December Begins...

As we move through 2020, I realize it has now been 9 months since I was able to visit Papa in person. He hasn't had a hug since March 7, 2020. Ugh!!! And, there is hope of a vaccine. The chatter is they will give it to health care workers and long-term care residents first. My next thought is, "Are they making guinea pigs out of these older citizens?" I don't like that thought. My nature is to not buy the new thing when it first comes out. Wait a bit and be sure it works first. Okay, I guess that equates to letting someone else be the guinea pig. But I was not sure about me being the first one in line to try out this very quickly produced vaccine. Now my father could be at the front of the line. The only problem is that difficulty in getting this vaccine to people or them to the vaccine. The first one coming to Kentucky has to stay at this super cold temperature and not all facilities have the kind of refrigeration that will do that. So the first 11 facilities in Kentucky are hospitals that actually have the super cold refrigeration needed to keep the vaccine safe till it is given. I see this as taking some time to happen. 

Sunday, November 29th, Claude and I participated in a video call with our bishop to do our tithing settlement. We have a very new bishop and it was good to talk with him for a bit and to declare ourselves as full tithe payers. 

I received this funny meme from my friend, Laura, regarding the new vaccine. 

We learned our son, Jacob, entered the writing contest where you write 50,000 words of a new novel in one month. He said it "led to some tiring nights; however, it also provided a few priceless and vivid evenings in the company of my characters." He also said he did it for the t-shirt!! Jake is a talented writer. He says he can't share it with me yet as it is a very rough draft. In the future...

My little sister, Neffie, asked for the Crumb Pie recipe that has been in our family for a few years. I will share it here below the the description that I typed with it in my recipe book. It is a most yummy pie. Neffie had a lot of bread left over after Thanksgiving and wanted to put it to good use. Waste not, want not!!

CRUMB PIE Gramma Keller’s Secret Recipe

When Gramma Keller gave this recipe to Mimi, she was asked not to give it to anyone else. After I left home and was living in California, I was hungry for this pie and called and got the recipe from Mimi. When Bonnie & Evan came for a visit, I made the pie for them. Bonnie love it and I gave her the recipe. When the Fair & Rodeo next came to Tremonton, Bonnie entered the pie in the baking contest and won a blue ribbon. The recipe was printed in the local Tremonton paper thus ending the secret recipe of Gramma Keller.

Pie Crust: 1½ cups toasted bread crumbs ½ cup butter

        ½ cup sugar         2 teaspoons cinnamon

Put ½ of this mixture into a pie pan and press.  Bake 10 minutes.

Custard: 3 egg yolks 2 tablespoons flour

2/3 cup sugar 1 tablespoon lemon extract

2 cups milk

Topping: Beat 3 egg whites till stiff.  Put over custard but not crust smoothly. Put crumbs on top. Bake at 325° for 25 minutes.

Monday, November 30th, we started our day with a trip to Georgetown. This time we had a trunk full of items we had decided to part with from our Christmas decorating. We would do our usual walk in the park, treat to Papa and something to eat. In addition we made a stop first at the Kumar home to leave a Christmas tree with its decorations and lights and a little nativity for their daughter, Kaleena. Then a stop at Goodwill to leave our Christmas decorating treasures. 

When we got home, Claude set up the music on the television to Christmas music and brought up all the boxes with the parts of our Christmas tree. I brought up the tree decorations when I was decorating the inside of our home on Saturday. I fixed me a big glass of soda pop and went to work decorating our tree. I was finished by 5pm. It only took 1/2 of a day. This time I decided to take a picture of each step of the process. 

This year we added three ornaments to our tree. Our new ornaments almost always have to do with travel. This year we added a South Dakota ornament, a corn cob ornament from the Corn Palace, and an ornament from our visit in February to Tombstone, Arizona.

We woke up Monday morning to our first little, bitty snowfall. We would have more Monday night and wake up Tuesday to an inch more snow on the ground. These pictures were taken Monday morning. This little bit of snow and the Christmas music playing made decorating the tree a lot of fun.

Tuesday, December 1, 2020, I packed up all our Christmas presents to mail. We thought earlier that the virus would slow down and we might make a drive to Michigan to leave presents there. That didn't happen so we mailed all the Christmas presents this year except for the Marx family. If they can't come for Christmas, we will drive to LaGrange and drop them off on their front porch. I also finished the Christmas cards. All was now ready for mailing. I would do that on Wednesday. 

Tuesday I also purchased a Trans-Siberian Orchestra ticket for Jake so he could watch their streaming show. Trans-Siberian Orchestra is something we have enjoyed a couple of times now. Claude would go every year. Last December there was a conflict on our calendar and we missed it. This year they are only do the streaming version. I had purchased a ticket for Claude and me. As Claude and I were talking, we both agreed that Jake would really like this. I sent him a text and asked if he was at all interested and we would make this part of his Christmas. He was. I purchased and he is set to watch it as well. He has never seen them so it will be interesting to see what he thinks. I think when I first saw them I was going by the word 'orchestra' and was very surprised by the serious rock music they play for some things. It is a fun thing to do though. 

Wednesday, December 2, 2020, Claude decided he wanted to go to Lexington to run some errands. I wanted to accomplish some things at home. We started our day with a biscuit run. Then to the post office to drop off our packages and cards. Then drove Eagle Bend and left Christmas cards for each of our neighbors. Now I was free to pursue my to-do list for home and Claude headed off to Lexington. 

Andie and Hayden sent me a link to a neat article. (www.turtlesflytoo.org) If you read this Blog at all, you know I have a soft spot in my heart for turtles. This organization flies turtles and other critters to be relocated for various reasons. I saw this one picture that I really loved. It makes me happy when my family sends me things about turtles.

I started to work on a to-do list item that I have put on the back burner to get things ready for Christmas. I started to make a PowerPoint presentation out of our Japan scrapbook. I have several more of these trip scrapbooks to do this with. It felt really good to be back at clearing out these scrapbooks. 

Claude returned from Lexington and he brought me a treat. It is so cute!!

Claude has always enjoyed getting me a poinsettia for Christmas. In 2015 he gave me one and it is still alive and kicking. In 2016 he gave me one and it is also still alive and kicking. I asked him to please not get one as I have no other place in our home for a big poinsettia and they seem to like staying alive in our home. So he got me an artificial poinsettia arrangement for a few years. This year he found this cute Santa planter with a tiny poinsettia in it. It is real. Hopefully it will enjoy our home as well as the other two do. I assured him that this year he hit this one out of the park!!

Our firstborn grandmonster, Katelyn posted this on Facebook. Each year The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issues a suggestion a day on how you might Light the World. The idea is to bring light to others and, in a small way, be more like our Savior. This one brought a tear to my eye.

#LightTheWorld: Who represents Christlike love to you?

The person in my life who represents Christlike love to me is my Blamma. She loves unconditionally, is charitable, merciful, generous, and thoughtful. She isn't quick to judge and is patient. She is an amazing example of what it means to be a wife, mom, grandma, and great grandma. I am extremely grateful for her and the example she sets for me and those around her on what it means to love and live a life with Christlike love. 

Thursday, December 3rd, I enjoyed this cute Facebook post. It still gives me a chuckle!

I spent my day working on the Japan scrapbook.

Friday, December 4th, I posted a "Light the World" post on Facebook about peace.

Many things speak peace to my soul. One is living on our hill in Sadieville. That's our home at the top of our hill. The red spot on ground is Claude Christensen after planting trees. I love being home. It is a refuge from each storm of life we have encountered. Love is spoken within its walls and felt when family gathers. It provides the peace needed daily. 

#lightoftheworld

Every December, Claude and I love picking a really nice place to enjoy a truly elegant meal and maybe attend an event. As December approached we talked about how we can't do that. Restaurants are all closed to in-person dining in Kentucky now. No concerts can be held. How would we keep our tradition alive. I suggested that we pick a fun place we want to eat each week and get their drive-thru or curbside pick-up for our meal. Claude suggested we find light displays and drive through them. We could have our date and still be Covid-19 safe. 

Our first date in December was on Friday. We dropped a treat off at the nursing home for Papa and I filled his birdfeeder. Papa was sitting on the side of his bed. He did not have his glasses on. He tried to smile as he waved hi to me by curling his fingers. This breaks my heart. I wanted to climb in that window and give him a great big hug. I can't do that. Ugh!!!

Claude and I drove across the street to Formaggio's. I called and placed our order for individual pizzas, one pepperoni and one Hawaiian, as well as two Caesar salads. Claude pulled into the parking lot and we dined on one of our favorites. Sadly, this restaurant has lost the battle that Covid has brought to the food service industry. They will close in December. It was important for us to dine from them one more time at least. We may try to sneak in another meal before they close.

Off we drove to Frankfort, Kentucky to see the Christmas lights at Buffalo Trace Distillery. No charge for this drive thru event. Here are a few pictures. 

That didn't take much time so we opted to drive back toward home with a stop at the Kentucky Horse Park to see the Southern Lights. I was completely surprised as I took a picture of this house with a voice coming from it. There was a real person there portraying Santa. I grinned and waved really big. They had a mailbox out on the drivers side so that kids could leave their letter for Santa. Here are a few pictures from there.

Saturday, December 5th, I awoke feeling blah. A little dizzy. A little off. I shared that with Claude and he suggested I just take it easy. I accepted his counsel and headed to the basement to retrieve my set of Northern Exposure DVD's. I loved this television show. Years ago Claude got me the entire series. I popped in the first season disc one and started the laundry. I would sit there all day with Claude sitting on the sofa. I managed to get the laundry and ironing done. Claude managed to bake zucchini bread and made us spaghetti for dinner. At the end of the day, we both just smiled at what a great day we had. We made it through season 1 and 2 of Northern Exposure. 

In reading my news on my phone, I found this link: https://www.cbsnew.com/news/jupiter-saturn-double-planet-great-conjunction-december-21/. I share this with any readers in case you might want to watch for it. Jupiter and Saturn will come extremely close to each other. It will appear to be a double planet in the sky. It sounds like a neat thing to see. I shared the link with Jacob, our son, who loves all things space. 

Sunday, December 6th, we enjoyed our Church service from home, read our scriptures and partook of the sacrament. This evening we will watch the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional on BYU-TV. 

Sadly, we also learned that one of our neighbors father's passed away from Covid-19. Also one of our other neighbor's husbands has it and she will be tested tomorrow. I have learned of other friends that have it or have now recovered from it. It really is spreading. We shall try to be very vigilant in staying safe.