Momma's Little Helper

My sister, Sylvia, is an amazing cook. I can still remember watching her run out to the back yard and grab an apple or two before coming inside and whipping up a pie crust. Put it all together and the results were delicious.

Yesterday she made a lemon meringue pie. Her little girl helped her beat the egg whites and add the sugar in order to make a perfect meringue.

It tasted as good as it looks.

Got Safety?

After it falls to the earth, snow must be cleaned up. That is, driveways must be cleared, sidewalks and roads shoveled and de-iced, cars dusted off. In that spirit, my dad, mom, and sister (Patty) cleaned up the snow from off cars, sidewalks, and the driveway. It took a while, but they did it. And they did it efficiently. I watched the event from inside with my little nephew.

If only I could say the same thing for our city bureaucracies. This year, due to our "crumbling" economy, there isn't sufficient money (so I've heard) for cleaning off the roads. I don't know about you, but there are certain things finances shouldn't get in the way of, and safety is one of those issues.

I just wanted to vent a little.

Thank you to my parents and sister who efficiently cleaned off our little chunk of property.Baby Brian and I watched from inside...you can see that he isn't about to take his eyes off his mom.

S%#@

The word "snow" is a 4-lettered word in my opinion. Mostly, I hate driving in it. I wouldn't consider myself to be a nervous driver, but in the snow, any trip is taking with fists clenched and white knuckles. The thing that makes me the most nervous are other drivers who are completely oblivious to the weather conditions.

That said, I will admit that I like looking at snow as much as the next person. On Christmas day we got around a foot of snow in the valleys of Utah. I am grateful that I didn't have to drive in it. Some of my siblings and their families did, however.

The day after Christmas, I took a couple of pictures from the comfort and warmness of my parents' home. The posted pictures are of my parents' back yard.

Christmas Lights

My sister and I decorated our Christmas tree a little late this year. Oh well. I decided to take a picture of the lighted tree with my iPhone's camera function. I took the picture mostly to see how the iPhone's camera would work. I admit, it's pretty cool.

Technology aside, I love light and one of the things that I love most about the holiday season is seeing all the lights put up everywhere. It's almost magical.

I hope you agree.


Merry Christmas to all and Sarbatori fericite!

4th Time's the Charm

You probably can't tell from the previous post about Little Cakes that these are much better. As it turns out, the 4th time is the charm. There's no stopping me now!

Welcome

Saturday, December 13, 2008, my baby brother, Devin, became a dad. Congratulations to he and his wife, Amber. She's darling.
Welcome, little Elizabeth.

Little Cakes

A long standing dessert in my family growing up is a Norwegian treat called velstang (I'm not sure about the spelling). It's no surprise that we had trouble saying the Norwegian word as youngsters. We dubbed them "Little Cakes" and that is what they will always be. They are delicious and I thought you all might like the recipe.

Little cakes

1 cup water
1 cup flour
4 eggs
1 Cube of margarine

Bring a cup of water and one cube of margarine to a boil. Take it off the heat and add a cup of flour. Mix well into a ball. Add 4 eggs, one at a time, beating eatch egg into the batter. Grease a cookie sheet and place batter in spoonfulls in rows on the cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. (They should be golden brown). Frost after the product has cooled.

Here we go a Caroling!

On December 1, I began to listen to Christmas carols. I grew up listening to the typical Christmas carols we are favored with here in the States. I also grew up listening to German carols, in German. As a missionary, Romanian carols or colinde were included in my listening and singing repertoire. I decided to make two lists...My top 1o favorite secular carols and my 10 favorite religious carols. I've included the artist where I feel it is necessary, or the translation or where the carol is from (if I don't know the exact translation).

Secular
10. Sleigh Ride, Harry Connick, Jr.
9. Where Are You, Christmas?, Faith Hill
8. The Christmas Waltz, The Carpenters
7. Am plecat sa colindam (We've left to go caroling)
6. You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
5. Grown-up Christmas List, Amy Grant
4. Believe, Josh Groban
3. Kling, Glockchen, Klingelingeling (Ring, Little Bells, Ring)
2. Pa Laver Sitter Nissen (Norwegian)
1. Santa Baby, Eartha Kitt (It's the only version, as far as I'm concerned).

Religious
10. Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht
9. What Child is This?, Sarah McLachlan
8. Es ist ein Ros Entsprungen
7. Steaua (The Star)
6. Il e Ne le Divin Enfant (French)
5. Oh, Holy Night, Josh Groban
4. In the Bleak Midwinter, Sissel
3. Still, Still, Still, Mormon Tabernacle Choir
2. Mitt Hjerte Alltid Vanker (Norwegian carol, sung by Sissel)
1. O ce veste minunata (Oh What Wonderful News)

Just because a carol didn't make my list, doesn't mean I don't like it, too. These are simply my favorites. I could listen to them all day and it would be way better than listening to the lame stuff on the radio that is played over and over and over and over until the carol is dead.

Sunset over Idaho

I've never been a big fan of the state of Idaho. Since my brother and his family moved there, I have had the opportunity to travel there several times. It's worth it to see my family. They love it there and are very happy, which is all that matters.

On our way home on Saturday, my parents and I got to see some divine art. Cameras and camera phones are unable to capture the depth of color but you'll get some idea of the amazing sunset we saw on our way home. It was truly awe inspiring.The picture is not bad considering I took it from my iPhone in a moving vehicle.

I Love You, Sweet Girl!

A cute little Princess and her aunt!

B's Botez

The Romanian word for baptism is botez. I was really happy to be able to attend my niece's baptism. She looked very pretty in her white dress and I was touched to observe my niece sneaking in one more practice run before they left the house for the service. I'm really very proud of my young nieces and nephews as I see them endeavoring to make the right choices in their lives. They help me stay on the right road. What a wonderful influence they are in my life.

Thank you my Little B for your goodness. I sure love you!

Perching

I went to Idaho with my parents on Friday night so that we would be able to attend my niece, Bethany's baptism the following day. Not long after we arrived, my mom sat on the couch. The result of my mom's sitting down anywhere is always the same: we call it perching.

1 Decembrie

Today is Romania's National Day. I thought it would be interesting to gather some information about this important day in Romania.

The following information is taken from Wikipedia. The URL is below. You can go to the Wikipedia site for more information and time lines leading up to Romania's unification.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_Transylvania_with_Romania)

Te iubesc, Romania!

Union of Transylvania with Romania was declared on December 1 [O.S. November 18] 1918.

The national holiday of Romania, the Union Day (also called Unification Day[1]) occurring on December 1, commemorates the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia, which declared the Union of Transylvania with Romania. This holiday, set after the 1989 Romanian Revolution, marks the unification not only of Transylvania, but also of the provinces of Banat, Bessarabia and Bukovina with the Romanian Kingdom, in 1918, the Union of Transylvania with Romania being the last event, sealing the unification of the country.

There you have it...to all my Romanian friends, La multi ani cu ocazia 1 decembrie!!!