© 2009 Charis Strong
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, Grace Publishing Company, 2211 E. 10095 So. Sandy, UT 84092. This page is just intended to make this book look official. I hope I don’t get into trouble by doing this. And even more importantly I hope I didn’t break any other copyright laws. If so I am sorry.

Grace Publishing Company is a company made up by your’s truly.


Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publication Data

This too is all made up and put here just to look official so just pretend with me okie dokie!?! Thanks!

Strong, Charis
Strong family traditions/ Charis Strong
This is kind of a Family History.
ISBN 1-271982-000-22

Printed in the House of Charis Strong

Recipes

Valentines

Waffle cookies

Melt together:
3 tbsp cocoa
½ cup margarine
or you can just melt 2 sq. chocolate

mix in:
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
dash of salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour

drop by tbsp onto waffle iron, cook 1 ½ minutes. Cool and frost, then top with nuts

Lion House Sugar Cookies:

1 1/3 cup margarine
3 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
¼ cup milk
6 ½ - 7 cups flour
5 tsp. baking powder

preheat over to 400°. Cream margarine and sugar. Mix in eggs, vanilla and milk. Add flour, salt and baking powdered. Mix well. Roll ¼ inch think on a floured surface. Cut in desired shapes. Bake 7-8 minutes on cookie sheets covered with parchment paper. Remove from pans. Let cool and decorate with frosting and sprinkles, etc.

July Holidays

Peaches ‘n Cream Ice Cream

Juice of 2 lemons
9 ripe peaches mashed
3 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 pint half and half (or 1 can evaporated milk)
1 pint cream
1 pint milk

Blend and freeze in an Ice Cream Freezer


Lemon Ice-Cream
2 qts whole milk
4 cups sugar
1 cup FRESH squeezed lemon juice
1 cup whipping cream
1 ½ tsp lemon extract

combine all ingredients and freeze in an ice cream freezer.



Snickerdoodles
1 cup soft shortening (par butter)
1 ½ cup sugar
2 ¾ cups flour
2 eggs
2 tsp cream of tarter
1 tsp soda
¼ tsp salt

Heat oven to 400°. Mix shortening, sugar and eggs thoroughly. Measure flour by sifting. Blend all dry ingredients; stir in. Roll into balls the size of small walnuts. Roll in mixture of 2 tablespoons sugar and s2 teaspoons cinnamon. Place 2” apart on un-greased baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes. Makes about 5 dozen 2” cookies.

Thanksgiving

Pumpkin Pie

4 eggs slightly beaten
1 29 oz. can pumpkin
1 ½ cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
½ tsp cloves
can evaporated milk or (3 ½ cups half and half)
2 9” unbaked pie shells

Preheat over to 425°. Combine ingredients in order. Divide evenly into shells. Bake 15 minutes Reduce temp to 350° and bake an additional 45 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center of each pie comes out clean.



Pecan Cheese Cake Pie

Blend in blender until smooth:
1 8 oz cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt

Spread over unbaked pie shell. Spring with ½ cup chopped pecans

Blend in blender:
3 eggs
¼ cup sugar
1 cup dark corn syrup or maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla

Carefully pour over nuts. Decorate with pecan halves
Bake at 375° degrees for 40 minutes


Candy


Mom’s Candy Making Tips

♥ Always check your candy thermometer in boiling water to see what the boiling temperature of water is. Subtract the difference between your thermometer and 212° from the temperature that you want to cook your candy to. The cooking temperature at our altitude is lower than it is at sea level (up to 10°) and all thermometers are different. Most recipes are written for sea level. You may have to experiment

♥ Always use a heavy pan to make candy. Don’t use a pan that has hot spots.

♥ If the recipe calls fro butter, us butter. Don’t try to substitute margarine or another imitation butter.

♥ Never, never, never scrape sides of the pan as you pour it out. It can cause your candy to crystallize.

♥ If there are sugar crystals on the side of the pan wash them down with a wet pastry brush or wet cloth or paper towel a few minutes before the candy is done.

♥ Butter and cream can both be frozen. When they are used in cooked things they work just fine. I haven’t had great luck whipping previously frozen cream.

♥ Candy gets very hot. Always use a wooden spoon. Metal spoons can burn you and plastic mixing spoons will melt.



Pecan Logs
Centers:
3 cups sugar
1 tbsp. light corn syrup
1 cup cream
dash salt
3 tbsp butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix all ingredients except vanilla. Cook slowly, bring to boil. Cook to soft-firm ball stage (235° at this altitude on my thermometer). Pour out on a marble slab, add vanilla, beat until solid then knead until smooth. Divide into four pieses and roll into ropes. Wrap in plastic until ready to use

Caramel:
8 – 12 oz. pecans
2 cups sugar
2 cups cream (1 +1 cup)
¾ cup dark corn syrup
½ cup butter 1 tsp vanilla

Spray cookie sheet with PAM. Spread pecans (or cashews) on cookie sheet. Mix all ingredients except 1 cup cream and vanilla. Stir and cook to a boil. Slowly stir in one cup of cream so boil doesn’t stop. Cook slowly while stirring to firm ball (238° at this altitude on my thermometer). Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour over nuts. Let cool. Cut caramel into 4 strips. Wrap around fondant rolls.)



Turtles

Centers:
3 cups sugar
1 tbsp light corn syrup
1 cup cream
dash salt
3 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla

mix all ingredients except vanilla. Cook slowly, bring to boil. Cook to soft-firm ball stage (235° on my thermometer). Pour out on a marble slab, add vanilla, beat until solid then knad until smooth. Form into about 75 marble sized balls.

Caramel:
3 cups sugar
3 cups cram (2 + 1 cup)
1 cup + 2 tbsp dark corn syrup
¾ cup butter
1 ½ tsp. vanilla

mix all ingredients except 1 cup cream and vanilla. Stir and cook to boil. Slowly stir in one cup of cream so boil doesn’t stop. Cook slowly while stirring to firm ball (238° on my thermometer). Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Arrange 4 pecan halves (on a sheet of parchment paper) for “legs” of turtles. Repeat this 75 times. Pour a small spoonful of hot caramel in the middle of each set of pecans and place a fondant ball on top. Pour another spoonful of caramel over the ball.

Slowly melt dipping or molding chocolate in the microwave. (1 minute at a time at 20-30% poser, stir each minute).Don’t melt it too fast or too long! Pour a spoonful over the top of the caramel. Melt darker or lighter chocolate and drizzle over the top.



Butter Toffee
1 lb. butter
2 cups sugar
2 tbsp. light corn syrup
½ tsp. salt
6 tbsp hot water
½ cup sliced almonds
8 oz. milk choclate
chopped nuts

in a large, heavy pan, combine all ingredients except chocolate and nuts. Cook rapidly, stirring constantly until it reaches hard crack stage in cup of cold water (285° on my thermometer)(about 20-25 minutes). Pour without scraping pan into a large cookie sheet.
Break pieces of chocolate over top while still hot. When melted, spread evenly, cover all toffee. Sprinkle with copped nuts. Cool. Break into bite sized pieces



Santa’s M & M cookies
2 cups margarine
1 ½ cup brown sugar
1 ½ cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
5 cups flour (heaped a little)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
red and green m & m

Mix sugars and margarine. Mix in vanilla and eggs. Blend in flour, soda and salt. Drop by spoonfuls on cookie sheet the place m & m all over the top of cookies. . . make sure you make one with completely green m&m. Bake at 375° for 9 minutes


Graham cracker pudding:

1 pt. cream
16 graham crackers crushed
¾ c raisins
½ c nuts
vanilla
2 tbs sugar
pinch salt

stir cracker crumbs, raisins and nuts gently into whipped cream with fork

New Years Eve

New Years Eve

New Years Eve is a party!!!!!!!!!!!!! This starts about four o’clock and we have pizza, shrimp, egg roles, lots of soda pop, chips and dip, mini bagels, candy, ta quitos, cheese ball, barbeque chicken wings, egg nog, and what ever random food Mom can find.
We stay up all night playing games, watching movies, and putting 3-D puzzles together. We stay up talking. And just have tons of fun. Then when the clock turns twelve we go out side and bang our pots and pans together.
This all started because when mom was young she would baby sit on New Years Eve. She said that is when they paid the most, up to a whole dollar an hour! When she was fifteen or sixteen her sisters and their husbands started coming home and playing games and eating food until midnight, she then discovered that was a lot more fun than babysitting until 4:30 am. Mom likes ending and starting the year with the people she loves most!
12:00 doesn’t seam nearly as late as it use to, in fact, it almost seems like I get to go to bed early that night. This party is one that Mom hopes we all come back for.

Christmas

“Christmas is more than trees and twinkling lights, more than toys and gifts and baubles of a hundred varieties. It is love. It is the love to the Son of God for all man kind. It reaches out beyond our power to comprehend. It is magnificent and beautiful. It is peace. . . It is faith. It is faith in God and His Eternal Son. . . this is what Christmas is really about. -President Gordon B. Hinckley, Dec. 2, 1996 

 Grandma Strong remembers Christmas being very cold. There were no furnaces in those days so she would wait until her mother would get up and start the fire before she got up ran down the stairs and into the front room where the stove was. She remembers that her brothers would go and chop down a Christmas Tree and then she would string popcorn to hang on it. She got presents from her brothers and sisters and parents. Santa brought her a bike one year, and skates when she was twelve, the last present she remembers getting from Santa was a Scarlet O’Hare doll. She remembers going skating on the pond with her skates, everyone always skated, she liked her skates. For dinner they would always have a turkey or ham, and carrot pudding. 

Grandpa Strong remembers it too being cold, he doesn’t remember who started the fire but the only room it kept warm was the front room so they would stay there. He had ham on Christmas for dinner with Graham Cracker Pudding. His brothers would drop by to visit on Christmas. He says he got some of the coolest presents: a bow and arrow and his train (which still goes round the Christmas tree every year). He too would go ice skating, they went at Liberty Park’s pond. On Christmas he loved to watch the radio. He remembers them having the best programs; Figure Magee, Molly, Shadow Nose, and at Christmas time they always had Christmas shows. “It was better than television because you could picture it in your mind. Christmas lights were new when Grandpa was little so his Christmas tree had real lights on it but they still put candles on it, because his older brother’s never had real lights, they had candles to light the tree. When Daddio was young Christmas was a great time. In Daddio’s family everyone bought everyone presents. Dad said that they all spent about a dollar, so he would spend five to ten cents on each everyone in his family they would buy pencils or bouncy balls for each other. They were poor, but happy. On Christmas Eve they set out cookies for Santa, When Dad was older they started making M&M cookies for Santa. On Christmas they would wake up at 7:00 and go see what Santa brought, it wasn’t wrapped. In their socks they all ways had an orange and a tangerine along with some nuts. They would then open presents from each other. His parents always gave him clothes. When they were finished with presents they would go find something for breakfast; they didn’t eat breakfast together, nothing fancy. After breakfast they would go visit Uncle Tator and play with his really cool train. Then they would go to Uncle Bill’s. 

Grandma and Grandpa Martin I didn’t get to interview but My aunts have, so these stories will come from those. Christmas was not Grandpa Martin’s favorite holiday. Grandpa told my Aunt M, “When I was a boy we never had a Christmas tree. It was a long ways to where Christmas trees grew in Idaho. Our Christmas consisted of . . any clothes or anything like that (that we got) after September, usually it was put away to give to us for Christmas, because that’s about all that we got. Sometimes my father would make a sled out of boards, he’d saw runners and put tin on the bottom of the runners so they’d slide on the snow, and then nail boards across the top. Sometimes he’d make us some other little toy. Most of the time our Christmas consisted of a 25 cent book or something of that nature.” Socks always had an orange and hard candy and some nuts. Grandpa would have to hang his socks over the back of chair because they didn’t have a fire place. Grandpa remembers once “I went in the Woolworth’s store and bough a beautiful gold necklace—a little tiny thin chain, and on the end of it, it had a pendent that I thought was beautiful. I took that home, and nobody knew what I got her until Christmas morning. I brought it out, and gave it to her, and my father looked at it and he said, ‘What are you giving her that Catholic Cross for? She can’t wear a Catholic cross. We’re not Catholics. She’s not going to wear that. And he took it away from her and I never did see it again.” Grandpa was hurt. Grandma Martin remembered, “. . . we always had a Christmas tree when I was a child. But we didn’t have any electric lights on it. We had little kind of like clothespin pinchers that held candles, and we always had candles. We had the tree in the middle of the room, and before we lighted the candles we always had a bucket of water handy, and then we lighted the candles and we all stood around and ‘mmed’ and ‘ahhed’ about how beautiful they were.”

Aunt C recorded Grandma’s story about her first Christmas after her mother had died. “Victor Fernillious had been in the habit of cutting two trees and bringing one to Mother for years. Again this year he showed up with a tree for us, so we were obliged to decorate it. Then we decided we could find some paper and wrap up everything we had bought over the course of the year, the socks, and underwear, place them under the tree and award them to ourselves as Christmas gifts. Then as a gift to each other we milked the cow, mixed that milk with a little of the sugar we have saved and boiled it into caramels. Christmas that year fell on a Sunday. We were glad, because going to church would give us some structure on an otherwise insufferable day. Our plan was to get up early to get ready and do our chores, go to church, then return to ceremoniously open the gifts we had wrapped for ourselves, and eat our caramels. . . That Christmas morning dawned to be the kind you dream of. Snow had fallen through the orchard and drifted up against the side of the barn. The morning sun glistened on the snow like sequins on a lady’s dress. Shutting the kitchen door soundly behind us, we trudged through the snow, to worship and sing the carols of the season with our neighbors. In my mind there will always be a picture of coming home that day. As we approached the house we could see that something was wrong. The door was ajar, and the snow swept through the opening. All at once we broke loose and rushed to the house. Outside the house, we could hear some raucous noise coming through the kitchen door. Pushing the door open, we found on the floor a bushel basket full of a squawking chicken, its legs tied tightly together. On the kitchen table was a roast beef, some homemade bread and a fruit cake. Then we noticed the caramels, two of the caramels were missing and in their place was a note. Edward picked up the note and read: “Merry Christmas, thanks for the candy. Love, Santa.” 

When Mom was a kid they always opened their presents from each other on Christmas Eve. Then Santa would come during the night. He never wrapped their presents. Her parents never gave them presents, it all came from Santa. When Mom was a kid she got piles of stuff from Santa. Everything they would need for the rest of the year—underwear, clothes, pencils, etc. Most of it was JUNK from the DI that Grandma had saved up. Mom thinks that his would be a great new tradition to start herself. She thinks this made her more humble. She never had the latest or the greatest of anything. She just had what she needed and that was enough. Mom tells a story about the Christmas before she got married: “The Christmas before we got married I was an assistant teacher. The teacher I worked with made salt dough ornaments. One of the girls in my class brought Raggedy Ann & Andy cookie cutters. I made three Ann’s and three Andy’s. I decided since I knew we would be very poor I would make a whole tree of them for our tree the next year. The only problem was: I couldn’t find the cookie cutters anywhere. I looked at every Hallmark store I could think of. I even called stores in other cities (this was before the internet). I finally gave up. I was very disappointed. That year my mother gave me a set for Christmas. I don’t know where she ever found them. She would never tell me. She didn’t love to shop so I know it was a very hard thing for her to find. The Raggedy Ann & Andy decorations on our tree have increased. We have made new salt dough ones and some real ones and some wood ones and a skirt. Every year when we decorate our tree I think of my mom. Those cookie cutters are one of my favorite gifts I ever received because my mom tried so hard to make me happy. Raggedy Ann & Andy have become a tradition.” Many of our Christmas traditions have been carried over from grandparents and from our parents childhood. Sometime in November for family home evening we all sit down and make our Christmas Wish List. This includes everything we want from Santa, from Mother and Daddio, and from each other. We by no means are guaranteed to get everything or anything for that matter, off the list. But we put it on there anyhow. Many families divide up the kids in the family, draw names, or don’t give presents to each other at all. And though, we did have everything we needed, and were more spoiled then needs be, Mom and Dad felt as if it were important for us to give presents to everyone in our family, just like they did. Our love for each other shouldn’t be based upon who we draw out of a hat. We should love each other and we should express that love. Presents from brothers and sisters were often silly and of little worth. But they were fun. 

Daddio points out that Christmas at our house is the “GREATEST!” It starts the day after Thanksgiving with the ripping down of all the Thanksgiving decorations and the putting up of all the new Christmas ones. Brother J has always been a scrooge and refuses to listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving is over, and no Christmas decorations can go up before Thanksgiving is over as well. Last year while he was at His Fiancé’s  house on Thanksgiving we all decided to take down Thanksgiving and put up Christmas. When he came home at two o’clock in the morning he took down the tree. He was not at all happy with us. Christmas Decorations are a huge part of Christmas! I think we have the coolest ones in the entire world. Mom made our socks. She Cross Stitched every last one of them, they are amazing. They each look different; each has a picture of a different room in Santa’s house. I have never seen such a fine work of art. They are my favorite decoration there is. Christmas time is my favorite because it is the most decorated; every room of the house is literally full of Christmas. And we finally convinced Daddio a couple of years ago to start putting Christmas lights up out side. We have tons and tons of Christmas stuffed animals, these line the stair ways and fill the toy trunk in the family room. We have a number of nativities that sit in various places throughout the house. The Christmas tree is covered in Raggedy Ann and Andy, homemade decorations and decorations that were presents from friends and neighbors.

 Every year the day after Thanksgiving Mom makes lots and lots of her candy to donate to the Festival of the Trees this is a HUGE charity auction, all the money made goes to Primary Children’s Medical Center to pay for children’s medical expenses that can’t afford it. This too has become a tradition. Anyone who wants to can help Mom make all her famous candy, mint sandwiches, turtles, pecan logs, toffee, popcorn balls, and fudge. It is great to work side by side with the world’s greatest candy maker and learn all her great tips! There isn’t a better way to start off the Christmas Season. This is also helpful, in reminding us that Christmas isn’t about getting and receiving but about making a difference in someone else’s life. 

Another family tradition associated with Christmas is Family Shopping. Since everyone buys for everyone, everyone has a lot of shopping to do. So we all go shopping together at least once. It is always an adventure hiding what you have found from everyone else, especially when you are trying not to make the security guards think you are trying to steal something. Wow! Christmas time is so full of traditions. 

The extended Strong family always has a Christmas party. We get together and eat dinner, and have some sort of cheesy Christmas program which each family has to sing a song, play an instrument or share some talent (if they have one). This can either be REALLY funny or extremely dull, but it happens every year. 

Sometime during the Christmas Season we will go to see the lights on Temple Square. There we stand and freeze while we listen to the Bible Christmas Story and watch the out door nativity scene. We walk around and see all the hundreds of Christmas lights. And vaguely remember the day when our family was small enough to all fit in one horse buggy ride so that we could actually go on one. 

Christmas Eve we set the Dining Room table for breakfast in the morning. We have to make M&M cookies for Santa Claus. In fact, we have to make a completely green M&M cookie for Santa, it couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that Green M&M’s are aphrodisiacs. At any rate, we then leave a plate of cookies and a glass out for Santa, Mom and Daddio always ensured us that Santa knew where to find the milk. Oh and we left a carrot out for his reindeer (we were so kind and thoughtful!). After we were finished making cookies we would then go have our own Family Christmas Program. When we were younger we would act out the Nativity Story, or do a puppet show or something. Now we simply sing some Christmas songs and read the Christmas story somewhere in the scriptures. Then we all head to bed, for what always seemed like the longest night ever!!!!!!!! I swear we would toss and turn all night long, but Mom and Dad promise we were always asleep by 10:00. It always felt like much later. Christmas Morning is the same every year, unless Brother J  throws some twist into it. We have a tradition that no one can wake up until 7:00 and then everyone in the entire family goes down the stairs together (Rosalie and I would have to go all the way upstairs from our basement bedrooms to wait at the top of the stairs for everyone else) to the dining room. In the dining room we have breakfast. The table has a pretty table cloth on it and pretty Christmas dishes. This is the only time during the year that we as an immediate family eat in the dining room, Christmas Morning Breakfast. For something so formal one would anticipate bacon and eggs for breakfast, but instead we have holiday cold cereal, such as Christmas Charms, red and green Rice Krispees, and what ever other holiday cereal mom finds. Mom threats over this every year, Christmas Cereal is becoming increasingly difficult to find, but with out it, Christmas just wouldn’t be the same.

 Brother N thinks that Christmas Morning traditions, (the waiting for everyone, the not waking up until 7:00, and the eating breakfast as a family) are the best part of our Family Christmas Traditions. He pointed out that it helps us remember that Christmas isn’t only about the presents, but it is about the people we are with, and the time we can spend with each other. It is one way of helping us keep the Christmas Spirit and not forget why we have Christmas. After EVERYONE has finished breakfast, we once again line up in single file line youngest to oldest to go into the family room to see all the treasures Santa brought us. The only time I remember any deviation from this Christmas Morning Tradition is when Brother J went into the little boys’ room and changed their clock back. We all got to sleep in until eight o’clock in the morning because the boys thought it wasn’t yet seven! It was grand. This has built a sense of mistrust between the little boys and Brother J, and now every year the little boys set the guards up for what practical jokes Brother J may play on them this year. We spend a half hour to and hour checking out what we got from Santa. We all get one main Christmas Gift from Santa, when we were little it was things like a doll for the girls and scouting stuff for the boys. As we have gotten older it still tends to be scouting stuff for the boys, and any thing Santa can figure out for his the not so easy to shop for girls. In our stockings we always get an Orange, a Nectarine, a tooth brush, Legos, lots of candy, and other small assorted toys or games. Once we all have finished scoping out what we got from Santa we head into the living room to slowly diminish the HUGE stack or presents not under, but around the Christmas tree. This stack tends to take over the entire room there are hundreds of presents to be opened. Well lets see nine times nine is 81 plus Mom and Daddio normally throw in a couple more packages so there is about 120 presents under the tree. Hey, no one ever said they were expensive, just 120! It is great fun to one buy one open the presents. Once again the order is youngest to oldest we open one present at a time. There are a few presents we can count on. All from Mom and Dad: Clothes for the next year, a ream of paper, a six pack of pop, and a book of some sort.

Thanksgiving

Halloween

“There are so many times when genuine human service means giving graciously our little grain of sand, placing it reverently to build the beach of brotherhood. We get no receipt, and our little grain of sand carries no brand; its identity is lost, except to the Lord” -Elder Neal A. Maxwell 1997 

 Halloween is a holiday that has defiantly evolved over the years. The way the little boys celebrate is completely different then how the older kids celebrated when we were little. For the older kids we would be planning our costumes from the beginning of the school year. Mom would make them every year. And we always had the coolest costumes. Such as a sandwich, or a toilet, my bee costume was pretty great as well. I think my favorite was the year I went as a baby. Brother J remembers that in first grade he was a very cool vampire and he had so much makeup on his face that he couldn’t drink the witches brew at school (how very sad). These are things that the older kids remember but now, it is scrounge up what ever you can find out of the already ripped apart costume closet. Of course, we can still come up with alright costumes due to the fact that mom has TONS of costumes down there in the boxes. Halloween when we were young meant not only lots of make up and elaborate costumes but it also meant trips to Grandma and Grandpa’s houses to show them what wonderful costumes we had come up with. I think that was the highlight of my Halloween when I was little. Now the kids go trick-or-treating at Daddio’s work. They get all dressed up and right after school they head on over to Daddio’s office and they go from one desk to the next desk and Daddio introduces them to everyone and then they get candy. They normally get just as much candy doing that as they get out trick-or-treating around the neighborhood later that day. When Brother J, Brother B and I were young, it was a grand prize to get a mini candy bar, most of the stuff we got were Tootsie Rolls, Pixie Stix and Smarties. Now the younger kids are counting how many full size candy bars they get. This past Halloween I was living at home for the first time in four years during Halloween. Brother J had moved to Colorado with His new Wife; Brother B was going to a party at the Institute; I was going to a party at the Y for my club. Rosalie was up at USU. Brother N was going on a date. Brother D was going to some sleepover. This left Mom, Dad, and Brother C home and there stood Mom cooking a huge pot of chili!!! I asked Mom why she was bothering, after all no one was going to be home. I had never even seen Mom make chili. Brother N, Brother D, and Brother C all looked at me really funny and said, “It wouldn’t be Halloween without chili! We always have chili on Halloween!” WHAT? I had never even heard of such a thing. But apparently, things had changed since I last lived at home. It is good to see that traditions don’t just die out, that new ones are started. I was beginning to feel bad for all the little boys because we older kids had so many great things when we were young, and nothing was left for them, but Mom and Daddio are so amazing they keep things exciting for the little boys as well.

 Another tradition that has been on going, and I hope doesn’t die is trick-or-treating for cans of food for the Utah Food Bank. This started when Mom told me that I was too old to go trick-or-treating. I think I was in seventh or eighth grade, but Mom promises I was in ninth (but this doesn’t matter, Brother D is in ninth and he is still trick-or-treating) at any rate, I wasn’t allowed to go any more and I thought this was a BAD idea. So I thought, and thought, and thought. . . I don’t’ know if it was I or Mother that came up with it, but instead I went out and trick-or-treated for cans of food for the Utah Food Bank. I just walked up to people’s doors and said, “Hi, I am trick-or-treating for cans of food for the Utah Food Bank. Do you have any cans of food you would like to donate?” I would pull a wagon behind me. And I did pretty good my first year. Not only did I get lots of cans but people thought I was so nice they would dump their entire bowl of candy in my bag; I think I got more candy then any of the younger kids that year. After that people started counting on me coming they had bags already ready. It got to be a big deal we would have large parties and get hundreds of pounds of food. Rosalie did it after I did and so did Brother N. Someone in our family has done this for the last eight years. I hope this continues (hint, hint, hint, Brother D  and Brother C!). 

Halloween has not only changed for us but it has changed for Mom and Daddio too. Daddio use to hate Halloween. He didn’t like getting in costumes and he especially didn’t like the make up, it was his least favorite holiday. Now that he has kids he thinks it is fun. For Mom she remembers that everyone in elementary school had the really cheap store bought costumes, they were really ugly. But her mom would never buy them, she insisted on her coming up with her own, (this seams vaguely familiar). Mom thought that it was because her mother was cheap (this too seams familiar). Mom was always very jealous of the kids in the store bought costumes (this is familiar as well). When she got older she realized that her costumes were always much cooler than everyone else’s, which is why all this story seams familiar because that is why we never had store bought costumes and they were all homemade. But it is this that built Mom’s love for finding creative costumes and why we have enough to supply the road shows for church, all the kids for pioneer trek, as well as all our cousins for Halloween. 

Grandma and Grandpa Strong told me about Halloween when they were young. It sounded very similar to what we did. They went trick-or-treating, they got things like candy, nuts, popcorn balls, taffy, peanuts and apples. Grandpa said they would get so much stuff a sack would never do they would have to bring a pillow case to carry everything. Grandma said that when she was young they would cover the entire town, unlike the kids now who just go up and down a couple streets. Grandma says she doesn’t really remember getting dressed up, mostly she would go to parties with the kids her age at school. They had parties for everything, any excuse to get together and throw a party was a good excuse to throw a party. Grandpa on the other hand remembers dressing up like a girl with all his buddies. He said their costumes were so good, no one believed they were really guys! Can you imagine Grandpa Strong dressed as a girl!?!

The 24th of July

It is imperative that the people of this community, of this state and of the entire West be reminded of the labors and the sacrifices of those who, at so great a cost, laid the foundations of that which we enjoy today. . . the migration to this valley before the coming of the railroad is of so vast a scope, involving so many people, and entailing so much of human suffering and sacrifice, that it must ever occupy a unique place in the annals of human history. It has all the elements of a great epic—persecution, flight into the wilderness, hope, vision, sickness, the unrelenting cruelty of the elements, deaths numbering in the thousands, and final triumph through unspeakable courage and labor. . . it is a story not only for members of the Church of which they were members; it is a story for all the world and for all generations. -President Gordon B. Hinckley, July 24, 1995 

 When we were little, on the 24th of July everyone on the Martin side (aunts, uncles, cousins, and Grandma and Grandpa) would gather at Aunt E’s house in Sugarhouse. I don’t remember if we would then have dinner or what, but we would eventually walk to Sugarhouse Park to watch the fireworks. This was always very exciting. Then Aunt E and her family moved to Centerville and so this tradition went down the drain. So now we all celebrate the 24th of July on our own. We as a family now wake up early and go sit on the corner of fourth south and Main Street, in Salt Lake City, right by Burger King to watch the Parade. This tradition started when Daddio was the scout master and he would take the boys in the troop and sell popcorn and soda pop to all the spectators. When we girls got old enough we got to help. Since we have stopped selling popcorn and soda pop, and have become the spectators our selves. This is one of those traditions that are continued completely for the sake of tradition. The parades seem to get more and more boring, it can’t be anyone’s favorite. After the parade is over we then go home. Often times we have picnics, with picnic cake. At night we set off our own fireworks, the little ones. I don’t know how we ever convinced Mom and Daddio to start doing this, Mom always said she would rather take a twenty dollar bill and set it on fire than to spend twenty dollars on fire works. The stupid little fireworks are Brother N, Brother D , and Brother C’s favorite part of both Independence Day and Pioneer Day. The little boys typically are the ones setting off the fireworks while the rest of the family sits back and watches. The tradition of ice cream has stuck; we as a family make homemade ice cream and snickerdoodles every 24th of July. Some how Daddio thinks it is sacrilegious to eat homemade ice cream without snickerdoodles, so we make snickerdoodles with our ice cream. Rosalie reminded me of a tradition that Daddio started a couple years back. We have gone and hiked the “Last Mile Hike,” for the past couple years. This is the last mile of the long trek west. It has given us a small appreciation for what the Pioneers went through, not really but kind of, a little bit of a better understanding.

The Fourth of July

“This nation, founded on principles laid down by men whom God raised up, will never fail. . . . I have faith in America. You and I must have faith in America if we understand the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” -President Harold B. Lee Deseret News, October 27, 1973 

When Mom was young she always went to the ball park by Grandma and Grandpa Martin’s house to watch the fireworks. Later they (being who ever shoots off the fireworks) started shooting the fireworks off from the ball park, which meant that mom could no longer go to the ball park to watch them because she might start on fire, go deaf from the loud kabooms or worse yet BLOW UP! So when she grew up and had kids of her own she started going to her mother (Grandma Martin)’s house to watch the fireworks. Her front yard was the perfect place to sit and watch the fireworks in the ball park. Grandma’s house was so close that all sorts of people would park in front of her house and in the alley to walk to the park to watch the fireworks. We would have to block off all the parking in the back of Grandma’s house so that our aunts and uncles would have a place to park, because, this was a time when all the Martin cousins, aunts and uncles gathered together. Everyone would bring their ice cream freezers and we would have home made lemon ice cream and home made peach ice cream! I remember the anticipation and the constant low grumble of the ice cream machines as they mixed the ice cream to freeze it. It was always so exciting when the ice cream had frozen enough to make the machine suddenly turn off because the ice cream was so stiff! It doesn’t get much better than that. One Independence Day I was hanging around out front and a man came up and asked if I would make sure his car stayed safe and no one broke into it, he then gave me ten dollars! It was GREAT! When car alarms first became popular the fireworks were so loud and so close that there were a bunch of car alarms that went off at the BANG of the fire works. That was the first time I remember car alarms.

 After Grandma died and Grandpa moved in with his kids, this tradition came to an end. Now for The Fourth of July our immediate family gathers together junk food and everlasting bubbles. We grab our blankets and we head to the hill at Jordan High and there we sit and wait for the Sandy City Independence Day Fireworks. Brother B, one year, sat and blew everlasting bubbles. They floated all the way down the hill and the kids chased the bubbles. Where ever Brother B and the Bubbles went there the kids went also. It was almost as if he was the pied piper. He got some nasty glares from parents and some of the parents told their kids they couldn’t play with the bubbles. It was pretty funny. Since then we have made sure we brought bubbles every time. In the past couple of years parents come up and thank us for entertaining their kids during the long wait for the fire works. We love to watch the kids with the bubbles. 

The Fourth of July was the first time the Family “MET” Sister-in-law S! Brother C and Brother D now comment all of the time that Brother J and Sister-in-law S saw their own fireworks. This was the first time Sister-in-law S got to participate with our family in our traditions. 

Charis

Valentines

Valentines Regarding Valentines Brother J says, “I like the candy, but those conversation hearts get old after about fifty.” That pretty much sums up the view of Valentines for a lot of people. Valentines day at most people’s houses is a one day event, but at our house Valentines is every day for the month of February, and it takes an entire year of planning to prepare for it.

 This is largely Mother’s tradition. Every year it changes slightly. Like for instance one year Mother downloaded a bunch of songs (fifty-six to be exact) and made twenty-eight different CD’s they were songs like: “This Kiss” by Faith Hill and “If I could make just one wish” (probably by faith hill too, I don’t remember) each CD had two or three songs. She would put the CD in Daddio’s car so when he turned on the car it would start playing. And then she would leave a present pertaining to the songs on his seat. So she left him a bunch of Hershey kisses. Or she had one CD with Elvis’s “I just want to be your teddy bear” song and she gave him kissing teddy bears. Get the idea? One year she wrote a poem for every day of the month and gave him presents and had them delivered to work. Another year she just had things sent to him in the mail (man did people at work get jealous of the type of mail he received that year.) Dad says that people at work anticipate this every year, and wait to see what creative things Mom gives him. Although this tradition didn’t include the entire family directly, we kids were often in on the secrets and were as excited to see Daddio’s response as Mom was. When she got stumped on ideas we were there to lend a hand. The year she did the CD’s Rosalie helped the most, because Mom just isn’t as hip as Rosalie was, well and neither am I, so she had to lend some advice as to what songs were out there. I think watching Mom serve Daddio has taught us how important it is to serve, especially in a relationship. 

Often Valentines Day is a day when the boyfriend or husband is expected to do something really nice for the woman. I don’t know how that came to be, but Mom has taught us that it is just as important for the wife to spoil the husband rotten as it is for him to treat her like a queen. We have gained a knowledge and experience of celebrating a holiday in a whole other manner than anyone else. THIS IS FUN. It has also taught us that Valentines isn’t the only day of the year that you can express your love, it is just a good excuse to show your love excessively for an entire month, it is not an obligation but an exciting chance. Mom says there are two reasons she does this tradition. Reason number one is when the scriptures mention love it is followed by an action. So Mom’s philosophy is that if you love someone you need to not only express it in words, but in actions. You need to make a point of doing something about your love. Reason number two is the philosophy of “if you don’t feel it, fake it.” Although, these silly games won’t save a marriage they will keep a marriage from getting worse. She says the more she plays these games the more in love with Daddio she becomes. Serving someone makes you like them more. And she has to think about him every time she makes a new valentine. All year long everything she sees she asks herself, “How could I use this to tell my Husband that I love him!?!” When you go through the entire year thinking this way it is very difficult not to love who ever you are thinking about. Every song that comes on the radio, she thinks about how wonderful Daddio is and how she could use this song to tell him that she loves him. All year, she is making notes of things that make her remember that she loves Daddio. What a wonderful thing! 

 Not only has Mom taught us a lot in her actions. But as we have gotten older and started getting boyfriends, or girlfriends, or even spouses (gasp) she has lent a hand in helping us get the hang of it. She has let us borrow old ideas or helped generate new ones so that we too can join in her fun and spoil our significant others rotten as well! Mom has generated an entire box, and kept every idea she has ever used. I take it back we have two huge boxes in our basement of simple ways of telling someone, “I love you.” This has been such a grand tradition with Mom and Daddio; I can’t imagine it not continuing. I think that most of us kids have learned how much fun it can be to pamper one we love, and look forward to being able to do so for a very long time. Daddio says that, “I think your mom is very cute.” 

 Mom hasn’t only shown her love to Daddio on Valentines Day I am sure we all remember the time when she made each of us shirts out of dollar bills. And the time she gave us HUGE Hershey kisses. 

 Another tradition associated with Valentines, and once again shows Mom’s tendency to go over board, is Mom’s love for Valentine cookies. She makes tons of them! Every kind you can think of -- Hundreds of cookies. This is ok in our house because everyone knows of our other tradition of “Spontaneous Cookie Combustion.” It doesn’t really matter what kind of cookie it is: with in an hour of it being cooked, bought, or opened every last cookie is gone. Cookies just don’t last in our house, especially Oreos. In fact, we eat so many Oreos in our house that one day Mom had “The Official Oreo Taste Test Event.” We all closed our eyes and had a stack of cookies in front of us, it contained: American Oreos, Canadian Oreos, and a whole bunch of cheap imitation Oreos. We got to taste everyone with a swig of milk in between and then had to determine which one tasted the best. Mom’s hope was that we would choose one of the cheaper brands so that she didn’t have to spend so much on cookies. But we didn’t. ALL of us had eaten so many Oreos in our life that we could quickly choose the right cookie. Not only could we choose an Oreo out of a stack of fake Oreos but we could tell the difference between “America’s favorite cookie” and “Canada’s favorite cookie!”

Birthdays

Birthdays “I am a child of God, And he has sent me here, Has given me an earthly home With parents kind and dear.” -Hymn 301 

Brother D said of birthdays, “they come and go.” Birthdays at our house are often joked about. We kids often tease Mom and Dad about how much a birthday is just like any other day. This is true. Birthdays are always remembered at our house, and the Birthday Person will hear “Happy Birthday” a number of times throughout the day. But traditions that are normally associated with birthdays to the rest of the world don’t necessarily happen on the day itself, or even at all. We normally get a birthday cake. But it may be on our birthday, the day after, sometime that week, or maybe the next. Along with birthday cake always comes our choice of ice cream, and everyone in the family will sing “Happy Birthday” the extended version with all sorts of “And Scooby Doo on channel two, with Franken Stein on channel nine” and typically Rosalie and Brother N have a contest to see who can hold out the last note the longest! Birthday presents will normally come, but these may come any where from on our birthday to many months later. Rumor has it that Brother J has been saving up his birthday presents for years now, Mom and Dad remind him that he can’t get a car, no matter how long he saves up. 

Birthday Sunday Dinner is a favorite at our house. The week of your birthday you get to plan the entire menu for Sunday’s dinner. Everything you want, you get for dinner. This often varies, we have had home made pizza, lasagna, and even a full blown turkey dinner. I really think Mom likes this, because it isn’t so much making dinner that Mom gets sick of it is planning dinner, so if someone else plans dinner she is a happy mother. 

Mom and Dad also take us out for dinner for our birthday sometime during the month of our birthday. This is everyone’s favorite part about birthdays. When we were little the whole family went, often we went to Showbiz Pizza or Hometown Buffet. Now that we are older, we just go the three of us. Sometimes it is more of us, if we agree, like for instance, many times Brother J and I would go out at the same time, just because our birthdays were with in a week of each other. We get to chose what ever restaurant we want to go to. It is a great date with Mom and Dad, everyone enjoys the time alone with Mom and Dad to just sit and talk. Dad and Mom both enjoy the time that they get to spend with us, once again, another favorite of many people.

Holidays in general

“First I don’t know where general is. Second, you forgot to capitalize the ‘G’ Third, I don’t get the question Fourth, If I did I don’t know the answer” -Brother D 

Really the only reason I included this section after all was said and done, was to include Brother D's comment. The kid cracks us all up.  Now pertaining to what little else was commented on. Rosalie pointed out that, “Holidays are always fun; the big ones and the little ones.” For all holidays the Strong house is well decorated. Mom goes over board on all of them! Even the silly holidays that no one knows about (like Cinco de Mayo) Mom celebrates! We sometimes will come home to a special dinner for some holiday that we didn’t even know existed, such as national ice cream cone day. Well I guess it isn’t really a holiday, but Mom sure seams to make it feel that way. Every day was a holiday, well maybe not a holiday, but it often seamed like many days were parties. Mom sure did know how to make life fun.

Charis

Family Vacations

Mom and Dad both grew up going on family vacations. And well since air planes were relatively new to the public use of things they did all their traveling in cars. As do we. I am willing to wager our first family trip was to Indiana to visit Aunt C and Uncle N in 1984.

 Rosalie was only a couple months old, which means I was just over two, Brother B was three, and Brother J was five. We took Grandma and Grandpa Martin with us, so there were eight of us piled into our old blue Sudan. Dad, like always, was very anxious to get to our destination so we drove all day and all night. NO STOPPING! We got there very late, like midnight. Mom and Dad were unpacking the car and us kids. Brother B was sleeping in the back so they left him there for a couple minutes while they brought stuff in. He woke up and to this day remembers how terrified he was. This is also the source of one of my earliest memories. I remember fireflies and real blueberry pancakes in the morning. I remember playing with Cousin A and pretending like Rosalie was a doll and we stuck her in the doll high chair. 

I don’t remember what order family trips went in after that. We made several trips to Yellowstone National Park, and several to Bear Lake and Dinosaur Land. 

We went to Disneyland the first time when I was seven, Dallin was the baby then. Along all these trips we would stop suddenly and we then knew there must be a dam near by, because Daddio was always stopping to show us a dam he designed or built. 

Another great family trip we went on was the only one we ever went on a plane. We flew to Boston. There we stayed at Aunt M’s and Uncle B’s house. We got to see all sorts of fascinating things! Like Plymouth Plantation, The Mayflower, many battle fields, Bunker Hill Monument, we walked along Paul Revere’s ride from the church. There was a ton to learn and a ton of fun to have. We have been to Boston in the fall. Though, I think it was before all the leaves were changing colors! 

We later went back to Disney Land. There Cuyler got lost. Fish Lake was another fond memory, that cabin is one that none of us will ever forget, the whole thing was going to fall apart from underneath us! If you stuck a marble in the middle of the floor there was no way of telling which way it would roll. Southern Utah! This was great too! The out doors are always amazing. The trips to outside destinations are Brother B’s favorites. Was it Rosalie that found the hieroglyphic? If not, it was someone. The out doors are the best! I think we are all still waiting to go to the Grand Canyon and Bryce. 

 Everyone’s favorite trip was the Redwoods! WOW! WOW! WOW! Alright so maybe I am biased and I am trying to make Look at the size of that thing! The Redwoods all of your favorite, simply because it was my favorite. But it would be pretty hard to beat (though I will discuss it’s stiff competition in a moment). During this most amazing trip we drove down the northern coast line of California. I remember the time when the fog was so thick and we were driving through the Redwood forest and we couldn’t see in front of us. The CD player was playing “How Great Thou Art! It was a spiritual experience instead of the terrifying one it could have been. Northern California is amazing. Pier 39 was full of all sorts of interesting people, people that would moo if you gave them money, and live statues! Alcatraz made us thankful that we weren’t in jail. The best was when Dad decided to cancel our reservations at our hotel and keep driving (I mentioned earlier that Dad really likes to get to places fast and just keep going). So we went a couple cities away and decided to find a hotel. Well all of the hotels in the city were full, so we continued on to the next city—no vacancies. The next city was the same story. Soon we found out that it was Berkely’s graduation and some world wide golf tournament there wasn’t going to be a room in any of the cities any where around. We didn’t know what to do. Brother C suggested that we pray. Dad pulled off to the side of the road and we prayed. We then went to the next hotel. Dad walked in and asked if there were any vacancies, he came back out with a grin on his face. The Lord had found us a room. When we walked in the owners asked if we were LDS, because we had so many kids. We said yes, and found out that they were too. That hotel had the best breakfast any of us had ever had in the morning it was great! The Lord truly was watching out for us. 

Dad had a tendency to smash as much as he could into one trip. He figured this is his one time to experience this area of the country so anything and everything there as to do, we did. Vacation there was always an agenda and a list of things to accomplish. Go Go Go. We always needed a vacation from the vaction. The same trip we stopped at Alcatraz and the Jelly Belly Factory!

The next year we went Yellowstone for the seventeenth bizillionth time! Which is always OK. We love it. It was raining while we were there. The Grand Geyser was suppose to go off, so we sat and waited for it to go off. We waited, and waited, and waited. All in the pouring rain. We laughed, and sang, and made fools of ourselves, but no matter how long we sat, it didn’t go off. We sat for four hours, and then decided to leave. I understand a half hour later it went off! When the Nauvoo temple was rebuilt and finished we took a trip to Nauvoo to see the temple. Dad took us every where! We went to Independence, St Louis, Hannibal, Nauvoo, Omaha, Grand Rapids, Mount Rushmore, and Independence Rock. It was great! In Independence we saw church history sites, we saw the RLDS temple, we got to go to the School for the Deaf and Blind and see where Grandpa Martin’s mother went to school. Daddio even took us to Adom-ondi-Ahmoan, that was great! It was gorgeous. And in the pouring rain we took our big white van out to find Hans Mill. It was mud all the way out; of course it wasn’t the first time we took the big white van off roading! We went to Carthage Jail. We went to all sorts of burial sites. We got to go to the open house of the Nauvoo Temple. We spent a number of days in Nauvoo going on tours of the houses, playing pioneer games, and just seeing all we could see. We spent four nights all nine of us in the same hotel room! This was the only way to go! As much as one might think nine people in one van and one hotel room for two weeks would be horrible, we all love it! Road trips are the best way to go. Even if you do have to stop, pull to the side of the road, and look at either a dam or a water treatment facility. 

 Sometime in the course of all of these trips to various places both near and far we have established that a family trip is not a family trip without MONOPOLY. Brother C states that, “the tradition is that I lose” and it seems to be the consensus that Brother B cheats. All that Brother B had to say about this is, “I win.” I suppose we may never know the truth, I will leave you to make that determination for yourself. The most recent family trip is the one that proves what family trips really are all about. The infamous family trip to Cody, Wyoming! It was great! THERE IS NOTHING IN CODY! Well there is an amazing museum, which we now own a pass too. But even though there was nothing out there, we all had a grand time. This could be because we brought our monopoly game. Or it could be because we enjoy each others’ company, we can have fun anywhere. Dad says that he loves family trips, he can’t get enough of them, but “the most important [part] is being with the family.” We have been some amazing places, seeing many of God’s most amazing creations, but it doesn’t matter where we go, because we will always be with his most amazing creation, our family.

Charis

Quilting

Quilting is something that was started by Grandma Martin. She had a quilt up as long as Mom can remember. Mom would lie under the quilt and watch Grandma quilt. She would often sleep under the quilt. Brother N has similar memories; he says that he remembers the sleepovers we would have under the quilts. We all loved to sleep under the tent created by the quilt. Brother N likes to be the first to sleep “under” the quilt. When mom got big enough she would help Grandma. Now, nobody has a quilt up as much as Grandma did. In fact, we still have a ton of Grandma’s quilt tops that need to be quilted. So we should have them up more often. 

Even though quilts aren’t up as much I have still learned to quilt. I have made my own quilt to take to college and Mom helped my best friend, make a matching quilt. Normally, when one of Mom’s sisters finishes a quilt top we will all arrange a day and go sit around the quilt and talk while we quilt and help finish the quilt. Last year I made myself a quilt to put on my bed when I get married (GIRLS! We are so funny!) this was no small undertaking, by the time I got the top finished I was amazed at how much I still had ahead of me. I put the quilt on the frame and worked on it, and then after it had been up for about a week Mom’s sisters started appearing day after day and it was done in no time. Quilting has taught us more than just the skill of sewing; it has taught us what is important in life. When we were quilting my quilt not only Mom’s sisters came but their kids as well. It has always been fun to gather and talk while we quilted. It was always a good excuse to get together, which sometimes a good excuse is needed. But never had I realized how much service it was until it was my own quilt. And then I learned what it was like to have someone do something nice for you (especially if they enjoyed it). Sometimes it is good to be on the receiving end of service, you learn a ton! 

Recently we have started getting together as cousins and making baby quilts for our cousins that are pregnant. Here we teach some of the younger girls the skills that we have picked up on from our mothers. I think that in our family it has helped tie us together and made us all feel like one big family. Quilting is something we all have in common. Quilting has been one way we can express to our extended family that we are here if they need our help. It has been fun to learn to quilt and to participate in such a long standing tradition. I love this tradition; it has given me a chance to get know Grandma Martin better, even though she died 12 years ago. The evidence of this tradition is on beds in our home, and in boxes and boxes of quilts tops that haven’t been finished, and in the quilts that we throw on the ground at fireworks and picnics. This tradition is strong enough that when Sarah married Josh she asked if I would make them a quilt to put on their bed. This is the one thing she wanted for their wedding present. I laughed and asked her why, seeing as she already had a suitable bed spread for a queen sized bed and she reminded me of what I should have already known. It just isn’t the same, especially in a family like mine where quilting is such a big deal. This is a tradition that I am afraid may die sooner than it should, just because none of us are as big as quilters as Grandma was and so the tendency will be for our children to be even less inclined. But it will be well preserved in the quilts left behind. Quilts made in our family are more than just quilts. They are a reflection of personality and also a reflection of the past. Aunt Emma has a quilt that was made out of all Grandma’s old dresses, she did this in the depression when they didn’t have the money to buy new cloth for a new quilt. A while back Aunt M wrote us a letter about a quilt exhibit she went to in New York. The quilts were depression era quilts and her tour guide marveled at the genius of the women who made these quilts and put bursts of color here and there with random pieces of cloth, we all laughed when we heard this, because these women were not being modernistic in their way of thinking they were being idealistic and used what ever the clothe they had kicking around the house. The quilts continue to tell stories. We have denim quilts made out of our families old jeans. Mom made a 2000 quilt with 2 each of 1000 different pieces (it is like an eye spy quilt). It is great fun to go find pieces from our old clothes, past quilts, or projects from the past. Quilting is more than just a hobby, it, like so many other traditions, is an expression of who we are as a family.

Saturday Morning Garage Saleing

“I deplore waste. I deplore extravagance. I value thrift. I believe in prudence and conservatism.” -President Gordon B. Hinckley, May 1990 

What is “Saturday Morning Garage Saleing”? This is one of my favorite traditions. Rosalie remembers it as, “a mother/daughter bonding moment. For years, every Saturday morning, between Spring General Conference and Fall General Conference, Mom would wake me and Charis up at the crack of dawn.” We wake up early, sleeping in is not for the weekends! We hit the road by 8:00 at the latest. Rosalie continues, “mom would choose the direction she wanted to go in, then we would follow the signs. I swear that Garage Saleing creates the worst drivers in the world. We would just be driving a long and all of the sudden Mom would hit the breaks, or swerve across the road, or flip a U-turn, just to get a better look at a sign. Drivers on Saturday morning, BEWARE!” 

We go from garage sale to garage sale looking for the “find of the day.” What is a find of the day? The coolest thing in the world, of course. Like one week Mom found Boaris the Pig! This was a transvestite Turkish boar skin! It was too cool. The man went to Turkey boar hunting. He killed a female boar instead of a male boar so he had tusks put on it. At any rate the man’s wife hated this skin hanging on the wall (can you imagine!?!) so she sold it for $5.00 CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?! What a steal. I on the other hand look for far more practical things such as the original Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Uncle Wiggly, and Booby Trap games! TOO COOL! I have also gotten some great books and filled my book shelves and just two weeks ago I found some Strawberry Shortcake dolls for only $5.00 that was amazing! These people didn’t realize what they were selling. This was especially evident when Rosalie bought a Betsy McCall Doll for only a dollar, she took it home and found out it was worth $100! Alright, so you want to know where the practicality of it all comes in, ok so Rosalie and I have both bought some snow shoes! That was the coolest, a pair of $220 snow shoes for only $20! See it has saved a ton of money. After we have hunted for four hours we head home. There we find a house of very anxious brothers and a father to see what amazing stuff we pulled up. It is great fun to see them oo and ah over everything (or wonder why we waste our morning). 

 This is a great tradition. It has created some amazing one on one time with Mom, which has allowed me some great time to learn from and talk with her woman to woman. I have also learned a lot about being frugal, alright so buying a Turkish pig just because we laughed and laughed wasn’t frugal, but it brought months and months of laughs and jokes. But I have learned that you can get amazing deals on stuff at garage sales such as baby clothes. There is no need to buy new baby clothes for lots of money when you can go to garage sales and get next to new baby clothes for dirt cheap. I think this is an excellent tradition. It gives me something to look forward to. I know that if I can’t find time with Mom any other time in the week we will always have Saturday mornings. And it is different! How many people do you know that can say they go garage saleing with their mother on Saturday mornings!?! It also has taught me to be constantly thinking of other people. We are always at garage sales finding things for other people. The question “don’t you think so and so would love this?” or we find something totally cool and we ask, “who do we know that would totally appreciate this!?!” I LOVE IT! Like the time we found the next to pornographic ostrich egg for Mom's sister, Aunt M, or how about the luminescent lawn art that we passed around the ward for so long. This game that we play will be continued through the years. I will take my daughters garage saleing and I probably will return for years to come to go with my mother. So now all you boys can look forward to me and my daughters thinking to ourselves, “hum, don’t you think this Finnish Reindeer Head belongs on Uncle J’s wall!?!” or “This bright orange bed spread would be perfect for Uncle N!” There is no where in our house that you can go without seeing the results of our amazing garage saleing skills. Some people sell amazing stuff! WOW! I spend most of my money on antique past times, such as my original board games, dolly dingle dolls, old books, antique wooden sleds etc. I plan on decorating my house in such an ambiance when I get married. This will preserve the fun I have had and foster many questions I am sure. And each thing will bring a fond memory of my Saturday mornings spent garage saleing with my mother! Mother’s favorite garage sale item was definitely Boaris! One must understand that true meaning of this dumb pig. After this pig was bought, it was dressed up in all sorts of interesting get ups. It was left in the hall of the church with a chef’s hat on, an apron on, measuring spoons, and a wooden spoon, with a sign that said Congratulations on your new calling (this was left for a close family friend, Danette, who had been called as the relief society president). The next time we saw it, it was nailed to the roof of another family friend’s house with a red light on his nose, he was Boaris the Red Nosed Turkish Pig. That family friend then past it on to another family friend dressed in negligee, fake eye lashes, and big red lips. . . this was intended to be a lovely birthday present, I am sure. At any rate, the pig went back and forth from our family friends, with one joke to another joke. Mom says “there is no meaning to any of this, it is just fun!” The last place Boaris was seen was hanging on Brother J's apt wall at college. Someone walked in to his apartment and took it off the wall and it disappeared! SOMEONE STOLE BOARIS. Sometimes, the presents we find we know everyone will hate and just laugh their heads off at, others of them we know they will love and appreciate greatly! It makes a more cohesive neighborhood, no one knows what to expect, other than crazy,

Grandma’s House

When Daddio had kids he wanted his children to know their grandparents, so he decided we would go visit them as much as possible. Every Sunday we go to grandma’s house to visit. This is everyone’s favorite thing during the week. With out exception, every one of us commented that we look forward to this weekly tradition and hope to continue it as we grow older. It is good that we hope to continue it, because when I asked mom about it she said, “Going to Grandma and Grandpa’s has been a long standing family tradition going back at least ½ a generation, at least back as far as Allan and my marriage. It is one that I hope continues for many generations to come (hint, hint, hint).” Mom is right, ever since we were little we have gone to Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house every Sunday night to visit. When we were all young both sets of grandparents were alive. So we would go to both sets of grandparents’ houses. In 1992, Grandma Martin died. Grandpa Martin then moved out of his house and in with his daughters, thus moving from one house to the next every couple of months, so we didn’t go visit him any more, sometimes he was at our house so we still got to spend time with him; this was the best! He has since passed away, also. So now we just visit Grandma and Grandpa Strong on Sunday evenings. When we were younger all of the cousins went to visit Grandma and Grandpa. It was great fun to run and play with all the cousins; we probably didn’t behave in the most appropriate Sunday manners. At Grandma and Grandpa Martin’s we often played games like “Kick the Can,” have snowball fights with the blossoms off the snow ball tree, or sneak down into the work shop and hide, or go for walks in the back ally. Naaman remembers, “At Grandma (Strong)’s we used to play all of her great kid games like “PayDay” and “10-4 Good Buddy” and eat all of her cookies. Now, we just sit around and talk to Grandma and Grandpa. We still eat all of their cookies.” Sadly, we are essentially the only family that still visits regularly. The focus has changed from playing with cousins to visiting with grandparents. I think we all have gained a huge love and appreciation for not only our grandparents as individuals but the example they set as a couple. THEY STILL FLIRT! Most of us have loved to watch how “in love” they still are after fifty five years of marriage. Grandma is still Grandpa’s “Little Lady.” In the world as it is, it seems that it would be near impossible to make a marriage work, but we have seen their marriage work and have learned that it is still possible to be in love after so many years! This is a valuable lesson that couldn’t have been taught in any other way. This is a great tradition. Rosalie says that “they are two of my favorite people to visit. I could easily sit for hours talking to them.” It makes me very sad that the rest of our aunts, uncles, and cousins have stopped visiting as often, and are missing out on such an amazing opportunity. Not only are they missing out on ton of learning and love, but they have left Grandpa and Grandma lonely. We all have made it a priority in our family to make sure we make it every week that we can, so that we don’t leave them lonely in their old age. Not only does it give us a chance to learn from them on Sundays, but it also gives us a chance to be there often enough to know when they are going to need help. Like for instance, Grandpa decided he needed to re-roof his roof, had we not gone on Sunday we would not have known about this. Brother B and I got to go that Friday and put a new roof on Grandpa’s house just us and him. It was great to be able to work side by side with him and learn from him. Also, going to Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house on Sunday gives them the chance to be better grandparents. In the Proclamation it talks about going to extended family for help, it also talks about the divine duty to be a mother and father. How are they supposed to help or be a mother and father to children who don’t come around!?! Grandma and Grandpa have been a huge part of lives and have helped Mom and Dad countless times in ways of raising us. Our love for Grandma and Grandpa has been fostered through these experiences. I am grateful to have grandparents so close.

Family Dinner

I like the way Brother J described family dinner. He said, “It gave us a chance to be a family and not just a bunch of people living in the same house.” Most of the other comments from all of you pertaining to family dinner were about how we all felt that family dinner brought us closer together as a family. Like always Brother D was very insightful on this topic, he said, “we eat, drink and be merry” (he he he). Dad always chooses someone to say the prayer, and then we talk about world issues. If we have soup, then Mom will serve us.” I think that Brother D, though goofy, brought up some very good ideas and described our family dinners very well. We do eat, drink (milk, water, or soda pop), and be merry. Dinner is a fun time, for everyone. This is also one time when we actually see how the priesthood resides in the home. Dad asks someone to pray, and never before have I heard anyone deny this opportunity, though, we may question why we have said it for three days in a row. As Brother D pointed out it is very rare for Mom to actually “serve us” dinner at our house is typically prepared by Mom (though, these responsibilities are slowly beginning to be taken on occasionally by other people, namely Charis). One of the kids sets the table, and we all gather at the same time with all the food on the table. We impatiently pass things around the table while Brother J and Brother C stand, because they are so excited they can’t bare to sit down. Dinner often turns into a comedy show by Brother D. Brother N comments, “Brother D usually tells stories or something like that, no one ever knows what he is talking about.” Brother D is always full of nonsensical comments that everyone wonders where they came from. In between Brother D's comments, and everyone else’s laughs, we often try to discuss activities of the week, and check up on each other. Sundays vary just slightly from the rest of the week. On Sundays we kneel down to pray. And Dinner is normally much bigger, with meat, potatoes and a salad or something. Family Dinner has defiantly been an asset to our family and friendship. 

 Everyone’s Favorite Dinner: 

 Mom- Anything that someone else cooks 

Dad- Baby Back Ribs Funeral potatoes 

Brother J

Brother B- Nacho Cheese? 

Charis - Tacos

Rosalie- Homemade Hamburgers 

Brother N- Tacos 

Brother D - Steak 

Brother C- Tacos