Turkeys and Ornaments

First off, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! There is much to be thankful for isn't there!?!?
We were blessed to have Grandpa and Grandma Leman, Jake, Shayne and Brady Fehr, Matthew and Kristy Moore, and Kristy's sister Erika for our Thanksgiving dinner. We had a lovely evening! Several of us played games 'til near midnight!

Post Thanksgiving comes Christmas music and decor! Dan and I were traveling to Colorado last December 25th and by the time we got settled, Christmas was long over and therefore, no Christmas decor was set up. I really enjoyed setting up our Christmas paraphernalia together this year!

I had forgotten about this little nativity set. It is from Haiti.
My Dad gave it to me last year. Every little piece was wrapped in banana leaves and tucked safely in the little coconut hut. A memento of my "other" home!

Our tree

We received this angel for our wedding. We decided it was a bit too large for our tree....

So it made its home on the mantle!

Tree pictures are hard. Here's an attempt!

Another wedding gift. I like how it has verses written on the characters. The verses correlate to where that particular character appears in the Bible.

Extra strands of white lights (wedding leftovers!) found their place too.

During the holidays, it is so easy to leave the real reason we're celebrating suffocating in the turkey, lights, ornaments, and new years resolutions. May we choose to remember and focus on the CHRIST that we are thankful for, indebted to, and reliant upon!

A Taste of Heritage

The boxes haven't been cracked open since my dear Grandpa & Grandma Gutwein loving and carefully packaged them up. But today was the day! I am grateful to announce that all of the pieces safely endured the journey to Colorado! Thank you Grandpa and Grandma for the wonderful wedding gift!

This beautiful hand-painted china was my great-grandma Laura Gudeman's. Grandma Gutwein remembers how excited Great-Grandma was when she bought them. It's no wonder! They are elegant, dainty, useful, and many of the pieces are types that aren't made anymore. Not to mention part of the set was made in occupied Japan!

Here is a sampling:

A covered serving bowl, regular serving bowl, two sizes of serving platters, gravy boat, soup bowl*, jello/salad bowl, dinner plate, salad plate, dessert plate, teacups and saucers, creamer, and sugar bowl.

All ready for Thanksgiving!

Beautiful design

*About that soup bowl. There's only one. Why? Grandma Gutwein said that since they didn't normally serve soup to their guests, Great-Grandma let them use them for everyday...or at least whenever they had soup. Guess they broke dishes back then too ;)

In today's desire for sleek modernism, I've enjoyed pulling these traditional treasures out and ogling their ornate beauty. But this all forced me to ponder something else. The word heritage. Tradition. Even legacy. It's all fine and dandy that my great-grandma passed down her lovely china, but how much more precious her legacy of faith? I have another great-grandma (Dorothy Bachtold) who passed away over a month ago. I read in her obituary that she had 23 grandchildren, and 44 great-grandchildren. What have these women left behind?

Faith. Witness. Love. An example. (just to name a few)

Faith in Jesus and a life lived by His standards. Through that, they are witness to His faithfulness to those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose. Their love has had a ripple affect on those around them and those still left here on earth after they are gone. Their example is that no matter how many mountains we have to climb, the prize is worth all the struggle and God will carry us through. They didn't necessarily lead easy lives. But who said that it was going to be easy? And why do we expect it to be? "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:" (1 Peter 1:7) Today's woman seems to be defined more by her outward appearance than of her inward character. "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies." (Proverbs 31:10) Those trials, that price, the effort put towards developing godly character; they not only glorify God, but they leave a heritage in the process.

Just like my great-grandmas.

So even though beautiful china is a mere possession of this earth, I think I'll find it serves as a reminder every time I take it out of the closet. What heritage am I developing that I will one day leave behind?

We got "Squished" !!!

More about getting "squished" in a bit...but first, some other exciting news! FRED & JODI are married. And a lovely weekend it was! The wedding was beautiful. God writes the best love stories. We were able to stay with Dan's brother and his wife: Caleb and Erin. Since we don't get to see them often, this was a special treat. I got the privilege to meet some of Dan's aunts and uncles! Neil and Leila, Gordon and Ellie. They're keepers! :) While Dan was taking pictures with the wedding party, I was standing in Grandpa Hodel's kitchen. Fingers wrapped around a steamy cup of coffee, listening to Grandpa's stories of Japan. Yup, another treat. :)

The happy couple(s). Blessings to you both Fred and Jodi!

My crazy sister-in-law. Put us together...watch out.
(and...that's her dad, Brad...I wonder where Erin gets it from?!?!?)

Thanks for keeping us guys!

Another pal: Sarah :) (and Brad again)

Squeeeeek! My other sister.

So about getting "Squished"....
My sister graced us with her presence for tad over a week. Let's just say that I thoroughly enjoyed it!!! There's something about being totally at east with one's sister. :)

Squish and I posing with the fabulous tortellini soup we made! We even found bread bowls!

She helped me watch Brady...

We went antique shopping!!! Sporting the specs.

We all went to the IMAX and saw "Hubble" (amazing), spent time with the YG and with Dan's parents, baked treats for Sunday lunch, talked, laughed, ate Pretzel M&M's, played scrabble, skip-b0, and Russian rummy, and enjoyed some of good Alisha's cooking!

First fire of the season!

At the airport :(

Squish, you can come back any time you want! We love you!!!!

Better late than never

So, I've been a slacker when it comes to this here blog. Sorry! To catch y'all up, lets start with some recent visitors: Heather (H) and Elizabeth.

We had three full days with them! Some downtown shopping, jeeping (*cough*..more on that later) and chilling at our place.

Somebody was pretty popular!
Brady (the baby I nanny for) has a tendency to win hearts

Including Dan's!

Elizabeth spent one day with her brother, Fred, who lives out here while the rest of us went jeeping! It was beautiful, but chilly day.

H and I (j,k,l,m,n...)

Yup, we got stuck in this here hole. No more comments.

Thanks for visiting! Next time we'll complete the list of things that we wanted to do!

Oh, and Dan and I got the chance to carve a couple pumpkins. The seeds got roasted too! YUM!

Mine on left, Dan on right.

Well, there's a start to the catch up. Life's been one thing after another...see next post.