Remember Who You Are

About 7 years ago some members of my dad’s family put together an incredible book entitled, “Remember Who You Are: The life stories of L. Clayton and Elizabeth Bitner Dunford and their forebears.”  This hardbound book is the story of my Dunford ancestors.  It includes journal entries and letters of my Grandma and Grandpa, both of whom I never met because they passed away before I was born.  I read it when I first received my copy, then put it back on the shelf where it has sat these many years.  Recently, I had a question about how one of my great-grandparents died so I went back and looked in the book.  Then once I started reading I couldn’t put it down.  I had forgotten so many of the stories, and reading the letters and journal entries that they wrote in their own words made me feel like I really knew them.

One of my very favorite stories was about my great grandmother Irma.  Apparently, one Sunday just before church started, the bishop asked if she could play some prelude music since the organist was late.  She only knew how to play a few songs, none of which were appropriate for church.  Instead of simply telling the bishop to find someone else, she tried desperately to think of something that she could play, but the only song she could think of was, "There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight." She immediately thought to herself that she couldn't play THAT, but since she couldn't think of anything else, she decided that maybe if she played it very slowly and softly and paused here and there that there was a chance no one would recognize it.  So, up she went to the organ and did just that.  When she was done, one person who had caught on to what she was doing quietly whispered in her ear, "Well, Irma, I think you got away with it."  What a sense of humor she must have had!  I wish I had known her.  

As I sat and poured over the pages of this book, I felt ashamed that I have not been more diligent in keeping up with my blog lately.  Because you see, this blog serves as a glimpse into our lives, and as much as I hope it is enjoyable for you to read, I hope even more that my posterity can one day appreciate it and have a glimpse of what our family was like and who we are.  I want them to get a glimpse into my life the way I have gotten to have a glimpse into the lives of my ancestors these past few days.  Even though some of the things that I blog about may seem mundane and extremely ordinary, I hope that when all the posts are put together, one might get a feeling for who we are, and, as cliche at it may be, Remember who they are.

And so, in keeping with that, I hereby vow to do a better job.  Hold me to it, guys.  It may will not be every day (I'm just being realistic here) but I want to do it more than just once a month.  So here we go!

Hide-and-seek

The boys love playing hide-and-seek with Joseph.  It's even better now that we live in a house instead of an apartment where there were only three places to hide.  Today church was cancelled because an ice storm that came through, so we played a marathon round of "seek" as Eli calls it.  The boys count to ten while Joseph hides, then they look all over the house for him. 

 Then when they find him, Joseph jumps out, the kids scream, then it's their turn to hide.  I tried to get a picture of them in their hiding place (under the bed in the spare room) but since it was completely dark, it came out a little fuzzy.  These boys love playing with their daddy!  

A Christmas to Remember

Hello my dear blogging friends!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season.  Over here we were enjoying every bit of our holidays.  In fact, guys, I have a confession to make:  I put our Christmas decorations up well before Thanksgiving.  Phew, it feels good to get that off my chest.  But I seriously couldn’t help it!  I love Christmas decor and I had a little extra time on my hands before Thanksgiving and before I knew it, our house was all decorated!  It was totally out of my control.

Also, I’m a little proud of myself because all of our Christmas decorations either came from a garage sale, consignment shops, goodwill, or just plain given to us.  I think it all came together very nicely!

 

The day after Thanksgiving we surprised our kids with a trip on the “Polar Express.”  Er…excuse me…the North Pole Express (apparently there’s a copyright or something?)  Anyway, a cute little town about 45 minutes away does this great Polar Express themed Christmas train ride where they take you up to the "North Pole" and they give you hot chocolate and the kids meet Santa and they give everyone a bell.  They even give you a ticket and punch a word in it for you.  Our conductor punched our kids names in their tickets.  It was all very cute.

Jake with the conductors

 Waiting for the train to depart

Eating cookies and drinking hot chocolate at the North Pole

Eating markers in the craft room at the North Pole

The boys with Santa.  He's a little creepy to me, but you know, I guess you can't win 'em all.  

Standing in front of Santa's caboose at the North Pole.

 

For the actual day of Christmas we went to Michigan, and go figure, I left my camera at home!  Grrr… luckily, we had Joseph’s iPod with us so we were able to take a few videos, but I was pretty mad at myself.  Here's a little taste of our Christmas morning:

We were only able to stay in Michigan a few days because of complications with Joseph’s work and my kidney stone surgery (oh, did I mention I have kidney stones and I’m supposed to have surgery on them?  More on that later…) Anyway, our trip was cut short, but we were still able to have a wonderful time as I'm sure you did as well.

And so, from our family to yours, Merry (albeit belated) Christmas!!

P.S. Jake just grabbed that candle because he wanted something to hold while posing in front of the tree.  He cracks me up!

And then of course Eli wanted to hold it as well.  Love these kids!