A Tavern Family Tradition

Each December the Taverns get together to make potato sausage, which will be served at the family Christmas celebration. This is a tradition that started a long time back with Christopher's great grandparents. His Dad, Mike, can't remember a Christmas without potato sausage. Mike has many memories of making the sausage with his grandparents and parents. A few years back, Chris and I began helping in the tradition. It is quite the production to make and we come home stinking of onions, but we love knowing that we are carrying on something that is important to Christopher's family.

Waiting to begin the mixing, by hand, of the ingredients.

If raw meat grosses you out, you better skip the next photo...

Peeling potatoes...

After the job is finished, we always have potato sausage for dinner as a taste test. Chris and I waiting for dinner to be ready.

Leila doesn't like helping with any bit of it...yet. Her only job of the evening it to choose which Christmas movies to watch. Pretty good deal I think!

Griswold Family Sledding

We spent the beginning of this week in Portland with my family. My Mom and brother planned a trip to the mountain to go sledding. We had such an amazing day together! Mt. Hood was beautiful and we found two perfect sledding areas. We started the morning bright and early, packed some lunch goodies, stopped for tea and coffee and then hit the road. Mt. Hood is only 45 minutes to an hour away from my brother's place so we were ready to sled in no time!

We had the first place we stopped at pretty much all to ourselves for an hour or so. Leila even wanted to go by herself!

The boys on the top of the run.
My brother, er, Clark Griswold, on the disc.
Mom pulling L back up the sled run...
Still trying to make it to the top. Mom kept slipping.
Leila is wondering what is taking Grammy so long to get to the top!


The kids.
A little out of control...
Oh my goodness! This run had a bump at the bottom that killed my bottom!



Action shot...me and my little brother racing.


Hiking into the second spot, which was more crowded.



The tough boys.
What would we do if Jon and Chris didn't have a weird photo together??
Finally a nice shot.




You should have heard how excited the boys were to push me down the hill!! Look at Christopher's face in this!! Hmmm....










This is when the boys truly took on the spirit of the Griswold family sledding. They found a huge run with a major bump at the bottom where one could catch air. Chris is trying to hit it, but missed...thank goodness.

My brother, on the other hand, did not miss the bump. He practically knocked himself out! Not joking. He hit his nose on his knee when he landed and gave himself a bloody nose. Then within an hour he had a black eye too! The craziest part was that my husband was still wanting to go after watching Jon! No way, Chris!!!

Luckily, Leila was cold and tired by this point so the boys couldn't hurt themselves anymore as we had to leave to get her warmed up.

Heading back to the car.
We are definitely doing this again...minus the injury!

Aunt Doris

Last week my family lost someone very dear to us, our great Aunt Doris. She was 87-years-old, so she had lived a long and happy life, but I will miss her. It makes it easier knowing that she was reunited with my Uncle John.

As a kid, I used to love to spend time at my great Aunt Doris's house. Her and my Uncle John, always had crafts for my brother and me to do. They had a ceramics studio in their basement and we were encouraged to pick out and paint anything we wanted. We came home with wonderful pieces of art every visit. My Aunt was an amazing crafter, seamstress, knitter...just about any type of handiwork was her forte. Because of this, we are blessed to have many things to treasure. Things that will always remind us of her love for each of us. We will miss you Aunt Doris, but know we will meet again.

Playing on the bedspread that Aunt Doris made for my brother, Jon. For Leila's first birthday, Aunt Doris made her an exact copy...fitting since Jon and Leila share the same birthday.

Aunt Doris, Jonny, me and Uncle John

Leila and Aunt Doris looking at some doll clothes that Doris had made.

Doris A. Tancre Ball

October 31, 1923-December 14, 2010