Cookies with Grandma

The Christmas season affects both the young and the old. Just in different ways.

Irish Waifs

THE LATEST IN WEE FASHION:

Making Papa's Birthday cake!

Tilda put the candles on- and Una helped with clean up!

Sunday morning dancing in Grandaad's ballgown.

HAPPY BABY

Sunday morning dawned with a glorious sunrise....and a bodacious babe!

DINNER!

It is pretty amazing to see something start to finish! (And pretty delicious too!)

Sausage Making

DAY 3:

Sausage making. We made Italian Sausage, Tradition Sage sausage, and other kinds as well. A gigantic mountain of ground pork piled high on the countertop by the end of this day!

Day 4:

Lard rendering and soap making. All finished!

Making the cuts. Bothilde the wonder packager!

The first portion we butcher is the big ham. Here are two of them pictured here!

BOTHILDE AND UNA BUTCHER 2 PIGS

Hog butchering takes a good 3-4 days. It was quite an experience for the whole family to see a pork chop be born.

DAY 1:

Slaughtering, skinning, and gutting our dear pigs. Then they hang overnight.

Day2:

We cut each carcass down the middle and butcher each side seperately. Here are Papa and Bothilde and Una ready to begin!

Marine on St. Croix Cemetary

All Souls Day

We spent All Souls day at the cemetary in Marine. It's really something to watch wee ones weave in and amongst gravesites...the Communion of Saints.

Happy Feast of All Saints!

Halloween was spent carving pumkins and talking alot about souls seperated from bodies, praying for our deceased loved ones, hunting and gathering candy in the dark (and it's analogy to the heavenly rewards we seek by being good) and just plain HAVING FUN!

Tilda went as a Ballet dancer (what else is there?) and Una went as a "Bearellina" Auntie Allie and her friend Mel came along too. MARINE on ST.CROIX MN: Halloween town USA, where the neighbors pass out glasses of beer and wine to the parents, bowls of chili and cornbread abound, fire pits to gather around and warm the hands...the fire station hands out glow in the dark necklaces and candy bars (big ones) and the icecream shop gives away all its end of the season icecream. Glorious way to begin a celebration of the COMMUNION of SAINTs!

Una made off with an awful lot of candy. I think the cuteness factor played in quite a bit there.

Season's signals

We've been putting the gardens to bed. Cut down the asparagus ferns and created a very dramatic centerpiece with them. Also made a very delicious apple pie. It's long gone. Bothilde and Una are making apple dolls with dried apples for heads....pictures to follow. They are strangely life like!

UNA ROSE WALKS!

Una began to walk today while we were listening to a Mozart symphony and clearing dishes!! Bothilde walked while Shane and I were dancing...perhaps music is the stuff (and staff) of life!

WELCOME!

This one is for the Grands! Pass it on!