, Pooma, Craig, Sarah, Todd, Lisa, Leslie.

Jenny, Vanessa, Emily, Cole, Curt, Pooma.

Rick, Andrew, JC, Trinity.

Vanessa, Pooma, Todd, Craig, Lisa, Sarah, Millie, Leslie.

Jessica makes her choice.

Unfortunately, I didn't get more pictures from Christmas Day. We played games well into the night after picking on leftovers for supper. All in all, it was a terrific day.

Cambria Crawls!

Yesterday, Jessica and Andrew went to the movies with Sarah, Todd, JC, and Trinity. Emily and I were in charge of Cambria in their absence. As Cambria played on the living room floor, we discovered her several feet away from the couch that she had been walking around, and realized she had to have crawled for the very first time to get where she was.

So, I grabbed the camera and Emily got an enticing toy to see if we could capture on film Cambria's first foray into independent movement. We shot the following movie and sent it to Cambria's mommy and daddy at the theater.

Laundry, Laundry, Laundry

With sixteen folks here for the holidays, thirteen of whom are living in the house, my laundry room is getting a workout.

The washer and dryer are going constantly!

Fire on Christmas Day!

What would add to the chaos of Christmas morning better than a kitchen fire? Nothing that I can think of!

Two breakfast casseroles were bubbling away while we opened gifts. I smelled smoke and checked the oven, but I assumed the smoke coming through the vent was from the spilled cherry pie filling that was on the bottom of the oven - something that happens every time I bake cherry pies. 

So, as I always do when that happens, I turned on the kitchen fan and didn't worry about it. Others began commenting on the smokey smell, and finally someone went into the kitchen and cried, "Whoa! Something is on fire!"

The casseroles, with large pats of butter on top, had caught fire. Flames were leaping up about six inches out of the food, and there was a hurried discussion as to what to do to get the fires out.

Throw baking soda on the casseroles? Water? Turn off the oven and leave it closed so the flames would use up all the oxygen and die? 

We chose the latter, and began working on smoke removal. As soon as that oven had been opened, the black smoke had roiled out and was now throughout the house. The babies were taken to a far bedroom upstairs while the rest of us opened windows and doors in a frantic attempt to get rid of the smoke before the smoke detectors started blaring.

(They never went off - I need to replace their batteries.)

We brought a large fan downstairs in an attempt to blow the smoke out of the kitchen.

See how hazy the living room is through the cut out over the sink?

We resumed opening gifts after we got the smoke cleared. Andrew insisted on cleaning out the oven afterward which was a big help as it was an ashy mess when all was said and done.

As for the casserole? Totally edible and quite delicious!

Santa's Been Here!!

Family tradition says that children must wait to come downstairs on Christmas morning. 

JC and Trinity. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

It can be a looooong wait. It helps when Grammy brings Christmas cookies upstairs to make the wait a little more bearable.

With three babies celebrating their first Christmas, the parents wanted lots of photos.

That added to the wait!

Everything is ready downstairs.

Santa dropped a lot of things off for our family!

And here they come - in age order (youngest to oldest!)

Quads waiting to open their gifts.

Ian and Mama pose before the tree.

Trinity enters the fray. 

And here comes JC.

Cole helps Julie open her stocking.

Look at the pile of packages surrounding Cambria!

Jessica helps her open her Christmas ornament from us -  we give each grandchild an ornament every year.

Jessica shows Cambria and Julie a ball popper.

Curt, Ian, Emily, Vanessa, Ian.

Cole shows Julie a favorite book he, too, had as a child, The Secret Birthday Message.

Ian.

Ian and Julie play with Julie's new alligator ball popper.

Millie amid the mess. Last year SHE was a Christmas present!

JC, Lisa, and Todd. Yes, the presents spread all the way to the fireplace!

Lisa, Todd, and Trinity.

Andrew, Ian, Vanessa, Cole, Sarah, Curt.

Julie and Emily.

Millie and Julie.