Family Holiday Traditions

Just finished YA novel:  Sean Griswold's Head, by Lindsey Leavitt and was inspired by a family Valentine's Day tradition described (pg 141).  Names chosen (doesn't discuss, rotation, picked from a hat?) to make a Valentine card from...trash!  All the cards are gathered at dinnertime and voted which is the worse/trashiest, honoring the Mom & Dad's first Valentine exchange.  To continue the trash theme, Mom makes gummy worm & dirt (crushed Oreos) sundaes, the family eats fish & chips from rolled up newspapers, sitting on the floor, and an out-of-town brother mails his card so it arrives in time for the festivities with Skype appointment to see family reaction when his card is opened.

Funny, fun, wishing our family had something like that each year.  But it isn't too late to start one...

Let the brainstorming begin!  This Christmas will be HUGE with family gathering, all our children home.  We need some good (new) traditions, memory-making silliness.

We've discussed name-drawing in the past.  It never worked in my growing-up-family (too big?  Age spread?  Maybe someday we will try it?) but mother-in-law's sisters draw niece/nephew names and give great Christmas gifts.  Brother Michael's married-into-family does elaborate, thoughtful gifts with emphasis on labors of love and time rather than $, and they are super creative...John's sisters talk about it every once in awhile.  Pros include cutting down on costs if you are focusing only on one family.

I think we may try it, if we can be united on it.  Date-night discussion topic #1.  Come up with a plan.

We are planning on visiting some caverns in VA over the holiday.  That's all we have so far. 

Stockings
Christmas play
Caroling
FUDGE
guacamole/Mexican food
piñata for our birthday celebration?

Last year for New Year's we included extended family in Reindeer Game Competition, silly fun.  Maybe more of that?

Dr visits & Hair Guy

Officially I have Tennis Elbow.  Well, really "Hammer" elbow.  I was hammering with gusto early June, hurt myself by overdoing it, then held a heavy baby to sleep, increased the inflammation...then had an allergy attack and was put on prednisone (which helped the elbow) and then went on Pioneer Trek, did too much.  For the last 3 weeks I have been sleeping with an ice pack and unable to lift anything heavy.  Saw the doctor finally Wednesday and I am back on steroids and Physical Therapy.  And I am pain-free at the moment.  Wonderful.  Typing doesn't help...

Painting is out right now.  Cleaning.  Lifting weights with right hand...I need to get the inflammation down and get better.  The therapist showed me things to do on our Utah trip, even in the car.  I go in tomorrow 6am for 2nd round of ultrasound, electrical stim, ice, heat massage, etc.

 

Sam needed a physical before High Adventure Scout camp, so he went in today.  There was a time when he was shorter than this carousel horse in the waiting room.  He is just shy of 6 feet today, 5'11 1/2 inches barefoot.  The doctor pointed out stretch marks on his back from growing so quickly (just like pregnant women get on their tummies, but horizontal across back).

 

Haircut day for me, thank you Michael Harrington. Yes, he is accepting new clients.  Love it when I tell him to do whatever he wants, and he just plays, and I walk out happy.  A 17 year old young woman told me Sunday that I "rock" my short hair.  Made me feel good.

 

Not what you were looking for?

More sister-ing:

I thought I had the other Utah Opera photos for Luanna saved.  Came across these today in my searching. 

Same cute smile here with her husband below:

(photo credit:_____?  Copied from Luanna's blog)

I've been thinking a lot about aging, what happens as the years go by, not just the gray/white hair, but the good wrinkles of laugh lines, the wisdom in the eyes.  Yes, and the aches  & pains of mortality.

My mom and her sister Betty, and another sister Laurie below (photo credit Jen Babcock)

(photo credit:______ YW camp photographer)

Their mother, Grandma Laura

Laura's mother, Jane whose square jaw...

 

... I have inherited!  Look, bright yellow pants back in style today!

Recent-ish photo of 5/9 Babcock siblings.  Do I look like them, as we turn into old people?

 

Great Grandma Jane, again, reading her scriptures.

Younger version, teenager Great Grandma Jane before married...

Then there are the men:  Grandpa Jack here and my Dad below:

(My parents are home safely) Dad's hair is almost all white, like his Dad's.  Compare this photo to the very top one, much younger Daddy.  Can't wait to see family in person!

 

The collection of photos may not make sense, but to me this is a good way to go back and forth, look at eyes, faces, family similarities.  Updated photos in a week!  If I can figure out how to blog long distance!

 

I call it, "Sisters"

 

They are going to miss each other.  They are tender and sweet together, very affectionate, full of private-giggle jokes and snuggles.

 

(Photo credit:  Jen Babcock @ 2013 Carlson Fish Fry  THEY LOOK SO HAPPY & CUTE TOGETHER!!!)

Emma has her own snuggle now, but I know Suzanna looks forward to spending time with her, too.  I wish these 3 daughters were closer in age--they have brothers born between them that spreads the gap...so they have to work harder to be close.

 

Looking at Profiles

What similarities do you see?  Forehead slope, noses, lips, chins.  Max has a Babcock button chin, like mine.  Stewart looks more like my brothers, but these blue-eyed men look like their daddy! 

It was haircut weekend, back-to-school cuts, short.  I thought their t-shirts were great indicators of their interests:  Sam wearing his welding technical high school "Cobra by Choice" mascot shirt, Max an old boychoir shirt, John his Father's Day Suzu gift DAD in ACDC-style font and the pants I bought him in St. Thomas, and Stewart with "Got Sharks?"  Perfect. 

 

 

Let's Talk About Snowballs, Dean, and Blue & Green Color

NOT Snowcones.  NOT a slurpee.  Not a Utah-western snow cone.  SNOWBALL texture is different.  Smaller.  Finer.  Not grainy.  More like melt in your mouth, cold but not hard pellets or too tiny, it has a nice wet-heft-bulk to it, and is soft-like real snow.  Not that it snows here.  Only in the summertime!

They do this thing, adding marshmallow topping for extra 50 cents.  This is a photo after I have waited to cross the street and licked half of it off in the 91 degree sunny weather.  This was one of the specials:  "Ocean Wave" which was skylight (I don't know what flavor that is, but it is blue and really yummy--maybe raspberry based?) and green apple with marshmallow on top.  I ordered the smallest size so I could get additional marshmallow in the middle.  I cannot explain how good this summer treat is.  Emma would understand.  She used to work at a snowball shack.  She tried all the flavors, and made up her own combos.

 

To get to the post office every day I drove by this most unusual-colored brick old home:

 

And found a restaurant that shares a name with son-by-marriage:

 

Kind of a strange, old-timey town, snowballs and old buildings.

And on the way home, back in Harford Co. there is a remodeled home that used to look horrible.  They have redone it with gorgeous blue stained siding.  Green grass/trees & Blue home w/ white trim looks stunning, hard to capture in this drive-by.

I've never thought about a blue home before, but this looks great in our east coast lighting.  Not really navy, more like a dark peacock, but with enough gray to keep it neutral and pleasant, not a neighborhood eye sore.

 

 

There is work, and then there is WORK!

 

 

I am a travelling on-call.  I go to offices where the Branch Office Assistant is on vacation or ill.  Filling in.  Most of the time it is planned well in advance, so she leaves me a list of things to do.  Sometimes I go beyond my responsibilities a little, a put away Christmas decorations, take the turkey candy bowl off the desk, recycle stale candy (I have to sample to see if fresh for clients!), and try to leave things better than they were before I came.  I finally invested in some awesome graphite lock-ease, to make the door locks easier to open!  They send me a key and I am amazed at what people will put up with, tough to open doors are fixable with a few well placed squirts.  Squeaky door hinges are silenced.  Squeaky chairs.  Twisted phone cords unraveled.  Everything dusted...

 

 

Trying to shake off the guilt of working outside our home and coming home to a dirty sink, hungry people.  I had a super busy day at the office.  And I wish I could have been home, working, cleaning...really.

 

The first day I was there alone, without the financial advisor.  I did all the paperwork waiting, then found the vacuum, cleaned up, rearranged a little, moved the couch to focal wall and moved around pictures (they were all hung another 2 feet higher with no relationship to each other or the furniture, and I am a snob about pictures) and made myself at home.

 

It is hard for me to leave decorating tragedies alone.  Should have taken before photos.  Trust me, it was worse, much better now!

 

The financial advisor's wife called and said, "I have heard how great everything looks since you arrived!  Someone after my own heart!"

 

I leave a smiley face note telling the regular Branch Office Assistant that everything can easily move back to original spot, that I am a self-admitted decorating snob who has watched way too many DIY shows...and I miss my home.