As Epiphany approaches, I’m writing a Christmas wrap-up for the end-of-year holidays of 2017.

We had an at-home Christmas with our little family on Christmas Day, unwrapping presents and having a Christmas dinner of ham with maple/brown sugar glaze and pineapple slices (Nora specifically requested the pineapple slices to go with the ham, mashed ( Read more... )

This past weekend was our big summertime gathering with my side of the family, in honor of my parents' 45th anniversary. My sister and I and all of our offspring descended upon their home in small town Iowa - unfortunately, both of our husbands are in jobs where they have to work on weekends in late August. Still, it was kind of fun to have a bunch ( Read more... )

(Have been lax on the blogging this summer, and want to record some of these memories. "Scenes of Summer 2010" is kind of my own personal catch-up series.)We were one of five families attending camp that weekend. Among these families was an almost-four-year-old girl Nora has played with before, and a four-year-old boy (older brother to the almost- ( Read more... )

(Have been lax on the blogging this summer, and want to record some of these memories. "Scenes of Summer 2010" is kind of my own personal catch-up series.)The June weekend post-birthday of this summer, we were off to camp. Nora, my mom and I all went to "preschool family camp weekend" at the camp in northern Minnesota owned by my church. (DH has to ( Read more... )

What we actually did for Christmas this year is: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, stayed home, watched videos and ate popcorn, played in the snow -- making snow angels and sliding on the tummy down small drifts -- DH and I took turns attempting to shovel out the driveway, had our Christmas brunch, opened presents. Day after Christmas, Nora and I ( Read more... )

I'm aware that Thanksgiving is long past -- or far in the future, depending on your perspective -- but, since I had not yet chronicled our family's 2009 Thanksgiving, I wanted to do so for my own memories ( Read more... )

The day following the sweet corn festival, my family (again, sans Grandpa and the dog) headed out to an outdoor amusement park ( Read more... )

Nora and I took a trip to Iowa earlier this month for some summer festivities with my side of the family. We actually arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house prior to the crowd coming from in-state (stunning, when you consider that we had to stop at two gas stations -- the first one's pump wasn't working; at the second one I found my BP card had ( Read more... )

FishMama over at http://www.lifeasmom.com is doing a series on Christmas in July this week -- which means her weekly Ultimate Recipe Swap has a Christmas theme. Specifically, it's "Christmas Must-Haves," as she explains it "What is a must-have recipe at your house during the holidays ( Read more... )

Technically, I don't have spring break, and neither does my two-year-old. Our school-age relatives, however, do, and they decided to spend part of their break this year vacationing with us. This meant an additional four people, three of them children under 10, in our house for a few days. There was much more kid energy around than usual. Since the ( Read more... )