Christmas Candy

Well, last Friday was candy making day. Everyone came to Grandma and Grandpa's house and pitched in making goodies. Some of the grand kids were running around screaming and luckily staying away from the kitchen.

Allison was the expert on making cheese balls. Which we will all share on Christmas Eve along with Soup and Wassail.

Andy was involved helping Grandma making cookies and then dipping pretzels and etc in chocolate. Stuart and Cody were the experts in making rice crispy treats and peanut flavored Fudge.



Grandma was running around trying to get it all done. Marty was dipping Graham Crackers in Chocolate and adding Sparkles. They look really pretty, Not like Andy's pretzels.

We had Family Prayer and then every one left. It was really quiet except for the noise of Grandma and Grandpa cleaning up the mess. All in all it was another great night for the Glad Family.

Getting Ready

We are almost there. getting our act together for Christmas. We put up our Plastic Tree in the center of the Front Room. Then we moved it to a corner, so people visiting could see each other across the room. The outside lights are all in place. They look kind of nice. It looked like it was going to be a chore getting them up on the house because of all of the snow. last year I used a step ladder to place the lights on the the eves, dragging it through the snow to each location, a lot of work. I stopped and looked at the problem and had one of those "Duh" moments. I got a broomstick and stood on the ground and reached up with the stick to place the lights.

Wednesday night was a Christmas program for Jimmy's school class. Thursday Ben and Stuart were both involved in Christmas Concerts. Ben at Albion Jr High School and Stuart at Hillcrest High School. We Grandparents try to attend them all. Cody has his program next Wednesday, we will be serving in the Temple that day, Sorry Cody.

The presents are all, except for some from Amazon that are late, wrapped and placed under the tree. Lots of them when there are 11 grand kids and our 5 children and their spouses. Marlene was shopping so I got to wrap them all. Marlene seems to be somewhere else every year when it comes time to get them taken care of.

Tonight is our traditional candy making party with all of the family. We make a lot of chocolate dipped stuff, like Nuts, Camels, Mini marshmallows, pretzels, and what ever else we can come up with. Some years it has been some strange things.

Christmas Eve we all get all bundled up so we can go out in the cold and go caroling to our neighbours. Giving each some of the goodies we made at our candy night. Coming home we have home made soup and hot spiced fruit drink. We then read the story of the first Christmas from the Bible, with some of the kids acting out the parts of the Shepherds, Wise Men, and Mary and Joseph. Gifts are then exchanged between members our Family to remember the Gifts that were given to the Christ Child and the Gifts we receive in our lives because of the birth of our Savior.

Christmas morning and day are pretty calm around the Glad house. Now that we are empty Nester's we get to sleep in.

getting warm

It was cold and snowy in Salt Lake City last week, but we were so sad that we were not there to enjoy it "Not". We were on a Cruise Ship in the Caribbean. When we arrived to board the ship we were told that the room we had reserved had been up graded, so instead of having a room with a port hole we were given a mini suite state room with a balcony. The room was as large as our bedroom at home. It was cool to sit out on our patio and watch the Ocean go by.

Another fun thing about this Ship was that on the top of the deck by one of the Pools they had a large movie screen, two stories tall by 3 stories wide, for movies under the stars. We would sit on the lounge chairs and watch the movie while they brought around Pop Corn and Cookies and Milk.

We visited St Marten, which is one half owned by the Dutch and the other by the French, St Thomas of the U. S. Virgin Islands and Princess Kay. There were some fun tours. They had a little pink tour bus that we rode in for a Tour of St. Thomas.

The buss took us to the highest point on the Island from which you could see many of the other Islands around us. The Islands are varied and are still owned by many differing counties. The Islands in the distance are some of the British Virgin Islands.

Marlene is such a wonderful person in and around the water as you can see from the photo. The last place we visited is a private Island owned by Princess Cruise lines. They have a really nice beach with palm trees and water sports equipment. We had a very nice barbecue on the beach and then took a glass bottom boat tour. It was kind of sad to come home too the land of cold and snow but Christmas is coming soon. So we have too much to do to worry much about the winter weather.

Winters Day

I am still trying to decide about snow. When I was younger I waited expectantly for the first white flakes to come drifting down from the sky, but now in my golden years the fun is all gone. The snow is wet and cold and makes the streets slick. I can no longer work in the yard ( maby that is a good thing). I have to wear a bulky warm coat if I leave the house.

As you can guess I am watching the first really big snow storm work its way into our lovely valley. Now is the time to go south for the winter with the ducks and RVs. Marlene and I am flying out of here for a trip to the Caribbean on the Princess Diamond.

We will be flying out of here at midnight, Ouch, to arrive in Florida, bright and early to board our home away from for the next week.

It is one of the great pleasures of life to come back to the cold wintry Utah with a sun tan. Then we can put up the Christmas Decorations and get ready for the Ho Ho Man. Yes we have not put up the tree yet. I have just not have had the energy to drag all the stuff up from the basement and try to make the the artificial tree look pretty. Mom thinks that it is time to get a new fake tree with the lights already on it, but I am to cheap.

We have been taking care of Melody and Marty's children, our grand children, this week as they are back in Chicago. The kids are to return to their home to day. It is a major effort to get them to turn off the TV, pack up their stuff and clean up the mess they have made of our house. We love them dearly but It would be nice to love them from down the street for a while.

We have most of our Christmas shopping done. We just have to wait for UPS to get it here. It is so nice to stay at home and click on all the things you want on the computer screen, but I was disappointed to find out that it is not magic but the old cash money still comes in to play.