Happy New Year

New Years is just around the corner. I can't believe it has been a year. 2008 went by so quickly that I can hardly remember what we did this year. I know we have been very busy. I always am glad that winter comes so things slow down. Well they just don't slow down enough. Before we know it, it will be spring again we will be off to the races.
I hope every one enjoys New Years this year. Be safe, smart and enjoy it all!!!

Merry Christmas from Masa Stewart

On the Saturday before Christmas we awake "Early" to avoid the phone calls from Dad G. (We told him we would be over early. We meant 9ish. He meant 5ish.) Today isn't just any day, it's the day we make tamales with the whole family. (anyone willing to help) Tamales are the traditional Christmas Eve meal at the Garcia's Family Function.

If you have not ever made tamales it's a lot of work. You are crazy if you venture into this feat with out more than four willing helpers So we get in the car and head to Roy. As we are driving on the snowy roads I look down and find that I have quite an interesting array of items in my lap. Two sharp knifes, a masa spreader, knife sharpener, coffee, and of course ginger snaps. I just hope we make it safely all the way there because I don't want to have to explain to the nice officer that we are just trying to get to mom and dad's to make Christmas Eve dinner.

We make it there and we start it's a lot of fun and it's very fun to visit with the rest of the family who are there helping. After what feels like hours of spreading masa on corn husks we start filling them with chili and putting them in the pressure cooker. We finally have on full pot and are so ready to start pressuring so in 45 minutes we can all indulge in the best thing on earth. We would love to start the pressure cooker, but the important part, the pet cock is missing. (thats the part on the pressure that makes the chhhh chucch chuchhh chhhh sound) So everyone starts looking for the bag it was in. Checking the back room. Checking the drawers. Checking high and low. Finally Vince decides to go to his house for his pressure cooker. After a while we decide to empty the one pot into pot number two. At least we will be able to cook one pot full. Tim and Elena start transferring the tamales into pot 2. When the last tamale is out they lift up the grate in the bottom of the pan and find the missing piece. We call Vince back. We start working on filling pot one, again. We started joking about how people spread masa. Everyone has their own preference. Some people like tons of masa little chili. Some like little masa tons of chili. I happen to be one of those folks. So we start joking about the masa spreaders (of which I was one) Tim decides that the masa award goes to me for spreading the perfect MASA. Which in turn becomes the "Masa Stewart" award.

After a long 45 minutes of pressuring while the smell of great food waifs through the house, it is time to get the good out of the cooker. That means wait until the steam is gone. One way to hurry the process is to run water over the top of the pot. Being that the pots are huge we decided against it. So the next best thing was to take it out side and put snow all over it to cool it down. Every one enjoyed a sample of Christmas Eve food on Solstice Eve. I don't think it is possible to get enough of the great food around on Christmas Eve.

Here we come a caroling

The days are becoming longer due to our celebration of Solstice yesterday. There are also only a small number of days left before the big hallabaloo is all over and we will sit back and ask ourselves what was all the fuss and the worry. Before it is all over I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas.

Wouldn't it be great if we could travel around to all of our loved ones homes and carol? I think it would. That is one of my favorite childhood memories. I loved waiting Christmas Eve for the Kimbers to come. We could hear them at the end of the sidewalk and as they got closer to the door we would all go into the kitchen, open the front door and listen to a few tunes.

It was usually cold or sometimes a blizzard, you know the Cache Valley kind of winters. They never missed a year!

Mom would have a treat or something warm for them and they always had a plate of goodies for us. Dad always got turtles. The best in the world.

Well if it were possible I would love coming by all of your houses Christmas eve and singing tunes for you too. I find it impossible to cover all of the area we need to, so instead I have created a Christmas play list (and enclosed a photo of us with our back up carolers) with a few good tunes. Just imagine John and I singing to you and Have yourself a Very Merry Christmas NOW!!!!!

Visions of sugar plums dance in our heads

Skyler came over to hang out with Grandpa and Mandy. We had a fun time. Dinner couldn't end soon enough! We had some decorating to do. Gingerbread houses are a lot of fun to make but eating the candy is the most fun, just ask Skyler. He especially liked putting on the yellow and orange candy on the house. I guess the other colors taste better. Dang the little round balls that are are on the tree and some on the roof. Rex got to eat most of those because they just don't stay in your fingers very well. Skyler kept trying to get them back from Rex but he just stayed under the chair waiting for the next ball to hit the ground. Next year maybe we will all have our own houses to decorate because Grandpa had so much fun with this he needs his own house.

BUSTED

" OH, you mean when you shut the door to your room you don't want us on your bed?"

The humans caught us on their bed playing. This was the first time Bella has figured out how to get on the bed. Look at those eyes. The humans can't get mad at us right? We didn't mean any harm. Actually I (Rex) always hang out up here. This space has turned into something like a sanctuary because so far in this relationship, Bella can't reach to get up on the bed. I can jump up here and be out of the puppies reach. Today Bella figured it out. I guess I will have to find a new spot for PEACE.

When we heard the human coming we both tried to get off of the bed with out her noticing that we had been up here but I guess it was kind of hard to hide because we had made a mess of the blanket. For some reason the humans don't like us to get on the white down comforter so they cove it up every mornrning. Who knew that they would notice we had been tugging with the cover and the white blanket was all dirty because we had mud on our paws.

If they didn't keep this door closed maybe we wouldn't like to get in here so much. You know it's like if you can't have it you want it more!!!!

Winter Formal

John and Mandy were invited by some Friends to attend the Enable Christmas party. We had a great time. Dinner was good. Especially the stuffing. The big guy himself made an appearance and gave Penny and Kathy a kiss. Everyone enjoyed the dance as usual. We can't wait until next year. Check out the slide show that is coming to see photos of everyone dressed up.

Here comes Santa Clause

If you have ever wondered what it is like to be in the North Pole, may I suggest you take a trip to Willard Bay Lights. It is very brightly lighted. You can also see Santa, his reindeer, have cocoa, ride in a horse drawn wagon, get cold like the North Pole and see a wonderful light display. We went with our "family" and had a great time. There were little "elves" making fires in a few spots that we could get warm by. We saw a lot of lights. We got to sit on Santa's lap. He got a little suspicious when he noticed that most of us were over 30. I guess that is one of the perks of being short:)

All aboard the TRAIN

Down at the station early in the morning. See the little Puffer Bellies all in a row. See the engine driver pull the little handle. Chug, chug, toot, toot Off they go.

We enjoyed a leisure day at Ogden's finest "Union Station". Skyler was all about finding a train. He did great while the grownups toured the museum side of things. There were a few things along the way for him to enjoy like getting up in the caboose. That was kind of scary. Even I thought it was a tight fit and high up in the air. We also got to get inside an engine. Then nearing the end of the museum there they were...Trains running behind glass that you could look at. They came and went and came back again. We found a few buttons to push and enjoyed thinking that we made the trains move. Next we headed out to the train yard. We took a guided tour of the train yard and got to go inside real train cars. We went inside a hospital car, mail car, and climbed all over many other train cars. We had a fun trip and then headed back to Grandpa's house for cocoa, cookies & coffee cake. We were telling Sky and his dad about a fun train ride that Mandy had taken the night that we were in the Ogden 'electric parade' welcoming Santa to town and taking him to Ogden's world famous Christmas village at the municipal gardens. We are hoping to take Skyler to see the lights, Santa and ride the train himself.

Thanksgiving Dinners

Thanksgiving was always a special time in my family. We would always get together with my mom's two sisters families for the day. This was easier when there were not quite as many of us as there are now. The last year we had Thanksgiving in my Grandma Georges basement was a funny series of events. We had tables lined in the basement buy once you sat down you couldn't get out. We all filed down the stairs into the basement of no return. Everyone took their seats, not necessarily by the person you would have liked to sit by but by the person who you were by in line. After that year we ate at a few different places before we started going to my parents church. Now we tend to eat dinner at my brother in law and sisters funeral home. It is a wonderful place with lots of room for all of us. Now however, we have turned to a new page in our book and are starting with new Thanksgiving traditions. This year we spent Thanksgiving with John's family. So a few Israelsen's got together early.

On Wednesday we went to dinner with Gene & Carol, Greg, Jill & Kaitlan. We went to Angie's in Logan. We had a great time eating and visiting with each other. It is always amazing that we can have such a great time on a spur the moment basis. I am sure that waitress there was glad to see us go. You know how we can be....LOUD!!!

Thursday morning the dogs got a special treat. They love it when the humans feel they need a treat. Then we went to Tim and Leslie's house to celebrate with the whole Garcia clan. We had another good day visiting with everyone. Dinner was fantastic. It is always a good time to get the whole family together and spend time with one another.

Here's to another great year. Until next time.