Happy New Year!

We celebrated New Year's Eve with family: Ken's brothers that live around here: Mark and Kathy, Don and Ada, and Dave and Gerri.  We all brought foods for a potluck dinner.  

The highlight was this delicious Korean BBQ made by Ada:

We had fun visiting and playing games.  We almost made it until midnight.  I think the party broke up at 11:45 pm- pretty good for a bunch of old Hintons!

Happy New Year!!!

2019 Books

I love to read. 2019 was a great year for reading. According to goodreads.com (my favorite website), I read 8,155 pages during the year.  But goodreads says I only read 28 books.  That is because some of the books I read aren't on goodreads. So I read more pages than that.
According to my records, I read 32 books in 2019.  19 of them were fiction and 13 of them were non-fiction.  Here is a list of the books I read during the year.  I have reviewed all of them on this blog if you are interested in learning more about them.  In no particular order:
Fiction
Ladies' Night by Mary Kay Andrews
Mr. Terupt Falls Again  by Rob Buyea
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
Restart by Gordon Korman
Good Hope Road by Lisa Wingate
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Tending Roses by Lisa Wingate
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
Hidden Among the Stars by Melanie Dobson
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine by Alexander McCall Smith
Grey Mountain by John Grisham
Bob by Wendy Mass
The Chilbury Ladies Choir by Jennifer Ryan
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
Good Man, Dalton  by Karen McQuestion

Non-Fiction
I Will Lead You Along: The Life of Henry B Eyering by Robert Eaton
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
Making Room Soul and Style by Lucy Bowman
Making the Most of Yourself by Sterling W Sill
The Life of Paul by Benjamin Willard Robinson
Far From the Cactus Flat by Lyman Hafen
Aunt Nedra's Autobiography by Nedra Bedke
Hank Ombach's Autobiography by Hank Ombach
Ancestors by Jim Hinton
The Lincoln Hypothesis by Timothy Ballard
Educated by Tara Westover
Beyond Band of Brothers by Dick Winters
The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers:  Spiritual Insights from the World's Most Beloved Neighbor by Amy Hollingsworth

I was going to list them in the order I liked them the best, but that is just too hard. I can't.  Though it is pretty easy to choose the ones I liked least and the ones I liked best in each category.

Let's start with the worst:  My two least favorite were Beyond Band of Brothers in non-fiction and, in fiction, The Bookshop.

In fiction, I think my favorite was Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.  For me, a book is really good if it is well-written and if it makes me want to be better and do better.  This book was so well-written.  It borders on genius how the story unfolds little by little, coming to a bright conclusion.  The story is so memorable and truly makes me want to love people more and judge them less.

Non-fiction is harder to choose.  Hank Ombach's biography is so inspiring and, again, makes me want to do and be better.  I also loved Henry B Eyering's autobiography for the same reasons.  But I think my favorite of the year was Educated.  It is a well-written journey of a woman's life.  It is inspiring and again, makes me want to do and be better.

2019 was a marvelous year for reading.  I look forward to 2020.  I have compiled my list of books I hope to read during the year (though I am constantly adding to it.)  I have purchased many of them and love to see them lined up on my bookshelf, waiting for me to dive in.  Following my father's example, I like to always be reading two books: one fiction and one non-fiction. I try to read from both at least a little bit every day.  Reading is a big part of my life.  Happy reading in 2020!!

Christmas 2019 with the Prince Family

We had such a nice time with Prince family for Christmas.  It was their turn to be with Brian's family, but they decided to have Christmas at home and then go to Salt Lake the day after Christmas.  They were kind to invite us to come down on the "off" year and celebrate Christmas with them.

We made pies( a blueberry and an apple) and headed down on Christmas eve afternoon.

The weather and scenery were beautiful as we traveled down.  The clouds put on a show for us.  We were even in fog in a few places.

As soon as we got there and got settled, Michelle woke William from his nap and we headed out to a local park to play softball- what is becoming a Christmas eve tradition.

Cheerleader William

Ken makes playing softball really fun.  He pitches and cheers and makes it a blast.  He did it with his kids, and now he's doing it with his grandkids.

All three kids have a natural ability.  Kenny has excellent timing in hitting the ball.

After a pizza, frito salad dinner, we acted out the nativity.  Gabbi was the costume designer and Mary, Kenny was Joseph, Jaron was a wise man, Michelle was a shepherd, Ken was a wise man, William was the donkey tender, and Brian, Me and Ken were the narrators.  Brian has a beautiful musical program that is his family's tradition.  We have used it ever since he came into the family.

William did a good job of tending the donkey.

I love this picture.  It is my phone's wallpaper right now.

Joseph was getting a little warm in his costume

Everyone got matching Prince and Princess jammies.

Gabbi made Jaron a guitar out of cardboard that really works!  Gabbi made everyone something or she gave them a gift from her own treasures.  Gabbi is a  thoughtful gift-giver.  She gave me a pillow that she hand-sewed herself.  She gave grandpa coupons, including ones for head tickles.  She has helped her siblings follow her example.  Ken took Jaron Christmas shopping for his siblings the Saturday before.  He carefully chose gifts for them, wanting to spend every penny on them.  When Ken suggested he could just get Gabbi one gift instead of the two he picked out, he said, "Gabbi spends everything she has on me.  I want to do the same thing."  Gabbi helped Kenny make shrinky dink necklaces for me and his mom.

Christmas morning started early.  I didn't get a picture, but it started with a special devotional upstairs, focused on Christ.  We watched the church video of His birth, sang a carol, and had a special prayer to start the day.  I was so touched by this meaningful start to Christmas morning.

Christmas morning excitement

Santa brought each child a special gift:

William got this mini- trampoline.

Gabbi got a new bike.

Jaron got a scooter.

And Kenny got a remote- controlled car.

Gabbi is reading the beautiful letter Santa left for the Prince children.  It looks like he liked the cookies and that the reindeer liked the carrots the kids left for them.

Christmas breakfast is always special and delicious at the Prince house. Brian made scones and I made eggs and orange Julius.

Gabbi made her brothers swords and shields out of cardboard.  They had a great time sword fighting.

A while back I mentioned to Ken how much I longed for two children's books that I loved when I was a child.  I have such vivid memories of my mom reading them to Joan and I.  We would cuddle up on either side of her and she would read them to us.  Ken surprised me by finding and ordering them on line.  When I mentioned it, I was NOT asking for them or even thinking they could ever be found.  It was a total and complete surprise.   I may have cried. 

The Contented Little Pussy Cat is a sweet story. All of the other animals want to find out from the Pussy Cat why he is so content.  In the end he explains the secret to being content.

I didn't even remember the name of this book, but he still found it.  I just remembered the horses names were Blackie, Brownie, and Whitey.  

Gabbi knows how much William loves her stuffed owl, so gave it to him for Christmas.  

I never got a picture of Jaron with his, but here is Gabbi with the gingerbread house she made.

Our Christmas dinner included ham and ham sauce, green beans (Michelle makes the best green beans), funeral potatoes, jello, rolls, and pie.  Yum!!  It was nice to have us all sitting around that Christmas table.

One of the gifts we gave the kids in all three families is a hand trampoline and ball game.  You toss the ball and "catch" it with the little trampolines and see how many times you can hit it and keep it in the air.  The morning after Christmas, Ken played with the kids and their record is 11 hits.

You can see Ken is dressed up.  We went to the Las Vegas temple and did some sessions before coming home.

It was a beautiful Christmas.  We are so grateful to the Princes for including us.  Merry Christmas!!

A Delightful Afternoon of Music and Fun

On December 20th, after our morning in the Las Vegas temple, we hurried across town to attend our granddaughter, Gabbi's assembly concert at her school.  It was pajama day!  We were a little overdressed in our temple clothes.

We got a few pictures before the concert started.

Our Precious Gabriella

The concert was delightful.  I was filled with the Christmas spirit as I listened to those children sing.  After their concert, they had a sing-along with all of the children in the audience.  As I listened to those children sing with all their might,"Fa la la la la, la la la la! and Jingle Bells I was just overwhelmed with the joy of Christmas.  The tattooed, bearded father of the little girl in pink in front of Gabbi was sitting next to me.  He leaned over as they were singing and said, "This here is what life is all about."  He is so right.  This here IS what life is all about.
After the concert, we hurried home to tend William while Michelle picked up Jaron from school.  This is Michelle's daily routine.  Jaron is in a charter school, but Gabbi isn't in it yet.  She is now finally first on the waiting list, so it could happen any time.  So Michelle has to put the two little boys (usually having to wake William from his nap) in the van to pick up Jaron.  Then an hour later again to pick up Gabbi.  It will be so nice when they are in the same school.  But anyway we hurried home to tend sleeping William.  Then Michelle hurried to Gabbi's school to attend the second assembly performance while we tended the boys.

William waking from his nap

Grandpa "horsing" around with the grandkids.

Later, Grandpa was playing tag with Jaron and Kenny. In hot pursuit of Kenny, he slipped on the tile floor and went down hard.  He cut his hand, bruised his arm, hurt his foot, and worst of all, injured his knee.  He is still trying to recover.  Poor Grandpa.

We later attended Gabbi's piano recital. She is progressing well.

Her teacher, telling about Gabbi.

I videoed her number, but for some reason the video won't load.

The teacher made each of the students an ornament with their name.

The participants were encouraged to wear their pajamas since it was pajama day.

Grandpa entertaining the kids with his Ipad.

We stayed the night and babysat while Michelle and Brian went to the temple the next morning.  We had fun with the kids.  Grandpa took Jaron Christmas shopping for his siblings and Gabbi and I cleaned the house to surprise her mom and she made a guitar out of cardboard for Jaron for a Christmas present.  It was a delightful day in Vegas.