Happy New Years

Last evening while I was busy reading and posting pictures, Dick and Destiny were having a puzzle marathon. They were so quiet over there I thought they were falling asleep. But, no, they were just really concentrating. Above are the results of their labor. At 11:30 PM they were still feeling wide awake and crazy.

Actually, about an hour later I was the only one still up and once again I thought I was hearing a very strange noise. It seemed that I was hearing the roar of traffic from a nearby highway, like I have never heard it before. I opened the sliding glass door and looked out to see if there was a big truck going through our community. Nothing. Hmmm.

Just a while ago on the news I heard that there was another earthquake about that time. It was centered about an hour or more away from here, and it was only a 2. something, but I definitely heard it. Crazy!

Now we're preparing to hit the road for State College where we will once again spend New Year's Eve with Anthony and Lori. We had so much fun with them last year. But oh my goodness! We are having outragious wind and the temps are to dive down into the teens by tonight. And we're going to look at ice sculptures???? Are we a little crazy or what? We shall see how all this goes.

Happy New Years to you all.

More projects

I spent a lot of today catching up with our personal bookwork, bills, and year-end donations. Sam came home to do his wash, so this afternoon I took time out to go with him to A&M Pizza. They make THE best subs. Destiny wanted pizza though, so I shared a pizza with her and ate a little piece of Sam's sub. Afterward we took a sub to Dick. He was working on someone's car at his dad's place (where he has his tools.) He is keeping so busy, it's amazing!

Today a box arrived that I was waiting for. Last week when I was at Target I saw ONE last Family Alumina Flip Photo Album. I knew that was exactly what I wanted to put pictures in for our kids. So I came home and ordered them from Target online. Aren't they beautiful? The cover looks like a motto, and it's on a stand. Then you flip the cover and each consecutive page up over to view the photos.

And now I'm going to try to embed a slideshow of the pictures I will be putting into these albums.

Keeping things interesting around here

On Sunday after church we finally had a VERY laid back day at home. It was just what we needed after so many days of meals and activities. For Christmas Destiny's mommy gave her a Nintendo DS and a prepaid cell phone. Destiny had been almost obsessed with them ever since she got here on Thursday morning, and it was driving me crazy. I just despise seeing kids become "addicted" to technology. I think the obsession is finally wearing off. Yesterday she had a great time playing with her doll and it's horse and wardrobe. She has always had such a wonderful imagination, and I so do not want her to lose it.

We also got out one of the gifts from Thyda and made a beautiful bracelet.

Today she has contented herself with one imaginative and creative thing after another, while the cell phone and the DS got little attention.

Speaking of the DS, I have to tell a story. A couple of years ago when the Nintendo DS was brand new, a little girl at school was the first to have one. As I waited with the kids during dismissal, she got the little thing out and began playing a game. The other kids were saying, "Wow, you have a DS!" As they oohed and aahed over it, I asked, "What is DS?" A middle school boy wisecracked, "Go back to the Segno." That still just cracks me up. What a great answer to give to a music teacher! Brownie points for sure!!

This morning I had a great disappointment. I was planning to go on a short trip with my sister Mary Ellen and my parents to my brother-in-law Elvin's house near Gettysburg. His daughter Lori and family from Michigan and his son Scott and family from California were there for the holidays and this would be our only chance to see them before they returned home. On my way to meet Mary Ellen, my car's transmission went out. By the time Dick could come to my rescue too much time had passed, and they had to leave without me. I cried tears of disappointment over the missed visit, as well as tears of discouragement as Dick came to the conclusion that we would need a new transmission. But as the day is passing, God is continuing to be faithful and our needs are being met.

Yesterday I wrote an abbreviated version of my annual letter and today I did my literal cut-and-paste family portrait. For the first time in my life I sent them to many people via email. Desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess. Here's our picture (it is clickable:)

Back: Krister (Miki's husband), Ray, Thyda, George, Sophie, Lisa
Middle: Katrina, Miki, Bjorn, Sam, Jeremy, Frank
Front: Anthony, Lori, myself, J'von, Dick, Destiny, Adrias

As I said in my letter - the size of each head has nothing to do with that person's value!

And I'll copy the letter below for any and all who are interested in reading what you probably already know about us!!

The Stauffer Newsletter

Christmas 2008

Because most of our family and friends keep up with our family via my blog (www.musicaljean.blogspot.com), this will be an abbreviated version of our annual letter this year.

Dick and I have been walking a new road this fall since Dick became unemployed on September 3rd. We are thankful for unemployment pay, for the generosity of our children and many of our friends, for the ever-lowering gas prices, for my jobs at Manheim Christian Day School and Grace Community Fellowship, and for the amazing faithfulness of the Lord. We do not know what the future holds for us, but then, who does? Also this fall Dick needed another round of chemo treatments for lymphoma, which he again came through like a champ. In spite of the lack of fulltime employment, Dick has been staying amazingly busy doing various kinds of jobs for others.

Destiny, now 8, moved to Reading, PA this year with her mommy, but spends every weekend and holiday with us. We always look forward to having her here. She often gets to spend some time with Frank (her daddy) on Saturday evenings.

Miki and her children, Katrina (15) and Bjorn (12) spent a week-and-a-half with us this fall. What FUN we had! Dick also spent a week in March visiting them in Sweden, as did Anthony and Lori in August. They have big plans to move in April from the small town of Vannasby to the city of Umea where Krister works at the hospital and the kids go to school.

Lisa, George, and Sophie (almost 4) keep busy with their house in Tampa, Sophie’s activities, George’s job, their fitness efforts, and their church. They spent about 10 days in PA in June, and Dick and I have each been down there a few times this year.

Anthony and Lori have the biggest plans of all – they will become the parents of a son in the next month. Needless to say, I am delighted that they only live two hours away in State College!

Sam still lives in Downingtown, PA and continues to do very well at Pall Trincor, Inc. We have enjoyed many weekend visits from him this year.

Frank now lives in Hershey, PA and is working for a small HVAC company. He and his adorable little boys, J’von and Adrias, have joined us for numerous family events this year.

Jeremy is now a senior at the Art Institute of Tampa, with plans to pursue a Masters in Architecture. He enjoyed numerous opportunities to participate in community theatre this past year, always good reasons for Mom to take a trip to Florida! He came home when Miki and her kids were here and added lots of fun to our times together.

Ray and Thyda continue with the US Navy, based in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area. We had many wonderful times together this year, both here and at their home in Virginia. Currently Thyda is deployed onboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt from September to April. How Ray misses her, and so do we. Not being able to come home for the holidays was very, very hard for her. We are thankful for email and that she can call Ray sometimes.

Wow, if you're still with me, congratulations! You read my whole post!

Our fondue meal

It was possibly twenty years ago that Miki participated in a fondue meal with the young adult group from our church. She came home with all these ideas, and we just had to try it on Christmas day. We have been trying it every Christmas ever since. There have been years when there were way too many people around the table and it was difficult to get one's turn at the pots of hot oil in the middle of the table. But it was always a very jolly time with plenty of typical "guy" behavior, especially from Ray and Frank.

Well, this year we had the smallest group ever - just Ray, Frank, Destiny, Dick, and I. We had no problems reaching the hot oil, but we still had a whole lot of fun. Ray helped me ahead of time to cut things up. We had smoked sausage, beef, venison, breaded butterfly shrimp, breaded broccoli and cheese, tater tots, chicken nuggets, jalapeno and cheese hot dogs, and meat balls. We also had cheese fondue with tortilla chips, as well as chocolate fondue with cherries, strawberries, bananas, and pretzels. WAY too much food, but oh, so yummy.

Frank and Destiny "worked off" their big meal playing games on cell phones!

Gifts from Thyda

In the evening we opened our gifts that Thyda had sent us. What a sweet thing she is - thinking of us when she's the one that can't be home for Christmas.

We thank you and love you and miss you, Thyda!

Earthquake

Last night after I crawled into bed I checked my watch and it was 12:00 midnight. Right after that I heard the front door slowly open and it was Ray "sneaking" in. I decided to close our bedroom door so he could watch TV in the living room without bothering us. Just as I did I heard a LOUD explosive noise and felt what seemed to be a freight train running right under our house. I said, "Dick, something happened!" I looked out the front door, but nothing seemed amiss. Ray came out of the bathroom and said it sounded like something exploded right underneath the toilet!! We came to the conclusion that we had apparently had a small earthquake. So I went back to bed, but wow, my heart was pounding and I felt afraid to go to sleep.

This morning I checked our local TV station's website and learned that we had had a 3.3 earthquake here in Lancaster County. The only other one I remember was on Easter evening 1984. They say that one was a 4.0 and it was VERY scary, because the trembling lasted a lot longer. Dick's family was at our house for our Easter gathering when it happened. Boy, what's up with these Stauffer gatherings?? We had just been together right before this one occurred too!!

I know one thing. I have no desire to live in California.

The Stauffer Clan Christmas

This evening Dick's side of the family gathered at his dad's. They have a long basement room with tables stretched from one end to the other. My biggest problem is wondering what they're talking about at the other end of the table!! We had a FUN evening together, as we always do. This is a truly wonderful family to belong to.

After supper most of the adults enjoyed sitting around and talking. Destiny had fun playing with Natalia, Krista and Pete's 3-year-old.

Not all adults enjoy sitting around and talking, however. No Stauffer gathering would be complete without a good game of "Monkey in the Middle."

The most popular member of the family was 6-day-old Adam, born last Saturday to Krista and Pete. Here he is with his mommy Krista, his Grandpa Steve and Greatgrandpa Howard.

Look at little Adam making eye contact with his grandpa already!

We took our turns holding the precious little bundle.

Our Christmas day

We had a very small group for our Christmas dinner. Ray was on duty in Virginia Beach (he drove home afterward) and Sam had plans with the girl he's seeing, so those around our dinner table were:

my sister Mary Ellen, Destiny, and Jovanni (Frank's girlfriend's son),

Frank with his girlfriend Marisol and his son J'von,

and Dick and I.

On Saturday we plan to have our traditional fondu meal. Ray desperately did not want us to do that without him. I think he and Frank have an ongoing competition to see who can consume the most meat. We shall see on Saturday!

Of course, for the kids opening the gifts is far more interesting than the meal. Here are J'von and Destiny waiting patiently for the adults to get things started.

One of J'von's gifts was this cool Air Jordan jacket. Take note, Anthony. Your son may like one of these someday.

I got Destiny two things for her American Girl doll - a wardrobe for her clothes....

...and a horse for her to "ride." I was delighted to discover that Target sells these things at a much lower price than the "official" things in the American Girl catalog.

Christmas evening at my dad's

Last evening some of my family members gathered at my dad's house. One of our traditions is to sing Christmas carols together. It brings so much joy to my dad to sing with his family. Well, we had joy alright. But I'm afraid it wasn't from the carol singing. Mary Ellen and I got one of our historic sister laughing fits during the second song, and it was all downhill from there. At one point Mary Ellen stood up and sang with her back to me, hoping to be able to thus control herself. But alas, that struck me so funny I could do nothing but howl. Sorry, Dad. Hopefully next year I'll behave myself better.

Here's my dad and my brother.

My brother's wife Nancy, two granddaughters, and daughter-in-law Jennifer.

My brother's son Richard and his son, Josh. Josh is one of "my boys" that I will miss terribly after he graduates from 8th grade this year.