Christmas Catchup

Please click on each of the Jpegs to read the text. Thanks for tolerating my scrapbook format!

Higher, Taller, Smarter

Tonight I was helping Talmage study geography. We were talking about how Mt. Everest is the highest mountain at 29,028 feet above sea level, but how Mauna Kea in Hawaii is the tallest mountain from the base of the sea floor at 33,476 feet. Talmage said, "Mom, I have a way to explain this. You stand next to the table--You're Mauna Kea. I'll stand on the table--I'm Mount Everest. I'm higher, but you're taller." I was stunned because I suddenly understood it so much better, myself! What a great explanation. Talmage is our guy who has to get all kinds of special help at school, but anyone who knows him for long always comments on how smart he is. It will be very fascinating to see what he does with his very unique intelligence.

Gingerbread Houses

Thanks again to the Schauerhamers for giving us our first experience with homemade gingerbread houses! Gianetta gave me the recipe and it was not as hard as I thought it'd be. You roll the dough out on a foil-lined greased sheet just like bar cookies. Half-way through the baking you cut out the pattern--so fuss free! I loved the meringue frosting that looked so much like snow. Thanks for the new tradition guys!

Thanksgiving 2009

One thing we are grateful for is our new friends the Schauerhamers (pronounced like hammers in the shower). We invited ourselves to their house for Thanksgiving, and we're so glad we did! Our boys absolutely love their kids. Talmage and Caleb are best friends. They all ran around non-stop and hardly ate any of the amazing food, while we adults talked non-stop and ate all of the amazing food. Gianetta is an awesome cook and baker. She made delicious home-made stuffing, a brined turkey, berry jello, pecan pie, chocolate cream pie and the absolute highlight of the day--her berry pie. I was in heaven for days from tasting that pie! I made rolls, lemon meringue pie, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bars, sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes. Ben is a pilot for FedEx so naturally Clint and he have a lot to talk about. They both attended Orem High and the same Jr. High, but did not meet there. My cousins the Radebaughs and the Hales also went to those schools and Gianetta asked my cousin Ryan to one of the girls choice dances. The Mormon world is a small one. Here are some pictures I'm glad that Gianetta managed to take on such a busy day.

Two Headless Boys and a Mantis Found

I wonder where Ethan and Jack are? I haven't been able to find them ever since Clint painted their faces with his camo kit. And what is that large insect doing on our lawn?

Snow Day. Seriously.

But who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth?

Trace's first haircut

I wanted to let Trace's hair grow out indefinitely, but I finally decided the 4-inch feathers around his ears had to go. He looks so handsome, but less like a baby. Sigh. He's 20 months old.

Thanksgiving in First Grade

I got to join both Talmage and Cole's classes celebrate Thanksgiving. In Talmage's class (I have no pictures) they made apple turkeys. They stuck toothpicks into the apple and piled up candies on the toothpicks to look like feathers, then marshmallows for the head, neck and feet. Very yummy. They all enjoyed it. Talmage went with a spotted cow motif for his turkey--always original.
Cole's 1st grade rotated between all 7 classrooms (can you believe what a big school that is)! Each of the teachers had an Indian or Pilgram craft. Cole's favorite was shaking the cream in the baby jars to make butter. Cole also loved his costume: white shirt with a black belted vest, rolled up jeans, long socks and church shoes.

Christmas Eve 2009

T'was the night before Christmas and all through the Cresap house....Many creatures were stirring. We had the honorable Hales: Joey, Katie and Luke, the great 'rents: Papa and Grammy, and guest stars Sarah and Max Meacham join us for our dinner and Christmas Eve program. We had Chinese food for dinner, because it's easy and delicious: Kung Pao chicken from the box and Joey and Katie's fabulous Asian Chicken salad. Our program involved the Zarahemla Christmas skit, which was really fun to do because this year Tal and Cole can read. It was also really rough because they are still very new readers, but next year will be even more fun! Then Cap and Pam did the Zacharias and Elizabeth skit, complete with buffalo robe, because if you've got one, you've just got to wear it whenever you can. Then Clint read Luke 2, we watched Luke 2, which is always the most touching part, and finally we sang "Silent Night." Then the boys got PJs and books which they are modeling and reading below.

Luney the Luna Moth

Our family has been here-to-fore quite anti-pet so the boys (including Clint) get really excited about any kind of animal life that crosses our path. What you see above was the product of a cocoon that was in the bottom of a toilet seat box we got from Lowes. Since the toilet seat was made in China, Clint was sure we had an imported visitor. The cocoon was about 3-inches long and an inch wide. About 1/3 from the bottom were these creases so that the bottom could hinge up to 45 degrees from the top 2/3. Every time the bottom was poked it jerked to the opposite side. It was kind of a trip. It was in the cocoon for at least 2 months, so long we were sure it was dead, but then, when we poked it, it still moved. One day we found the cocoon empty and a bit later we discovered this moth on the windowsill. We think the color was such a lovely lime green and the antennae are so pretty. I'm not sure if you can see it in the photograph. Clint looked it up and it is a Luna Moth and it is North American. It hung around for a couple of weeks before it died, not having found a mate. We appreciated its visit.

Service, Please

Jack, with our food drive haul

There is nothing like Christmas to make you want to bite off more than you can chew. So, this December I decided I'd try to do one service project each week with the boys. We did manage to get one done the first week. I wanted to take goodies to the neighbors (but I was a little embarrassed to do it so early), and I also wanted to help Tal collect canned food for the cub scout food drive. Tal came up with the idea to trade "cookies for cans." I thought that was a brilliant idea. So we made up about 7 plates of cookies and took them to friends in our neighborhood and Joey and Katie's neighborhood. It was great fun to visit our friend's homes and the boys got to see how generous people can be.
After that our December got extra crazy with birthdays on the 9th and 10th, the Hale family calendar project and visits to Tal, Cole and Jack's classrooms. So, I decided it made more sense to do it when the kids got out of school and we needed to keep them busy anyway. So our first holiday Monday I took the boys to the store and they helped pick out treats and gifts for a soldier care package to send to Clint's old squadron in Iraq. I knew it'd be late, so I planned it to be a New Year's Package. The nice thing about gifts is that late is always better than never. I told the boys as we got out of the car that they'd be writing thank you cards to go in the package. Cole said, "Mom, that's embarrassing." I said, "What do you mean?" Cole said, "I don't want to do that in the store!" I explained we'd be doing it later, at home. The boys did o.k. in the store although they kept wanting the toys and candy to be for themselves. I kept reminding them that we were supposed to be thinking about the soldiers who were away from their families at Christmas, not about ourselves. We went home and as I was loading the items into the box I noticed Cole take a tightly folded piece of paper and slip it into the box, like he didn't want me to see. I remembered he'd said this kind of thing is embarrassing. I took the box in my room to read the note. I was so curious. It said, "If you don't like anything in this box, send it back." Ha! Later we did write some actual thank you notes and I explained to them about 9/11 and what the soldiers were doing over there to defeat Al Queda. Talmage wrote on his note, "Give the enemy a knuckle sandwich from Clint Cresap's son."
I wanted to take the boys to a rest home to sing carols but eliminated that idea because of 1) lack of time 2) the boys don't sing Christmas Carols and 3) the boys would probably run around and touch people's things and stress the old folks out. Discretion being the better part of valor, we passed. We'll do it later, maybe with one boy at a time.
So finally, we whipped up more cookies (since my hips need frequent injections of my favorite mint chocolate cookie recipe) and took them to more friends and neighbors. And we took one plate and a loaf of pumpkin bread to the fire station. I expected to see a table of goodies, but there wasn't a thing. Just a dozen fit and bored firemen looking very excited to see treats. They were so grateful and thanked Talmage and Jack so enthusiastically I was really taken aback. Talmage and Jack were really impressed that they'd done something nice. Have you ever observed that a grateful recipient often does far greater good than any service offered?
I'm glad this Christmas season got the ball rolling for us in the service department. I'm hoping to do projects on a monthly basis this year. But I'm really low on non-holiday service ideas. Could you share any ideas you have for service projects?

Clint's Actual Birthday

Clint's actual birthday fell about 4 days after his big surprise in Nashville. We still had a few celebrations here. I wrote him a card with his 40 contributions to the world. I have to say it was pretty easy to come up with 40. He's a man of many talents and tends to polish everything he sets his mind to. His main gift was his wardrobe overhaul we picked up on our first trip to Nashville. He also got an Airhog helicopter--these never seem to get old. And we feasted on ice-cream, upon which were only 4 candles. The boys had to pull out their 10's times tables for the event.