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.

trip to laughlin

We just got back from a fun trip to Laughlin, Nevada. It is in what is called the tristate area. If you look at a map it it the area where the end of Nevada meets the edge of Arizona and California. The town is on the Colorado River so there is lots of fun things to do. There are several nice Hotels there with very reasonable rates. We stayed in the 11th floor of the Tropicana Express, a 24 story hotel. The rooms for a week day are $29.00. The hotel has 5 restaurants, a large swimming pool, several nice hot tubs. We signed up for the gaming club even though we don't gamble. The club membership provided a free tee shirt deep discounts on food and $ 5.00 each to gamble, which we pocketed. The food was wonderful. The Theme for the Hotel was trains. There was a old steam train that went around the hotel.

There is a walk along the bank of the river behind all of the hotels with shops ect. Malrene and I took a ride on a River Boat to see the River and Davis Dam which is just up stream from Laughlin.

Sunday, after our own sunday shool. We could not find the LDS Ward. Marlene called the number for the Ward that we got off the Internet but it was a home. We drove to lake Havasu City, about 40 Miles, to see the London Bridge. It was taken down piece be piece shipped to Arizona and reconstructed. There is a lot of English themed business around it. In the park by the Bridge there was a Dog show going on with the dogs racing through a obisital course.

Monday we drove to a small town in the area called Oatman Arizona. It is about 15 miles from Laughlin. It is on old historic highway 66 it is an old mining town with now more mining. some of the old buildings were used in the Movie "How the West Was Won". Clark Gable and Carol Lumbard spent their Honey moon here after their secrete wedding. There is a Gun fight staged in the town on the main street about every 20 minutes. The Wild Burros from the area come in to town looking for carrots which most of the stores sell. Attached is a couple of pictures of Mom trying to feed them. She doesn't know whether to feed them or run.

We had a great time for a couple of days. I guess the best was sitting in the hot tubs eating the huge free yogurt cones each day. all in all a great trip.

catching up

I need to write. We had our Primary Program today. It went well. I am probably the oldest serving in the Primary. For the last song, the congregation joined in with Sherry S playing organ, so I ask the music people if I could add some chords and notes, and they said sure. So I added some to the piano music It was neat.. Those who know me know I have trouble playing things straight.~as written.

After the meeting, I went to a wonderful testimony of my friends Vera and Ron Beesley. I want to serve a mission in a few years. Right now, my mission is the temple. They are great people.

We made a major change by removing the book shelf in my room and I am learning to adjust. We carried tons of books down stairs and took another shelf in the basement and put books on it. Alot of work but a nice result.

We are getting ready for our monthly trip. We are going to Laughlin, Nevada for three days. We are not having a gathering for Thanksgiving as we had one on Nov 3.

Marlene Glad

One more great year.!~

Here I am celebrating another year. We had a good birthday, Thanksgiving combination to celebrate both Turkeys. big days. (ha ) It was so neat to get to sing ? ? to Angel and have Bruce and Tara here for church and spend a few days.

I do feel a few ached and pains lately from adding another year. I have not fully recovered from a 2 mile hike in Bryce on our Sept Anniversary. But I have got new glasses. It is a good thing I went in cause I found out I have a couple of eye treatable conditions, ,like dry eye and possibility of starting of glaucoma, and feel about 80% better in my knees.

It was so great to have a happy marriage party in my back yard ', (it did make us work alot to make it successful and help from my family) having all my family but an ill daughter-in -law at the wonderful wedding. Going on two trips in our new old motor home', going to California with Bruce and Tara, to see our grandson baptized, these are a few of the favorite things I have done this year.I am blessed with many blessing, home family, friends, church , my testimony.

Dad and I took a drive to the new temple site. It should be ready about this time next year. Then we took a ride around the Alpine area and looked at some small homes and came home to be grateful for what we have here. If I ever got converted to leaving, (which I have not.) It would be so hard to leave the house. But so doubly hard to clean up a mess to move,,,, But too leave those I love and appreciate.~ That would be the hardest.!

We went to a financail seminar at an unbelievable Grand America Hotel. The lecture was interesting and the Horderves were unbelievable.! So I have celebrated my B day two times now and I am going to lunch with some friends ; I had alot of water aerobocis friends tell me happy B day this morning., I see some more friends at the temple and get to play the piano for temple preparation meeting today. Fun! I get to serve in the temple today.! No better place to be than there.

I better go get ready for our big day.

Marlene Glad





This is getting long.

halloween

Halloween this year was just not the old thing I remember from my childhood. Our home is on a street that has no street lighting so it is pretty dark. Most of the kids in the Neighborhood don't come down our dark street to get goodies as the pickings are easier on the newer parts of our area where the houses are closer together and there is lots of lighting. Last year Marlene sat and waited for the ghosts and goblins to come to our house and get the loot that we had for them. We waited and waited and and a total of 6 children came to our house, 4 of them were our grandchildren. We had no bunches of kids running around in their costumes with their pumpkin lights and happy smiles. It was pretty sad.

So this year we got a lot of candy. We were ready!!! We got a couple of boxes of candy bars under the premise that "If you build it, they will come", remember the movie Field of Dreams. We were ready. Well, I did eat all of the Snicker Bars before the big day. Then Marlene reminded me that the Temple was open on the night of the 31st of October and it was our night to work. So we bagged the whole thing. We turned the porch light on and placed a bowl of penny candy on the stoop. When we got back home that night some of was missing but we had no way of knowing the identity of the kids that made off with our loot. I talked to Stuart, the oldest of our neighbor grand kids, about the candy. He said "Grandpa we didn't go to your house there was no one home". So it looks like it was another failed attempt to share our candy bars. Well I guess it is not a entire loss, I have still a lot of Butter Finger bars left for Me.

in a big jam!

today I was in my neck in apples and oranges. Dad and I did about 15 pints of apple jam. I hope it turns out. The flavor was great.! /We found the recipe for jam on Cooks.com and flew on our pants with the rest. We blended the apples first and oranges from California. then added sugar and lemon juice and spices and cooked the whole great big pots of it. It seems to have turned out good.

The bounties of this year have been good to us. We had about a bushel of peaches and about 3 bushel apples. The apples were not very wormy this year. It is nice to see our blessings come to fruition in the form of harvests. We had a ton of cherry tomatoes and a lot of zucchini and butter squash.Thanks to Dwaynes hard work and caring for the garden.

I just got new bifocals and it is hard to focus. I do like my new glasses though.
I am grateful for my many other blessings. I have a great family and ward and temple worker friends. I have a nice home and yard.( I could go on for allot of sentences, but I am new at this.)
I am grateful for a kind and loving husband.

Dwayne has been doing extracting of names on the Internet and I get to help him, rarely. But he has done 1000 names so far . I am proud of him for giving up his game on the Internet and doing this. He still passes some time playing his card game.

We pray for our family every day, especially the ones that have special needs like Jimmy and Lynn and Allison. We love them very much. We look forward to the family party Saturday. where celebrate 6 Birthdays.
Marlene

Today is Saturday and Marlene is busy planning for our annual "Big Birthday Party".
We have many birthdays in October and November that it is easier to have one birthday party of all of them. My Wife, Daughter, two Sons, Daughter-in-law, Grand Daughter and two Grand Sons all have birthdays at this time of year. We are also combining the birthday party with a early Thanksgiving Dinner as none of our children will be able to come here for our regular dinner. Marty and Melody will be in Chicago. Clay and Allison will be in California. and Bruce has to work so he and Tara will not be able to come. So Marlene and I will be taking a vacation to Laughlyn Nevada.

We are getting ready for Halloween this coming up this Wednesday. We will have Ben or Stuart at home handing out candy as we will be in the Temple on our regular shift on Wednesday night. We have a lot of good candy to give out but I have almost eaten all of the Snicker bars already.

Jimmy came to the house yesterday and we were talking about spooks and monsters for Halloween. I took our my front teeth and prentened that I was a vampire. That was a bad Idea He was really scared and would have nothing to do with Grandpa Vampire. I had to give him a package of M & M's before he would not run away from me. Sorry Jimmy

Cody got a letter from Kerns High school stating thas he has earned his High School Letter.
Which is really unusual because he is still in Jr. High School. He has been running Varsity Cross Country Team. He had bumped some of the Seniors from the team and was finished 4th for his School in the Reagional Meet.

The Indian Summer season is here today. Marlene and I went for a drive up the canyon where the fall colors are everywhere and there is some snow here and there. It is so neat to be able to live in a place where there is so much beauty all around us.

I am grateful that when God created this Earth that he loved us enough not only make a place for us to live but to make it so beautifully. This world is a wondrous gift for us from God.

We found out that Angel and Roy are caught up in the mess of the fires in California. They had to excavate their home yesterday for some time. They are now home but there is still some danger. They have some members of the ward staying with them until they can get back to their homes. There are several fires all around them so the danger can come from more than one direction. If you want more information go to Angel's blog at "thegladdens.blogspot.com".
we all all praying for them.

Sunday Reflections

Today is another Sunday. Marlene and I went to Regional Confrence via TV in our local Stake Center. It was good to hear about Moral Values and the importance that the Traditional Family is in our lives. We dearly love all of our Children and Grandchildren. I just can not understand why every one in our society can not understand the joy that can come from the love and mutial support that comes from Family.

This last week we took the long drive to California to visit and be with our Grandson Nathan as he was Baptised a member of our Church. Baptism in our church is performed as the person is old enough to understand the commitments he is making and is accountable for his actions. We spent several days with Roy and Angel Gladden, parents of three of our grandkids. Bruce and Tara Joy Glad, our newly wed kids went with us. We just spent most of the time visiting and playing board games. It was just great to get away from the TV centered culture and spend time sharing lives and playing together.

You can see why I call this blog the Glads; first because of our Surname, and Second because of the attitude we try to have in our life.

We had some minor trials as we returned home. I fell and had a muscle pull in my calf
and Marlene broke her glasses as we dropped off Bruce and Tara. So as we drove home from Ephriam, I could not put any weight on my left leg and Marlene had to wear her dark glasses. It was getting dark and Marlene could not see well with her dark glasses. So we were wondering how the blind and lame were going to make the last leg of our trip home. Marlene drove to I-15 where I took over as I could by then move my foot. We made it home safely.

We picked our apples on Saturday morning. Just in time as the first major snow storm hit saturday evening. We are having difficulty getting around in the Kitchen as we have several boxes of apples on the kitchen floor. We are hoping that Melody & Marty and Clay & Allision can use some of them. The rest will turn in to Apple Sauce with our help and will end up in our food storage down stairs.

Life is great, because we make a effort to make it that way. Be good and kind to every one