Grandpa the next computer expert!

John's dad has been staying with us for a few weeks and I have been giving him a few lessons on using his new laptop. This makes me laugh, considering I really don't know what I am doing half the time on my computer. I showed him how to load his pictures, set him up an email account, and even created a face book account for him. His favorite thing about the computer were the bookmarks that let him go to his favorite sites. It has been fun opening the "wonders" of computers and the Internet to him.

Let it SNOW!!!!

Fun day sledding during the holiday break.

Holiday Games

We played two games repeatedly over this winter break. The first one is a group game called "signs" (for the rules click here). We did it a little different from these rule, we touched the person instead of pointing at them and if wrong waited 5 seconds to touch someone again. We played this in the BYU lounge while waiting for our bowling lane and a few other times with family and friends.

The other game is a board game called "The Game of Things". It is a really simple game, which results in a lot of laughter. You can find it at Walmart and Target.

Time Capsule--New Years Day

For ten years this time capsule has sat on the top shelf in our cold storage. The kids were really excited and curious to open it on New Years day. In it was a letter each child wrote or dictated to themselves 10 years in the future. They wrote goals, things they liked/disliked,their chores, friends, and anything else they wanted their future self to know. They each also had put in a few treasures and items in it like a newspaper, beanie baby, pokeman card, shell, pictures they painted, Christmas card, pictures of each of them and other random things. We all sat around reading our letters. Then we read each of them out loud and both laughed and cried (John and I). These letters truly captured what our life was like 10 years ago.

In my letter I wrote, "I recognize that I only have a few precious years while the children are young...". This was so true, time really does go by fast.We are now out of the baby and toddler stage and have mostly teenagers. In ten years only Joseph will still be at home. For family night we are going to put together another time capsule to open up in 2020.

In another part of the letter I wrote; "Today I washed and folded 8 loads of laundry. It is a challenge for me to keep up on the house work and organizing seems like a constant activity". I guess some things never change!!

Christmas

Christmas Eve at Opa and Oma's house. Visit Opa's blog for a short video clip. We all had a great time and felt the spirit of the season.
Christmas morning breakfast. We always have English Christmas Crackers and wear the crowns inside them. We had a wonderful day together. The highlight, of course was being all together with Johnny home. Christmas morning before we opened gifts, I asked the children to think of what kinds of gifts Jesus would want from us. We are grateful for this time of year when we celebrate our Savior's birth and life.

Some of our homemade gifts to each other were as follows:

Caroline to Josh--cookie of the month club. She gave him a paper listing the different cookies she will bake him each month.

Josh to Natalie--He set her up on a double date. They went out last night and Johnny joined them for a triple date--his first date in 2 years. :)

Joe to Johnny--tied a fleece blanket for him

Jake to Joe--made a Lego kit. He created a model and then took pictures for Joseph to follow to reassemble it.

Natalie to Caroline--made some music mix CDs.

Johnny to Jake--gave him a little Greek hand toy and taught him tricks

Johnny's homecoming

Johnny came home from Greece last night. His flight was 4 hours late so many of the extended family members were unable to come. Opa and Oma stayed up late with us to welcome him home. Caroline took the video and Jake the pictures. Words can not express how wonderful it is to have him home.

Christmas Cake

**This is the cake Caroline decorated last year.
John's mom was English and often made the traditional English Christmas cake with marzipan frosting and all the dried fruits and currants in it. We were not big fans of this cake, but wanted to try and keep up the tradition. This wonderful apple cake looks similar to it with it's white cream cheese frosting. The warm butter sauce is so delicious served on it. We also put a silver dollar covered with tin foil between the layers and the lucky person who gets it in their piece receives a present(another English tradition). The other great thing about this cake is that you make the cake ahead of time and freeze. Here is the recipe Al:

Apple Cake:

2 eggs

2 C sugar

2 tsp Soda

1/2 salt

2 tsp. Cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 C oil

4 C apples (peeled and shredded)

2 C flour

1 C pecans or Walnuts chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour 2 9" round pans (floured and greased). Cream together eggs and sugar. Add vanilla and oil. In a Separate bowl combine soda, salt, cinnamon and flour. Mix into egg mixture. Add apples and nuts. Beat for 2 min. Bake 45 minutes. When done cool on counter. When cool, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze. Frost as desired while cakes are frozen.

Frosting:

1 80z cream cheese

3 T softened butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

dash of salt

1 1/2 C powdered sugar

Butter sauce:

1 C sugar

1/2 C butter

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 C cream

heat on low. Don't boil. Serve warm over individual slices of cake and with a dollop of whipped cream on top if desired.

Winter Recitals/Concerts

The past few weeks have been filled with concerts and recitals. Jake also played in a winter orchestra concert. He did a great job and I feel bad I forgot my camera and did not get a picture.

Caroline singing a solo in her Christmas choir concert. She did great!! She sang a Ghana song with just drums to accompany her.
Natalie and Caroline playing "Let it Snow" duet.
Caroline dancing for the nursing home.

Caroline's Cooking Blog

Caroline has started a cooking blog. This is where she trys and shares recipes. She has always loved to cook and lately I find her reading cookbooks when she goes to bed. She only has 2 posts on it now, but wants to put a new recipe each week. The above picture is of her helping to cook when just a toddler---she always was on the counter as I cooked. Here is the link to her blog.

Winter Dance

Josh and Natalie both went to the high school winter dance last weekend. They went in different groups. Josh's had a group of 28 kids. One very energetic mother made a sit down turkey dinner for them all. All the other mothers brought side dishes to share. Natalie's group went to Olive Garden, which Natalie reported she out ate her date. :) Natalie had a nice time, but admits that there were some really awkward moments and would rather go on a more casual date.