Twas the week before Christmas

Twas the week before Christmas and the Dennis's are....

Making baklava and toffee (a Christmas tradition)

Rejoicing that the Christmas cards have been sent and gifts have been bought!

Reflecting on the lovely music from the Tab Choir concert (thanks mom & dad D.)

and the family dinner and A Christmas Carol with the Jefferson gang.

Remembering the words and music we sang in the ward choir today

and how they made us feel.

Anticipating a week full of visiting friends, family gatherings, yummy food,

games, gift giving, and being filled with the Christmas spirit.

Brad's Moment to Shine

Brad was asked to sing in our ward's Christmas Party. He made an arrangement of Silent Night and did a fabulous job. Everyone including me thought it sounded like a Spanish guitar arrangement. I was especially proud because my high school choir director taught me how to critique and improve musical performance, so one night I was Brad's coach and afterward it sounded so polished. Of course people are over generous in their complements but after his performance he received complements such as "where do I buy the CD," "are you a professional" " seriously you never took lessons" and "you have a gift from God we hope you stay in our ward forever and ever."

"Hallelujah"

I've always wanted to sing the Messiah with a choir. There is so much intensity in Handel's music and the words of Isaiah are so moving. This year I was able to sing the Messiah (complete with a full orchestra, choir, and soloists) with the Holladay Interfaith Community Choir . It was a special experience. I will never forget the feeling I had singing the Hallelujah Chorus at the Holladay United Church of Christ. Though we have different religions we come together with in a beautiful union with our faith in Jesus Christ. What a perfect way to welcome in Christmas this year.

Happiness is...

A Grateful Heart

It's that special time of year to remember family, friends, and all of the blessings we have. It's been a busy week for the Dennis's. So besides the usual family, friends, the gospel, and health which we are very grateful for, here are a few of this past weeks things to be grateful for.

Mary:

1- Gianni (forgetting about confidentiality for a moment) has been placed in a Special Education Unit after 2 years of testing, interventions, and more. Though I will miss the child and his obsession with dinosaur sounds, I'm very happy to know that his whole life will now be different because of my work these past 2 years.

2- I have recently discovered pumpkin pie. I'm not sure why it took so many years to try it and like it, but I have and I do enjoy especially Ryan's classic recipe.

3- Only one more set of Parent Teacher Conferences this school year.

4- The Clam Chowder Discovery (see previous post)

5-Cheese Fries and Coke for the weeks of Parent Teacher Conferences

6- Relaxing with my favorite Jane Austen

7- Working out my voice like never before by singing the Messiah with our Community Choir

Brad: (written from his own hand)

1-That Mary is the one writing the blog (and not me)

2-Finding another Paul Krugman fan in my ward

3-Performing my new rendition of "Summertime" on the guitar for friends

4-Reading Paul Davidson's "The Keynes Solution"

5-That Mary is such a fan of Jane Austin (even being a female and all)

6-Smoked turkey for pre-Thanksgiving

7-Getting to number 7

The Soup Compromise

Nothing warms you up more on a cold day like a bowl of home made soup. Soup is in fact one of my favorite things about winter. I remember coming home to the smell of mom's homemade soups and the smell just warming up my day. One soup that I love is Clam Chowder- my mom's recipe! But ever since Brad has developed severe lactose intolerance I have stopped making creamy soups and creamy everything else. I never realized how many comfort foods contain lactose and though I have experimented with all types of lactose free milk bases the only thing he can really have is soy milk which does not make the greatest substitute. So the other day after a lajor craving I decided I would make my yummy clam chowder and invite over some family because it makes a ton and for the first time in our married life I left Brad to fend for himself. After realizing fending for himself meant a can of tomato soup I started to feel bad and did some research. It turns out we could make with the same ingredients Manhattan Clam Chowder which has a tomato base so he could enjoy too. So we made two soups with the same amount of work and they were both delicious! This little discovery, silly as it is, has made my weekend! This means at least this creamy soup is back in my life without any sense of guilt for Brad missing out.

The Fridge Fiasco

This week brought some interesting events. Sunday morning (Halloween mind you) our freezer stopped working. We happen to have a pink "vintage" 1960s GE Refrigerator with roll out freezer so we figured this would happen sometime. After dealing with the immediate crisis and getting the frozen food safely to my parents freezer we began the ordeal of trying to find a new refrigerator that fit our space. Why refrigerators are so huge now is beyond me but after a day of looking at dozens of refrigerators in a few different stores we found 1- that's right only 1 that would work. It didn't even entirely fit our criteria but sacrifices had to be made. After a slight emotional breakdown because of all of the favorite aspects of our fridge that would now be lost, I succombed to logical reality and decided the new but boring Frigidaire refrigerator would have to do. But then our freezer started working again!!!!!! Miracle!!!! And has continued working and though we realize it may go out again and soon we are standing by the notion- "if it's not broke don't fix it."So we will see how long our vintage refrigerator will take us, in the meantime I realize that my retro-modern kitchen is one of my favorite aspects about our condo and it's not very likely to have the same fun kitchen and appliances in our future homes. So for now I'm happy to have the time to be Betty Crocker with my matching pink GE 1960's appliances.

A Butter Conditioner- can't find that in a small fridge

I don't even know if any shelves swing out any more.

A turntable crisper is so much more fun then regular drawers.

Halloween 2010

A princess

Plus a Dred Pirate

Makes "The Princess Bride"

We had a great Halloween this year. Angie and Ryan had
a party and everyone dressed up.

Laura & Jon

Angie & Ryan

Link

& Odin

These treats look like the real thing.

And my princess costume substituted for Glenda
the Good Witch as well for our School Parade

This year we also went to a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater.
We had so much fun! We think it will become a tradition.
Happy Halloween!

The 2010 Dennis "Bumper Crop" of Apples

We will always remember peeling a bushel of apples the old fashioned way!

Yeah for Fall Break

So this year we did a "staycation" and I enjoyed lunch with a good friend

and a picnic with Wendy and Ava in a cemetery due to the huge line
at Gardner Village

Then we ventured up the canyon for some scenic tourism

We had a ritzy ski resort lunch with a view that we pretended was the Alps
and food from a Swiss restaurant

We took the tram up the mountain to a beautiful view

And in the spirit of Halloween Brad carved an evil looking pumpkin and
I sorted the messy seeds and then toasted them for a treat- my mom did this last
year and they were tasty, otherwise I would have never been so daring.

Ode to the Barbeque

Dear Barbeque,

During the summer months you have cooked our dinners and kept our house cool. Because of you we have had many needed barbeque parties and hours of conversations around you with good friends and family. We have discovered the worlds best lemonade and excellent potato salad to compliment you. We have tried all kinds of recipes for meat and veggies on you and found some real winners. We now have come to an end of this seasons barbeque parties. We will use you every now and then in the fall and winter, but put you away until next spring and summer when we will reinstate barbeque friday. We now return to our fall and winter cozy comforts of baking and cider and puzzles and books. See you next spring.

Boys will be boys

We took our nephews hiking this weekend.

First we had a yummy Subway lunch

Then we headed up the Alpine Loop to Stuart Falls
The leaves were turning and it was Beautiful!

The boys (including Brad) loved to run as fast as they could down the slopes,
swing on trees, throw rocks as far as they could, play in the water, find every possible stick,
climb as high as they could which scared me a little, and just play.


Boys will be boys, and I love em.

Just Peachy

This past week we bottled peaches and made peach jam with mom Dennis.
Thanks mom, we had a good time. The peach jam is delicious.

Hari Krishna Temple 1st Date Anniversary

This past week Brad and I happily celebrated our 1st Date Anniversary for the 4th time. I'm excited to bring our kids to this fun event and tell them about our 1st date. This year I took a few pictures of our favorite things about the festival

The Temple

The talking "halo" parrots

The yummiest vegetarian food- 3 years ago I didn't like it but now we both crave it!

The spiritual love story between Ram and Sita

And the Hari Krisna rock out party and fireworks after the play.

If anyone wants to see the excitement next year, give us a call.
For as long as we are in Utah during September we will be there.

1,2,3 salsa

First we picked

Then we chopped

Then we washed & dried

And voila Salsa!

Thanks mom for teaching us how to
make and bottle salsa.