Merry Christmas John and Tash!

Here a few pictures for John and Tash who are in Germany with Tash's family....we missed you at the annual Crozier Family Christmas Eve party. Here are a couple classis moments:

Snack

Today Graham frosted a graham cracker with mayo.

I can't stop laughing!!!!

We had some mayo in a tupperware container which apparently looked very similar to cream cheese frosting.

HAHAHAHA!

Grandma Wilson

I have found myself thinking a lot about my Grandma Wilson this Christmas season and thought I'd blog a few of my thoughts about her to pay tribute. She passed away back in the spring of 2005 due to breast cancer that had metastasized to her lungs.

I'm thinking of her in particular this morning because I just mixed up a batch of her famous Cinnamon Roll dough for us to enjoy on Christmas. She and my Grandpa did not own a house for the majority of my lifetime. Rather than stay in one spot and have people come to them, they made it their mission to go out and help others. They had a white Toyota pickup truck with a big trailer attached (I guess like an RV) that they would travel in. They took many trips around the US in that thing as well as a number of trips to AZ and Mexico where they served at various mission sites. When they weren't serving at a mission, they would rotate between their 6 kids' houses, visiting each for ~3 weeks to a month. My Grandpa would expect a list of projects to work on once he arrived. For our family, I remember him helping build our fence, cementing the back patio, painting the exterior of our house, building cabinets, remodeling the downstairs to create a bedroom for Lani, and building book shelves for us kids.

Meanwhile, my Grandma would keep herself busy inside the house, cooking, cleaning, doing the laundry and playing with us kids. My mom admitted recently that it bothered her at first, that her mother-in-law was doing all the housework because she thought it meant my mom was not a good enough house keeper. But she soon realized it was my Grandma's love language to serve and she always wanted to keep her hands busy helping others.

I think Grandma really wanted to make sure her granddaughters knew the basic skills of cooking and sewings so she would frequently bring projects for us to work on. She taught me to sew a couple of different stitches by hand and to cook. Her specialties were homemade cinnamon rolls and pies. I now credit her as playing a huge role in developing my love of cooking.

We would always ask Grandma for her top secret cinnamon roll recipe. She would tell us that she didn't follow a recipe, she just would put a "scoop full of this and a spoonful of that." We never knew how big of a scoop or spoon to use so finally we had her measure out the ingredients so her famous recipe could be passed on. I've made the cinnamon roll recipe that she wrote out a number of times, but they are never quite as good as hers. She was always so cute because she knew that I liked the gooey middle rolls so she would use a huge pan for my batch (the bigger the pan, the more middle rolls!) But my Grandpa loved his cinnamon rolls crusty so she would make a special small pan for him that were all crusty.

At Christmastime, Grandma would use her same cinnamon roll dough recipe to make "Christmas Tree Bread." She would create strips of dough (each on a bit shorter than the other) and then line the strips up into the shape of a Christmas tree. She would frost them with green frosting and sprinkles and then use red hots for ornaments. I had my first attempt at making Christmas Tree Bread without her last year and hope to try it again this year for Graham and I to bring to work on Christmas Eve. I hope I can keep this tradition going in my family.

Grandma Wilson died a couple years before Graham proposed but I am so thankful that we were dating at the time and she was able to meet him. He was in nursing school during the time as she grew sicker (in addition to the cancer, she had a stroke that compromised her right side) and so I think he was able to be a comfort for my Dad's family as he was able to explain what a lot of the medical terms meant.

Recently, I came across a card that my Grandma wrote (in her very best left-handed penmanship)to me not too long before she died. In it, she commented about Graham, that he was a "very special boy" and that she was glad to know him. I think she knew deep down that he was right for me and that we would get married. Even though I really wish she could have been at our wedding, I am so thankful that I have this card to cherish. I know she approved of him.

SNOW!!!

I love how the city practically shuts down when it snows here. The grocery store has been packed with families "stocking up" for the storm and the streets are lined with three times as many people walking than usual (if snow is what it takes to get them exercising than I'm all for it!) So many people have spent the week at home rather than at work or school. Except for us of course. We never seem to get that lucky. I worked the past 6 of 7 days so spent a lot of my time driving on the roads of Snohomish County which was quite exciting to say the least. My little civic was a little trooper throughout the week....up until today (which, speaking of, since all the news stations spent so much time promoting the coming snow/wind on Saturday night, wouldn't you think they would have had the plowers ready and working through the night for all the people who had to get up and drive in the AM!!!??? Of course not! How could I be so silly to think things might work that logically!) Anyway, the freeway was absolutely horrid yesterday on my drive to work--I have never in my life seen so much snow on a main interstate. I mean, no plow had even touched it! My car kept bottoming out on the snow. Then there was the time I almost slid head on into the cement divider as I was taking my exit. Oh and the time I almost didn't make it up the unplowed major road uphill to my hospital (once I got going, I made the decision to continue on through all the stoplights, even if they weren't the right color--it was that bad.) Then there was the time I got stuck in the parking garage trying to leave my hospital. No one had thought to shovel the incline out of the garage (maybe that was their way of keeping their employees there to make up for all those that didn't show up). Oh and then once I finally got on the road home, I almost hit a line of about 5 stopped cars. Needless to say, it was an exciting day and I somehow made it home in one piece. I have to admit, I squeeled aloud with delight a couple time while driving because it felt sort of like an amusement park ride, sliding and swirving all over with no control (of course, the times I actually enjoyed the sliding were only when no other cars were around me.)

After arriving home, Graham and I decided to WALK to our desired destinations rather than drive. Graham really enjoyed watching all the other cars spin out and get stuck (we helped push one guys out of his driveway). We went for a nice long walk to Starbucks where we read the paper which was super relaxing. Then we had an early dinner and watched a movie. I was in bed by 8:45 since I had to wake up so early to drive through the snow to work throughout the week!

Hope the rest of you are enjoying the snow and staying SAFE! And hopefully basking in the fact that a lot of you don't have to go to work when it snows.... :o)

Frozen Shut

So one of my favorite nurse practitioner coworkers had another story for me today that I felt was worth sharing (the funniest things always seem to happen to her). This one is pretty incredible!

She and her 16 year old twins (a boy and girl) were out at a friends house on Sunday night for dinner. It was dark when they headed for home (for you Seattlites, keep in mind that it was SUPER cold this weekend). Anyway, this nurse practitioner tried to unlock the car and realized, alas, the lock was frozen in place and would not budge. She tossed the keys over to her daughter to attempt the lock on the passenger side. Darn! It was also frozen and not to be unlocked. After spending a long time trying to get the lock open (which included blowing on the lock to try and "melt" it and almost dumping warm water over it), the lock finally clicked. Of course then the door was frozen shut but with lots of force, it opened.

This nurse practitioner was able to unlock the other locks from the inside so that her kids could also climb in. It wasn't until they were seated and about ready to leave that she looked up and saw a crucifix hanging from the rear view mirror that she did not recognize. Wham. All of a sudden, it hit her and she yelled out "Kids, this isn't our car!!!!!!!!!!"

They quickly got out and noticed that there were 2 silver Toyota Camrys parked one in front of the other on the street and they'd accidentally entered the wrong one! Funny thing was, the key worked perfectly in their own car....oops! I guess the doors weren't frozen shut after all.

Isn't that just too funny? So this nurse practitioner kept mentioning throughout the day that she is such a bad mother, teaching her kids to break into cars and all. She said that teaching them to hot wire will be next! :o) By the way, she is black and that is an important preface for this last part. She said (and these are her words, not mine) "Once I realized what happened, I was just waiting for whoever might have been watching us through the window to call the cops to tell them that three black people are breaking into my car! I'm sure it didn't look good."

Anyway, she said they quickly exited the car and relocked the doors before heading on their merry little way.

Christmas # 1

This past Saturday we celebrated Christmas #1. John & Tash (Graham's brother and wife) are headed to Germany for Christmas with Tash's family which called for an early celebration with the Crozier Clan. Scotty just arrived back from 118 days in South Africa to join the party--it was so great to have him back! Of course he came bearing many African gifts, a couple of which are pictured below. All the boys got these very colorful tops which made for a great photo.

Isn't the picture below just the cutest ornament ever? Apparently it is the favorite and most-prized ornament to all of the boys. Poor Ingy hates it and tries to hide it every year and keep it from getting on the tree but somehow it always ends up front and center. I don't think the boys will ever stop teasing their mother....For instance, it is also tradition for the boys to mess around with the nativity scene. Mary is frequently caught making out with one of the shepherds (I am told that Graham usually pulls this fast one) and so on and so forth.

Anyway, back to Christmas, I got some wooden giraffe salad tongs which I LOVE and 2 fun necklaces, one made out of African seeds which I have been parading around ever since. You can kind of see the seed necklace in this picture:

We had cheese fondue for dinner follow by chocolate fondue after the gifts were opened. Apples to Apples was debuted for the first time in the Crozier family and I must say they are the perfect group for this game--I don't think I ever stopped laughing!

Graham and I ended up getting "snowed in" that night (okay so maybe we really like the Crozier's guest bed and sorta packed extra undies and toiletries in hopes that it would snow and give us an excuse to stay over...) Anyway, it made the drive to church the next morning take 10 minutes rather than 40.

We had a wonderful weekend with family and I'm thankful for all the ways they make me laugh.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

So this past Saturday night, Graham and I decided to see a late movie after he got off work. I was super excited because Four Christmas' is out and I really was looking forward to a cheery, light-hearted Christmas movie (I always try to see one each year). Anyway, apparently Graham and I did not agree on what makes a "heart-warming" movie because he wanted to see The Boy in the Striped Pajamas because he had said it was really, well, heart-warming. Holy cow I don't know WHAT he was listening to but it is more like heart-WRENCHING! Has anyone else seen it? Holy moley it was well done but wow! I have never felt that heavy after walking out of a movie. It probably didn't help the fact that I was already crying over other things in the theater before the movie even began....but still, what a tear jerker!

I won't ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it and plans to (though it may not seem like it from my commentary, it really was very thought-provoking and I would recommend you all see it--just not when you're in the mood for a cheerful Christmas comedy), but in summary, it is a story about the Holocaust through the eyes of two 8 year old boys, one who is the son of a German soldier and one who is a Jew. I have always realized that the Holocaust was a terrible tragedy but never quite pondered the immense consequences that came as a result. And quite frankly, it baffles me how nearly an entire country's population could be brain-washed with such false and horrid assumptions about a select group of people.

Graham and I came away wondering how history teachers in Germany now present the past events of the Holocaust to their students--is it presented as a grave error? I'm not quite sure how else it would be presented but I sure I wish I had a German history textbook handy...

Happy St Nicholas Day!!!

Did St Nicholas put anything in your shoe last night?


It is hard to believe, but some of you may not know that today, December 6th is a very special holiday. St Nicholas was a 4th century bishop who was renowned for his kindness and generousity. He would visit homes and night, leaving toys, treats and candies in the shoes of good little boys and girls. I highly doubt he had a big belly, long white beard and a red suit, but who am I to say??

Growing up, we always set our shoes out on the night in December 5th, in hopes of having them filled by morning. Each year St Nicholas left us a mandarin orange, a candy cane, chocolates and very special ornament. I love this tradition and all the memorable ornaments that I have in my possession as a result. Graham and I continue to celebrate this tradition with just the two of us but I hope it is one that we can pass on to little Croziers in the future. In the meantime, I'm wondering why the rest of you did not find your shoes filled with treats....hmmmm?

Here's a glimpse of today's additions to the tree.....

I don't think there was any way dear old St Nick could pass this one up--in case you're wondering, it was in Graham's shoe. He can't wait to show his mother! :o)

This was also in Graham's shoe--a beach turtle

A red hot chili pepper--are we sensing a theme here? Looks like St. Nick had Mexico in mind when he selected these ornaments. Maybe that's because we leave 20 days from today!! (This cute one was in my shoe--a perfect addition to my foodie ornaments).

French Onion Soup Story

Me: "I'm planning the menu for the week. Do you like French Onion Soup?"

Graham: "No."

(Long pause.....me thinking "I've never made it for him before, I wonder....")

Me: "Have you ever had French Onion Soup?"

Graham: "Nope."

Me: "Oh, I see. Well it is actually really good. It has a rich beef broth filled with onions that are sauteed until sweet and caramelized. You top it with a thick slice of french bread and a layer of melted gruyere cheese--yummy!"

Graham: "Okay, that sounds good."

This little conversation we had makes me giggle and I had to share it. To his credit, the title French Onion Soup does not sound very appetizing or thrilling.

Tonight we shall dine on soup!