Hello? Anyone there? Someone?

Well, for my own viewing pleasure, here's a quick flash back at the Holiday season.......

The season began appropriately enough with the church Christmas program. Sam had one of the major roles and he pulled it off quite well.

Christmas Day is spent at my brother's.
I think it's the first time in forever that my entire side of the family is in one picture.

Remember the days when you were so excited about the presents you received? It's kind of fun to watch the transformation as the kids become excited about what the OTHERS are receiving rather than themselves.



Besides giving gifts, the best part was just hanging out......

Sophie is always right there in the kitchen trying to soak up as much Martha -ness as she can from her big sister. I don't possess the Martha-gene. I don't even know what the tool that A2 is using is called. I'm sure Sophie does though.

Christmas tradition requires that at Auntie Tricia's we play charades.

It's really kind of cool to look back over the years and to see how much the kids have matured though the year (do you think that's fair to base maturity on their charading abilities? I think it's actually a pretty good indication. Maybe I'll expand on that in a future blog post).

New Year's we spent at Pokagen State Park enjoying the final celebration.

I remember the days when this toboggan run would have been the cat's meow. Now, I'm just glad the kids are old enough to go down without me.

This is much much bigger than the picture shows....trust me!

A4 was shocked to see how much her baby brother had grown since last we met.

Sam is now officially taller than all of his sisters.

It seems like just yesterday we were at Hilton Head for the wedding.......
It was great spending time with them over the New Year.


Sophie was able to express her true inner nature.

This is the real Sophie. (above)

I think this is pretend. (below)

Happy New Year Everyone!

Treasures

You know what the secret is to finding "Treasures in the Attic" don't you?

Send your neighbor on the treasure hunt. . What you overlook or think isn't too exciting, they may discover and see as a worthy treasure.

Take this trunk. I don't know where it started life, but I know that my father rescued it from a barn and it belonged to his father or grandfather. He acquired it in the 70's, painted it, then my mom sent it to the basement where it was living underneath the stairs covered up with all kinds of stuff until my neighbor discovered it. My neighbor (I can't remember why she was even down there).... saw it and insisted I bring it upstairs.

It really doesn't look too bad in the living room. And it's a great place to store the pet "stuff".

Know what it used to store? Long forgotten prom dresses, party dresses, and ballroom dancing dresses. I remember seeing these dresses when I was very young, but I just assumed that they had long since disappeared.

This was my mom's prom dress in 1947.

She said she was mortified when she got to the prom and discovered that everyone else was wearing the same dress. Apparently it was THE DRESS to wear that year.

This was a ballroom gown that she wore in the late 50's I believe. The gardening aunt has a picture of Grandma in this dress....maybe she'll read this post, dig up the picture, scan it, and insert it into the post (hint, hint, hint).

(Who says Carol can't take a hint?)
The dress used to be completely green, but the satin has faded to gold with time. I guess it's allowed since it's pushing 60 years old.

Here's the best dress.

My grandmother made this dress for my mom for a dance her first (and only) year at IU.

I think that was in 1949 maybe?

It's a great dress for dancing....





And spinning....









And the best part of this dress is that I remember when we were little either our Grandmother or our Mom (I don't know which one) made a matching dress for a barbie doll. That's buried in another box in the basement somewhere.....

What's buried in your basement?

Someone Needs a Dog Trainer

HEY YOU!

What do you think you're doing?

Who ME?

The LIttle Christmas Bell

I love the holidays. For Thanksgiving we always go to the Oldest Sister's house.

Why?

These noodles, of course!

Her youngest daughter is the absolute bestest noodle maker I know. (The funny thing about our family is that the best cooks seem to be the next generation, rather than our generation.) I'm very thankful for these noodles. They are part of our Thanksgiving tradition and it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without Becca's noodles.

Another Thanksgiving tradition is to race home and put up the Christmas tree.

The best Christmas memory ever? This little ornament....

When we were little, my brothers and sisters and I whiled away many hours of Christmas anticipation by playing "Hide-the-Bell". One person would hide the little bell and then the others would try and find it.

5 or 6 years ago at Christmas time, my mom told each us to pick our favorite ornament and take it home with us. I chose the bell, and my gardening sister has never gotten over it. (Only because she didn't think of it first!).

For years, she has threatened to steal the bell. My own children worry and stew about this each year. For two years, the bell remained hidden, but this year I convinced the kids that we should display the bell. After all, how much fun is it to have the bell if you hide it away?

So, this year, we put the bell out and displayed it in a special place, guessing that the gardening aunt would be looking for it in the tree.

Just imagine our dismay when we came home from church this morning to find this note in place of the bell. Our greatest fears had been realized! It was GONE! The Gardening Aunt had finally done it! She had STOLEN the Christmas Bell!

No. Not really..... Just the humor of the gardening aunt at play.

Dear Sophie and the others

(how did she guess that it is Sophie who covets and worries over the bell the most?)

It's me, the little Christmas Bell.

I'm not where I was before.

I've moved!

Can you find me?

Here are 3 clues:

Bells don't grow on trees.

Bells have guardian angels.

Bells don't travel long distances.

I hope you find me before Christmas!

The Little Bell.

We did find the Little Bell....

and another tradition continues to the next generation.

Why Don't They Stay Little?

Yeah! I found the camera battery charger (under a basket that I keep receipts in), and the phone (in the couch), and a flashlight (while looking for the phone), and the remote (in a different couch...along with a remote that doesn't even belong to us). Now, it's back to tormenting the dogs...



You know, when we got Victoria, she was so small, so cute, so shy. I love her one blue eye, one brown eye. And the vet was so sure she wouldn't be any larger than 20 pounds...or so.....

And baby Sadie...isn't she sweet?

She puts up with so much......

Victoria and Sadie are BEST FRIENDS. BFF's forever.

Don't all BFF's act this way? Neck-to-neck, tooth-to-tooth?















So..I can't believe this tiny puppy grew up to be this big dog...

Notice the table in the background. Yes, she is really that tall. Same puppy that Sophie used to tuck down into her sweater to keep her all warm and cozy. Now she can stand up and put her paws on Sophie's shoulders. I guess she didn't get the 20 pound memo.

And this sweet baby? Sophie can't pick her up anymore. Notice the stool in the background. She is about the same size as Victoria. Trouble is, she's only 3 months old and is still maintaining her same growth rate of a pound a day.

Good thing she's a slug.

All is well at the zoo.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Where oh Where

Would someone please tell me where our channel changer, telephone, and most importantly my camera battery charger are?

Have they been borrowed by bowerers? Or maybe carried off by a member of the zoo? Or maybe they just evaporated into thin air?

The two most likely places for electronic doo-dads to disappear to would be the black hole of the boys' bedroom. But alas, we went through every tub, every container, every blanket, every piece of clothing lying every place and came up empty-handed.

The second most logical place would be the playroom/tv room/book room/hang-out room. I did sweep a large pile of debris from behind the couch, but alas, not anything I was looking for.

After 6 hours of searching....nothing. NOTHING!

I can't download pictures because my camera battery is dead, or I'd download a picture of me with a big ole' frown on my face. Instead I think I'll go look for chocolate....

Sighh....... Sympathy anyone?

Auntie's Artic Adventure, a very Martha Experience

What happens when three Martha Stewarts get together?

You get an Artic Adventure* complete with princesses...

And knights in shining armor to protect them.


Every kingdom needs a black knight so the good knight will have someone to defeat, right?

Here is the Matriarchal Martha with a Martha-in-training.

And every kingdom must have a baby Knight in training.

(Don't chew on the sword, please)

"I'll protect you!" says the brave Daniel.



The princesses must stand together and unite against the evil knight that threatens them!


Doesn't she make a beautiful princess?
Check out that tiara!
(The real Martha Stewart would approve, don't you think?)





Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most Marthiest of all?

Is it the one who creates the songbooks for the campfire sing-a-long?

Or the one who is in charge of the castle-cake-decorating-activity?

This two year old definitely has "the gene". Look how serious he is about his cake decorating!

Is the most Martha the one who applies princess tattoos to the little princesses?

I think these are some tired little girls.

Being a Princess is a lot of hard work!

Certainly, a very successful Artic Adventure!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

*Auntie's Arctic Adventure: Each fall Prince Charming's sister invites the entire family to her home for a theme party. There are games, crafts, activities, and of course singing around the camp fire, smores, and talk of sleeping outdoors in tents (which, in the 8 years of this tradition, has never happened, but each year we like to pretend that THIS year is the year we will be brave and sleep outdoors by the fire underneath a starry sky.)

It was a wonderful Arctic adventure!

Thanks Marthas for making it a wonderful memory for us all!