Thankful

It wasn't easy to come to the decision to go to St. George for the Thanksgiving holiday. Our state was just ending a two-week mandate from the governor to limit gatherings more than ever and to quarantine as much as possible. The mandate was lifted in time for Thanksgiving, but there were a lot of recommendations for people to not see family. We felt pretty guilty. But we also felt the deep need to be with my brother and his family and to get away for a while. We had many discussions with no conclusions but some occasional tears as we were deciding. Finally we came to the conclusion that if we basically quarantined ourselves for two weeks before we went we would feel comfortable going, and that's just what we did.

The break was a very welcome one. We missed a lot of our traditions - I especially missed my annual pie-making date with my friend Emily the day before Thanksgiving. But that's just how this year has been. I made a pie by myself and was a little sad, even though I tried a new crust recipe and loved it and a new pie recipe and loved that too.

We headed down on Wednesday afternoon. We arrived in the early evening and they had put a lot of effort into getting the house all decked out in Christmas decorations. It was quite a spectacular sight, actually, to pull up to the house and get the full effect of the beautiful lights strung up and looking like they had been put up just for us. The inside was lovely too, with their Christmas tree up, plus my dad's wooden tree hanging in their stairwell with the brass ornaments on it that my Grandma Romney sent us grandkids every year. Peter's didn't quite cover the whole thing, so after the trip I decided to donate my ornaments to him and sent them down, keeping one or two extra special ones for myself. I loved seeing dad's tree hanging up. This was the first time that Troy and Chase got to see the Romney's new house, and that was fun to show it to them. 

Chase was a good sport - he brought some video game equipment with him that he knew his little cousin Sam would want to play and he wasn't wrong. Sam and Iva were all over him from the minute we got down there to the minute we left. The kids had such a great time playing with him.

 

We made some funny discoveries on Wednesday night - I think this feast was a little challenging for my dear SIL. This was her first time hosting Thanksgiving in her beautiful new home and it was her show. At the same time, she does not feel the same way about cooking that I do - it's been a hobby of mine for such a long time and I really love it and pursue it, so it that way, we had decided together that it was also my show. In her house. It was a little trickier to navigate than I thought it would be. She was so great - she did as much shopping as she could before we came, but some of the ingredients weren't quite what I had expected. She's never cooked a turkey before! How would she know that she was accidentally buying smoked deli turkey breast and not a raw breast? It was kind of funny. Peter and I ended up at Smith's at 11:00pm on the night before Thanksgiving. And trust me, we were not the only people there. The place was kind of hopping. But we found what we needed.

Thursday was a really fun day. We took our time cooking in the morning, and the funnest was little Iva wanting to cook with me. We made a few things together and she was just darling. We were trying to keep the meal pretty simple but as usual I complicated things a little. In the end though it was really a fantastic feast. The turkey legs I roasted were awesome though the breast I pressure-cooked was not what I had hoped it would be. Sheri's potatoes and stuffing were fantastic and I tried a new roll recipe that was so good it was just wicked. I also tried this new pie recipe I mentioned - it had a creamy layer on the bottom covered in fresh raspberries and a glaze that was just so good. And Sheri made a to-die-for chocolate pie and pumpkin too.  Well, I mean pumpkin "two" - she made an extra pumpkin pie which we happily devoured as an appetizer on Wednesday night.

 

What a fun day. We ended the evening by going to get our Christmas tree. Now that was a change from our tradition, wouldn't you say! Our tree-hunting friends weren't available for a cabin trip until mid-December, and that was just too long for us to wait. Peter and Sheri mentioned that there was a great little family down there who cut trees down at their ranch and sold them from a lot outside of town. We figured, hey, what the heck - and we went and got one. It was a great tree. Getting it home was a challenge, and I wondered if we would end up with a bare trunk by the time we arrived in SLC, but it survived the journey just fine, much to our shock. We were happy to support this family and get a great tree to boot. Once the tree was safely attached to the roof of the van and we were back at Peter and Sheri's house, we figured Christmas season was officially here. So we changed into our holiday jammies, snuggled up on the couch and watched our traditional first movie of the season, Christmas Vacation. Love it. (Okay, truth be told, we have been hankering for Christmas since early November and may have already snuck in some tunes and a viewing of Die Hard, another holiday fave.)

On Friday we were lucky enough to have Sheri take us to yet another location we've never been and go for a little hike. It is just amazing that trip after trip Sheri thinks of yet another new place to go. You'd think after all these years we would have seen all there is to see!

We had a lot of fun in other ways too, though I don't quite remember in what order they landed. We drove around a lot to check out the light displays. I can't decide which was my favorite - the house so completely covered in lights that you couldn't find the house underneath it, or the blow-up Santa that was literally three stories high. In someone's front yard. There is a LOT of festive spirit in St. George.  We also had a viewing of another Christmas Favorite - The Muppets Christmas Carol - Peter and Sheri were with us the first time we watched that. We love that show so much. We went for a lot of drink runs, we spent a sunny afternoon in the backyard watching kids play on the trampoline and throwing balls for the doggies, we went on many walks through the new neighborhood and even bumped into my friend Marsha who leapt from her car and clobbered me in a hug when she drove by us on a walk - that was hilarious. And unsanitary, which is not something that ever would have occurred to me prior to 2020 but here we are. It was great to hug a friend.

Pictures of the puppies while we played in the back yard:

Snuggling up while watching The Muppets Christmas Carol (which Sam and Iva didn't quite make it through):

Game night - the scary game of Betrayal at House on the Hill for the big people while I played heads up in the basement with Iva:

Peter, Romney and Siena had a little Christmas Music jam-session that was absolutely delightful:

 

So yes we had a great weekend - we loved being with family for the holiday and our state did not have a steep and massive spike in numbers after it was over. (The biggest was after Halloween I think.) We felt so happy to have gone on the trip and were ready to get serious about celebrating Christmas, plus we only had to pull over once on the way home when our tree spun around perpendicular to our car when we hit freeway speed. Like I said, it was a miracle that we made it home with any tree left at all. We decorated it that very night!

Season's First Snow

Early in November our valley got its first snow fall. It made us feel better about giving in to the temptation to start listening to Christmas music much much MUCH earlier than we normally do. It was very cold and cozy and a perfect start to the holiday season. I bet when people look back on 2020 many will say that this was the year they felt just fine about getting into the holiday spirit a good month before they normally did. We need cheer! We need light and music and celebration! So although by today the snow is long gone, it was a great start to November.

The storm hit on a Sunday - the day before was weirdly warm and lent itself to a lot of yard work so we could prepare. It's not like it was a blizzard trapping us all in our houses but it did end up being quite a bit more snow than we had expected. 

Emma spent the afternoon out in the snow building a snowman. And Troy spent the afternoon alternating between going outside to build and play with Emma and coming inside to warm up his hands on my neck. Emma was thrilled with her creation, and found it hilarious that our only available nose-vegetable was a piece of celery.

 

 

Well that night, the girls climbed in bed and instantly Romney started laughing. It just so happened that the exact spot where she sat in bed to read gave her a perfect view out her window, right at the snowman's face. He was leaning over just a little which gave the impression that he was trying to peek in their window. We all had to take a turn sitting in her spot to look and it made us all laugh so much. Well, everyone except Emma, who was completely freaked out by it, letting her imagination run with the idea, much like her mother used to do herself. We got her settled down and tucked in to bed while Romney read for a while and giggled as the snowman continued to peer in at her. It's a little hard to see in this picture but you can get a glimpse of the snowman, peering in from under the drape of the hammock on the porch.

All of these shenanigans gave Troy an idea to sneak out and play a little trick on the girls. That night after lights out he left through the front door, walked around the house, crept into the back yard, and proceeded to MOVE the snowman towards the girls' window about 15 feet. The next morning Emma was getting ready for school when suddenly she looked out in the yard and froze in shock. Her reaction was better than we could have predicted and she was genuinely frightened, to the point that Troy had to confess, sooner than he wanted to and through some laughter, that yes of course he was the one who moved it. We had to reassure her that snowmen are not actually capable of mobility on their own. That did not stop her from needing more reassuring later when he did it again and the snowman ended up almost on the back porch. Oh Troy, you crack us up. Except for Emma. You seem to terrify her!

The Sunday Walks

Back in March when our Sunday church services got temporarily cancelled (temporarily for eight months), we started having our own church services at home. This was sad, in that we missed our dear friends we worship with, but also, it was kind of great. Having intimate church time with just our family was wonderful. We had many tender times together. Also we had no specific time we needed to wake up or be anyplace. Troy and I took this opportunity to begin what became a weekly date. We didn't realize that at first - it just started that first spring Sunday morning when Troy said, "Hey. Let's go for a walk." And we did, and it was wonderful. A nice long walk. And we came home and I made us poached eggs on toast and it was just heaven. We decided to go the next week as well, and then the week after that. And soon we had a standing date. Every Sunday morning we woke up early, went for a long walk, and came home to enjoy poached eggs on toast. Each week we seemed to walk farther and farther until we had established a route we loved that wound through the avenues and up into the University of Utah. It's about 4 miles long. We pretty much went every single week. Peter joined us one week when he was here, and that's the only walking photo I have.

Well, church isn't cancelled any more. We go once or twice a month. And also it's freezing cold now. So we have stopped going for our weekly walks. And I really miss them, but not enough to go on a walk when it's 20 degrees outside. 

The Exciting Conclusion

The day after Halloween a cold front came in, but cleared up and the first week of November was warm and sunny and so lovely. However, we knew a change in the weather was on its way. Sunday the 8th had a forecast of cold and snow. We knew that Saturday the 7th was to be the final push to really finish the chicken coop. We wanted the biddies to have someplace warm and cozy and dry to sleep just in time for the real cold to hit.

The last step of our big project was to get the fourth wall of the coop designed and built. It took a while to do this because it took a lot of thinking through. It was a complicated project, to have a wall that swung open like a door but also had nesting boxes protruding from it, with their own separate door for collecting eggs. Luckily Troy has a brain for building and was able to figure it out, though doing so caused many moments of frustration. I'm so happy with the result. We got the fourth wall attached and swinging open. it's so heavy! I can't believe those hinges are enough to keep it up, but they sure do the trick. And the little nesting box door is just perfect for peeking in and getting eggs. Assuming the dang chickens ever figure out that is where they are supposed to do that. So far only one of our hens is laying - we are getting probably four eggs a week from Sissy and we are so proud of her. She's the only survivor of the spring attacks. 

Anyway, we got the wall up, and next we had to make a ramp to get up to the coop and attach it. That wasn't too bad. Really the hardest part now is teaching the chickens that a) the coop is where they should sleep and b) how to be brave enough to go up and down the ramp themselves. It's been put together for a few days now - the first night it took 3 people 3 tries to get them all in the coop and then get them to stay there. Every day though more and more of them find their own way inside without our help. As I type this the sun is going down and I'm looking forward to going out and seeing how many went up on their own tonight. (Answer: 5 of 8, same as last night.) It's helped that yesterday and today I blocked off the area where they normally sleep. Hopefully within a few days I won't have to do that and they'll all just go up there. We'll see. Who knows how to teach them to actually go in the boxes and lay their eggs there. I did put ceramic eggs in the boxes to sort of give them the hint - lay your eggs here please! Since most of them aren't laying yet I guess time will tell.

So, yay yay yay our coop is done! Okay, in the springtime we may revisit it and add some paint to make it even prettier (we are thinking barn door red for the coop and white for the trim). And I'm so happy. And I love my husband.