We Wish You A Merry Christmas

We had an excellent Christmas this year with all of our boys at home.  Daren was home after being away for two years. We love having Rod and Steph close by.  Reed is still around some of the time and this is the last Christmas with Scott at home for a couple years. This may be the last year that we have that opportunity.  We received a lot and especially enjoyed the giving.  The best part is just being together as a family.  It can’t get much better than that. 

It was nice to have Christmas on a Sunday this year.  Our Sacrament Meeting wasn’t until 1:00, so there was plenty of time for opening gifts and having breakfast.  Then we attended church as a family.  What a special time to celebrate the reason for the season – CHRIST! It was a nice meeting filled with Christmas music.

Reed had worked all night and so he was a little sleepy. 

Schwieder Christmas

With the family getting increasingly larger and scattered, Grandma and Grandpa decided to have several mini-parties to accommodate everyone’s schedules.  Each family scheduled the day and then Grandma and Grandpa Schwieder were invited to attend.  Our family decided to have our get-together on Sunday, December 18th.  We had dinner that evening and then watched one of the new church Bible videos of the birth of Christ.  I had prepared a gift for everyone to open.  It contained a framed family picture and socks.  This was to symbolize our family goal of being a forever family with our Heavenly Father.  I wrote a little poem to go with it.

 

 

 

 

 

Grandma and Grandpa also had presents with a thought. 

 

Then we played the money game.  Grandma started this a few years ago with Grandpa’s loose change that he would empty from his pockets into a bowl in the drawer.  The family sits in a circle and each player has five coins.  You can shake one dice for each coin.  If a 1,2,or 3 is shook, you get to keep the coin; a 4 sends the coin to the center; for a 5 you pass the coin to the person on your left and a 6 sends it to the right.  The last person with a coin gets to have the money from the center.  This year we used Doug’s saved change and each person started with 5 quarters.  Stephanie was the final winner of the $12.50.  Maybe next year we will sweeten the pot and start with $5 each.  That would get their interest.

We enjoyed the small, intimate time to spend together as a family.  Family time is my most treasured gift!

MORE GOOD NEWS!!!

On Saturday, December 17, 2011 we combined the celebration for the birthday of Doug’s mom and the Rockwood Family Christmas Party.  We had all of the siblings in attendance and many of the grandchildren and great-grands.  There were a total of 65 present.  It was a wild, fun time for everyone.  We held it at the Iona City Building and there was plenty of room to eat, visit and play. 

Every year the kids look forward to playing “The Candy Bar Game”.  Several years ago we started the tradition of putting candy bars in the center of the floor and if you shake a 1 or 6 on the die you get to choose something from the middle and put the item in your paper bag. Later they had a few minutes to continue shaking the dice, but they could steal an item from someone else IF they could remember where it was.  It has expanded to more than candy bars.  This year there was a huge heap of toys, candy, money, stuffed animals and more.  The kids were all excited to see what they could claim. (we discontinued the stealing part, since some of the little ones have a hard time parting with their favorite item).  As I put all of the spoils in the middle, I noticed one wrapped box and commented to everyone that Grandma had included a surprise package this year.  The game proceeded as usual and everyone had stuffed paper sacks filled with goodies. 

Soon after the game, one of the little girls came and handed me a small plastic ornament that had “Give to Ann and Doug” written on it.  I thought, “Oh No! I put Doug’s mothers gifts in the middle of the game. I soon learned what had happened as I opened the small globe.  Inside was a folded paper that contained the following message.

Sitting across the room were Rod and Stephanie grinning from ear to ear.  We are sooooooo excited to be grandparents.  Now it will just be hard to wait.

Rockwood Family Christmas

The annual Rockwood Family Christmas Party was held December 17, 2011.  This is also Grandma Venna’s birthday, so it was a double celebration.  We partied at the Iona City Building, which was a good thing since there were 65 in attendance. We were happy that some of Sandy’s family was able to join us this year.  Sandy, Ray, Arianne and family, Brittany and family, Ethan and family, and Tiffany made the trip to be with us.  As always there was food, the candy bar game and Santa made an appearance.  I was so glad that Ray took some pictures since I forgot my camera.  This is one of my favorite pictures along with some other snapshots of the day.

More Remodeling

Doug and I decided that for our Christmas gifts this year we would make some changes in the house.  We have been wanting to get new countertops for quite awhile and decided to make the move to granite.  We were pleasantly surprised by the quote and so Doug said I could get carpeting as well (another item on my wish list).  I didn’t wait for him to change his mind. 

The granite has been installed.  It was interesting to see the process. Doug did the tile work for the backsplash area.  I LOVE IT!  It has made quite a difference already.

The next step was replacing the carpet throughout most of the upstairs. This carpet has been down since we built onto the house 15 years ago. Again the decision is hard to make from a small sample. I was a little concerned when they first started rolling out the carpet that it was too light. Now that it is laid and fluffed, it is looking much better and I am enjoying it. It is always fun to have something new. We took some of the old carpet and carpeted the stairs and living area downstairs. It makes a difference to have that changed as well.

The carpeting was installed at the beginning of December.  It postponed the Christmas decorating, but it was worth the wait. 

Christmas Traditions

While others are shopping on Black Friday, my family is making candy.  My mother has been hand-dipping chocolates for over 50 years.  The process begins early with making the fondant centers and caramel.  Then after Thanksgiving my sister, Janet, and I roll the centers while Mom dips them in chocolate. Mom has perfected the art and places letters on top to designate the filling.  Over the last few years, we have started doing some of the dipping, but ours don’t  look quite as nice.   Our friends always know what they are getting for Christmas. 

This year, Janet’s daughter-in-laws, Amanda and Annie, came with her and were a huge help.  We dipped about 15 pounds of chocolate and packages 32 pound boxes and 12 1/2 pound boxes as well as the extras.  It is a fun time to spend together.

GOOD NEWS

DAREN IS ENGAGED!!!

It didn’t take him long, but he has found a really nice girl.  He went to her home in Townsend, Montana for Thanksgiving and “popped the question”. 

Marlene Beck and Daren John Rockwood will be married March 24, 2012.

We are excited for both of them and happy to have another daughter-in-law.

Where Have You Been Lately?

I think that I have almost forgotten how to blog.  It has been awhile since I have had the time.  I thought that I would show where I spend a lot of my time.  It is my home away from home….

SCHOOL!                  

Family Pics

Daren returned from his mission and it was time for a new family picture.  I will admit that my boys do not enjoy having their picture taken and we have some wonderful memories of trying to get a family picture.  They aren’t to hep on dressing up or taking a ton of poses, so we went with a comfortable scheme.  I decided if I let them wear their jeans and shorts and took them to a place they love, the farm, that maybe they might put a smile on their faces.  It is also great to have a daughter-in-law with a nice camera and an eye for photography.  She was a good sport to set the camera timer and then run to her spot before the flash.  We tried a few in the wheat field and then moved to the trailer spot.  It was a bright sunny day but even with squints and shadows, I think this is a pretty great looking bunch.  I’m just a very proud mom!

Welcome Home Daren

We are so excited to have Daren home from the Richmond Virginia Mission.  He has fit right back into the family life.  Unfortunately, he wasn’t home for long before moving to Pocatello to begin school at ISU.  At least he is close and we can call and text. I will miss my weekly email and I won’t have my letters to use for a weekly journal.  Maybe I will do a little more blogging of everyday events.

Our Trip to Virginia

Doug and I planned a trip to Virginia to get Daren from his mission, see the area, and meet some of the people.  It wasn’t the best time of year for Doug to be leaving because it is typically harvest.  We thought it was going to work out and be between fields, however the rain stalled things and the grain wasn’t cut.  This caused a little bit of anxiety, but thanks to our boys the job was done without us.  This is the first year EVER that Doug has missed part of harvest.  We were blessed to have boys who could step in and take over.  Thanks Reed and Scott for doing an awesome job.

We arrived in Richmond on August 9th.  We were told that we could pick Daren up at the Mission Home after 3:00.  Our flight didn’t arrive until 3:45 and we were on our way to the baggage claim when I noticed some missionaries.  One of them had been Daren’s companion in the MTC and so I quickly said hello and told him who I was.  He said Elder Rockwood is somewhere in the airport and then I really started searching the hallways.  Our phones had been turned off for the flight and when we turned them on there was a voice message.  Before I could retrieve it, I received a text asking where we were.  It turns out that he had accompanied the missionaries to the airport and he was already headed back to the car when the mission president had texted that they needed to catch the departing Elders to get their VISA cards.  As they were rushing back inside Doug spotted a group of Elders and I quickly picked Daren out of the group.  I hurried to catch them and yelled “Daren”.  He thought he was clever and kept on walking but finally stopped to give his mother a big hug.  We were so excited to find him at the airport.  It was a good thing as well, because we were able to follow the other Elders to the mission home.  (I don’t think we would have found it on our own and I had the mission office address)

We had a wonderful visit with the mission president.  He is a great man and truly called of God to serve over that mission.  It is one of the largest missions and there are many Elders with special needs.  He knows all the details of each of them and cares for and loves them. 

 

 

The next day we traveled to Washington DC.  Daren wanted to attend the Temple there before leaving the area.  This is the Temple for the members of Richmond and South, however it is out of the mission area and so he had never been able to attend.  It was a nice ride and super to spend time in the Temple together.

 

We were able to visit some of the history of this area over the next couple of days.  We visited Monticello (home of Thomas Jefferson), the Museum of the Confederacy, Jamestown, Kitty Hawk and the Outer Banks.  There were many more places we would have liked to visit but time was limited.

Of course, the best part of the trip was meeting a few of the people who were special in Daren’s life for the past two years.  We instantly connected with so many of them.  It was a wonderful experience. 

Sister Whitley lives in Hampton.  She has been a member for about 4 years.  She was always feeding and taking care of the missionaries. 

Brother and Sister Smith live in Newport News.  Brother Smith had been the ward mission leader and was always helping the missionaries.  Sister Smith is originally from Brigham City.

President and Sister Hansen shared their home with Daren for over 7 months in Edenton, North Carolina.  The missionaries live with them and they are like mission parents.  Sister Hansen is from Orem, Utah and also a school teacher so we made a good connection.

The Giobelli family live in Edenton.  They were a riot to visit with.  We stayed later than we should have laughing and visiting.  Sister Geobelli was a really Southern lady.  Maybe we will be able to have them visit us someday.

The Ledfords also live in Edenton right on the Abermarle Sound.  We have been a little concerned about how they faired with the hurricane that hit last week.  We called them the redneck family.  Brother Ledford (Marty) is an avid hunter and fisherman.  You can tell by the names of their two sons, Hunter and Fischer.  They were some of Daren’s favorite people. 

Marsha was baptized about 6 months ago.  She was so full of excitement and had such a strong and powerful testimony of the Gospel.  She was in a car accident a few months ago and has had some health problems since.  She still remains happy and is constantly serving others.  Her compassionate spirit reaches out to all.

These are only some of the people we met. 

We also met Bill and Fran in Hampton.  They are not members of the church, but opened their home to us for a night.  They fed us a wonderful meal and provided accommodations.  They are retired and run a clothing closet in connection with the Catholic Church for the homeless along the waterfront.  Daren met them as the missionaries donated time to help at the business.  They were finding it hard to get members of their congregation to help and heard about the missionaries from the soup kitchen.  Fran is from France and a short petite little lady.  They have grown attached to the missionaries and call them “their boys”.  I was amazed at their generosity.  I am currently knitting hats to send to them.  They said that is a big need when the weather grow cooler.

We had a wonderful trip and the memories will last forever.