For the New Little Crandall

This is my current project. I took plain onesies and sewed

designs on them of my own making for my sister-in-law's newest due any week now. The picture with the large flower and the one with the animals are the fronts; the picture with the little flower is the back (both are the same in the back).

More Christmas Pictures!

I am so excited to be an Aunt of 6 soon to be 7 precious children. I am attempting to place pictures together by child. This is my nephew Jude.His brother, another of my precious nephews, Ezra.On the left, their sister and my niece, Sadie. On the right, my niece Hannah of the Colorado Crandalls. Theo is another Colorado Crandall and is looking so grown up!His older sister, Grace, joined him in this photo.Our contribution to the "family" comes by way of our kitten Lucy.

First Christmas as "A" Crandall

This is my first year as a Crandall attending the Crandall family Christmas. With over 6 months of marriage under my belt it was time for my first big family holiday. The family meals were undertaken with much planning and preparation from Jan and went off with out a hitch. Amazing how fast you can feed 14(+1) hungry people! We ate like royalty!And when we were done eating Jan had activities (and more eating) for the kids.The nieces were adorable. I love being an Aunt. (and of course I love the nephews too :) When Christmas morning finally came, everything was actually very orderly and I enjoyed the expectant children's faces.For only taking 2 shots, this family photo of the Denver Crandall's turned out quite well.It is hard to take pictures of people that they themselves like but I thought this snuggle between "Mimi" and "Papa" was just perfect. What great examples of a loving relationship.And finally, a moment to ourselves for a Christmas kiss. More pictures to come. I took tons.

Christmas Date Night

Both Andrew and I were sick over out 6 month "luna-versary". In the past, for every luna-versary, we had at least had a bottle of sparkling cider and a special meal (which I usually cooked). Due to illness we put it off till last weekend. Not bad, only a week late. Andrew surprised me by bringing home a beautiful Christmas flower arrangement.

We also celebrated by enjoying a free Christmas show put on by the Assembly of God in Willmar. On our way we stopped by DQ for ice cream. Heehee. Then we continued on to the show. It was called: It was sort of a play/musical. There was a whole choir and many of them acted as well. The "baby Jesus" was a real baby that behaved so well! I wanted to take pictures of the event itself but my camera is big and loud and I didn't want people looking at me :). Instead I just got a couple pictures off the Internet from the same musical done by other churches.

The Rabbi that played in this version was hilarious! It really was like the Christmas story meets Fiddler on the Roof. My only complaint was we were in the last row of the balcony and it was freezing as they were pumping in cold air when outside it was below zero plus windchill. There was lots of cuddling in our pew :).

Driving Tour of Spicer

I've lived in Minnesota for fifteen-odd months now. Alissa joined me six months ago! And since we're a bit out of the way of normal family driving patterns (and many of you may never come see it for yourselves, *cough cough) we thought we'd share a wee driving tour of Spicer, which, in case you've heard rumor, is, in fact, nicer.

Turning first to a bird's eye view, one can observe that Spicer, located in the middle of Kandiyohi (kan-dee-YO-hi) County is truly in the "Land o' Lakes." "Kandiyohi" is the Dakota (Sioux) word for "buffalo fish," and Spicer rests on the southwestern shore of the 12-mile-round Green Lake (or "Mdeto" in Dakota, meaning "green water"). On the northeastern shore lies Hope Presbyterian Church, three miles north of town. Twelve miles to the southwest of Spicer, you will find the bubbling bird-town of Willmar (Turkey, anyone?), home to such amenities as Wal-Mart, Target, and Taco John's (a sad replacement for Taco Bell, but I haven't found one within 50 miles of Spicer!).

In the next aerial, you will find Spicer, up-close and personal. As you can surely see, this town of 1,200 is composed of two neighborhoods: one in the upper-left corner of the screen and the other in the south-central part. Others live around the circumference of Green Lake. Our home is the fourth one from the bottom in the south-central neighborhood. Directly behind us is a row of senior housing, our bank, and our grocery store, "Jahnke's."

Now, for the drive in and through Spicer! Beginning at Hope Presbyterian Church (northeastern corner of the lake), which is my place of work and our very frequent stop:The road south into Spicer follows Green Lake, frozen by this time of year and already beginning to be populated by fish-houses. (In January there will be easily fifty or sixty fish-houses and cars and trucks out on the ice.)

Further down the road you will come into Spicer itself. Pictured second is the town's lakeside park, and third, the main street.

Now, just in case you've been getting the wrong idea, Spicer does, in fact, have illuminated traffic signals. Two of them, to be precise. They came a few years back with the widening of the state highway, and are, in my opinion, totally superfluous. In thebelow photo you will see the boldly named Green Lake Mall (two minute walk from our place), home to our grocer, a liquor store, a pharmacist, a medical practice, and a soon to be opened "Snap Fitness."

The turn onto our street, Lakeview Drive.

Lakeview Drive as you approach our place. On the left is a bit of woods that backs onto a pond.

And finally, we're home again. We've been richly blessed to be able to stay in this house owned by a member of Hope Church.

So, now that you've seen a little bit of Spicer, grab your booties and beanies and come skating with us!

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Well, friends, December 6th has come again!

What's that, you ask? December 6th? What could that be?

Why it's the feast day of St. Nicholas, of course!

Yes, it's true, I believe in "Santa Claus." No reindeer or north pole or any of that hokey stuff though! St. Nick was the bishop of Myra (in present day Turkey), and died on December 6, 326. (The lives of Christian saints have traditionally been celebrated on the day of their death, or, rather, the day of their entrance into glory.)

During the Reformation, when a number of new Christmas traditions were invented (in order to liberate good Lutherans from papist rituals), some of these new festivities were conflated with centuries-old St. Nicholas' Day traditions, resulting in the the present confusion regarding "Santa Claus" and December 25th.

Many in Europe still remember and celebrate St. Nicholas' life in distinction from Christmas, however. St. Nicholas of Myra was widely acclaimed as a saintly Christian during his life and after, leading to the telling (and creation!) of many stories about his good deeds. He is most well known for secretly giving dowry-money to an impoverished man with three daughters (allowing them to marry and avoid being sold into slavery) and interceding on behalf of innocents condemned to die, the former story being the inspiration for secret gift-giving on St. Nicholas' Day.

Alissa and I, having considered that we will be away from home on Christmas, decided to celebrate St. Nicholas' Day together (on the eve of the day). Our "secret" gifts for each other were exchanged (I luckily procured the last of which the evening before!), and we had a light Mediterranean meal (as St. Nicholas and Bible figures likely would have had): pita dipped in olive oil and za'atar (a mixture of thyme, sesame seeds, salt, and other spices). The olive oil and za'atar were produced by Christian Arabs in the West Bank (having come to me via the fair trade table at presbytery).

Some reasons for celebrating St. Nicholas Day:
1) Allows one to focus on Christmas when December 25th rolls around.
2) Celebrates the life and example of a Christian who has gone before.
3) Don't have to wait until the 25th for presents! (*insert wink here).
4) Helps clear up some of our culture's St. Nicholas confusion.

The wee, secret gift exchange:

Lucy, dreaming of St. Nick:

Sewing!

I am so excited! This year for Christmas mom sent me her sewing machine. It is a Swiss-made Bernina. I grew up making doll clothes on this thing, breaking a needle in my finger, etc. etc. We have a history! :-) Mom has grandma's now so she gave me hers. I have already been busy on this thing. As you can see, I have made this years Christmas cards on it. I sew the fabric shapes right on the card stock. I thought they were unique and really fun to make. Don't look too closely, your might be among them; act surprised ;-)

I am learning to monogram with the machine, which is something that neither mom or I had tried with this machine. They are a work in progress. I also found some really cool fabric at Jo-Ann's the other day. I have plans for it!

Thanksgiving

We had a great time with family over Thanksgiving. The time went too quickly though. There were lots of good times but my favorite was photographing my niece and nephews. They grow up so fast and you just have to catch all the moments before they pass by. This weekend was especially fun because Ezra was talking a lot and very excited to let me take some pictures. In previous visits it has been hard to get him to smile for a camera. Now Sadie is a different story. She is such a little actress. She loves dancing and making faces at the camera. Jude was doing his best to explain something to me here. I love the "explaining finger" pose. He can say some words already. And here is future-Cranbaby that I will get to photograph! (behind Jude's head :)
In the next two shots you will see Jonathan teaching Jude to chase and poke Andrew with a pie server. Jude looks thrilled with the proposition.
We enjoyed some family bonding time over Skype with the other family missing from our Thanksgiving table. Usually we had no less than 6 in the camera frame at a time. We were all eager to talk and we even got to virtually tour David's house.
And let us not forget the last two family members that were here for Thanksgiving: Jack (on bird patrol) and Lucy (who spent the whole time shut away due to ringworm...).