Mo'a Romig-Boyles

Giving Thanks

This is a good time to start posting again.  I have missed blogging and my blogging friends.  As to why I have not posted for such a long time...no excuses *smile* just living life day by day.

My thoughts this Thanksgiving go back to the time when my Father was with us and always made his special stuffing.  This is why I am re posting this story...I hope you will enjoy reading itagain...or for some of you to read it for the first time.

Thanksgiving is an equal opportunity holiday.  Whether you were born here or not, this is a holiday that all of us here in the United States share.

The first time I experienced Thanksgiving I was not impressed...for one thing I did not like the turkey  and I did not appreciate the significance of Thanksgiving. I was a Christmas girl and Thanksgiving marked one month until Christmas for me...now I could put Christmas music on and start decorating and shopping for my favorite holiday.

Now that I have matured from the young immigrant I was, to the woman I am today, I have come to love this day of giving thanks.

Ken's family is a very old New England family, to them Thanksgiving was the holiday of the year...New England was after all the where the first Thanksgiving was celebrated.  My Mother and Father-in-law did not live to see the day that I became a Thanksgiving fan.  I never made it a secret to them, that Christmas, as far as I was concerned was the holiday of holidays.  Ah!!!youth.

When Ken and I got married we chose to spend his favorite holiday with his family and my favorite with my family.  Sadly his parents died over twenty years ago and since then we have spent most Thanksgivings with my parents.

In the early years of Thanksgivings with my parents, my father's job was to prepare the turkey for the oven and to make the stuffing.  For the last seven years, since we moved to this area (Southern NJ), Ken and I have had most of the Thanksgivings here at our house, however, wherever we celebrated the feast of feasts my father has made the stuffing...he insisted...However, this year he will not. He has not even insisted and we think that perhaps he forgoten that he used to be the stuffing maker in the family.

This is why I am so happy that I was in my parents house last year, to photograph my father while he was hard at work making the stuffing.  He was 95 then.  Tomorrow as I give thanks, I will add that I am grateful that I still have my parents in my life and that they are still as healthy as can be expected at 87 and 96.

This year we will be with friends, that we have celebrated with almost all Easters, Thanksgivings and Christmases for thirty seven years. We will be eight. We will no doubt reminisce about the holidays we have spent together in the past and give thanks for that.

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for coming here to visit me.   

Note: My Father died at the age of 97.  My Mother is still with us and is 91.  Thanksgiving is at our house this year, our dear friends mentioned in this post will be with us...We no doubt will again reminisce about times past, missing our loved ones that are no longer with us and look towards the future with thanks in our hearts.  Happy Thanksgiving.

 

No More Snow

No more snow!!! Not surprising it is July.  It is embarrassing to admit that I have not posted here for over three months. 

Since I talked with you last the Mountain Laurel has bloomed and passed.

The Rhododendron has done the same.

The Peonies in my Mother's garden have added their beauty to our lives.

I went to a Friends of Gladys Taber reunion and heard Susan Branch give a talk about her early years on Martha's Vineyard and how reading Gladys Taber's books influenced her life.

I had a lovely tour of Gladys Taber's home...now I can imagine myself there when I re-read her books.  I started reading Gladys Taber's book shortly after I arrived here to the US from Iceland.  I read about how she made stew by hanging a pot over the fire in the fireplace pictured below.

It was a lovely reunion and you can read more about it on Susan Branche's blog.  I encourage you to go there and read more about Gladys Taber and her life at Stillmeadow.

When we talked last, our plants were here in our Winter Garden....

 

 ...now they are outside enjoying the sun and summer.

 Have a Happy Fourth of July...we will be going to the shore (we say that in NJ) to celebrate with good friends. 

 

With Thanks

I have been thinking a lot about Thanksgiving remembering those who have been here with us in past years..

This will be our third year without my Dad, who has made the stuffing for the bird since our first Thanksgiving here in the States.  I was at my parents house in 2009 and took a lot of photos of Dad preparing the stuffing.  It was such a tender moment and one that I shall never forget. At the time I did not know that this would be the last time he would make the stuffing. 

I wrote about this event in one of my favorite blog posts...November 2010 and shared the photos that I took the year before. Perhaps you would like to take a look.

Over the years, as our son Brian was growing up, we spent Thanksgiving in various ways and in many different cities as while he was growing up we moved eight times with my husband's job.

Ken was a hotel manager for most of those years and often we would have our Thanksgiving dinner at the hotel that he was managing.  Other years we would invite young graduate students to our house to experience an American Thanksgiving.  When Brian was in college and later when he had a job in NYC he would bring friends to celebrate with us. 

 

For the past nine years Brian (our son) has lived in Denmark, where he is married and raising a family.  We think of how much he loves a Thanksgiving dinner so next time he is here with us we will make him a proper Thanksgiving meal...there is an extra turkey in the freezer.

For the past ten years that we have lived here in New Jersey, we have had the pleasure of celebrating with our friends of forty five years.  We have had the celebration at their house, my parents house, in a restaurant and our house...this year our house.  We will be seven weather permitting...two are coming from up state New York. We have shared many other holidays over the years...this year it will me Christmas at their house.

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for coming here to visit me. 

 I would love to hear about your Thanksgiving and how you celebrate. 

 

 

A Visit from Denmark

Our son, his wife and our grandchildren came for a visit from Denmark.  We had a wonderful and busy time with them and I thought I would share some of the highlights.  There were over 2000 photos taken of the event, so it was not a small feat selecting just the right photos.

We visited Lang Amma's (great-grandmother's) house. As I was walking up to the house with three year old Julie, she said "This is the house that has the horse" she was only one and a half years old the last time she was here.  She remembers through photos and conversations with her parents and brother.

I showed photos on my blog the last time Victor and Julie sat on this horse...here.  It is fun to see how much they have changed in the last two years.

Since this is the football season, football was watched and played.

Julie held her own.  "You go girl".

The highlight of the visit was Johnson's Farm...a fun place for children and adults alike.  We went on a hay wagon to pick pumpkins. The rule was if you can lift it you can take it home.

They were very proud and happy with their pumpkins.

Once we got home their dad helped carve the pumpkins. Here they are in the drawing state...Julie waits patiently for her turn.

Then they dressed up in their Halloween costumes and went trick or treating. Yes, we know it was before Halloween...but as Victor said "We cannot come to the States on Halloween, because we have to go to school and work".  Everyone had fun and we ate a lot of candy.

Here are the pumpkins...now, as explained to the children, they have become Jack O'lanterns. 

The little one was made for Amma's (Amma is what they call me...it is Icelandic for grandmother) elves...more about that at a later post.

 Happy Halloween to you all.

MAGNOLIA

My cousin Elinros is a fabulous painter and is giving me pointers in using oil paint.

Here is an example of the type of painting that she does.  This style  of painting is called Alla Prima.

Heart and Flowers

My road is paved with good intentions.  Back in October of 2011 I was the lucky winner of this quilted heart, made by Els of Fiberrainbow.  I am sorry that I have not shown it to you before this.

I see this lovely heart everyday and think of Els...who lives in the Netherlands.  It hangs on an antique towel rack from Denmark. The first hook on the left says Haandklaede (Hand Towel), middle Glasklud (Glass Towel) and the third says Kniveklud (Knife Towel)...on each hook hangs an antique towel from my American husband's family . 

My mother had 89th birthday on the 6th of March. Here is a photo of her and Ken when we surprised her with a birthday cake.

The cabinet behind them is a  Swedish Rosemaling.

When Ken and I got married forty one years ago we went to our first auction and saw this cabinet.  We both fell in love with it and agreed how much we would bid.  Well our pocketbook was smaller than what the cabinet went for, so we did not get it then.  

On our seventeenth anniversary, we walked into an antique store in Essex, MA, and there was the cabinet.  We were so excited that we bought it on the spot...for a lot more than it went for seventeen years earlier, then again, our pocketbook had also expanded considerably.

One of our gifts for my mother's birthday was lunch at Terrain Cafe. It is in a beautiful greenhouse which is part of a garden center Terrain at Styer's

I got a major case of spring fever looking at all the beautiful plants.  I am passionate about hellebores and was happy to see them in several colors.

My new banner was made from this image.  It is a green bottle with a bit of water in it and a reflection of the plants behind it. Green is not a color I often choose...I love it in nature and it makes me think of spring.

I planted pansies today. They always remind me of Iceland where they bloom from early spring to late autumn.

I hope you are having a nice weekend. 

 

Askjasleikir.......Bowl-licker

Askjasleikir.......Bowl-licker is a very brave little fellow. He sneaks around waiting for someone in the household to put down their food bowl. Then the brazen little fellow snatches it away and licks it clean. Askjasleikir has to be fast on his feet to get away from the bowl's angry owner.

As long as I can remember I have adored Christmas and the traditions that we have established over the years.
We celebrate Christmas Eve in the traditional Icelandic way. At around 4:00PM the men in our family smoke their yearly cigar, we like the cigar smell mingling with the smoked lamb fragrance.
At 6:00PM we cue Icelandic music, that has the Church Bells of Reykjavik ringing, we kiss everyone and wish them Gleðileg jól. Then we have our dinner. After dinner we open all our presents.
Christmas morning we have and combination of an Icelandic and American breakfast afterwards we open stocking presents.
We love wind up toys and we all play with them. Many of the stocking presents are from years past and we all have a good laugh...someone always says “I got that one last year” or “Wow, I have not seen this one for years”  Silly Putty lasts a surprisingly long time.

Each year I make something related to Christmas. Cards, ornaments or little figures. Now that I am a grandmother I make a little ornament for each of the grandchildren. 

Our traditions are changing...sometimes we celebrate Christmas with our family Denmark.  It is good to be open to new ways of celebrating the season. Our grandchildren  have made our lives more colourful and richer.We love seeing the magic of Christmas through their eyes.

Note: The black and white photo was taken of me when I was four years old.  The house and church was made for me that year by my Uncle.

Hello Again

Can it be?  It has been a month and a half since I last wrote. It is not that I have not been thinking of you.

It is an amazing thing to me how one can develop habits and also get out of an habit.  I have not used my computer much this past month and a half. In the past I felt that a day was not complete without cruising the web and visiting friends blogs for several hours each day.

How did this happen you might ask. It all started when my 96 year old father went to the emergency room three times in a week. He then spent five days in the hospital. He is doing well now...he is like a Phoenix.  We are always amazed at how he can overcome various health problems that come with his advanced age.

Then came the allergy season, which also coincides with my favorite season of the year.  This year I resolved that I would try a new method, rather than filling my system with allergy remedies.

My sister-in-law, who has suffered from allergies since childhood, told me about NAET treatments and I decided to give it a try.  I am in the middle of the NAET treatments and I am already feeling better. 

On a rainy day, several weeks ago, as I was driving past the Presbyterian Church in our town, I noticed this...came to a full stop, thought of my blogger friend Terry grabbed my camera and snapped a few photos.

Isn't this a most amazing sight?

I have also been doing a little of this...

Have a Happy Holidays. 

A very good friend from Iceland will be visiting us for two weeks. I am looking forward to many adventurers. See you in about two weeks...I promise :)

They Are Here :)

My family and their friends are here with the children and good and busy time is being had by all.
The toys we bought for the children are a great success and not surprisingly the big car is a favorite. At most times there is someone waiting their turn in car.

The boys like having their own table.

There is so much activity and so many happy moments.  My Mother and Father met their one year old Great Granddaughter for the first time.

We have had a heat wave here in out area  so that the first two days the children played inside on the third day we had wonderful weather and the whole day was spent outside playing  on the driveway. We put up saw horses as a boundary  for the children.
In the photo below are my son Brian holding the baby Calvin his friend's son...Victor our grandson explaining that the orange ball has to be inflated....William, Calvin's brother contenplating whether he wants to play with the big car, now empty, or should he convince Julie our granddaughter to give up the car she is riding on. 

Julie gave up the car and decided to make a Tu Tu out of the deflated pool preserver...awwwww!!!

Most days are filled with activities. The Fathers, Children and Ken and I went on a train ride while the Mothers went Outlet shopping.

The two families and the little ones spent the Independence Day weekend in Washington DC...where else :?

Ken and I had the opportunity to have alone time with Victor...We took him to a Family Fun Farm close by. We went on a Hay Ride and picked peaches...that was fun, however, the highlight for Victor was racing around a track in a racing car.

One of the highlights for the children is our piano...they like to sing and play the piano for us...here are Victor and Julie taking their turn.

My Daughter-in-law had her Birthday on July 2nd and we had a Dunking Doughnuts breakfast for her...my son decorated the table with the Danish flags...a Danish tradition...and the one Danish napkin for the guest of honor. 
We have a standard joke about how many Birthdays Mette has had in her own country...she is most always on Summer Vacation in some foreign country on her Birthday.

I am impressed with the two sets of parents...they are all well organized, the mothers and the fathers take equal responsibility for the children.  Ken and I are grinning from ear to ear and loving every minute of our time with our two families from Denmark. We have adopted Mette and Brian's friends and their children...they will find that out when the read this post :)

They Are Coming

We are ready...They are coming.  Two three year old boys, one of them our Grandson. one one year old boy and one one year old girl...our Granddaughter. Two sets of parents :) Our Son and Daughter-in-law and their friends...all flying over from Denmark.

Our house has become very colorful...primary colors and pastels and a baby for the baby girl :)

There will be places to sit as well. Two highchairs for the little ones...not shown...and this table and chair for the big brothers.

The  kiddie pool is upstaging the Japanese Style Garden...

There are cribs and bibs...and more toys. There are snacks, and dishes, bowls and glasses...just for the little ones.

Move over Navaho rugs...Cars are coming.

We are doing special things for the parents also...they are not left out.  There will be good things to eat fun things to do and places to go.

We are having a wonderful time planing, shopping and anticipating...can't remember when I had such a good time...and more is coming...Wow!!! am I lucky or what?