Family Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas 2011

I was hoping to get this out early this year, but here it is two days before Christmas and I am still finishing up.  I hope that everyone has had a good year and great holiday season.  This year has been a lot of the same stuff with a few surprises thrown in.  As far as our jobs everything is mostly the same.  I am still teaching at Mueller Park Jr. High with 8^th and 9^th grade English.   This is the first year that I have not had a new subject; although the first little bit of 9^th grade felt new since I missed the first seven weeks of the year.  I did apply at the new junior high they built here in Kaysville, but my friend got the job.  Last year our entire English department was expecting.  I had mine in August before school started, the other two had theirs after the year ended, and neither came back.  The fourth teacher was the one who got the job at the new school. That left me as the sole returning English teaching. I had several other friends that quit or moved to the new school, so there have been a lot of changes. It has been a bit of an adjustment getting know and work with new people.  Allen is still managing the subway in Ogden.  Other than the constant influx of new employees not much has changed on that front. 

           

Annika is now four years old.  She is really enjoying being a “big girl.”  She is also generally a fantastic older sister; although sometimes brother “bothers” her.  They are both still at the high school day care.  Annika loves it there.  She is always excited to go to school.  I think that socially it has been a great thing for her.  She has learned a lot about being friends and interacting with others.  She loves to sing.  Her favorite song right now is “I’m getting nothin’ for Christmas.” We are getting a little tired of hearing it.  She is also obsessed with princesses.  She was a very pretty princess for Halloween. 

           

Aidan is almost 17  months .  He is a happy baby.  He is always full of smiles and mischief. At school he is one of the favorites. All the high school girls liked to hold him. He went 14 months without getting teeth and then got six all at once. That  did make him a little cranky, but he seems to be doing better now.  One of his favorite activities is to open and close things, especially cupboards.  He also loves his blankets (there are five of them.) He is always carrying one or more of them around.  He doesn’t always have to be holding it, but it must be on floor in close proximity.  He also loves to be outside.  I have never seen a child before who got so excited about shoes and socks.

           

Our first big surprise of the year was Allen’s opportunity to go to Africa with his uncle.  He was gone for two and a half week during July.  The rest of us kept occupied with camping trips and family reunions, but we missed him a lot.  He spent most of the time in Tanzania and Kenya.  At the end of the trip they flew down to see Victoria Falls as well.  He was his uncle’s photographer.  He “had to” get a new camera before he went and then rented a fancy high zoom lens (you don’t want to get too close to those lions after all.)  He took about 16,000 photographs.  You can see some of his favorites at www.flickr.com/photos/alyntopia/. 

I also have a flickr page, www.flickr.com/photos/wravenlockw/, my pictures are generally not as impressive as Allen’s.   The other thing I got into this year was blogging.  There were two blogs I started reading, which inspired me to start my own blog.  I have really enjoyed writing it;  although  I have not publicized it very much. You can read my posts about some of the other things we have done this year at: adventures-gretchen.blogspot.com. 

The other thing that has kept us busy this year is finishing our basement.  Allen started it in the summer, but he just didn’t have time to really work on it.  We ended up hiring help.  They have completed all the work but the painting, which Allen and I did.   It has taken longer than I expected, even with professionals. Right now Aidan is sharing a room with the computers.  It makes it hard because the best time to work on things is when he is sleeping and you can’t because the computer is in the room with him.  I am hoping that once the computers are downstairs, I will be able to do more with my blog, scrapbooking, and dealing with our family pictures.  I also am very excited about my new tub we installed in the basement.  I can’t use it though because it doesn’t have a surround.  All we have left to finish is the tub surround and floor in the bathroom.  That,  however, is on hold, because something else came up.

Allen’s sister told us in October that she was engaged.  That normally wouldn’t have been a big impact on our basement, but she picked the Laie Hawaii temple.  We had six weeks from when she got engaged until the wedding.  To complicate things the trip would be over Thanksgiving and my birthday.   It ended up being pretty good, although there were a few problems.  Aidan ended up being sick the day before we left, and then I was sick on the plane there.  It is never a good sign when you are nauseous before you get on the plane. The first day there was the wedding.  It was very nice.  The temple workers were amazed that we all came so far for the wedding.   We also got to spend a little bit of time at the beach.  The second day we went to Pearl Harbor and the Polynesian Cultural Center.   The third day there was snorkeling, shopping, the Dole Pineapple Plantation, some more beach, and fish for Thanksgiving dinner.  The waiter also sang me happy birthday. I got a piece of coconut cake.  It was very tasty.  We flew home that night at midnight.   It was fun, but short.  Mostly it helped us know what we want to do next time we go. 

We welcomed December with a huge windstorm.  We did have some damage.  One of our windows was broken by a flying shingle, the roof was not as well covered as it had been, and the plum tree in front of our house was gone.  We were saddened by the loss of the plum tree.  There were originally two, but we lost one in an April snow storm.  It was half dead and kind of ugly, so we didn’t mind too much.  The other was bigger and had a nicer shape.  Our house now looks naked without them out front.  I almost stayed home that day because I was so traumatized just driving up to the high school.  I got hit by a large tree limb and almost by a garbage can.  I was assured that school was on, so I braved the winds rushing through Centerville.  It was terrifying to drive down the road feeling your car sway in the wind and see semi after semi tipped on its side.  In Bountiful it was much calmer.  By the time I got to school the power was already out.  At the end of the first hour we were informed that we weren’t getting power back and we started sending students home.  Emergency evacuations are a huge mess.  I spent the morning as a runner going to get students out of their classes when their parents came.  By the time it calmed down at 11:00, I had over 6,000 steps for the day.  At that point I found out the daycare was closed and left to go pick the kids up.  Unfortunately I had left my lights on and my car was dead.  I had to have another teacher jump my car.  It was one of the most exciting days I’ve had in a while. 

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Christmas Season.

Love the Widdison Family

Birthday and Christmas Wish List

I know that my birthday is already over, but some people may want to get me a gift.  Especially since I have only gotten one gift so far (I actually did get some money as well) if you don't count the trip and anything I might have bought myself. 

The last few years I have had a hard time thinking of things that I wanted.  This year we have no money because of spending it on the basement and an unexpected trip to Hawaii, but I actually have things that I want this year. So here it is.

Mulan Princess Doll  

Someone would like me to play princesses with her.  I thought it would be fun if I had my own doll to play with.  There is a good chance my princess will be getting this one for me.








   

 Lego Cabin

I have always wanted to have a cabin.  Possibly in Island Park or Bear Lake or somewhere else fun. I recently found a cabin that is supper cute and affordable. (Well, as affordable as any Lego set.)






 
 Pop Goes the World by Men Without Hats


I remembered this album recently.  I haven't listened to it in a long time, and I don't know what happened to the cassette.  Maybe Eric has it since it was actually his.  I remember going to several stores at the Montgomery Mall to help Michelle find the tape she gave Eric for either his birthday or Christmas.  I thought it would be fun to have on CD. I played the samples for Thomas.  He wasn't all that impressed, but I don't care.







Salad Spinner

We have been trying to eat a little more healthy lately.  I have made several salads lately.  I think that it would be nice to have a salad spinner.  I don't really care what brand it is, as long as it works.  I haven't really looked to see what kinds of options they have.






Bed Quilt

 I mentioned to my mom a while ago that a new quilt for our bed would helpful since the one we have now is not queen sized and it is getting thread bare on the seams.  I told my mom early so she could do it ahead of time, but I also told her not to make it if it was stressful.  You may need to check with her on this item. This would be a quilt and not a bed spread.




 Carpet and Surround

 The last thing is the most expensive.  This one is really just to let you know that if you weren't excited about the items above, I will accept cash, and have something to spend it on.  As most people know we have been trying to finish our basement so that the baby doesn't have to share a room with the computers anymore. We have mostly run out of money that can be spent on this project; however, we still need carpet.  I was able to purchase my awsome new tub, but sadly I can't use it because it doesn't have a surround.  The one we looked at originaly is way too expensive.  We are going to get a bid on title.  I would love to have a bath in my new tub.  I was hoping to do it for my birthday, but now I'm thinking Christmas would be nice. I don't want to have to wait until Mother's Day.








There are also a few CD's Thomas wants.  Please notes that these are soundtracks and not movies:

Speaking of movies, there may be some that we want, we don't know what they are.  Possibly X-men first class.  I saw it, but Thomas didn't.  We do however own the good movies in that series.  Most of the others that have come out recently  we never saw and so don't know that we want to own them.  So, if there is something you think that we would really enjoy...

Happy Shopping and have a wonderful Holiday. 

The rest of you let me know what you want.

Halloween

I don't know why it takes so long to get things done.  I was going to post this a long time ago, but we have just been too busy. Now the details are all a little bit hazy.  October went by so fast.  I don't know where the month went.

On the 22nd my Mom had a party for the grandkids.They got to pick out a pumpkin and paint it.  Isabelle loved it; although, her painting skills are still mostly in the blobs of color phase.  She is starting to make actual pictures with her crayons though.  A big step forward in the life of a young artist.  We also played some games and got lots of candy.  I mentioned before that I actually sewed Isabelle's costume, so there was a fair amount of time spent doing that the last bit of the month.  I ran out of time to get things finished up, and my mom ended up hemming it for me.  I thought that it turned out very nice.  Isabelle wore it to school on the 28th for trick-or-treating in the office and counseling center.  In the afternoon, the kids who don't take naps also got to go to the seminary building for more candy.

Saturday we headed up to Thomas' grandma's house for his family party.  It is usually just pumpkin carving and food.  I had picked Thomas out a really nice large pumpkin from my mom's patch.  I didn't know it, but they had a bunch of heirloom pumpkins planted back there too.  His pumpkin was either one of those, or it got crossed with a gourd.  It had a woody layer before the regular squash layer. It took him a long time to get anything done.  He ended up bringing it home and cutting the patter in with his drummel and then cutting it with the regular pumpkin tools. He made a lion in honor of Africa.  It turned out really nice.

Monday I had to go to work, but the kids didn't have daycare because it was the end of term teacher work day.  They hung out at my sister's house.  I got home about 3 or 4 and made dinner. By about 5:30 it started getting dark and a few kids were out and about.  Isabelle was a princess. We borrowed a couple of poofy skirts from her grandma to act as slips and fluff the skirt of her dress out a little bit.  I didn't have time to make a second costume, so Tristan had the choice of a tiger or a cow.  The tiger was a 6 month costume.  We got it on him, but it was a little bit tight.  The cow was a little bit big.  When I made it three years ago for his sister I made the tail so that it was just barely not dragging on the ground.  His tail was dragging quite a bit.  We had a hard time getting him to keep the hood on, and he managed to pull off one of the ears.  They went out with their dad, while I stayed home to hand out candy.  They came back with a pretty good load.The princess needed a potty break, and the cow was getting cranky.  I went out with the princess to traverse the top half of the neighborhood.  She was so excited about running from door to door and collecting more candy.  She ended up with way more candy than she needed.  We didn't do too much restricting, and it was gone within a week.  She keeps asking when it will be Halloween again.  Not for a while I tell her.


Apparently only half of the camera download worked.  I will add more pictures soon.  Right now little boy needs to go to bed, so I must sign off the computer.  

Welcome November

We have apparently entered that time of year known as the holidays.  It is a time characterized by its super busyness.  I have several posts planned, which I have not had time to actually do yet.  Remember several months ago when I mentioned that we were working on our basement?  Well it's making progress, and I have a few pictures to prove it.  I have tried to do some yard work that needed to be done before it got cold, and I have mostly succeeded.   I still owe my mom some weeding for help on a certain princess dress which needed to be done in time for a recent holiday.  There are also pictures of that.  Last week was also the end of the term, which meant lots and lots of grading. My 8th graders turned in essays right before the end of the term, so I spent my fall break reading papers and sewing.  My toddler is also getting to be a handful.  He suddenly seems taller and is getting into things I don't think he should be able to reach, my alarm clock for example.  Today he was playing with my keys while we loading everything after school.  I had set him on the sidewalk next to the car.  He walked over to the car and tied to stick my car key in the key hole on the door.  Where did he get so smart?  Then while we were getting ready for bed, he tried to turn on his sister's lamp.  He thought he was such cool stuff.  I am hoping that things settle down a bit, but I am sure that they won't.  There is the basement to paint, a wedding to prepare for (which happens to be out of state), NAL practices start next week and I am still recruiting ( I have just over half the students I need for a full team), and of course as mentioned... the holiday are upon us.   I hope that everyone's lives aren't quite so hectic, and if they are.. well have fun.  Does it really matter if the laundry get done and the kitchen gets cleaned? Because it might be February before my life settles down again.

Playing in the Dirt

Sometimes I drive my husband crazy.  He likes to think about things and plan them out.  I just decide something needs to be done and go at it.  The front flower bed, full of Irises, has been bugging me for a while. It hadn't been divided in several years, it mounded up instead of being level with the rest of the yard, and it had almost as much grass in it as flowers. 

 One Saturday (which was close to when I started writing this, but is now further in the past) I decided it was the day to fix the flower bed.  I got up, put on some work clothes, made sure the kids had shoes (a fairly new experience for Tristan) and started digging.  Actually that isn't true.  I first watched a video on you-tube about dividing irises.  Basically, you dig them up, break them apart, and replant them.  It sounded pretty easy.  The first problem I encountered was that my dirt was rock hard.  I watered it a little and the digging went better.  I dug until my wheel-barrow was full. 
 

 

 I them proceeded to the breaking apart stage.  Once an iris rhizome has produced a flower it won't bloom again.  Instead it grows a new rhizome.  You end up with a network of dead rhizomes tangled with good ones.  Most of them break apart pretty easily.  Some of them were too tangled up to deal with very easily.  I ended up with a flat of good rhizomes. I went back to digging and filled my wheel barrow again.  At this point I had enough cleaned and trimmed rhizomes to replant my bed, and a wheel-barrow full of ones I was too tired to deal with, and my back hurt.  I still had about a quarter of the bed to dig, but I was just too dang tired. I went in the house and moved on to other projects.  After a while I headed back out and cleaned and trimmed some more.  I got a set flat of rhizomes.  I put the two flats in the garage, and moved the wheel barrow over to the side of the house, where it is in the shade most of the day. 

 It was over a week later before I got back to the project.  The other floor beds in the front had brick boarders that I had put in.  This bed had only about four bricks before I ran out.  I also was having a hard time because of the bed not being level.  I think that it was a Monday, I left work early and stopped at Lowe's.  I got the bricks I need to fix the bed, as well as the part to fix the kitchen sink that had broken on Sunday while my parents were over for dinner.  I got home, made sure the kids had shoes (a fairly new experience for Tristan) and went out to finish the bed.  That last clump of irises was particularly stubborn, but I finally got it out.  I sifted through the dirt a little bit, and removed a whole bunch to level it off..  I dug a trench and placed the bricks.  Finally the bed was ready.  All I had left to do was replant the irises. 





 I replanted about a third of what I took out.  I still had a wheel-barrow full I was not interested in dealing with (if anybody wants some let me know.)  I took those out the back and placed the clumps in the dirt near the garden.  I will deal with them later.  I think that my bed looks very neat.  I am glad it is no longer the mess it was, and I got it done before it started raining for several days straight. 











Some of you may have been wondering what my husband was doing while I tackled this little project.  On the Saturday  that we worked on it, he was doing other yard work like trimming shrubs, and cleaning up other flower beds.  On the Monday, when he got home from work, I asked him to plant some bulbs I had bought.  Isabelle was very excited to help with those.  Daddy dug the holes and she put the bulbs in.  In between holes she danced through the yard.  As you can see from the pictures, both children love to help!

Good-Bye Summer

I thought that today was the fall equinox. It turns out that it isn't until Friday the 23rd.  I guess that means that I get two more days of summer!  It wasn't a supper exciting summer, and we didn't get to do a lot (unless you counting Thomas' trip to Africa in that we.)  However, we still managed to have some fun just hanging around at home.  I thought as we say good by those warm laid back days I would share some of the random pictures I had of summer fun. 

 First off we have the day we picked apricots (yummy! Isabelle keeps asking when there will be more on the tree.)  The tree has gotten a little bit big and unmanageable.  I decided to try out an idea I had last year.  What if we held a sheet under the tree while some shook the tree.  That would work great wouldn't it...

 Well, it kind of worked.  We got some of the fruit we wouldn't have otherwise been able to get.  Us sheet holders, however, did sustain a few injuries from being pelted by falling fruit.

We also enjoyed piggybacks,

bubbles,

 and Popsicles.

Sometimes we just sat around playing video games and having snacks.  

                       

        

 Occasionally, we even dressed up.

Even though there are lots of things to look forward to in the fall, I will still miss the summer.  We wait for it all year, and then it is gone so quickly.  It is amazing how time flies.  Before you know it, Christmas will be here, then Valentines, and Easter with the return of  flowers and insects.  Then yes, once again, summer will be here.

Mountian Man Rendezvous

 Every year over Labor Day weekend Fort Bridger in Wyoming has a mountain man rendezvous. Probably close to 20 years ago one of my uncle's started going with his family, and then another one of my uncle's and his family started going.  They invited my family to go, and we have been going ever since. My uncle's both have the equipment to camp in the park.  When you camp inside the park, everything that can be seen in your camp has to look authentic to 1840.  Most people camp in tepees or wall tents like the army used.  All of the gear is either wood or cast iron.  It can be a lot of fun.  Because we weren't sure how much we would like going, we opted to camp outside of the park in our "tin tepee."  In other words we camped in our trailer.  The first year we went was in 2002.  I went for the next three or four years, but then I was married and my husbands family had things going on that weekend.  We haven't been for a few years, although others in my family have gone most years.  I really wanted to go this year, but again there were conflicts.  My husband's uncle who he went to Africa was going to visit for the weekend, and he wanted Thomas to do a sideshow presentation of their trip for his wife's parents who were visiting.  Once again, it looked like we wouldn't be going.  Then I found out that my cousin was going to bless her baby at the church service that they have there, and I really wanted to go to that. After a lot of debate, I decided that I would just drive up for the day with the kids, and Thomas could stay home to be with his family.  I made my daughter an indian ribbon dress the week before, which she didn't like very much because I stopped working on her princess dress for Halloween in order to make it.  That morning I got up at 5:00 and drove to Fort Bridger, which is  20-30 minutes east of Evanston. I got the kids out of bed and put them straight into the car.  I thought they would go back to sleep and stay that way for most of the drive. Neither of them did, and I got to listen to them talk and jabber the whole way, which was very cute, but made for some crankiness later in the day.   We arrived just after the church service had started, but I quickly found my family and slipped in.  I really like going to church there because it is held outside there at the fort.  You really get a feel for what the early services would have been like for the pioneers when they didn't have buildings and had to have church outside.  It is always a testimony meeting, and you get some really good testimonies, and some really odd things.  I was glad that I got to be there for the baby blessing.

After the meeting was over, We found out that my aunt had injured her foot on the way to church.  Someone they knew went and got the emergency support people to bring in a cart hooked to a four wheeler to take her out to her car.   The law enforcement also stopped over.  The kids were fascinated with the sheriff's horses.  We of course had to tease her about trying to steal the spotlight on her first grandson's big day.  She had osteoporosis, so we were pretty sure that something was broken.  Instead of helping get ready for the family dinner, she and her son were headed to the emergency room in Evanston.  She said that this was the second time she had to go to the emergency room in period clothes.  The first time was for one of her son, and then this time for her.  She says that it is rather embarrassing.  I hope I never have to find out.  When they returned we discovered that she had broken her heel, which my brother in law says is really hard to break.  Besides the fact that it was really hot, we had a very nice meal and enjoyed visiting with everyone.   One of the reasons I like going to this is to spend time with my family, who I don't get to see as much  as I would like, especially my extended family.  I was planning on going through some of the shops on trader row, but we ended up just hanging around camp.  The kids had a lot of fun hanging out with their cousins and playing in the dirt.  Actually it isn't that dirty, it is pretty grassy.  I had forgotten Tristan's shoes, and he didn't mind walking bare foot at all.





 Tristan really liked sitting in his grandpa's chair.  He looked really cute until I got out the camera, of course, and then he threw a fit.

Playing with tools is one of Tristan's new favorite hobbies.   Isabel and her cousin are playing in the  briquettes that got left out.

This is the best picture of the family we got.  Tristan fell asleep in the stroller shortly before dinner when everyone else was doing pictures.  He slept on the way over to my uncle's camp and all the way through dinner. It was nice to only have one cranky child to deal with during dinner.

  As I mentioned, I made Isabelle's dress the week before we went up. However, I didn't quite get it done.  The bottom of the dress only has one of the three strips of ribbon it is supposed to have.  It also isn't hemmed.  The facing on the neck I did at about 10:00 Saturday night.  I wasn't sure exactly how to do it.  Apparently I was supposed to do some stitching on the facing that helps keep the facing in place.  Because I hadn't done that it kept coming out.  I purposely made the dress big, so she could wear it a couple of years.  I think however it ended up a little bit bigger than I was planning on, especially the neck.  Oh well.  She looked cute and she had fun.  Maybe next year I will make her a pioneer dress to match her cousin.

We had a lot of fun visiting, and we let it get too late.  It was almost 8:00 by the time we finally got ready and left.  It was dark before we even made it to Evanston, but at least the kids slept almost the whole way home.  They'd  had a very busy day, and had enjoyed their first Mountain Man Experience.  Just now Isabelle asked me if we can go to Bridger again.  I told that yes, we could go again, but not until next year.