Christmas Adventures

Hello!
I was looking at the calendar and decided that yes, life will continue after today, Tuesday 31 December, 2013.  So I pulled out the 2014 calendar!  Crisp, clean, white pages. This is where we keep all activities of the Whitesell Clan.  I know, it's archaic: we still use lead pencils and paper to record these things.  There's something about having a "concrete," visual prop, and not having to open up the laptop and find the computer program each time you want to glance at the calendar.  So a paper record we'll keep, at least for another year :)

We got Dunkin Donuts, and stood around...no David :(

Finally he shows up!

DAVID's HOME!  Big smiles all around.  The first round of finals of his first semester is over.  Of course his plane was late, making him miss his connecting flight.  We took his friends to the airport -- in 2 cars, for Pete's sake!  We had this grand welcome all ready for him.  Then we found out he'd be coming in 3 and a half hours later!  Well I took a picture anyway.  We went home and came back later with a smaller group (3 friends came the 2nd time).  He's with us for 2 weeks total.  Not long, considering that many schools get 4 or even 6 weeks off between terms.  Not BYU.  Just 2 weeks.

Angela being "treated" for "burns"

Christmas Tree lighting on Christmas Eve

Poppa Dave sharpening his knife

WILLIAMSBURG.  We returned Saturday from a week in Williamsburg, Virginia!  We met Frank's parents and his sister Dana and her kids there.  If you're ever in the area, definitely go to Williamsburg!  The colonial town has 88 original buildings and many more re-created shops, homes, and monuments from the 1600's and 1700's.  All of the employees are in period dress, and they have great stories and fun historical facts about the time period and town.

JAMESTOWN.  One day was spent at Jamestown, which is a whole other chapter in the establishment of our country!  Remember Disney's "Pocahontas?" Well Jamestown is real, as was John Smith and John Rolfe and the Virginia Company. So much more of the movie is pretty made-up, but the people existed and there were significant conflicts with the Powatan Indians.

Jamestown was pretty amazing.  Definitely stop in, if you are in Virginia.

Kara & Teresa fall into the well...?

FOOD. What would Christmas with the Whitesells be like without food, food and more food?  :)  Frank's mom keeps us fed, and always asks the kids what they request for their favorite sweets, so she can have them on hand.  What a treat, to just help on the sidelines and not have to plan the whole meal and week's menu!  Thanks, Diane!  De-lish.

blurry...but she's really cute!

HEDGEHOG.  Teresa was in heaven with her cousin Emily's new pet, a hedgehog!  Nocturnal.  Eats ground-up dry cat food.  Stays in a big plastic bin.  Prickly. Very cute!

FRANK's WOES.  Frank, on the other hand, had very bad luck this holiday.  The poor man was sick just about the entire time.  UGH!  Laid in bed, miserable, with maybe the flu or a combination of a couple of nasty bugs.  We had an urgent care close by and got some antibiotics for him, but ... talk about the worst timing EVER.  Bleah.  His vacation was spent in bed. :(

DRIVING. Teresa got to drive some, and David drove some, too.  Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Delaware,
Maryland, D.C., and Virginia. It was a l-o-n-g driving day last Saturday.

CHRISTMAS in WAYLAND. We had a late gift-opening in Wayland, once we survived the looooong drive back!  David got the game Risk, which he loves and I had n
ever played before.  Think: "This game is Monopoly-Long."  It takes awhile.  If you notice in the picture, Teresa is doing a puzzle, and Kara checks her texts during the longs spaces when it is not their turn.  Kara hung in the longest and finished with David, I'm thinking FOUR HOURS. yes. It's a long game.

GROUP PHOTOS. Of course people had to pose for the group shots!  Everyone humors the persistent photographer, in these cases, me.  We pulled Frank out of his sick bed to be in the picture...I think at that point he was at least coming over to sit on the couch and "be" in the room with us. 

Williamsburg

Thanks for being good sports, people!

Hope your Christmastime has been relaxing, or uneventful, or eventful, whichever you wanted!

So-long and farewell to 2013! :)

Kari

Back in Wayland

Remembering Christmas

SHORT HOLIDAY SEASON.  Somehow this holiday season has flown by us.  We did, actually, have a shorter number of days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.  But regardless the number of days, I seem to always have the best intentions.  After a couple of weeks of intense preparation and scurrying, decorations and gift-planning, my head continues to spin and my enthusiasm begins to wane.

CARDS and PARTIES. So it is with this season!  Our Christmas cards are created, addressed, and sent, and most gifts have been purchased and mailed out.  We have baked some, and gone to a few Christmas parties and dinners.  Lots of socializing and good people.

Here are Kara and Teresa dancing with the young women at church: they introduced Santa after our dinner.

  Probably the only time you'll see Teresa doing something like this...and of course they laughed at themselves most of the time.

Sunday was our Christmas program at church, and the music was heavenly.  It really was a beautiful program.

Teresa carves out a big ice chunk and ... tosses it!

SNOW.  That, of course, was mixed in with our first snowstorm last weekend...my body is groaning after shoveling for 2 hours on Sunday morning.  The whole family pitched in, and Frank shoveled here in addition to helping clear walks over at the church.

Kara shovels in front of the house

UNCLE. Just this morning I was reminded of a gift that we forgot to purchase for someone, and I shook my head.  "I'm just about ready to call "Uncle" with the season," I complained to no one in particular, and everyone, at the same time.  "Enough already, are we really going to buy more junk just so people will have something to open on Christmas morning?" (Sorry, that may have been the Scrooge coming out...although I do like to think of myself as "pragmatic.")

DRIVING PLANS.  We will be traveling for Christmas this year.  David, who is taking finals at BYU this week, will fly home on Saturday.  Our family will drive to Williamsburg, VA.  (Angela is also coming with us!  She's our "adopted daughter/friend" who went to the same high school as David and Teresa.  She graduated last spring.  She's attending college here in Massachusetts, and her parents have now moved back to Taiwan.  She's awesome.)  We asked her if she had been to Williamsburg, and she had not. So she's coming too.  We will meet up with Frank's parents (driving from Florida) and his sister Dana, and her kids (driving from northern Virginia).  We wish Pam could also be there, with Mandy and Eric.  Not this time! :(

REAL CHRISTMAS.  Tonight we tried to do a few 'real' Christmas things.

1) We took some treats to our neighbors, and chatted some as we delivered them.  We have really great neighbors.  People just get busy and we don't see each other very often.

2) We read some scriptures as a family, and listened to some neat Christmas stories that made me cry.  (Since I'm a mom, it doesn't take TOO much to make me cry.  But that's okay.)

3) And of course, in December we receive cards and photos from other family friends.  It's a fun time to reminisce and catch up on their lives for the past year.

I still think the gifting is over-done.  I still think Christmas is too much scurrying in too little time.  But tonight I felt what some people call the "Christmas Spirit."  I remembered that Christmas is my favorite holiday, and I remembered that I love Christmas because of good people with good hearts.

I think we'll keep up the gift-giving.  It makes you feel good inside.  I think visiting with friends, and remembering that you're there for each other is another good way to feel good inside.

I can't wait for David to come home Saturday! 

And if the weather is bleak and it takes us WAY too long to drive to Virginia, then, at least we'll have each other for company. :)

Kari

Happy Thanksgiving Time

Hola!

Thanksgiving weekend is such a nice break from routine.  The kids only go to school for 2 and a half days.  I ask what favorite dishes everybody likes for Thanksgiving dinner.  Some people travel.  People think about family and friends.  You get to socialize with people you haven't caught up with for awhile.

David stayed in Provo -- he'll be home for Christmas, though!  He had Thanksgiving dinner with the Goodmans, my Aunt/Uncle/cousins.  I'm so glad they invited him! :)

PIE NIGHT.  We started our weekend on Wednesday night, with our traditional "Pie Night!"  Too bad I didn't have the camera out for all of the desserts that were brought.  But we had apple pie, pecan pie, double-pumpkin pie, chocolate pie, rhubarb pie, and lemon meringue.  Those are the ones I remember.  We actually had about 16 pies.  After everybody left, we counted 46 people who came, and then there were 4 of us Whitesells, bringing the grand total to 50.


Sadly, because of talking to people the whole time, I did not get any pie.  But we do have leftovers!  I had pie for breakfast AND lunch today. :)

THANKSGIVING MEAL.  Then the actual day of Thanksgiving, there is no better way to start the day than a Zumba class!  Yess!  I got my muscles moving and blood pumping.  Our teacher threw in a couple of fun holiday (?!) songs with a warm-up of "What Does the Fox Say?" and ended with "Any Turkey Can Tango." Go ahead, you know you want to click the link for the first song.  You'll think it's a pretty intense song and video. :)


Then, it's to the kitchen and plan the meal!  Well actually I have been planning the meal for the past week: 1 good thing is that with a close grocery store, you can run to the store every day, if you want.  and 1 bad thing about it, is that you can run to the store every day, if you want! Ha.  Our family's favorite dishes are:


Turkey
stuffing
mashed potatoes
cranberry sauce (jellied kind)
sweet potatoes (no marshmallows)
rolls
green bean casserole, with the fried onions on top?  We have it once a year.

The experiment was to cook the turkey (breast) in the slow cooker!  Yep.  It worked out fine.  Angela is staying with us here for the weekend (our "adopted" daughter/friend -- she goes to college 90 minutes from here).  She's vegetarian, so we put vegetable broth into the stuffing...

My friend Marcine just had a baby 3 weeks ago, and we invited them to come.  Her husband Eduardo is from Portugal, and they wanted to bring something to the dinner table...I said "what about something Potuguese?" 

OK, so they brought these yummy bread pocket things, filled with spicy meat...oh they were heavenly!  They are LIKE empanadas, but they are called "richou" or something close to that.  She did pay for it in time, however.  Having never made these before, she did not know it would take her 3 hours, for Pete's sake!  But they were SO good. (because of the time she'll probably never make them again! oh, well.)

SNAKE and BUNNY.  We had another friend & her daughter come, and they were enamored with Max (bunny) and Komodo (snake).  They asked to hold them a lot, and "can you take my picture with them?"  It was a lot of fun.

Komodo is a mild-mannered pet, but sometimes we think he's a little less than bright.  He just thinks he's smaller than he is!  So he started through Frank's belt loop, in his pants,  and...the biggest part of his body is bigger than that belt loop!  We thought we might have to cut the belt loop. Snakes can't slither backwards, of course.  This one may be a little blurry. but we got a picture.

Much to our relief, he made it through.  Somehow.

Today, of course, is a shopping day!  Well, for the others.  To me, it felt wonderful to NOT go out, and just stay in.  Organize a little for Christmas, clean up, catch up...a lovely day.  Maybe we can take in a movie tonight.

Hope your weekend is going well!  Love, Kari :)