The House on the Hill in Sadieville begins to fill...

They're starting to arrive...

Today Andie and the mini-Marx's arrived. They arrived to an empty home. Claude and I gave Bonnie an early Christmas gift. We took her to Nonesuch, KY for lunch. This is where my Countryside Homemakers Club went for their Christmas lunch. I came home and told Claude, "We really need to take your mom here." So I made us reservations. In a little town called Nonesuch a family started an antique business in a barn. When the local school came up for sale the family purchased it and over a couple of years the father remodeled it. Today it is called 'Irish Acres' and the main and 2nd floors house the antiques. Every, and I do mean every, square inch if filled with wonderful things. We had about an hour to browse these two floors before heading to the basement which has been turned into the 'Glitz' restaurant. You must have reservations. The price is the same for everyone. You order from a menu that reminds me of the cruise ship menus. I had my first taste of Chestnut soup, Beef Wellington, and the house specialty dessert. Most excellent meal. We headed home after purchasing 3 bottles of their 'refresher' and a bottle of poppyseed dressing. The refresher is a mulled cider with spices that is cooled and has cranberry juice added. It is served really cold. We will share 2 bottles on Christmas day with the family and have the 3rd for New Year's Eve. It was a great outing and Bonnie had a wonderful time. The trip back was slower than expected because we got stuck on an icy I-75 where a wreck had happened and 2 cars were in the ditch on the side of the road. I did my cross-stitch, Claude worked the word find puzzle and Bonnie did Sudoku to pass the time. When we arrived home the mini-Marx's were very happy to have us there. I got the above-picture when Claude brought out his laptop to share clips he has saved. Andie said it is today's version of sitting on the porch swing, or around the fire, or something like that.

I thought I would share a few pictures from Claude and my 1st Christmas together. We were married on Friday the 13th of February 1970. By December I was 6 months pregnant and we were living in a little rented house by Barksdale Air Force Base. Claude and Papa went into the woods and cut down our 1st tree. This is the only real tree we have ever had for Christmas.

We had purchased a little puppy. Isn't Sir Doggie tiny and cute. Well...not for long...This puppy is half Great Dane and half Belgian Shepherd. Hence the name 'Sir Doggie'. Claude said he was going to have to call him Sir at some point so that should be his name. Claude built a dog house for him in the back yard that was 4 ft square. When we moved, we gave it to the neighbor lady and she used it for a tool shed. After Nissa was born, I would wash diapers (yes, we did that in those days) and hang them on the line to dry. Invariably I would come out and find Sir Doggie pulling them off the line. I would correct him and try again. It wasn't until later that I found out my dear hubby was taking and old rag and tying it to the clothesline and letting him run up and down with it for exercise. Obviously, Sir Doggie could not tell the difference between real laundry and the toy kind on the line. He loved to go for walks which was funny being hugely pregnant and trying to keep that small horse-like dog walking slow enough for me to keep up. After Nissa was born, I would put her in the stroller and she and I would walk the dog. Then the big problem was that he loved Nissa so much he wanted to look over in the stroller all the time and lick her face. There are all kinds of sanitary issue for me with that game. But Sir was a good dog and we loved him very much until we had to move to California.

The last picture is of the stocking I purchased for Claude our 1st Christmas. I was still working as a beautician and saved all my tips on Christmas Eve. On my way home I stopped at the Globe store (like a Walmart or K-Mart) and purchased a socket set for Claude and put it in this stocking for him. I can't remember what else I gave to Claude, but he gave me a jewelry box that I still have up in the top of my closet. The other item of note in this picture is the wall hanging of a Christmas tree over the curtain. These were the decorations for the cultural hall at Church for the party. I brought that one home. I enjoyed it so much that I eventually made one of fabric (the decoration one was made of wrapping paper, garland & sticky stars) and we hung it up each Christmas. While living in Maryland we knew a young couple with 2 little girls that were moving over Christmas and were not going to have a Christmas tree. I gave them our cloth tree to hang up for their Christmas tree during their move. The little girls loved having a tree. A few years ago I made several out of Christmas wrapping paper for decorations for our ward party here in Georgetown, KY. I kept them after the party just in case they were ever needed again. Our Relief Society president works at Kohl's and over Christmas she works horrid hours. She and Justin did not get their decorations up this year before the madness of the shoppers began. So I gave her one of the paper ones for their Christmas tree this year. Funny how a little thing just grows and grows.

Tomorrow afternoon I'll head into Georgetown to sing a Christmas program for the nursing home. After he gets off work, Michael will come here. Nissa, Todd, Katelyn, Paul and Aubrey will leave Muskegon and go to Chelsea and pick up Uncle Jake, then head to Kentucky. Christmas morning Papa will come and open presents. Then in the afternoon he will bring Mimi out and we'll all have a big dinner together. Then in the evening we'll begin making the traditional puzzle. I'm really looking forward to a happy home, full of family building more memories to bring back and enjoy for years to come.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I Swear...

Today was the swearing in of the City Commissioners for Sadieville. Bonnie is visiting and was able to see her oldest son take the Kentucky Oath of Office. The Kentucky Oath of Office is pretty long and says the traditional things at the beginning. Then the last half is all about swearing that you have never faught in a duel, will never fight in a duel, will never start a duel, and on and on and on about duels. The 1st time Claude was sworn in as a city commissioner (today was his 3rd swearing in) he was replacing Herb Archer as city commissioner. Herb is the man who built our home and then finished off the basement after we moved in. He needed to resign and knew that Claude was looking for a way to help out in the city. He asked Claude if he would be interested and if he was he would place his name as a possible replacement for him. Claude told Herb he was very interested and from that chat Claude because the new city commissioner. Since he was the only one being sworn in that time, he was quite surprised when they got to the part about the duels. The other commissioners all started to chuckle because they knew it was coming and realized no one had warned Claude about this very old language. Last year Claude took me away for an overnight trip to Bardstown, Kentucky. The purpose for the trip was to take a lunch ride on the train thru the countryside. While there we visited the Bourbon Museum in an old dormitory of a Catholic church. We just happened to get a glimpse of a letter in one of the display cases. When first arriving in Bardstown, we had toured an old mansion that was the home of a cousin of Stephen Foster. He visited this home and it was the inspiration for his song "My Old Kentucky Home" which is the state song of Kentucky. The judge that owned this home was a leading citizen and it turns out had the final duel that was fought in Kentucky. He killed his opponent. It was determined this dueling was not a good thing and the law was written against duels. From that point forward the Oath of Office from contained and still contains all the phraseology about duels. We would not have known the history of this interesting old language in the Oath of Office except for the letter in the display case at the Bourbon Museum in Bardstown. Now you have a bit of history trivia from Kentucky and we have a full slate of city commissioners for Sadieville.

The room they are being sworn-in in is the meeting room in the old Sadieville Depot building. The building was moved away from the railroad track after the train ceased stopping in Sadieville. Then it was refurbished and because our city hall and city clerks office. Claude has made sure a new deck was added around the side and back of the building and that the basement has been remodeled so it can be used for meetings also.

Christmas for All Ages...

Saturday night was when Santa comes to see the kids in Sadieville. This year the caboose is being restored under the direction of my hubby, the Mayor Pro-Tem of Sadieville. So the firetruck drove Santa to Sadieville and he greeted the kids. Then he climbed into the caboose to visit with each child individually. The youngest visitor was a little baby just 2 weeks old. The most senior was my dear mum-in-law, Bonnie. Claude got the pictures on his Blackberry since I forgot to take my camera!! Silly moi!!

We also trained Bonnie in the enjoyment of a truly Kentucky meal. We went to Fava's in Georgetown and she had a Kentucky hot brown. Yum!! Fava's is a neat little restaurant in Georgetown. It is a very old building. I believe it was originally a drug store and has been used continuously since it was built. Jeanne owns it now. She is originally from Louisiana. The first year we lived in Sadieville, the city of Georgetown made a snowman for each of the storefronts in downtown Georgetown. Each store actually decorated their snowman. They stayed in front of the stores until January of the next year. Then in February, if I remember correctly, they held an auction and sold all the snowmen and donated the money to 4 different charities. Claude and I went and purchased 2 snowpeople, a male and female version. They happen to both be made by Fava's. They sit in our front yard each year as part of our decorations.

Christmas Past Memory...

Let's travel back in time to December 1987. Our family lived in Montgomery Village, Maryland for 20 years prior to retiring to Kentucky. Each Christmas the members of the Church we invited to participate in a live Nativity on the grounds of the visitor's center at the Washington DC Temple. When Nissa was in high school, she volunteered for the only female role in this cast and would spend an hour out in the freezing cold playing the role of Mary. They had a doll to play the baby Jesus. This doll was sooooo real. You really had to watch to see if you could tell if it was real or not. It even appeared at time to blow smoke from it's little mouth due to the coldness of the air. This particular year our family trundeled down with the masses to watch Nissa be Mary. We took pictures and watched her cuddle this little baby doll and then lay it in the manger and then cuddle it again. We walked up a little hill to get a picture of the scene with the temple in the background. As Claude and Andie and I watched our oldest fill this most important role, Andie, in pure Andie style, said, "Nissa looks so real doing this you almost expect her to breast feed any minute!" That my friends is a pure example of the Claude Christensen family as it really is...supporting and encouraging the family members while not missing the perfect opportunity for a quick remark. I do love my family.

Another Week Closer to Company!!

Well, I've made it through another week. It's hard to tell what I'm doing because I'm making Christmas gifts and that is a big SECRET!! But I'm making progress and the hope is to be finished with making them by when my wonderful mum-in-law arrives this coming Thursday for a nice long visit. I will still be cross-stitching Mimi's sweatshirt but that doesn't have to be a secret. I've put a picture of Tiny's face into cross-stitch software and made a pattern that I'm doing with waste canvase for Mimi on a bright orange sweatshirt.

Last Sunday evening Claude and I sat in front of the TV to watch the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional on BYU-TV. When it came on we were surprised to hear it in Spanish!!! Claude went to another TV that uses another receiver (we have 4 TV's and 2 separate receivers to accommodate them, silly isn't it?) and it was also receiving in Spanish. The music was in English and after the choir did a special number then suddenly the meeting was in English. I'm thinkin' someone called it in but I'm not sure.

Tuesday evening was a fun event. The Countryside Homemakers Club I have joined has an auction every year in December. Every chapter donates at least 4 items to be auctioned off. Each new member is given $100 in play money. Each person that recruited a new member also gets $100 for each new member they recruited. Then they have a real auctioneer come and we bid our play money on the items we want. There were about 6 banquet tables full of items from food to handcrafted things to flower arrangements, etc. I was very careful with my $100 and came away with 4 items and had $30 left over. As you look at the picture you can tell this money isn't negotiable anywhere but the auction. It was lots of fun. Some of the items I bid on will be Christmas gifts. I did get me a little sign on a stake that I put in the front flower bed. The highest bid item was homemade bourbon balls. Gotta love Kentucky women!!

Wednesday was the busy day. Got my hair cut in the morning. I got the oil changed in my car for free!! Then I sang at the nursing home with Papa and visited with Mimi. Then I hurried back out to Sadieville to retrieve Claude so he and I could go home/visiting teaching. The Rennicks were our visit and they had suggested dinner out. We had Dave pick the restaurant and he chose BD's Mongolian Grill in Lexington. So off we headed to Lexington for a great dinner. This was our first time at this restaurant (it will NOT be the last) but Julie and Cordell introduced us to our 1st Mongolian Grill meal in Utah several years ago. Then Claude drove us to Coldstone Creamery for a bit-'o-ice cream for dessert. We then hurried home to watch the last half of Criminal Minds and then CSI NY.

Thursday was a much needed day at home to work on Christmas stuff all day long.

Friday night was the ward Christmas party. They started it with a tribute to veterans. They had all the men in the ward who had served in the military to perform in their old uniforms if possible. Then they told the true story of the Americans fighting and the battle pausing at Christmas while the two sides sang Silent Night. Very touching story and it was done really well. Claude was one of the officers who met the other side and exchanged a gift of his silk scarf with the other side. We had dinner and then lots of program. It ended with a visit from that man in the red suit. Guess who had the honor this year...okay, I'll tell you. It was Santa Claude!! He asked me if he could 'cuff' any of the bad kids. I assured him that would be in poor taste for Santa. When he came in the room the kids swarmed him. Holly Kolvig got to the microphone and assured the kids she was the 'mean elf' and they had to form a line because she took Santa's bag of candy and wouldn't get it to him unless they formed a line. Quite amusing. Now you are wondering...where is that picture of Santa Claude. Well, I will send it after Christmas is over...just because.

Today is Saturday and we started the day with a breakfast drive thru at McDonald's. My favorite breakfast is 2 plain biscuits and a Dr. Pepper. At our McDonald's I am forced to settle for 2 plain biscuits and a Mellow Yellow. Then we were off to the stake center to pick up our food storage order. The stake did a food storage run to the Knoxville Bishop's Storehouse and we added powdered milk, wheat, quick oats, macaroni, and rice to our food storage this time. Now we have to haul it all to the basement!! Then we went to HH Gregg. They sell TV's. Our TV in the living room is showing strong signs of imminent failure. So we thought we would do the beginning look and ask questions and get price comparisons, etc. while we were down in Lexington. Those who have been to our home know about the big TV in the basement. This is where it came from and we have had good success with it so we feel good about checking 1st at HH Gregg. The lady we spoke with cheerfully showed Claude the feature he liked best, a swivel base for Samsung and Sony models. I'm looking at the on/off button on the top to keep it away from Bailey's fast little fingers. We'll check some other places and then be ready when the time comes (we figure while all the family is here for Christmas it will give-up-the-ghost). Then we hit Michael's. Since Claude is trying the making of jewelry, he is a much easier sell on going to Michael's. Then we found the Linen & Things that is going out of business and went through it. Then we ended our day in Lexington at Chipotle's for a late lunch/early dinner. Claude just made his 1st loaves of French bread. He did a great job and brought me hot buttered bread from the oven just now. I'm sooooo spoiled.

One of the joys of this blogging thing is that I have all the family members blogs listed on my blog page. It tells me when the last updated their blog and I can quickly go in and read what is happening to all my nieces and nephews for which I have a blog address. It was fun to read about the snow received in Texas this week. I have this picture taken in 1962. Neffie is bending over picking up snow, Junie is in the middle and I'm on the right side of the picture. We didn't get much snow in Louisiana. I remember that when we did, Mimi would take snow and mix it with Eagle Brand Milk and something for flavor and make snow ice cream. We loved it. She would do this also if we were out west on vacation and ran into snow up in the mountains. One time we had a lot of snow, it seems like there were at least 4 inches on the ground or maybe a little more. We didn't have 'snow gear' to play in the snow in. So Mimi put us in socks with plastic bread bags over our socked feet and rubber bands to keep the bags tight at our ankles. Then we put on our rubber golashes (I bet I butchered the spelling of that word!) and off we went on a hike to the school playground to enjoy the snow. The snow was a block and a half away. As we started in the full block, Junie started to complain that her foot was cold. We just kept on going because we were all cold but we wanted to really enjoy this moment that really didn't come very often. When we got to the school ground, Junie was really uncomfortable. We looked at her feet and realized her boot had come off in a snow bank and she was just in her sock and plastic bag covering. So we retraced out steps and got this poor child her shoe back. Usually what we had in Louisiana was ice storms. I can remember Claude and I going to visit Mimi in the hospital after she had her hysterectomy. There was ice all over and I remember Claude saying, "You've got to love a person a lot to get out in this stuff."

The Good, The Bad, and the Really Ugly!!!

We have filled another December week to the top. The Good: I had a great lunch on Tuesday with some of the ladies in my neighborhood. I've joined the Countryside Homemakers Club. The December meeting is a lunch and it was just delightful. We also had the 'Assisted Living' group from the Church over Friday night for a social. We watched Alaska pictures and ate and visited and finished the evening with viewing the Luke II video with Amy Grant singing "Breathe of Heaven" during the video. This is most moving and our bishop went home and found a version on You Tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icilgwdHiZg is the link. I had a seminary teacher share this with us years ago and I think Christmas isn't Christmas without viewing it at least once. Very tender. Then Saturday evening our block had a little holiday get-together and welcomed the 2 newest families to our neighborhood. There are only 15 houses in our development. It was really good to catch up on these good people's lives and share some time with them. We live in a quiet little neighborhood and it is just a really friendly spot to live. Today was a good day at Church and we came home tired from a full week and yet refreshed by the gospel experience. The Bad: I had an older crown that never quite fit close to the gum. My dentist here said 4 years ago at my first cleaning that eventually I would get a decay because I can't really get it clean even with flossing. Sure enough this last cleaning the x-ray showed a cavity. So the decision was made to make a new crown and fill the bad spot. Tuesday of this week I went in for what I thought was just removing the temporary crown and cementing the new crown in place. But alas, the new crown didn't fit to the gum either so more pictures were taken and new impressions were made and this crown was returned to the 'crown-maker' with the pictures to try and get it right. The bad part was I had already been in for a 2nd set of impressions and this made the 3rd. They also worked on that poor bit of tooth and trying to get this crown to fit without the benefit of deadening juice so I was really sore on that part of my mouth for a couple of days. Hopefully the 3rd time will be a charm. Now for the UGLY! While preparing for the high priest social on Friday, Claude and I were finishing the prep work in the kitchen. We work very well together in the kitchen if I do the cleaning while he cooks. I used my food processor to crush up Oreos for truffles. I didn't use the slicer portion of the food processor but I washed it anyway with the other pieces before storing them away. I had the slicer in the dish drainer on the counter and determined I needed to dry the things there to make way for the next round of dishes I wanted to wash by hand. I picked up the piece that is a slicer on one side and a grater on the other but didn't pay attention to how I was holding it. You guessed it by now...I felt it catch on the end of my middle finger and the stop before I realized I had really cut the end of my middle finger in a bad way. I quickly started the cold water and put my hand under to clean the wound. The blood was prolific. Nissa, I hope I don't offend you when I said to myself, "This must be how Nissa feels!!" I finally called to Claude and told him I thought I needed assistance. He came to the kitchen and then went to gather lots of gauze and tape. The end result was the mother of all bandages. I looked at that middle finger and laughed at how I would greet my guests that evening with this huge middle finger pointing at them. It continued to bleed and Claude took over the food work and I tried to continue to help without touching that poor finger. It is much better now and I think it will heal okay. But it is really UGLY!! Now...let's see what we can get into this next week!!

Thanksgiving Thoughts...

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. The Marx family and Jake were able to come. We visited with the Thompson grandmonsters via telephone. Junie flew Papa out to have Thanksgiving with all her family. He truly enjoyed visiting all his grand and great-grand kids. Tiny was happy to be in Sadieville with us and the mini-Marx's. But she was really happy when Jake came to pay attention to her. We brought Mimi out to have dinner with us. So everyone had a spot to be. Claude smoked a HUGE turkey and we enjoyed a feast and then sandwiches after. I baked sweet potato pies like Gramma Fisch made when I was a kid. So it was a very traditional day and we are happy.

We have lived in this home 4 years now. Our 1st Thanksgiving here was not long after moving in. The basement was not finished and we filled the living space with all the Thompson's, Marx's, Jake, Mimi & Papa and Claude and I. Mimi and Papa had the guest bedroom, Claude and I had our bedroom and the floor was scattered with sleeping bags for the Thompson grandmonsters. Andie and Michael were on an air mattress in Claude's office with Hayden in a pack 'n play. Nissa and David had an air mattress on the concrete floor of what was becoming my sewing room. Jake got a sofa. We filled this house with lots of fun and food. Andie provided the recipe for turkey waffles on Thanksgiving morning. The kids ran in the unfinished basement. Hayden hurled on my Dr. Pepper t-shirt. Later we learned our little guy had really bad reflux. The whirlpool bath was like a swimming pool for the grandmonsters. Now Katelyn is 16 yrs old, Paul 12 and Aubrey 10. Hayden just turned 4 and Bailey will soon be 2. I find myself truly grateful for my family. I have been blessed with 3 wonderful kids and 5 really fun grandmonsters. Claude and I enjoy the home of our dreams that just feels so peaceful and warm. We have plenty and some to share with others. I enjoy my life and find pleasure in what it offers. I can't wait to see what the next year brings!!