Grandparents' Day

Cirrus invited us to Grandparents' Day at her school. Opa predicted correctly. As soon as she saw us, she was out of her seat and running towards us, "Oma, Opa you came!" She was excited. She made us a card.

The teacher had everything all set up for making Christmas ornaments. The boy next to Cirrus was a fast worker and finished his early.

Opa and Cirrus hard at work pushing pins through sequins, then marshmallows, and then into the styrofoam ball.

Here is the finished product, one for us and one for Cirrus.

We had a lot of fun. Thank you for inviting us, Cirrus!

Winter Has Arrived

It started snowing in earnest, and being really cold. Brrrrrrr....

I saw these bird tracks on our front porch.

Somehow a nice bowl of Dutch soup seemed to be the right thing for dinner.

Sinter Klaas

We had Sinter Klaas on Saturday, Dec. 5th. It is a big deal for our family. We met at my Mom's place. If you own a pair of wooden shoes, you wear them there.

Sometimes the little shoes are passed down to the younger ones.

We have a slide show that my brother David and myself prepared. Our Mom narrates the little program. This year my brother added some words to songs for us to sing. One of our relatives in Holland, Jan Van Leer, sent Mom a CD with Sinter Klaas songs on it. It was a great addition.

After the slide show all the shoes are lined up, people "sleep and then wake up" to find what Sinter Klaas has brought them.

Mom makes her own chocolate letters, and the kids love them!

Thanks for all the hard work; the chocolate letters, the peppernotten, the little toys for the younger ones, and the fruits It is a fun time for us all.

Wow, Pretty Surprising

Mrs. Reed came into my room this afternoon to share a student's assignment with me.

Who would have thought that a ten year old girl would want to be a fifty something year old? Actually, I really am appreciative of the sincere compliment. It is delightful to have been able to read this, and thought I would share.

November's End

November has fun and lots of different activities.

The day before Thanksgiving I spent sometime watching Ari and Bree. I love their little blouses.

My Dad's sister Nellie has come for a visit from Alameda. I love this picture of my Mom and Tante Nellie.

We spent Thanksgiving Day with Keith's sister Susan. Black Friday, Emma and I went to JoAnn's and spent over an hour in the fabric cutting line. She bought some really cute flannel pieces. I couldn't resist and bought some flannel as well.

Saturday was the annual Tweed - Widdison Pie Feast. We had soup and rolls first, minor details. There was table tennis, and general running and playing by the little ones. We had 15 little ones from ages 9 years to baby, no teenagers, and ten adults. Let's see that's 25 people.

We had 14 pies. If you click on the picture it should enlarge it so you can see what kind of pie we had. As usual we had left overs to divy up and take home. Yum...

Step by Step

During the summer we had the air conditioning installed. The plenum, duct that takes the cold air out and about, is what I painted blue and put snowflakes on.

I cut out the snowflakes, glued them on, and then modge podged them in place.

When Cirrus saw it she asked if it was a snow making machine. I love the imagination of young children.

Friday, Keith finished screwing up the sheetrock in the solarium. Then he started to mud and tape it. Yipee!!! This is exciting. This just might be our first finished room.

Ending October with Fun

Well, joy of joys, my laptop that I teach with, bring home, and do everything with became severely ill. I brought home on a Monday and it would only open up in safe mode. I tried several times. I had that sick pit in my stomach. How many times do you hear "back up your computer"? I had backed it up, but not recently. Long story short, it wouldn't back up in one fell swoop, so folder by folder, I was able to back things up. Six hours later I was finished, 2:00 am, thank you very much. They did take my laptop at school, diagnosed, and repaired it. I lost my hard drive. When it was returned two days later, I was extremely thankful. However, it had been programed with set up material that was old. So I had to update everything. Taking hours and hours to do so. Restoring my backed up files took only 45 minutes. Like I said, I am grateful to have it all. It took several days to figure out how to make the laptop talk with the the inter net at home. Still don't know why it didn't work and why it does now, just thankful. I rediscovered things I forgot I had, like Elliot walking in David's boots.

Keith took me to Idaho to get potatoes. We had a wonderful time.

Potato Sheds in Aberdeen, Idaho

Inside a potato shed. Yup, that's a lot of potatoes.

We also put flowers on Grandma and Grandpa Peterson's grave, as well as Uncles Max and Neldon. This picture is taken looking east. I love how the sunset colors the whole sky.

We stayed at the Ramada Inn in Pocatello. We will never stay there again. Look at the reviews on line, our experience was similar.

On Sunday, we went to hear Cirrus and Crimsel say their parts for the Primary Program.

This week we had a Halloween Party at school for the teachers. We had Thai food from Thai-Chinese Fast food made by our friend Judy. It was delicious.

Keith and I made witch's fingers.

Our principal had a good time. He repeated his performance for us that he did earlier in the day for the kids at lunch time.

Friday, we went to Dirk and Laura's Ward for Trunk-or-Treating. Somehow we missed the Trunk-or-Treat, but we were in time for Dirk and his Dad to showcase their slow-burn chili. They got great reviews, many raised eyebrows, and many rushing for something to cool their mouths. Dirk and Keith had a great time.

A little lady bug, Ari.

Bree, the Elephant.

Then we went to Emma and Jon's Ward for Trunk-or-Treating. Their ward eats first and then Trunk-or-Treats.

Xanthisa, the Unicorn

Crimsel, The Bee.

The Queen, Cirrus.

Rick and Charlotte Bezzant at the Trunk-or-Treat, friends of ours.

The Bezzant's house. They go all out.

More Halloween Spirit at the Trunk-or-Treat
.

We all had a great time.