A Very Merry Christmass - 2013

Just as our Thanksgiving was different this year, so was our
Christmas.  Different, but like Thanksgiving, still wonderful.

Brinton was not going to have his children on Christmas and
Presley was going to spend time Christmas day with her
father, and so he and Allison planned a Christmas Eve
celebration at their home.

Rhonda, Steve, George and I, Trey, Jenna, Montana and
Harlee, all arrived with gifts, to join Brinton, Allison,
Brexton, Nixin, and Presley.

There was an air of excitement in the air.  Hugs, kisses,
and Merry Christmases were exchanged, we enjoyed a
festive supper of red velvet waffles with all the trimmings,
bacon, and hot chocolate.  It was a perfect Christmas Eve
repast, refreshing and very delicious.

After we ate, gifts were exchanged and opened.  It was so
much fun, and so exciting watching, the children open their
gifts.  The expressions of wonder and joy on their faces,
was incredible.  I think they all received just what they
wanted.

The adults, too, received some fantastic gifts, and there were
many oohs, aahs, and "this is great" resounding around the
room.

After the fun and excitement of opening gifts, it was time
for the children to make their traditional Gingerbread
 Houses.  It is always so much fun.  It is hard to tell
what they like best, building the house or eating the candy.  

Since Brinton and Allison would not have their children on
Christmas day, they were leaving at 10:45 to fly to New
York City to spend several days.  They reported Christmas
Day in New York City was amazing.  Allison had her "bucket
 list" of things she wanted to do and it was fun to share their
excitement through pictures posted on Instagram and
Facebook, as Allison checked them off her "bucket List".

We missed having Cote with us, but Rhonda delivered our
gifts to him and watched him open them.

Christmas morning, we went to Steve and Rhonda's for our
traditional Christmas breakfast and festivities.  Trey, Jenna,
Montana and Harlee, Scotty, Carri, Martin, Miller, Mallory
and Maxwell, Ryan, Julie, Crew, Cole, Cash and Gracie,
Brannon and Amanda were all there.  Steve and Rhonda
had a house full of grandchildren playing and having the
time of their lives.  Next Christmas, Brannon and Amanda's,
as yet unborn son, will add to the excitement.

As always, breakfast was delicious. Rhonda made baked
French Toast and Trey brought a Dutch Oven breakfast
casserole.  Guests brought trimmings for the French Toast
and fruit bread.  There was an assortment of beverages.

Because of an unexpected and unwelcome health crisis, I
was unable to do much for Christmas this year.  Rhonda
drove me to Barnes and Noble and helped me select books
for our great grandchildren.

George made the fudge this year, and it was wonderful.  I 
did sit and talk him through the directions and watched
the clock as he stirred.

Craig and Tracey had a pre-Christmas trip to Miami for
their anniversary.  They reported a wonderful time.  We
talked to them, Hannah, Josh, Cameron, and Chasity
Christmas day.  We weren't able to talk to Jared and
Christi, but we received a beautiful Christmas card
from them

We talked to Jeni and she told us about their Christmas
and Ethan and Ryann's Christmas experiences.  We sure
missed sharing their excitement with them.

We talked to Justin and he reported a white Christmas in 
Cedar City and some great snowboarding.  He also told us
about his drive to California to spend Chrismas with his
family. 

We haven't seen Miranda yet.  She has been so busy with 
work.  She sent us a card and gift and exchanged Facebook
messages.  We will see her as soon as she has a break in her
work.  We have her and Ryan's fudge waiting for them.

Saturday, Paul and Joanne came to spend the day with us.
George and I fixed lunch for them and Steve and Rhonda. 
They all said lunch was delicious and the three hours we
sat around the table reminiscing and talking, was really
special. They gave us a fun report on Ethan and Ryann
and their respone to the fun and excitement of Christmas.
We gave them their fudge and sent Chris,  Jeni, Ethan
and Ryann's home with them.  We gave Rhonda and
Joanne baggies and let them take as much of the left
over fudge as they wanted.

On Monday, December 30th, some of our family members
went to see the beauty of the thousands of Christmas lights
and images at ZooLight at the Phoenix Zoo.  They have the
most amazing light display each year, and each year they
add more.  Besides the Polar Slide, they installed a zip line
this year.  I really missed seeing them. It is so much fun
watching the children's response to them.

The festivities are not over yet.  Steve, Rhonda, George
and I recieved a Christmas present from Trey, Jenna,
Montana, Harlee and Spur, to go to their home for a
Dutch Oven Classic dinner on Thursday, January 2nd.
We love visiting their farm.  It will be fun.

Trey and Jenna spent hours of their Christmas vacation
installing a new Gymnastics Bounce Floor at their gym,
Define Yourself Tumbling and Cheer.  They installed 40
boards (I think that is the number) and 2,000, or more,
springs on the boards.  What a task, but now the students
will have an even better bouncing and flipping, good time.

It has been  a beautiful and busy Christmas season.  George
and I are blessed with the most amazing, supportive, loving,
family we could have ever dreamed of having, and it just
gets better every year.

There is no one we would rather be surrounded by as we
celebrate the birth of our elder brother and Savior, Jesus
Christ, than each of you, who make our life so beautiful.

Even our little ones realize that Christmas is more than
the Christmas Tree, presents, ZooLights, and decorating
cookies and making Gingerbread Houses

G-Mama (Rhonda) asked Montana, Trey and Jenna's
little Princess who will be three in February, if she was
having fun at Christmas.  She threw her arms up in
the air, way over her head, and yelled, "Yay,
Christmas, Jesus's birthday!"

Brinton and Allison's little Princess Nixin, who turned
five in Ocober, was asked by Allison,  "So, do you
have a favorite Christmas you remember, or a favorite
gift you recieved?"  And Nixin said,  "The thing I like
most about Christmas is that it is Jesus' birthday. 
Jesus was born and he destroyed all of the bad guys,
and then we all sang, "I Am A Child of God"

What would we do without our children.  Yes, they
make Christmas exciting and beautiful, but as young
as they are, in their innocence, they help us remember
what the true meaning of Christmas really is.

Remember, in St. Luke 18:16, it says, But, Jesus
called them unto him and said, "Suffer little children
to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such
is the Kingdom of God."

Thank you to our family for loving us, we love you

We Serve Our First Thanksgiving Dinner

When I was was growing up in Panaca, Thanksgiving was
always a day filled with love and laughter, family and
friends.  Mom and Dad always made sure that there was
no one in Panaca who did not have a place to go for
dinner.  It was a tradition to have guests, other than
family, for dinner.

Our Thanksgiving was filled with tradition, starting the
day before when Mother would bake her pies and the
shells for the whipped cream and jelly tarts She would
have the dried corn softening in her special broth and the
lemon sauce made for her suet pudding, a favorite dessert
of family and friends.

Delores and I would dust each room in the house, giving
special attention to the piano and all of Mother's Elf
figurines and seashells.

Thanksgiving morning I would wake up to the heavenly
aromas emanating from the kitchen and the rustle and
bustle of Mother as she worked.  She usually had a few
chores for Delores and I to do.  When we were finished,
she would send us outside to while away the time until
we were called inside to set the tables.  We waited with
unrestrained excitement for that call to come.  It was so
exciting as family and friends began to arrive.

After Dad said a prayer of thanksgiving and blessed the
food, dinner was served.  The menu for our Thanksgiving
dinner never changed, it was tradition.  There was turkey
and dressing, ham, mashed potatoes and turkey gravy,
Mother's famous sweet potato souffle, dried corn,
reconstituted and cooked in her original cream sauce,
green beans and onions, fruit salad with pomegranates
and whipped cream, several varieties of Mother's home
canned pickles and her famous rolls served with oodles
of fresh churned butter.  For dessert there was pumpkin,
apple, mincemeat and cherry pie, and all of the whipped
cream and jelly tarts the children could eat. And, of course,
Mother's famous suet pudding with lemon sauce, which
the older people, especially, looked forward to with great
anticipation.

When your mother holds the title of "Lincoln County's
Most Famous Cook", with her fame extending throughout
the State of Nevada, her Thanksgiving dinners are legendary.
I look back at this and marvel because until the early fifties,
all of this was done on a wood burning stove with no hot and
cold running water in the house.  Lois Stewart Wadsworth
was truly a "miracle worker."

After dinner, Dad asked each family member and guest,
to share something they were especially grateful for.
Plates of food were then delivered to the elderly and
needy people in town.  That was anorher James Allen
and Lois Stewart Wadsworth Thanksgiving Tradition.

When George and I were married in 1951 and I joined
him in California where he was in the Navy and stationed
at The Naval Training Center in San Diego, it was nearing
the Thanksgiving and Christmas season and even though I
was excited to finally be with my husband, I was very sad
at the thought of being away from Panaca and my family
for the first time at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Our first home together was not in San Diego but in
Westminster, 95 miles and an hour and a half drive from
San Diego.  As I have previously written, George's
brother Jack, his wife Lee, and their two children,
Lloyd and Jackie, lived there.  While we were waiting
for our name to come up for a unit in Public Quarters
near the Training Center, George wanted me to live near
them so I would not be alone as often .

On our first Thanksgiving as husband and wife, George
was able to leave the base and come to Westminster for
Thanksgiving weekend.  We had dinner at Jack and Lee's.
Lee's parents, Mom and Dad Shinpaugh, her three sisters
and her brother were there.  It was a lovely day and
dinner was delicious, but I was so homesick and missed
all of the tradition associated with my family.

We were living in Hillcrest, a suburb of San Diego,
on our second Thanksgiving.  George was scheduled for
duty on both Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It was a
sad, lonely time for me.  I spent Thanksgiving with my
friend Annabelle, whose husband, Nick, was serving in
The Personnel Division with George and was a good
friend.  He also had duty that day.  Annabelle and I did
not cook dinner, we ate out and I don't remember where.

Our third Thanksgiving found us living in Public Quarters
with Annabelle and Nick as our neighbors.  We were excited
to plan our own Thanksgiving dinner and cook our first
turkey and dressing.  Several weeks before Thanksgiving,
I frantically wrote Mom and asked her to send instructions
for cooking a turkey and her recipe for dressing. 

We invited Nick, Annabelle and two other young men
who worked in The Personnel Division with Nick and
George, Danny Peruzzi, the little Italian bundle of
energy I have previously written about, and a handsome
African American boy, O.J. White.  They were both
single and had no place to go for dinner unless they ate
on base.  Thus, we were following Mom and Dad's
Thanksgiving Tradition of everyone having a place
to eat dinner. 

The recipe and instructions for cooking the turkey and
dressing arrived along with a suet pudding and recipes
for Mother's pie crust and lemon sauce,  There was also
 a jar of the Pottawatomie Plum Jelly, made from the
plums on Mom's trees and used in the tarts, a small bag
of dried corn with the directions for reconstituting it,
and the recipe for the cream sauce to cook it in. 

Following tradition, the night before, we made a pumpkin,
apple, mincemeat, and cherry pie, the shells for the tarts,
the lemon sauce, and started the process foe the corn.

Thanksgiving morning, carefully following Mom's
directions, George prepared the turkey while I made the
dressing.  He then stuffed the turkey and got it in the  oven. 
He used his own recipe for the sweet potatoes.

I was a nervous wreck waiting for the turkey and dressing
to cook; would it be cooked properly, would it taste good?

The turkey and dressing were cooked to perfection.  The
lemon sauce was maybe not as smooth as Mom's, but it
was delicious.  The pie crust was as flaky as it should be,
 the tarts were beautiful, and miracle of miracles, the corn
turned out tender and creamy.

George and I were relieved, a bit surprised, but very
proud of our endeavors, and our guests thought dinner
was perfection.  They even raved about the suet pudding.
Everyone is not raised eating it like I was and do not
know how wonderful it is until they eat it for the first
time.

I was ecstatic; we observed traditions, the guests were
wonderful, and they left happy and sated

This is the story of the first turkey and Thanksgiving
dinner we prepared and served as husband and wife.

THANKSGIVING AND SUET PUDDING TRIVIA

By the mid fifties, Mom and Dad had running hot and
cold water in the house.  We had bought Mother a gas stove,
not to be used in place of her beloved wood burning stove,
but in addition too.  We also bought her an electric roaster
oven in which she soon delighted using to cook her turkey.

For years, Rhonda has been cooking our Thanksgiving
dinner. She and Steve are the ultimate host and hostess
for us, their children and grandchildren and other special
guests  They have established Thanksgiving traditions
and it is heart warming to me that most of them are the
same as the ones I grew up with and raised our children
with.  Rhonda always cooks her turkey in her electric
roaster oven and it is always delicious.

Like Britain's famous Plum or Christmas Pudding,
Suet Pudding is a steamed pudding and they are all
made with suet.

Many people do not know what suet is.  It is the hard
fat taken from the loins and around the kidneys of
beef or mutton.  It's melting and congelation point
is high and it has a near zero smoke point.  This
makes it ideal for deep frying, pastry, shepherds
pie, and steamed puddings.

In the days of the Puritans and early Mormon Pioneers,
suet was most often what they used in their cooking and
baking.

You can find suet in many supermarkets by going direct
to the butcher and requesting it.  It will be fresh when
 you purchase it.

George and I learned to make suet pudding using Mom's
recipe.  In our El Cajon Wards and the Descanso Branch,
we became known for making it during the Thanksgiving
and Christmas season and it was always a favorite and much
loved dessert for our family and friends, especially the
older people.  We were asked one year to make it as one
of the desserts for the El Cajon Stake's Relief Society
Christmas Dinner.  We served it with lemon sauce and it
was a big hit and talked about for a long time. 

Mother's Christmas gift to her children when they married,
was always a suet pudding, fruit cake, pine nuts, and a jar
 of Potawattomie Plum Jelly for tarts.  They would arrive
wrapped in Chrismas paper in time for Thanksgiving.  She
did this each year until she was no longer physically able to
do so.

The following post is the letter and instructions we received
from Mother after I frantically wrote her for help as we
prepared to cook our first Thanksgiving turkey and dinner.

I had told George we absolutely could not cook our turkey
without one of his old white t-shirts, bleached, washed and
greased with shortening, to wrap it while it cooked.  I have
always thought that was the secret to Mother's perfectly
roasted turkeys.

We Cook Our First Thanksgiving Turkey



Bless my wonderful Mother.  She came through with
aplomb.  The directions arrived in plenty of time.

The Suet Pudding was delicious.  I could not imagine
Thanksgiving dinner without one.  The lemon sauce I made
was delicious and our guests loved it and the pudding.

Thanks Mom, you helped make our day perfect!

 

Thanksgiving on the Farm

Thanksgiving this year, 2013, was different. Rhonda and
Steve had left on Thanksgiving day to go to Costa Rica. 
Trey and Jenna invited us to their home for dinner.

Brinton, Allison, Brexton, and Nixin , came.  We missed
Presley.  She was with them at Allison's parents earlier
in the day before they took her to her father.  We also
missed Cote who was uable to be with us.

Jenna's brother, aunt, cousin, her husband and children,
 came.  It was nice to meet them.

Dinner was wonderful.  Everything was delicious,
starting with a gourmet cheese ball and a cream cheese
log with crackers, as appetizers.  They served all of
the food that is traditional in our family; turkey, dressing,
ham sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean
casserole, rolls and pecan and caramel apple pie for
dessert.  Jenna brewed a delicious hot pumpkin drink
drink and there was a selection of soft drinks.

Everyone but us brought something to the dinner.
When we asked Trey what he wanted us to bring,
he said, "Nothing, you get to sit back and relax
this year."  I have to admit that even though I felt
lazy, it was very nice and relaxing to just enjoy the
wonderful food and good company.

It was a gentle and peaceful day on the farm and a
joy to watch the little ones playing with each other
 and the animals.  Montana and Harlee were so
proud to share it all with the rest of us.  I was
reminded of my Thanksgivings on our farm when
Montana explained everything in great detail.
Muggles had so much fun with Spur and the children.
Nixin, especially, made sure she was well loved and
played with.  I asked Brexton what his favorite
part of dinner was, and with a big grin, he replied,
"The pumpkin pie!"

Trey and Jenna played the role of host and hostess
with perfect poise and watching our great grand-
children enjoying each other's company and having
fun on the farm, gave us a very special reason to
count our many blessings on very this beautiful
Thanksgiving day.

We missed the rest of our family but knew that
wherever they were, they were enjoying Thanksgiving
surrounded by the love and laughter of family and
friends.

Thank you, Trey and Jenna for inviting us to your
beautiful home for a lovely Thanksgiving celebration.