The Hendrickson Boys

Daniel loves his little bro . . .

. . . and taking random photos with our camera.

Todd wore Daniel's painted bow tie onesie to church today, and looked pretty snappy, I must say.

Cuckoo and Goats

Joy's piano teacher holds "play parties" once a month during the school year.  They are casual recitals hosted at students' homes.

Joy's teacher, Mrs. Manners, introduced each student . . .

. . . then the student performed a number they had chosen and prepared beforehand.  Joy selected "Cuckoo," and did a good job with it.  After all the students had played, we adjourned to the kitchen for refreshments.

Occasionally the goats got into the house, which always livened things up.

Grandma's Memorial

My mom's dear mother passed away this month . . .

. . . so Todd and I traveled to Portland with my parents and brother Andrew for her memorial service.  It was wonderful to honor Grandma and hear about her rich life.

It was also great to spend time with my aunts, uncles, and Great Aunt Elizabeth (everyone lovingly called her "Naughty Betty" when I was a kid, and but she prefers "Elizabeth" now and I always have to remind myself that that is her real name).

On the way back to the airport, we stopped by Grandma's old house.  I visited it twice as a child, and I recall it being a place of good cheer and interesting new things to experience.  At winter time there were icicles on the eves, and Dad went ice fishing with Uncle John.  In summer I sampled rice candy (wrapped in paper you could eat!) and watched a spider fight with a wasp in Grandma's garden (I forget who won).  Any time of year, it was fun to see Grandma's little dachshunds, Heidi and Fritzy.  All these years later, dachshunds still make me think of her.

I love you, Grandma.  I'm sure you're excited to be in Heaven blessing others, since you loved to do that so much in this life.

Ornaments and Bubble Wrap

The kids and I decorated our Christmas tree last night.

We have a couple buckets of child-friendly ornaments the kids can hang on the lower branches . . .

. . . which is just as well, because by lunch today our tree looked like this.

Daniel was mainly interested in the bubble wrap some of the ornaments were packed in (and apparently he didn't want that documented).

He also took a few pictures while we decorated.  I think Daniel may have a career ahead of him photographing driver's license pictures at the DMV.

 Todd slept the whole time.  Thank you, Todd.

Birthday Donuts

We celebrated Joy's birthday with family this evening.

Todd played with Pink Grandma, . . .

. . . Anna did an impression of Joy (the coat is so eye-catching that you almost don't notice who's inside it), . . . 

. . . and we all enjoyed Joy's dessert of choice: donuts she selected from a local shop.  We also offered grapes and oranges, 'cuz if you eat donuts with fruit it's healthy and the calories don't count, right?

Happy Birthday, Joy!

Two Turkey Days

Call me crazy, but for years I've wanted to try cooking Thanksgiving dinner, even though plenty of capable relatives are happy to do it for me.  I guess I just wanted to see if I could pull it off.

Last weekend I finally did it.  I prepped as much as possible the night before, then Phillip tended the kids Saturday afternoon while I cooked for an hour and a half.  I made turkey breast in the pressure cooker, mashed potatoes on the stove, sweet potato casserole in the oven, and steamed broccoli in the microwave.  Everything turned out pretty well, but I'm not in a hurry to do it all again.

Today we headed to my parents' home and let the experts handle the feast.  Grandma cooked the turkey, Grandpa carved it (88 years young and he's still got the knack), . . .

. . . Phillip rinsed the dishes, . . .

. . . and Sean and Heather took tryptophan-induced naps (if you look closely at Heather's heels, you'll notice they're about six inches tall; it was kind of weird to look my short sister in the eye when she was standing).

Yes, the food was great tonight, but my favorite part was just spending the holiday with family.  I feel so blessed.

Grease Monkeys

Anna helped Daddy take care of his bike this morning.

First Daddy examined the tires, . . .

. . . then Anna provided a careful second opinion.

They checked the chain tension . . .

. . . then cleaned the chain.  It's never too early to teach the value of a clean chain.