Bowling

The last two years, we've gone bowling the day after Thanksgiving.  And, we've played with bumpers.

I find that I really like playing with bumpers.  (I'm the first J).

This year, I got an awesome spare out of a split.  My mom was asking Shelly how you would hit both pins after a split like that, and as Shelly explained, I hit both pins!

 David's awesome bowling skills.

 I won again.

Later, we played bowling on the Wii.  This is at my sister Shelly's house.  Her daughter, Brooklyn, REALLY liked watching the pins go down.

So, in case you didn't think bowling is a spectator sport, Brooklyn is here to prove you wrong.  (Hopefully the video works this time.)

Christmas Carol Puzzles

For those of you who need an intellectual challenge this Christmas, can you identify these Christmas Carols?

A Small City in Judea

Colorless Yuletide

Singular Yearning for Twin Anterior Incisors

Righteous Darkness

Loyal Followers Advance

Weather: Cloudless; Arrival Time: 2400 Hours

Far off in a Feeder

Array the Corridors

Bantam Percussionist

Monarchical Triad

Nocturnal Noiselessness

Father Christmas Enroute to Borough

Initial Christmas

Frozen Precipitation Commence

Proceed and Enlighten on the Pinnacle

The Quadruped with the Vermilion Proboscis

Query Regarding Identity of Descendant

Delight for this Planet

Give Attention to the Melodious Celestial Beings

Hence Arriveth Kris Kringle

To Decry Matriarchal Osculation of Yuletide Anthropomorphism

At the Zenith of the Habitat

Endocarp Vestiated in a Conflagration

Jehovah Dulcify Blithe Chevaliers

Derek's Wedding

 My brother Derek married Brooke in October.

Can you tell that he's happy about it?

Bradford (my sister Shelly's son) was not happy about having to wear shoes.

David worked to help exhaust / distract him:

The exhaustion part didn't work; Bradford has lots of energy.
Audrey (my brother Kevin's wife) kept Brooklyn (Bradford's twin) occupied:

The four siblings, youngest to oldest: Janene, Derek, Kevin, Shelly.

My mom's siblings: Dave and Ilene, Kurt and Linda, Curtis and Christine, Leigh and Nancy, Nancy (missing Ren), Max and Lonna.

My dad with his brother, Dale.

 David and I enjoyed the reflecting pool.

Although we didn't get quite this elaborate of an effect.

 And, some fun pictures of the reception:

 Yes, that is a bagpipe band behind them.

Why I need to write more

As I've been working on a paper, I realize that I don't write nearly enough.  And, since writing skills need continuous practice, that means that this paper is really painful to write.  Really, it shouldn't take me a full day to come up with a good, professional, concise explanation of one graph, should it?

As I've been processing data, I've kept a document with a running commentary of my observations.  That has helped, but now, having to go through, determine what is truly significant, and make my conclusions coherent to an outside reader, is a daunting task.

Just to give you a taste, imagine trying to explain this plot:

Can you see my difficulty?

Family Pictures

We got new family pictures on both sides of the family this year.

On David's side, we got matching polos, with different colors for each sibling's family.
Top row: Steve, Miriam, Eli, Wanda, Sandy, Stacey, Brent.
Middle row: Tanner, Amber, Isaac, Caleb.
Front row: Bryce holding Trent, Karen holding Ashley, Janene, David, Aaron holding Sarah, Shauna holding Naomi, Adam.
David with his siblings and parents: Karen, Shauna, Wanda, Sandy, Miriam, Brent, Stacey, David.
We didn't have quite the same luck getting kids to look at the camera with my family.
Top row: Kevin, Audrey, Derek, Brooke, David, Janene.
Middle row: Jeff, Bradford, Linda, Kurt, Nicole.
Bottom row: Shelly, Emma, Brooklyn.
Me with my siblings: Derek, Janene, Kevin, Shelly.
And the four girls: Audrey, Janene, Shelly, and Brooke.

Fall Colors

We took David's brother, Brent, with us on a fall leaf drive last month. Here's Brent showing off the great colors.
It was overcast, but the colors were brilliant.

Most of the red leaves had already fallen, and made a thick blanket on the paths. If only David had more people to throw them at . . .
We went up two short trails along the drive. The first was to a water fall. It started raining as we arrived here.
Not living in the mountains, I forget how much the weather can change as you change elevation. As we climbed, we ran into some thick fog (clouds, really), and hail. Our second short hike was to this rock formation. This wasn't the view I was expecting.
What we did see was pretty, though.
That's where we were driving--in the clouds.

A Castle Cake

Since I only get comments on my posts about food, here's a post about food!

I got the assignment of making refreshments for a Young Women event that was themed around princesses and castles. I knew from my sister that you could easily make a castle cake like this (photo taken from www.bettycrocker.com):
The problem is, this cake isn't very accessible to eat. It's three layers of 8 x 8, topped with 3 layers of 4 x 4, topped with 3 layers of 2 x 2, topped with a sugar cone to make the center spire. I would have to make a separate cake to make sure every girl got refreshments.

So I decided I should do a 9 x 13 cake. But I also wanted to make sure I had something that would look good. So I kept looking for other designs. And I found this one (photo taken from picsicio.us):
It works. And the towers add a lot (photo taken from www.thebamboosprouts.com).
Of course, the photo didn't have instructions with it, so I wasn't sure how many layers the cake was . . . but I made three cakes, since I figured that was how many we would want to eat overall.

The first layer of cake. I cut out the corners so the ice cream cones would fit.
I also discovered that it is almost impossible to get a 9 x 13 cake out of the pan without it breaking. Especially if I make it to be a super moist cake. So I cut it in half.

Layer 2:
Clearly, two layers is not enough, so I stacked all three.
The filling is raspberry jam that we made as a YW activity last month. I thought it was overly sweet for bread, but perfect for cake.
Here it is after 1 lb of powdered sugar. There's even a side that's not covered. Isn't that disgusting? As I cut the cake later, the frosting just fell off one side.
There is a reason to do a crumb coat. Here's the cake after its 2nd coat of frosting (another pound of powdered sugar)--much more elegant. Yes, it did end up a kind of weird color.
And then I added another half pound of powdered sugar with decorations! (Can you tell I don't generally like frosting?)
Top view:
Side view:
I filled in spots with more frosting.
And here's the finished product at the event. (The young woman who took this picture also posted it to Facebook from her phone, right then.)
In case you're wondering, it tasted good, too. (Except for the frosting.)

Hiking

At the family reunion, Shauna (David's oldest sister), Aaron (Shauna's husband), Bryce (David's sister Karen's husband), David, and I went hiking to some really old and tall trees. Check out this trunk. I could easily go through it (and I did).
Here's David climbing through it.
This picture of Shauna gives you a good idea of how huge the tree was. Actually though, it wasn't a tree; it was a stump. Just a really really tall stump.
David, Bryce, and Shauna.
David, me, and Shauna on the "elephant branch." David and Shauna reminisced here about getting all 6 siblings lined up for pictures when they were younger.
This was a cool-looking rotting tree that David and I fit inside.
(It's amazing how different these two pictures look on the different cameras!)
We also hiked down to the coast, which is just breathtaking. (Okay, so really, it takes more breath to hike back up to the road, but anyway.) Here's Shauna watching the waves crash against the rocks.