A South Dakota Christmas

This is the beauty we woke up to on Sunday morning. The trees were flocked with snow and stayed that way almost all day. It was gorgeous.

Dad opening our gift from Amy, Chase and Kurt. We love it!!!

It has an AM/FM radio, CD player, cassette player plus a record player. I have it on all day long. Thank you, Amy Kurt & Chase!! You chose well.

Here we are opening up our Edeleen t-shirts - what a perfect gift to come from our loved ones in Washington. It will remind us of one of our favorite things to do when we're out west. Even Chase knew what Edeleen was all about. Thank you, DeAnn for keeping our memories with us. You chose well also!!!

Chase and his new picker-uper. He had to explain to Kurt what a pickekkr-upper was and how to use it. Now Chase has his own!!
Chase is looking over his new calendar - what a thoughtful gift from his Auntie Dee and her family. He thought it was really nifty!! Says he's going to put it in his room - I think he should put it in the kitchen when they can see and enjoy it every day.

The Kramer Klan men (minus 2)

AND

The Kramer Klan women (minus 3)

I'm NOT the shortest - in fact I think I'm taller than both Jan and Amy Marie!!!

Well, that's it for my Christmas pics for now. I wish both of you a VERY blessed New Year chocked full of love, joy, peace and contentment!!!!

Love you,

MOM

My Wonderful Daughter, Amy Jo

It seems I have done a major injustice to my darling, wonderful most favorite #2 daughter. I am so sorry that you were the only one left out of Grandma's Birthday Party pictures. I owe you a major, huge apology. Actually I was just waiting to do a special Amy Jo blog with just your pictures on it. He's now "one of the Kramer Klan" whether he likes it or not. Doesn't Kurt have a winning smile?

Is this true love?

Once again, my dear Amy Jo, I am so sorry I left you out. Have a wonderful day!!!

MOM

The Rest of the Story

Merry Christmas to our family. This is our picture for the church directory - I personally like the ones that Julie did better but then you have to work with what you have.

This is the picture that Chase made for his dad for Christmas. Isn't it nifty? He is so talented!!

Our Chase and his purple belt. I know it looks blue but it really is a very pretty bright purple. Way to go, Chase!!!!!

Mr. Smiley and his family.

The young many behind Rudy is Karla's son, Joe.

I know Aunt Dee's eyes are closed but on the other one of them, Grandma's eyes were closed so since it's Grandma's special day, I chose the better picture of Grandma.

The Double J's

Teresa was in Arizona - will get a family picture at Christmas.

It's the best I had - Dad says it's not that bad??!!

Well, that's the rest of the story of Grandma's birthday. The computer man is coming this evening to "clean up" my computer and get it ready for me to take to Arizona. Sounds like we're going the end of next week. It's too cold and they keep talking about snow - that's the ugly "S" word to us.

Blessed Christmas to all of you!!!!

LOVE MOM

Grandma's 89th Birthday

Happy 89th Birthday, Grandma.
I think Grandma had this smile on her face all night - she loved having almost all of her family there, as well as her brothers. Grandma and some of her very favorite men!!!!!!

This young man came a bit late with his dad and at the very end of the night, he came up to me and asked if I would take his picture with Grandma. Ben, you are one of a kind!!!

Grandma told these two young men to take off their hats; however when they did, I told them to put them back on. Pete came right from work and he needed his hat and as long as he had his on, Paul might as well keep his on too.

This guy really likes his Grandma.
This picture isn't a great one - have to see if Aunt Jen's is better but wanted to include Brandon too.

This young man said he wouldn't miss Grandma Annie's birthday.

Can't forget the best looking great-grandson there. Chase, you're the best!!

I'll post pictures of the family on Tuesday. Have a good week!!

Love to you both, MOM

From Snowstorms to Baking Goodies

Went to lunch with the Uncles today - I love it!!!

I tried to get this picture to go down with the other baking pics but it won't move. This is all of our cut-out cookies all frosted - they are really good!!!

I know this doesn't look too bad as far as snowstorms go but this is the morning after and if you notice the front sidewalk, you can see how deep the snow was. What you can't see is how butt-cold it was!!!! BAKING DAY at Aunt Evelyn's: This year it was just the sisters, minus one. Teresa is in Tucson taking care of her brother while her parents are on a cruise. We made a lot of goodies - of which a very small container came home with me.

Amy, the frosted cookies were particularly beautiful this year - they were all appropriate colors, such as yellow for the stars and green for the trees.

Jen likes to roll out the sugar cookies and she's showing off her dirty, flour-covered shirt.

Our Christmas dinner at Von & Doug's home. We had pork chops, cheesy potatoes, carrots, corn, macaroni salad and rolls plus pie and ice cream for dessert. It was wonderful and what makes it even more wonderful was our gracious hostess.

Trying to show us how macho he is???!!

Uncle Marv and Uncle Elmer - both of them are looking pretty good

My New Bling

This is my new "bling'. This is my birthday, Christmas and anniversary gift from your father. Pictures just don't do it justice - I think it's BEAUTIFUL!!!! Aren't you both jealous?

Christmas Cards & Turkey Soup

This is what 59 Christmas cards stacked up looks like. Saturday morning (forgot to get a picture) Aunt Sue, Aunt Jen, Aunt Jan, Amy Marie, Amy Jo, Grandma and I addressed, stuffed and stamped Grandma's Christmas cards. After we had a delicious breakfast of eggbake and caramel rolls - YUM!! Grandma called a little while ago and said again what a nice gift that was. She has sent a few more and says she needs a couple more pictures. I had written a letter for her to use, if she wanted, for some of her cards other than the nieces and nephews. It was just a rough draft. Today she tells me that she had it copied at Bethany Meadows and was going to send it out. Sure wish she would have let me know first so I could have redone it for her.

I'm working on some special projects - see what a mess I have - actually it's a "controlled mess" because I know where everything is. Of course since I'm working on this, I'm not getting a lot of anything else finished. I would have taken a picture of my dirty floors but I'm not sure it would have turned out very well. Dad said he would clean them for me, but so far no luck!!

Last year for my birthday Chase and Amy gave me this Christmas cactus - it was blooming at the time and LOOK - it's blooming again. I don't do a very good job with my flowers but this one actually does best if you just do nothing other than water it once a month or so. It's very pretty - Chase says he really likes the "big buds".

Dinner tonight is homemade turkey rice soup - any one want to join us? I tasted it a bit ago and it could use a little more spices but I don't know what to use. Will have to look in some of my cookbooks. Amy cleaned out my cookbook shelf on Saturday when she was here. It looks so nice and organized now. Oh by the way, Amy, I think I'm missing my cranberry salad recipe card.

My decorated living room - the only thing I have is my little sleigh with last year's cards. I'm hoping maybe I can convince dad to bring up my "winter tree" tonight. I see everybody else's trees in their houses and it makes me a little sad that I don't have one. Want to come over and put one up for me? Holly, I need you!!!

Amy booked Holly's plane ticket for Arizona today and I'm excited. It's still a ways off but it will be so fun to have her all to myself for a whole week. Have to start thinking about things to do besides swimming, swimming and more swimming.

Well, that's life at the Haan household today. Just got a call that our new furnace is going to be installed tomorrow - I'll be sure to take a picture of it for all of you. Thursday dad and I will go pick up my new ring - I'm really excited to see how it turned out. You girls will be so jealous of your mom!!

Have a terrific week ahead and love to all of my readers.