Moran Family Fun

The day after Thanksgiving is our traditional putting up the Christmas decorations day. All of the boxes of Christmas ornaments, stockings, nativities, etc are in the attic. I love our attic, I think that it's really cool that the door opens and the ladder folds down so you can climb right up. Jared got the fun job of getting all the boxes out of the attic and downstairs. I really appreciate having him around, especially when there's a job like that to be done. I think we have about 5 or 6 big totes of Christmas things as well as the huge box with the Christmas tree. Yes, we have an artificial tree, it's just easier than buying a new one every year, but I do miss the smell of a real tree. The worst part of the yearly ritual is putting the tree together. It's not one of those little hinged trees (although we have one of those too). This thing is seven feet tall and has a different kind of color coded branch for each level of the tree. So first we have to sort out all the...

This year for Thanksgiving I had two turkeys to make; one for a squadron party and one for our family. I planned ahead and took them out of the freezer the Saturday before Thanksgiving but they still weren't quite thawed when I was ready to roast them. In the past I've just done a cold water thaw in the kitchen sink. At our house here we don't have a double sink and the one sink that we do have is maybe 10 inches deep, so the thawing wasn't happening there. I ended up putting the turkeys inside our cooler and the cooler in the bathtub so that I could thaw them out. It worked really well, so well that I might always do that, even when I have regular sized kitchen fixtures! Thanksgiving turned out great. I decided to make some things myself that I've always used mixes for before. So the gravy wasn't from a jar and the stuffing was bread that I cut up and then let sit for a few days so it would get crunchy before we seasoned and cooked it. We also made a French Sil...

Emily is awesome! I feel like before I write all about the celebrating I should say something about how blessed we are to have Emily in our family. She is a sweet, loving girl who strives to choose the right. Emily is creative and loves to write stories and draw pictures. She is always looking for something creative or crafty to do - I can count on Emily to make great decorations for any holiday! Emily is a lot of fun to be around, in our family I sometimes think of her as the cruise director, planning fun activities and trying to get everyone involved. She loves to sing and has a beautiful voice (she's especially loud in the shower). Emily also is really good about setting goals and then following through and accomplishing what she set out to do. Right now she is working of reading the Book of Mormon; it was nice to see her at play rehearsal last night reading her scriptures when it wasn't her turn on stage. She was also a great missionary and talked with a group of people bac...

For Saint Martin's Day we participated in a little play put on by Samantha's school and a nighttime parade. Here's the story of St. Martin and some pictures of our St. Martin's day celebration. In a shadow of the city wall, as unheeded as a mound of dust, stands a poor, ragged beggar, shivering with cold, one feeble hand strecthed out for alms. The people pass him by, most of then ignoring him altogether, some with a glance of half-contemptuous pity, or even disgust. His pleading voice is so weak it fades away. He is utterly despised. Suddenly there is a ring of horses' hooves on the hard road, and a little band of the Emperor's soldiers canter down the street. They are talking merrily among themselves. Their swords, their big spurs, and the trappings of their steeds glisten in the sunshine. They are leaving for a distant city, and carelessy glance at the people who stand still to watch them ride by, admiring their youth and gallant bearing. As they pass by the ...

My great sister Megan told me about a blog she likes h ttp://www.makeitandloveit.blogspot.com/ that is full of easy and good craft ideas. I decided to check it out and I love it too! This lady has some seriously good ideas and for all of them she posts step by step instructions with photos so you can be crafty too. The first day I went to the blog I wasted HOURS reading all of the past posts looking for fun ideas. There's a new project every day or two and yesterday's was repurposing an old sweater into a sweater dress for a child. I read it and thought, "I can make that, I even have an old sweater!" It took me about an hour and a half to finish up this easy and fun project. I started with a sweater that I got a Target a few years ago. I love sweaters, I do not love how sometimes they get shorter after I wash them and a sweater that fit perfectly is now just a bit too short! I just followed the directions on the blog; cutting the sweater into a slight A-line shape t...

A lot of the time I'm not sure what to write about on here so I'm thankful for Halloween giving me a ready made topic! Halloween this year was busy and lots of fun. We had three Halloween parties to go to so the kids got lots of candy. I was worried how our first Halloween over here would go since it's not a holiday that's celebrated much by Germans. There is not any trick or treating, except on base, so it was a little different to have Halloween and not trick or treat. The Wednesday before the big day was our ward's party. It was pretty nice, as ward parties go, and I didn't have to cook dinner so that was wonderful. Jared was the MC for the night and he kept things running right on schedule. We started promptly and moved from eating to the costume parade to trunk or treating and then everyone went home. Hooray for starting and ending on time (but those people who were late maybe didn't appreciate it!) For the ward party Madison was a witch/hag, Emily w...

Jared and I both think it's really important that our kids learn that our family is like a team. That means that we all work together around the house. Everyone has chores to do each day and today was Samantha's day to unload the dishwasher. That means that I put away the things that go up high and she puts away the things that go down low. As I looked over today and saw her putting utensils away I realized that maybe we need to rethink that division of labor. Perhaps the new arrangement should be that I will also handle all sharp objects! P.S. This picture makes me think of Jared's response to a question that we hear a lot when we are out without the kids. "Where are the kids?" Jared's answer is usually, "At home playing with knives and matches."