The House That Built Me

I like that Miranda Lambert song. But also, it's true.

Found these pictures today. So these aren't the actual house that built me, although I found a few of those too.

It changed over the years, but this was a great yard to grow up in.

Lots and lots (and lots and lots) of good memories.  It's been 5 years now since they sold it and sometimes I still miss it. 

Thanksgiving Week

Spent the whole week off work and having myself a little stay-cation. It’s been such a needed break. I don’t think I did much of anything useful but I wasn’t really supposed to. I went shopping with my mom on Monday and almost all of my Christmas shopping is done. Tuesday, mom and I went to the temple in the morning and then I did some errands like getting the oil changed in my car. I took it easy on Wednesday and made rolls.

Seeing pans of dishcloth covered rolls on the the table on Thanksgiving morning is one of my favorite childhood holiday memories. To this day, it makes me happy. Of course, I don’t get up as early as my mom so I rolled them out on Wednesday morning (at a normal time) and then let them rise and baked them that afternoon.

I also got to use the little bread basket thing I picked up last year in Austria. I never use it just for myself.

And did I mention it snowed!! Yay!!! It snowed off and on almost all week. And it dumped overnight on Wednesday. Lot’s of heavy snow. I was going to try and just drive through it out of my driveway but the plow truck came by and I was not going anywhere. So I shoveled myself out. I haven’t shoveled snow in a long time. That’s hard work!

We made candy on Friday, of course. Although we cut it back this year and I’m glad we did. It only took a few hours and then we were able to clean it up and watch movies. My nephew was dying to go back to Best Buy (he had gone early with his dad, but he’s a very slow decision maker) so I told him I’d take him in the evening. It was busy, but not so bad I couldn’t handle it. And luckily, he knew what he wanted and we weren’t there very long.

On Saturday, my mom and I took most of the kids to Frozen II. Then we tried to go to Ogden’s Christmas parade and lighting of the Christmas Village. Ha ha... yeah, that was a total bust. Below is the happy picture. Then there was lots of complaining. I mean, I was prepared and even I was cold so I don’t blame them. The parade was kind of slow and the kids weren’t really interested in it. Plus, you couldn’t see all of it through the people. So we left before it was even over. Missed all the lights. And it’s ok. We went and got hot chocolate and then I was home and wrapped up in a blanket. So that’s not something I want to try again unless we end up with a warmer and less snowy Thanksgiving in a few years.

Like I said, it’s been a great week. I’m so thankful for my family and my warm house and the really good life that I can live. I’ve been very blessed. And you know what? I’m ready to get back to work and into my regular routine. That seems weird to say since I’m always complaining about it. Guess I’ll try not to complain and be grateful that I have a job and a routine. 

Merry Christmas

The good news: we got snow last night! I had about 3 inches on my driveway this morning and it's still coming down. It will be a white Christmas after all.

I was playing Christmas songs on my piano yesterday after church and I ran across the song The Christmas Waltz. I don't remember all the lyrics but the one line "It's that time of year when the world falls in love" got me to thinking about the Christmas's of my childhood and what a magical time it used to be. As opposed to now as a grown up living by myself and dad's gone and mom lives in a different house. I'm not saying it's bad now. But there is definitely a magic about Christmas when you are young. At least there was for me. It wasn't just presents. It was all the traditions of the holidays, from candy making and popcorn cakes, to puzzles, and family and friends. LOL - we still do a lot of that now. I don't know why being an adult makes it feel so different.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to the festivities tonight. My family is having a laid back dinner together and then we'll do presents. I made mom's sugar cookies for dessert. They are the shape of Christmas trees and snowmen and I made frosting so we can decorate them before we eat them. Then tomorrow I'm going to take it easy and enjoy the day off.

Mother’s Day

Yesterday, my mom and I drove up to Park City. We went shopping and had lunch. Mom had never been to the Olympic Park or historic Main Street so I showed her around. It’s changed quite a bit since the days she would go up there to ski as a teen/young adult.

It rained off and on the whole day. Utah is so beautiful this time of year. We took the “back way” to Park City on the way there, up I-84 through Morgan. The rain stopped long enough for some sunshine to come through and everything was wet and green. Park City didn’t have much sun, in fact we had a bunch of fog roll in but it was still beautiful also. The rain didn’t stop us from having a good time...and spending too much money. :)  We’ve decided to go back with the family sometime this summer.

Last night I had the urge to make grandma’s crescent rolls so I mixed up the dough to refridgerate overnight and then rolled them out this morning. I was just thinking about mother’s day and how I don’t remember mom actually teaching me how to make the rolls but I know I helped at times. Some of my happiest childhood memories are of the holidays and the table being full of pans of rolls raising, covered with those white potato sack dishtowels. I liked to peak under them to see how big the rolls got. She would get up at 5:00 am to roll them out and let them raise and cook for dinner (we always had Thanksgiving dinner around 1:00 pm or so). My mom has always been an early riser. I remember waking up during the summer months and hearing her go in and out of the back door as she picked vegetables from the garden and brought them inside. She always did it early before the sun got too hot. I don’t get up that early to make rolls and mom’s rolls are better, but I like that I can carry on the tradition of making rolls for family gatherings.

The Library

So my niece likes to send me email. It's pretty funny. She's a cute kid and I can't believe how fast she's growing up. I invited her to a library book sale with me and we went last night. The SL city library is huge compared to what she is used to. The Spring sale isn't that big but we did manage to find a couple books each. Then we went and wandered around the library and rode in the glass elevators. Liv had never been in one before. She loves libraries and reading. She has been reading the Warrior Cats series by Erin Hunter. I got her a couple of them for Christmas and tried to read one to see what it was like, but only got a page or two. Not my kind of thing. I never did really enjoy talking animals. She likes fantasy and there are a couple of series' I would really like to have her try. I guess I just need to take them to her and let her see. If she doesn't like them it's ok. I'll be disappointed a little bit because I love them so, but I can see that the books I loved at that age may not exactly appeal to her. Still, it's worth a try.  I spent so many hours at the library when I was growing up. There are books I still don't own that I fondly remember checking out many, many times. Or hiding on the upper level sitting on the floor reading books from the non-fiction section (mostly about music). LOL - we did have some reading chairs but they weren't in spots I wanted to be. Anyway, good times and good memories.

Some Nostalgia

I recently watched, or listened to in the background, the Netflix series The Toys That Made Us. It was kind of interesting. The first episode was about Star Wars action figures. I was too young to play with them, and my mom didn’t buy us those kinds of toys. My brother is 5 years younger than me so by the time he was playing with that kind of stuff, it wasn’t Star Wars. I do remember when mom finally started buying “boy” toys, my sisters and I took them away from him and played with them because we thought they were cooler. :)

I did, however, play with Barbies. I did not like dolls that looked like babies. I had a few of them growing up but I didn’t like them as much. When I finally got a Cabbage Patch doll, I wasn’t that impressed and I thought her name was stupid: Dana Rana.  I didn’t want to play with a baby, I wanted to play with barbies or paper dolls that were older. It’s kind of fun looking back and thinking about the fun times I had with my barbies. I know I had a Malibu Barbie, Great Shape Barbie, Diva, from Barbie and the Rockers, and my favorite: Peaches & Cream Barbie. Those are the ones I remember. I know we had a lot more because my 2 sisters had them too. One year I got the swimming pool for Christmas and my sister got the RV. Never fail, my brother ended up pulling their heads off and then they didn’t go back on correctly so they had no neck. After that, we would cut their hair and my mom would get mad at us.

Sometimes I wish my mom would have saved some of our toys, not because they would be worth money - we played hard with them, but just for the nostalgia factor. But then I think why? I still have a few of my stuffed animals and they are kept in a box in the back of the closet. It would be the same way with the toys. It’s not like I would play with them. Some years ago I found some of the Ginghams paper dolls that I used to love and bought them and they sat in a box also. I just don’t play with toys any more unless I’m playing with my nieces or nephews and those aren’t the kinds of toys we play with now.

I have a Pinterest board devoted to toys, books, cartoons, etc. of my childhood and it’s fun to look back and remember every once in a while.