Thanksgiving Birthdays

These last few months have been hectic. So what else is new, right? After all, it is the holidays. Along with our holidays, we have two birthdays in our family. We started out Thankgiving day with the usual festivities. Sonia sets a beautiful table with the set of china grandma gave her. While cleaning up, Leland kept the kids entertained by letting them pull him down the stairs. I think he is practicing for if Roxanne ever throws him down the 'stair' at their place! Hee hee

Next we moved on to Roxanne's birthday. With her birthday being the 25th of November, it has been celebrated on Thanksgiving day most of her life. Of course we make the standard jokes about the whole country celebrating her birthday. I usually have the kids choose what we are having for their birthday dinner. Since Roxanne always gets turkey, the thing she chooses is 'obscene amounts of stuffing!' Her siblings gave her a fabulous get-away weekend at Bear Lake which you can read about on their blogs. They had a great time and were all kinds of silly. I made her a jeans rag quilt and wrapped it around a picnic kit with everything you'd need for a picnic, such as the salt and pepper that Sami was just sure was a set of binoculars! Once she tried it, her sisters had to try looking through the salt and pepper too. It was pretty funny.

A scant 2-1/2 weeks later is Hillary's birthday. It's such a busy time of the year that I've thought about celebrating her birthday on Thanksgiving too but I never seem to think of it in time to warn the rest of the family or do anything about it myself. Maybe next year.

Of course the 'Gingell Girls' can be found wherever there are presents. They don't even seem to care who the present is for but just love to see what's inside. It's a magical time for them so whoever is having the birthday has at least one set of huge eyes twinkling close by. I found it very interesting that after making quilts for Sonia, James and Roxanne's birthdays, that Hillary was still surprised and exclaimed: "Oh, I get to keep it? It's not just wrapping?

It's Christmas

Maher, 4, Sings at National Christmas Tree Lighting LoudounExtra.com The Washington Post

How Time Flies

One year ago today James was sworn into the Army. Thanksgiving time will forever be a time of being thankful for the service of so many in our military forces. James is following in the path of many family members who have also served in the military for various amounts of time. We are, and will be as proud of him as we are of those who have gone before and hope he always remembers the counsel from his grandma:

"be as good as your grandpa and come home every time!"

Stupid Teeth

They call them wisdom teeth but if they were so wise, they wouldn't cause so many problems which end up in their removal so I call them stupid teeth. Especially when they lay down. No point in that... they won't come up and be useful so they're just stupid, lazy teeth. James had all 4 of his stupid teeth taken out on Friday, two of them being lazy as well. He's done very well. He was quite loopy when he first came out of the anesthesia and wanted to go to school! They were dissecting a cow heart and he wanted to be there. Luckily he took a nap instead as the anesthesia started making him a little nauseous as it wore off more and more. Once he got some thing to eat, he was doing better and even went to a mellow concert of the Bar J Wranglers Friday night. He took it way easy over the weekend and was rarin' to go this morning for school. It's nice that he can come home for lunch and get something a little more mouth wound-friendly than chips. We're so glad to have this done.

In response to Sonia's comments, there wasn't much swelling so there was no reason to take pictures. The best tell-tale sign we have is that his cheeks have been sore enough that he hasn't shaved for 5 days. If you click on the pictures to bring them up big, you can see the stubble. Also, since James is being so goofy, you can see that the left cheek is just a little fuller than the right.

Veteran's Day 2008

For many years now I've been going to the Veteran's Day concert in the Huntsman's Center up at the University of Utah. It all started when Sonia was in Concert Choir at the high school. Every year the high schools in Granite School District put on this performance with the 23rd Army Band. It's always a fabulous concert and televised on our local channel 7 which is the university's channel.

After Sonia graduated high school, I continued to go to the concert to support the young women I worked with at church. When James got into JROTC, he began ushering at the concerts. It's fun to have him all spiffy looking as we stand for the various military branches on the medley of their songs.

"Cousin" Mike Cottam has been the conductor for the band for umpteen years and this was his last year. He's always so good to come by and talk to us. The kids in the choir have loved him too and are always eager to speak with him after each concert.