December Moments in Time...

December 2015 has been a record breaker in the weather department. We did have some cold days. Friday, December 18th, was cold enough we got our first snow. This is it. Our first snow of the season. There really are little beads of snow on the deck. This is a nice kind of snow, you don't have to shovel!!

That same night Claude and I enjoyed a tradition we started several years ago. We pick a nice place and have dinner together. Just put all that Christmas madness in the drawer and close it for one evening. Then we enjoy a night to ourselves. This year we went back to Holly Hill Inn in Midway, Kentucky. An absolutely scrumptious meal of things we will never cook for ourselves. No dishes to clean up. Pleasant conversation. Delightful server. It was just a very pleasant evening. This may be my favorite tradition now.

Then our weather got really warm. They say it is because of El Nino.  We may have broken a few records for the warmest day ever. I took Papa to the nursing home on December 23rd. When we went out to get in the car, I noticed this very 'out-of-the-ordinary' event. The trees in the parking lot were blossoming just like it was spring. I hope this doesn't damage the trees. But it was sure pretty to look at. 

Ending 2015 as a Crafty Lady...

Ended my 2015 crafting myself silly.  

It began with the annual ornament making. Every year I make about 75 homemade ornaments to be given to family, friends, neighbors, people we work with, etc. This year I made candy canes out of red and white beads strung on pipe cleaners so they could be molded into a candy cane shape.

Then, I started thinking of things I wanted to make and the projects started to roll out of my sewing room, fill totes I could carry with me to work on while I waited or Claude drove, spread out on the love seat in the living room where they could lay there and wait until those moments when I sat down again to work a little more. Basically, my sewing room and home were in a 'facilitate Sandi accomplishing these goals' mode.

I took pictures of a few: a taggy blanket for soon to arrive great grandmonster, a Red Wing set of bib, burp pad and blanket, and an afghan for our first grandson-in-law in his beloved Red Wing colors. Katelyn sent me the picture of Felix taking up residence on the afghan. The afghan is made of 10 long strips that are crocheted separately and then attached together. This is a great crochet project for carrying to work on when away from home.

While we were in Michigan in October for the baby shower, I purchased the Red Wing fabric. You just can't get that here in Kentucky. The goal was to make Red Wing pajama pants for Drew and Katelyn. Enough fabric was purchased to make them and then the items for Raelyn. The PJ bottoms were fun to make. They go together pretty easy.

I have always wanted to try my hand at making a rag quilt. Making one for Raelyn was a perfect excuse. I did make that blanket and have tucked it away to give to her when she is born. Here is my first attempt at a rag quilt. I would love to more make of these but I need to purchase the special scissors to snip the fabric so it will fray in the laundry.

I realized I have a drawer full of fabric that belongs to my daughter. She and I made a small wall quilt years ago when they bought their first home. She bought way too much fabric and for some reason I have been the keeper of that fabric. I thought about just boxing it up and giving it to her. But it would end up as a box of fabric in her basement and not be used. Then I decided to make a simple quilt for them for Christmas. I got my graph paper out and my calculator. I knew how much fabric was in a flat queen sheet. That would be my backing. Using those numbers I figured how many 4-inch squares I would need across and down. Then I made a pattern starting with two squares from Michael's plaid flannel shirt that was the center of their original wall quilt. I cut all the squares and over a 3 day period I made a quilt for the kids. I really like how it turned out. Christmas morning they opened their gift and immediately recognized the fabric in the quilt. Michael was so happy to see squares from his favorite old flannel shirt in the center. Michael was also especially happy I didn't send home another box to go in their basement. 

One last little project was the Swiffer Dusters. Someone posted a link on Facebook about making your own duster replacement out of fleece fabric. I had lots of left over fleece. So I made one for each of the kids for Christmas. The nice thing about them is that you just toss it in the washer when you are finished dusting, then the dryer, then back on the handle it goes. No more purchasing the disposable ones. 

That about covers the crafting for Christmas this year. Lots of hours but it was really fun to be back creating things again.

2015 Christmas Letter

THE CHRISTENSEN FAMILY CHRONICLES

Circa 2015

This letter is provided as a public service in response to the many requests we received about it – we decided to send it anyway…

Eagle Bend Achers - Crop Report:  Hard to reach the fruit through the anti-deer fencing…
Things That Are The Same:  Too many hungry deer and the number of “seniors” in the house…
Things That Are New:  HVAC; patio swing; a “living” mattress; TV/eating perch; tires…

The City CEO - Collecting his ceremonial gavel he assumed duty as Chamber of Commerce Past President – the equivalent of a potted plant, traveled to Keeneland Park to watch the running of the Bluegrass Stakes (the old adage “always bet on the gray” needs revising), continued as KLC First Vice President, and in a stunning turn of events, was selected as 2015 City of Official of the Year.  He reclaimed his crown in the Sadieville Chili cook-off , winning “Best of Show” and “Most Original” (the main ingredient of the latter was “leftovers”) and testified before the Joint Committee on Local Government on the 2016 KLC Legislative Agenda.  Accompanied by queen they two attended Old Folks “Prom Night” aka the Philanthropy Awards Dinner, a Black Tie event in Lexington (the Valet guys just loved parking our Jeep).

He drove the mower around the yard a lot and finally completed (more or less) the Bridal Path down the hill.  The race to see if he or the hill won became a matter of principle but eventually spiking his shovel he declared victory shortly before passing out.  We attended a few ball games too; the first, was “Bark In The Park” night wherein fans bring their dog, and the second, was “Princess Night”, more or less self-explanatory – with hot dogs, fried Oreos and tiaras.   For the record there were some similarities between the two.

“Cultural” outings included “The Black Jacket Symphony” an ensemble group of really good musicians that select an artist/album and “cover” it in concert.  They caught our eye because their subject matter for this tour was the Eagles “Hotel California” album, terrific show and lots  cheaper than the real thing, which we enjoyed later in Lexington -- Eagles Concert #4, you do the math.  This was followed by a trip to see “Midtown Men” (some of the original “Jersey Boys” cast), and finally Emmy Lou Harris & Rodney Crowell.

The Queen of My World  –  Sandi the Care-Giver, it’s just what she does. Me, her father, her kids, me, the grandkids, me, the Friends of Sadieville, me, her Institute students, me…   Anniversary #45 saw us in Key West, Florida, great timing because while there the mother of all blizzards hit Kentucky and we couldn’t get back, extending the trip.  Lodged at an old Inn, we strolled old neighborhoods, shopped the fabled Duval Street, photo-opted at the southeast point of the US, toured Hemingway’s home (lots of six-toed cats there), took a sunset cruise, visited Truman’s “Little White House,” enjoyed a terrific dinner cruise, cruised 70 miles out to Dry Tortuga Island, and came back to 18 inches of snow in our front yard – the sublime to the ridiculous.   Other travel included trips to Utah, New River Gorge in West Virginia, travel north to collect or deposit relatives and eat Greek food.  We also visited the hoppin’ town of Rabbit Hash, Kentucky where the mayor is Lucy Lou, a red and white Border Collie, nuff said…

Tempted with Japan she yielded, and they two traveled as part of the Scott County delegation to the 25th anniversary of the Sister City Agreement with Tahara.  An immersion of epic proportion in an ancient and beautiful culture different than anything we have experienced to-date.  Details can be found at her blog of the: 14 hour flight, “interesting” food, bullet trains, giant statues, temples, shrines, tiny hotel rooms, tinier bathrooms, the emperor’s confectioner, 2800 photos, castles, noodles, stocking feet, the Great Buddha, the good Buddha, and just Buddha, sitting on the floor at dinner, Happy Coats envy, Dashi Floats, parades, official gift exchanges and photos, and a fireworks show you can’t even imagine.

Her highlight this year might include Melon Day with the Homemakers Club (SO many directions I could go here) but we gleaned some great recipes from the event and leave it there.  If that was not THE highlight of her year, eating dinner in a horse barn would qualify - the “Celebration of the Bluegrass” dinner at Normandy Farms, good food, “interesting” ambiance.

Tylorama – Ah yes, the Michigan Tylers.  Life came at them this year but they endeavored to persevere.  Business is good at the store, they know where all their kids are most of the time, they continue to pay appropriate homage to Ma and Pa, joining for lunch at The Pita Place on more than one occasion.  Paul graduated himself from the surly bonds of school and ventured off on his own to explore the world with stops in North Carolina, Arkansas, and circling back to Muskegon, the ride so far was interesting for all concerned.  Ms. Aubrey on the other hand was lucky enough to visit us twice this year, is a high school senior, a cousin spoiler and Pa worshipper, and landed her first real job at Arby’s, ironic its Aubrey working at Arby’s but it was fun to have her wait on me at our visit there and get paid to be nice.

Marxalot  - Michael, survived his first half-marathon and promptly announced his plan to do the whole thing in 2016.  Andie continued to mold young minds and began her own journey in higher higher education, speaking of moldable minds.  Hayden, took up basketball and wowed us as Sir Dancealot in his Performing Arts Club.  We also got to bury him in the corn pit at their fall break visit to Evans Farm Orchard - which reminds me, we should go pick him up.  Ms. Bailey, now a Brownie Scout/budding musical performer/cheerleader sparkled in the “Magic Schoolhouse” chorus line and as Lark the Crow in the “Acorns to Oaks” epic and making us proud at their annual neighborhood whip cream battle, after school let out for the summer.

Blogman – Our family writer/space fan/blogger/graphic designer continued his journey this year.  Trading up in terms of cars and apartments, and dutifully visiting his aged parents on multiple occasions.  He applied for and was accepted to the special NASA program celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope in Washington D.C. so he has that going for him.  He also did some story telling in and around Chelsea this year participating in a couple of area “Moth” events.

The Ropers – Yes, it’s a new branch on the old family tree this year.  The former Ms. Katlyn Squires, now the current Mrs. Drew Roper, is living happily ever after in beautiful downtown Grand Haven, Michigan, building cars and making babies.  They are a lovely couple with stars in their eyes and love in their hearts (ugh!).  At the wedding Mrs. Roper made it clear she expected “honorable mention” in this year’s publication.  This was it. First great grandmonster due January 2016.

You made it! Having completed this years’ chronicles, enjoy a temporary sense of accomplishment and have a great next year.  Press “Next” to continue cause WE ARE OUTTA HERE!
The Christensen’s !!!

Lovin' Love's...& KLC Lunch...

Today was the Grand Opening of the newest Love's Travel Plaza right here in Sadieville. This has been under construction for over a year. Lots of hurdles to cross. Awful snow last February which slowed construction for over a month. Rainy spring that kept the ground to wet to work. A hill to move to fill in another hill and extra things to make that work. It was a mammoth job. But it is now finished and opened for business December 10th with the Grand Opening and ribbon cutting by the Chamber of Commerce this morning at 10am.

We had a wonderful turn out from Sadieville and Georgetown and Scott County. Love's was very pleased with the citizen's who came to share in this moment. 

When Love's builds a new travel plaza in a community, they find a local 401c3 and make a $2000 donation to it. They called our City Clerk and Sandy referred them to me as the Chair for the Friends of Sadieville. I told Chris Corbaz in Oklahoma City how grateful we were for this generous donation. I explained to him about our restoring the Rosenwald School and how we are now working with the City of Sadieville to restore the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church to be a Community Center for Sadieville. This would go directly to help with the restoration. He was very pleased we already had a great need and purpose for this donation. This is a picture of Mr. Zafor, the General Manager, presenting the check to me. Very nice moment.

This is probably my favorite picture of the day so far.  And, I don't even know who took it to give them credit. That is my purse. When it came time for me to receive this check, I turned to Claude to ask him to hold my purse while I received the check so it wouldn't be in the pictures. Then we weren't sure Claude wouldn't also be in the pictures. Senator Damon Thayer was standing with us and I said Claude should hand my purse to Senator Thayer. He was adamant he was not going to hold my purse. Silly man. So Claude turned to Bobbie Bruner, who is Sadieville's Police Chief, and Bobbie took the purse and held it while we accepted the check from Love's. Bless Bobbie's heart. Truly appreciate his service which is above and beyond his role as Police Chief.

So it was a great morning for Sadieville and for Love's and for Scott County. I even tried a Hardee's biscuit and I pronounce them the best. They are made from scratch every day. I shall be having more of those tender morsels in my future!

We hurried from the next event to Lexington. Claude had an invitation for us to attend the Kentucky League of Cities (KLC) Holiday Lunch for all their office staff. Claude is 1st Vice President. This was held at a newly renovated restaurant that was just a beautiful facility. The meal was served buffet style and was delicious. After the meal we enjoyed a parade. Yep a real Christmas parade. Anyone who came in Christmas attire could participate and they followed Jon Steiner around the room in a parade of their costumes. This was followed by a judging with applause for the best costumes. Many prizes were given.  

Here are my three favorites:

This young lady was a Christmas tree. She thanked her dog for helping her put this costume together.

Okay, I'm guessing this is a tree skirt used as a cape for this gentleman. That Santa hat on his head had a mind of its own. The pointed top would just pop up of its own accord and then go back down. He was having great fun in this costume.

I noticed a table near us where all the ladies were wearing these red reindeer antlers. I thought that was very cute. Then they announced the parade and they all got up together. That was when I put it together. The lady with the red nose was Rudolph and the other ladies she works with were the reindeer.

It was fun to be with the KLC crowd again. They are such nice people and seem to appreciate working with Claude.

A Tender Experience...

I teach an Institute Class at Church every Wednesday evening. This last semester our course of study has been titled "Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel". It is a newly developed course and is excellent. 

Each of the young adults has been given a journal to hold a weekly handout with quotes and journal entries of things we studied that week. They are each to take an assessment at the end of the semester to evaluate what they have learned and to clarify any questions they might have. I titled that week on my syllabus as 'Assessment and Testimony'. 

This last Wednesday, December 16th, was our final class for this semester. We had our final lesson titled "A Personal Witness of Jesus Christ". We covered the material for the lesson and set the stage for thinking about and bearing our own personal testimony of the Savior. 

The assessment for this course had three questions:

1. What can I learn from the Savior about obeying the will of the Father?
2. Why do I need the Savior?
3. What have I learned in this course about Jesus Christ and the everlasting gospel that has blessed my life?

Those are very though provoking questions. The young adults were invited to use their scriptures, their journals and notes taken and read in class through the year. We took 10 minutes for them to quietly reflect on the first question, look through their material and make notes on a sheet of paper with the first question on it. When the 10 minutes were up, we shared what we felt comfortable sharing from our answers to the question. If one of the students had a question, we paused to discuss it and share our understanding.

Then we went to the second question and again gave 10 minutes to quietly reflect on the question, look through their material and make notes on another sheet of paper with the second question on it. When the 10 minutes were up, we shared again something we wrote as part of our answer. 

The next 10 minutes were used to answer the final question. This question was more introspective and very personal. When they finished making their notes and writing their thoughts, I asked each of them to share their answers. There were three students in attendance.

Justice was first. She was baptized 6 months ago. She shared the most tender personal story. The first Institute class she attended she had not been baptized into the Church. She was taking lessons from the missionaries but she had a hurdle to deal with. Justice had already been baptized into the Church she was attending. She really didn't understand the need to be baptized again in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The first lesson she attended we happened to cover baptism. During that lesson I asked those in the class who were already members to share about their baptisms. I did not ask Justice to share. She was hurt because she had been baptized, just not into the LDS Church. In her heart she knew I didn't deliberately try to hurt her but this was her line in the sand at that point and she was offended. However, we also read a quote by Elder David Bednar explaining about being offended. He tells us that no one can offend us unless we choose to be offended. This quote caught hold with Justice and she took her offended heart and that quote home and talked with her Heavenly Father. She came to realize that no one was trying to offend her and that she was choosing to be offended. She turned it over to Heavenly Father to help her learn and understand about the need to be baptized into the LDS Church. Her heart was softened and she was baptized. She is such a sincere, delightful person. Her testimony about these principles and doctrines was straight from her heart and set the stage for the next two students to share their testimony.

Mckenzie has not been to many classes with lots of travel while she has been home over the summer. But she has been a member all her life and expressed her love of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how important that is to her, how she loves to read and understand it more. She was particularly touched by another Elder Bednar quote about the Atonement. He gave a banner talk (in my mind it was a banner talk) about the Atonement. In it he tells of the importance of the Atonement making the way for us to repent and be forgiven of the sins which we commit and the Savior acting as our Advocate with the Father at the time of Judgement. He also told of the importance of the Atonement in providing Resurrection for all of Heavenly Father's spirit children who have received a body here on earth. Then Elder Bednar explained the other important part of the Atonement, the 'enabling power' which helps us to be better and more than we ever could on our own. It is that strength that takes us through the lowest, hardest points in our lives and helps us learn and grow through them. This is such a precious part of the Atonement and that quote touched Mckenzie's already strong love of and thirst to understand more the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Powerful testimony.

Josiah was the last to share. He simply summed the whole course beautifully and explained how much he loved that every aspect of the Savior's life was an example and touches our lives. He feels that in all he does and in the choices he makes with his life. He thoughts were clear and summed up all our feelings about Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. 

This was one of those lessons that touched my heart. I want to always remember the goodness and strength of the young adults. Mckenzie and Josiah will leave January 1st and head to Idaho to school. Aubrey and Breck shared their feelings about these three questions the week prior to leaving on their missions. I love the Seminary and Institute programs of the Church. I personally grow so much as I prepare the lessons. Then I am doubly blessed by having tender moments like this to strengthen me as I watch these young adults share their understanding. These moments truly sustain me when the trying moments of life come. I am grateful for them.