The best of the rest ...

I want to show you an assortment of pictures from the last full day we were all together ~ Wednesday, December 30. Emily and Jeremiah spent a lot of the day with us because they knew it would be quite awhile before we would get to see them again. We really enjoyed their visit.



Our youngest grandson was the center of attention for most of us ... he is just so beautiful.
I was glad to see Olivia really enthused about reading her novel, "The Southern Storm." It's in a whole series of books she has been reading. She could hardly put it down! I've always said that reading was one of the greatest joys in life.

We took SO many photos of this beautiful boy ...
Olivia adored him too!


Jeremiah has a very easy-going personality. He is quick to laugh and he really loves to socialize. We just loved spending time with him.

An afternoon Winter walk with Olivia: While the little kids were napping, I grabbed Olivia for a nice walk ... in our amazing winter wonderland. I took her to my favorite place within walking distance!

Our destination was Mr. Lyle's place. I wanted to introduce Olivia to Dusty and Tuffy and let her feed them some carrots. Olivia loves horses as much as I do!
I love these pictures of Olivia ... isn't she a beautiful girl?


We fed an entire bag of carrots to Dusty. Poor Tuffy must not have felt well, because he stayed his distance ... perhaps he sensed how sick I had been and didn't want to be anywhere near me!

Later in the evening, all of us were treated to dinner over at Red Lobster ~ my very favorite restaurant. Emily and Jeremiah joined us too! I didn't take many pictures at the restaurant that turned out very well.
While we were waiting for our food to arrive, I took a little walk with Jackson and Karis to the front of the restaurant to look at the tank of lobsters. One of the waiters took one out and let us touch it. Jackson very very lightly touched its tail ... but Karis would not have anything to do with touching a lobster!
After we got home and tucked the little kiddos into bed, us big folk watched one of my favorite films. If you have never seen this adaptation of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, you should! It is an amazing, sobering, challenging, convicting piece of historical fiction ... I loved sharing this story with our family!
Sabrina had packed most of everything up before bedtime the night before, so when morning came, we enjoyed breakfast together and then loaded up their van ...



... and watched them drive away ... leaving us with lots of nice memories of their Christmas visit. Olivia left us a "thank-you" message in the snow out front that Grandpa Jones tried to photograph, but didn't have the right angle. But the letter Olivia left me on my computer desk was beautifully written and is something I will always regard as a very special treasure.

The fun stuff we did last Tuesday ...

Grandma Jones actually woke up rested, refreshed and ready to play last Tuesday morning. Naturally, I had a few kiddos who thought playing was a good idea!
We got out our wooden block sets and built roads and garages and all kinds of stuff for our little cars and trucks down in the basement playroom. It was SO nice to finally not be sick!
Children have such amazing imaginations. It was so fun to just play and play with all of the nice toys we have accumulated down through the years.
After naptime, a few of the brave and daring (all 3 of them) enjoyed about 40 minutes in the hottub ... Karis swims like a little fish! Jackson stayed inside and played LEGOs right by the door where he could watch the action outside.
And a little bit later on, Jackson was my "kitchen assistant" and helped me make a very nice Chef's Salad for the family dinner hour. I think this was my favorite time with Jackson because it was just the two of us talking and interacting. Jackson is a very nice little grandson and was very helpful in making our dinner!
We dumped out a pile of foam stickers on the dining room table and went to town making great pictures that afternoon.
This is a great way to pass an enjoyable hour with children of most any age. The best part is just chatting with everyone around the table.
Grandpa Jones picked out an old fashioned ice cream maker for Christmas this year, the kind with the crank and the barrel tub. Everyone got in on the action and made the MOST delicious ice cream ~ rich with almond flavoring, soft and creamy ~ YUM!

And after we ate up all of our ice cream, we got ready for bed and watched the first half of "Up", one of the best animated films I have ever seen! So we really had a nice day Tuesday ... glad I could share it with you!

The little kids run trains at Thom's ...

Monday, December 28, 2009:
Almost every Monday night, Grandpa Jones spends his evening "working on the railroad" over at his friend Thom's house. But this past Monday, Thom gave all of us a special invitation to come and "run trains." Since I was still too sick (yuck), I stayed home. In fact, just the little kiddos + Sabrina and Grandpa Jones went over to have fun with the trains.
I wanted to show you these pictures because they are so nice of Grandpa Jones and everyone. Since I wasn't there, I can't give you much of a narrative.
See Karis holding the remote control? She is now big enough to "operate" a train. Grandpa Jones said her remote was controlling the sound effects of her train too.
Jackson looks obviously thrilled to be there, SURROUNDED BY TRAINS ... look at his happy little face!
Sabrina has known our friend Thom since she was a wee tiny girl herself!
Since the kiddos are still too short to see all of the cool stuff in the layout, they have to be lifted up to get a better view. It looks like Jackson is really enjoying being in control of this model train.

Sabrina said that after they had played trains for awhile, everyone went upstairs to visit with Barb (Thom's wife) and their two beautiful little dogs. They didn't return home until nearly 10 o'clock!
Olivia and I enjoyed a quiet evening, wrapped in warm blankets in our cozy jammies, watching Olivia's copy of PHANTOM of the Opera (which I had never seen). Since she is 14, sometimes Olivia just needs an evening that is separate from what the youngsters are doing ~ and this was a really wonderful time together with her for me!

Some snapshots from the 27th ...

Last Sunday was hodge-podge kind of a day. We enjoyed a great time of worship together at church in the morning. Isn't this a great picture of sleepy Jeremiah and his Aunt Sabrina?!
And I absolutely love this one of Emily! Emily and baby Jeremiah came over early afternoon to hang out with us. Adam had to return to Minneapolis so that he could go back to work, but Emily and Jeremiah stayed here in Grand Rapids for a few extra days ...
I tried to get a nice picture of the little kiddos still all dressed up in their "Christmas best", but I didn't have opportunity to do so BEFORE church ... so this is AFTER church and BEFORE our pizza arrived ... with facial expressions to match!
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Later on in the afternoon, I slipped away because I was invited over to Shane's place to have a small Christmas celebration. Kelly and Dylan were there too ... I got a great cookbook from them called "The New Moosewood Cookbook" full of amazing soup, salad, sauce, rice, vegetarian types of recipes ... I can't wait to try them out!
I love this beautiful picture of our Kelly O'Brien and Dylan ...

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Since Nana and Roy had been pretty much "homebound" because of the slippery weather, they were unable to come across town to our house ... even on Roy's 89th birthday! They only live about 10 minutes from Shane's place, so I took a few presents and a completely pathetic b'day cake over to them!
Grandpa Jones and I got Roy one of those upside-down tomato growers that you've seen on TV. Roy is famous for his tomatoes! We thought he'd enjoy this crazy tomato contraption, just for fun!

Sunday was Roy's 89th birthday. He doesn't at all act his age! He doesn't look like he is practically 90, does he? He is even nicer than he looks ... and I think he LOOKS extremely handsome! Not everyone gets to live this many years in such great health. On his birthday card this year, I used this verse: "When people live to be very old, let them rejoice with EVERY DAY OF LIFE." Ecclesiastes 11.8

Turkey noodle soup ...

I spent a few days with my Aunt Jan in Detroit prior to flying out to El Paso earlier in December. While I was with her, she made the yummiest turkey noodle soup. I watched her make it, took some mental notes while with her and then promptly forgot exactly WHAT she did WHEN ... but I wanted to duplicate that delicious smell and great soup for our family last week ... so I googled "turkey noodle soup" on the internet, printed out the best looking recipe, and made some!

The Monday prior to Christmas, I was out doing some last-minute Christmas shopping. I had a few books "on hold" over at Eerdman's Publishing Company/Bookstore and went over to pick them up. I love this bookstore. They have a wonderful children's section, as well as an entire wall of "slightly irregular" books for 70-80% off! I couldn't resist looking through that sale section, so the few titles I had called ahead to have put on hold kind of grew ...

One of my favorites that I picked out that day was "Grandpa's Soup," wonderfully written by Eiko Kadono and beautifully illustrated by Satomi Ichikawa. It was originally published in 1997 in Japan, but Eerdman's picked it up and published it here in 1999.
Rather than to try and summarize the story for you myself, here is what the Horn Book Guide had to say about it: "Unhappy after Grandma's death, Grandpa finally decides to re-create the soup she used to cook. With each try, he remembers another ingredient, and every day he shares his soup with an increasing number of guests -- from mice to children ..."

Saturday, December 26, 2009:
Since we had so much leftover turkey from our Christmas Eve meal, and we had so many future lunches to prepare, and I had tasted my Aunt Jan's delicious soup and had a good recipe from the internet, I decided to make some tasty turkey noodle soup. And why not read this beautiful book to Jackson and Karis while I was preparing it?
I will tell you, Jackson and Karis were less than enthused about the prospect of turkey noodle soup! But no matter, I certainly wasn't going to force them to eat it ... and there were plenty of other folk coming and going around the Jones Junction that perhaps (!) WOULD like a hot bowl of soup for lunch ... so I was undeterred!
I didn't have time to take many pictures of this whole process. I KNOW Karis and Jackson's little faces don't look very happy in these pictures ~ but actually, they DID enjoy the story very much!
And I absolutely LOVED reading it to them as I made the soup!
This huge pot-full of soup was enjoyed (by at least some of us) for a few lunches. It made our whole house smell yummy and delightful. I'm glad I made it! :) Here is the recipe I used:

COUNTRY TURKEY NOODLE SOUP (printed from COOKS.COM)
3 (14-1/2 oz) cans Swanson clear ready-t0-serve chicken broth
(I used some leftover turkey broth + 1 can of Swanson's)
1/4 C chopped celery
1/4 C chopped carrot
1 Tbsp minced onion
1 Tbsp minced parsley
1/8 tsp poultry seasoning
1/8 tsp thyme leaves
2 C diced cooked turkey
1 C cooked medium noodles

In a 3-quart saucepan over medium heat, combine all ingredients EXCEPT turkey and noodles. Cover; heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low. Cook 20 minutes until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally. (Actually, you can cook these vegetables much longer and just let them kind of stew on LOW). Cook noodles according to package and then add the cooked noodles and turkey, making sure the turkey is heated through before serving.

Grandpa Jones thinks this recipe would have been better with less turkey broth, because of the fat content. He says perhaps equal parts water and turkey broth would have worked better. Perhaps he is right!

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It is now New Year's Day 2010. I am very behind in posting pictures from the last week. I plan to work on them during the next few days and kind of post a day at a time. Grandpa Jones is sicker than a dog. Both of us were way too exhausted to go the New Year's Eve party we were invited to last night ... we stayed at home like a couple of lumps and did absolutely NOTHING. It was actually kind of wonderful!

It's difficult to believe Christmas has come and gone. It feels like kind of a BLURR. Lots of stuff happened. We made many many nice memories with our family which I will share in the days ahead. But I would be lying if I didn't tell you there were some "bumps" along the way. I've decided to sit down in the next day or two at my computer and write down the activities and plans that worked well and the ones that did not ... as well as all of the meals and holiday goodies that were made ... how could things be made simpler next year? Two of our Texas families weren't even "home" this year ... what would happen if EVERYONE was able to come home for the holidays all at once? How could we possibly accommodate that many folk eating that many meals at our house? So I'm going to try and figure that out while everything is fresh on my mind.

In the meantime, I hope your New Year is the best one ever ...