Post Christmas Shananigans

    We celebrated Christmas for almost the whole month, which is just the way we like to do it! We had quite a few neighborhood parties, YSA and AR socials.  Amazingly we were able to be with all of our family many times between Thanksgiving and New Years, just not at the same time..

    For Christmas Eve, we invited Rob's family, Kathyrn's parents, Brother Lovatto, his grandson, and Mary to dinner and a program.  It was a wonderful evening, and we were so glad they came. The next day we hosted a soup dinner and games with some of our Home Evening group, plus friends who needed some cheer in their lives.

Home Evening Game Night with Friends

We received lots of wonderful gifts for Christmas, but the one most meaningful was delivered about 10 days before Christmas and we read, and reread it.  "T'was the night before Christmas" started with a Wilcox spoof on the tradition poem, and Anthony filled it with lots of humor and allusions to Christmas's past.  He and Autumn rallied the rest of their siblings, asking them to write their memories of Christmas, as well as their own family traditions.  Autumn added photos and did the layout, and somehow miraculously got it published and to us before Christmas!  
    We learned a lot in the process of reading our children's stories, some of which we'd known about before, but others were surprises.  It was a great memory jogger, and we laughed a lot, and even cried a little as we recalled the hectic Christmases of long ago.  

Thank you so much for taking the time 

to pull together such a great present.

This book was the inspiration for several

Christmas tricks of our own.

  On Christmas Morning as we opened presents with Rob, Kathyrn, Ethan, and Travis, there was one last present which had especially been prepared.  We had found out by reading the book, that Rob was sorely disappointed one Christmas when he was about 9 years old, when he didn't get the Nerf Rocket Launcher he wanted..instead Chris received it.  Tears were shed, and he even double checked with Mom to make sure she hadn't made a mistake.  

   Well, Santa made restitution this year, and wrote Rob a note saying that Mrs. Claus had finally cleaned the back room, and found requests from the 1980's which had been lost.  Always one to keep his promises, Santa wanted to deliver the goods, even though it was late.  

           It wasn't quite the same Nerf Rocket launcher of 30 years go, but was happily received.  

                      Merry Late Christmas, Rob.

The other fun thing about Christmas was participating in Ethan's treasure hunt to find his Christmas present.  It started in Monticello, Christmas morning, then went to Blanding to Granny and Papa's, then to our home, then back to the Sandbox at Redds.  It was quite the treasure hunt, and low and behold--Ethan's Christmas request wasn't "shot down" afterall.  He got a single shot .22.  He was one excited boy.  So he and his dad both had new firearms to shoot.  Safety instructions were reemphasized, and the first target practice planned.

Tuesday Dec. 27-30  Nathan and Anthony's families join us for a fun filled week

















Dad's Root Beer from Quent and Bev, also a big
summer sausage and Almond Roca

The highlight of Dec. 27th was the gift from the Christmas Story Store. 

When we read Nathan's reflections on Christmas's past, we discovered that Tammy didn't have the same appreciation of the movie, The Christmas Story, like most of our kids do.  Shortly afterwards, we saw Joel Tate wear ing a Christmas Story Lamp necktie, we knew we needed to get one for Nathan, as he had a special affinity for the crazy movie. In the next few days the idea grew, taking on new dimensions and angles! Until Dad determined to create a replica of box which could feasibly contain the infamous lady's leg lamp.  Of course, the cylinder for the leg, only contained the necktie, but it looked like it could possibly hold the leg, and there was even an antique lamp shade with black fringe, albeit, fringed plastic!  He even saved the mailing label from the tie, to make it look legit.

  Here is the letter Dad composed:

Nathan reads the letter

We were pleased with the effort that you kids made for us on our Christmas book that Autumn put together.  It was fun reminiscing about past Christmases.  We even learned a few things we hadn’t heard before.  We appreciate your contribution.  We are glad that you still enjoy watching “The Christmas Story”.  We are surprised that Tammy doesn’t share your same enthusiasm and were wondering what we could do to improve this situation.  We thought about getting Brendan a BB gun, but that might not help matters.  
   We also thought getting some genuine bunny pajamas for Laurie, but we are not sure if she would wear them.  Finally, I went on line and I discovered the perfect gift -- A real Christmas Story lamp.  I’m sure if this lamp is displayed in your front window you will be the envy of all the neighborhood and it will give Tammy a greater appreciation for this classic movie.  In this package, you will find a real Christmas Story lamp.  Hope you enjoy it and may you use it for many Christmases to come.

Tamara can hardly contain her excitement as she anticipates
the great Leg Lamp in her window!


I had a great video of the reading of the letter, but it was so big blogspot won't accept it.  Que Lastima~
It was very fun to see both Nathan and Tammy's reactions.

Everyone was excited to see what was in the box.

The infamous lamp shade in all its tacky glory

Now, what do you suppose is in here?

Sigh, relief!  It was only a tie....not a leg

What we really want to know....Did he wear that tie to Church Sunday?!
===========================
Wilcoxes Rock-out with Wii Rock Star

Some day we may rue the day we put guitars 
and drums into their hands

This combo above came the closest to real talent

Even Grandma tries to keep up with Ethan (and Elton) on  Crocodile Rock
unfortunately, she couldn't see the words very well.


Grandma's Deja vu reality game:  Fox and Geese

Back when grandma was a girl in Idaho, we always had a lot of snow, so we filled our free time hours with lots of outdoor games.  If we could find enough kids, or coerce our parents to play-- Fox and Geese was the funnest, because it was a running game.  Others we played were "Who's the Boss of Bunker's Hill"--where you tried to stay on top of the snow pile, while others tried to push you off.  Dad was always best "Boss".  The words are so old I can't even find them on Google search, but the taunt went something like this: "I'm the boss of Bunker Hill, I can fight and I can kill."  Gruesome I know!


He made us a harness for our dog, Pal, and then he could pull our sleigh.  He also made us mini-toboggans which could be used on soft snow, but we had regular sleds for zipping down the hills which surrounded our home on the farm. He also made a large toboggan out of corregated steel, which fit our whole family.  It was very heavy to pull up the big hill, and the snow had to be frozen to use it, but it was very fun to do it together as a family.


 We also made snow angels, had snow ball fights, built forts, made trails, and all the other fun outdoor things that kids can invent.  The winters we lived in Ririe, sometimes Daddy, or another parent would pull us behind a car on our sleighs.  We'd all be roped together in one long line  I'm sure it would be illegal now, but it was very fun, until a sharp turn would tip someone over.  Sneaking off to do that one Sunday afternoon, is the only time I remember being spanked by my mother.   In later years we learned to ski, and that became our new passion, especially for Doug and I.  Lynn, Clint, and Nancy later took up the craziness as well.

Fox calls "Scatter" and all the geese run from the center when the game begins.

Even though we had been blessed with about 4 inches of rain the week before Christmas, there had been no snow, and it was about 45 degrees in the day.  Then The Perfect Snow Storm arrived in Blanding Dec. 27-28 after Christmas, putting down about 2 feet of soft fluffy snow.  It didn't pack very well for the Fox and Geese course, so Anthony revved up the snow blower that Chris had given us, and made the best circle and cross cuts I'd ever played on.  

The running course is a circle with pie wedges radiating out. The center is the Fox's den where the captured "geese" must go, until they are saved by being tagged by a "free goose".  There are also two safety pens where the geese can run to to avoid being tagged.  To make it more exciting two foxes can be selected.  After they wear out, a new fox is chosen, until everyone has a turn at being foxy.  It is great fun.  This may be my last time to play, and it was so fun, with no injuries!! I think we had  three generations of us playing, 9 altogether..which was a great size for the game.

Friday was a beautiful cold day, perfect for playing outside--for a little while at least.

Aren't they cute little geese?

Hmmm, how do we save Laurie from these two big foxes?

Ethan's Birthday Dec. 30th at the Redds

Church Callings and Service

We were called in April 2009 to begin an LDS Addiction Recovery Program in Blanding, and we have faithfully done that every week since beginning in June of 2009.  The only time we missed was last winter when a snow storm stopped travel into the church.

    We designed the flyers, wrote press releases, and letters to bishops to introduce the class, as well as posting flyers all over town, and providing smaller flyers for Bishops to use.  We follow the 12 step program the Church designed which puts Jesus Christ center front in the recovery program.  Steve has faithfully prepared a short inspiring message each week, and also runs the meeting.  We have a wonderful facilitator, Ben Haws, who is a tremendous help to us in the meetings.

   We had about 5 or 6 come the first meeting, and once in a while only had 1 or two attend, but no matter the size, it has always been worth it.  Most recently, winter 2010-2011, we've had larger groups come.  Twice we've had a social: a cookout last summer where they invited a friend to come, and once right after Christmas, but usually we just follow the program.
One change we did make after going through the program the first time, was to have a short discussion of the step, so that everyone understood the terminology, and concept.   That change has seemed to help a lot of people.  That was a suggestion Rob made, which came from one of his drug court charges.
   We've learned to have a lot of empathy for those struggling through their addictions, and have also discovered some things we need to work on ourselves.  We pray each week, that we can say the right things that will help someone at the meeting.


Fellowshipping Fun and Service


We've tried hard since we've been home from our mission to be good neighbors, to fellowship non-members or inactive people, and visit new move-ins to ward, and also kids in the dorm.  This could actually be a full time job!  I'm sure we do at least 2-3 visits each week, which if often taking soup, or a meal to someone.  Sister Beeson is one of our regular visits, but we also check on the Lobatos often.

Mary's baptism done by Bishop Carroll

It has been quite thrilling to see Lee's niece, Mary, accept the gospel and invite us to be part of that process.  We planned a neighborhood cookout with them last summer, and she was a super help in contacting people, bringing food, and helping cleanup.  She is a pearl in disguise.  We were so thrilled to see the gospel come into her life and to be part of her baptism.  It continues to be a blessing to see the changes wrought by the light of Christ.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Since there's not much to do in Blanding sometimes, we often invite neighbors and friends over to play games, or for soup suppers.  We really miss the Baptist minister, Don Camp, and his wife, Rene who were such good neighbors.  We became good friends with them over the past year.  Some of the other special memory events we orchestrated this past year included the following:

Virginia's visit to Blanding summer 2010 and the old gang!
Steve helped me fix a crepe brunch and we had a wonderful visit.
Tates came over the night before along with Stephanie, so two good visits resulted.

A good-bye cookout for Elaine and Chris Johnson, prior to their move to Cedar City.

Former friend Melissa Tatro and her two grandsons.  Steve and Pam Bronson
helped us pull together friends from the past for a cookout while she was here.

Whenever any of the family comes down, naturally we pull together a cookout, or dinner along with Rob's family and have a party.  There's always some occasion to celebrate if you look for it, and that is one of the things I love to do, and Steve is always a super help in orchestrating all the things that need to be done.  He's also turned into a great b-b-que chef!

You'll know we've really gotten old, once we stop having parties!