Family

This past Monday was our annual President's Day family get-together with the Maurer side of the family. The reunion was at our house this year, and we had twenty three people in all. It was a busy, fun, crazy day!

Playing games:  Apples to Apples

Cousin Micah

little Andrew trying to revive Nate =)

We all thought this was hilarious! =D
{Pap and Uncle Tom snoozing}

the guys playing football...

Chinese Christmas once again:

 

 

I guess I didn't really get any pictures of all the food, but rest assured - we ate plenty!

We almost forgot the get the usual family pictures, but unfortunately someone remembered just before the guys left:

 



{Dad, Nate, Cousin Caleb, Pap, Uncle Tom,
Cousin Lincoln, Uncle Tim, Andrew}
These eight guys left Monday evening and headed down to Georgia for a three-day hog hunt.

While the guys were away the rest of the week, Melinda was able to stay with us! We had a great time with her, and with Grandma, who was also with us for a few days. I only got a couple pictures of the week though, when Anna came over and we made cards on Wednesday:

The guys got home Friday afternoon, and we got to listen to all the exciting hunting tales. Dad had gotten two, Nate had two, and Andrew got one. Both of Dad's were big, but the one especially was quite large. I'll have to get a picture of it later. On Saturday, we butchered the five hogs. We girls weren't needed much since there were several guys, but they wanted us down in the shop to help with the concert. It's habit: we almost always sing when we work.  =)

 

We boiled the bones and the livers in a big kettle over a fire in
order to make scrapple (which is kinda like mush with meat in it)

Getting the rest of the meat off of the boiled bones
(pudding meat, we call it)

 

We mixed the broth, pudding meat, corn meal, buckwheat flour,  and white flour together in the kettle and let it cook for a while. Then we poured it all into bread pans to let it set up. I think we got somewhere around 31 or 32 quart. We like to slice it and fry it up for breakfast with some syrup or applebutter. It's nice to have all this scrapple and sausage! Now ya'll just need to stop in for breakfast some mornin'!

A Snowy Birthday

Wednesday afternoon it started snowing, and by evening, we had about six inches of snow! It rained in the night, which melted about an inch, then froze into a crusty top. It was nice to have snow on my birthday and not have to go anywhere!

Building a snowman... Nate wanted to do it on the deck. The
snow was too icy to really roll into a ball. We had to just
smash it together, then round it into a ball.

Snowball fight!!!

{Bethany hid behind the camera the whole time. I think it was just an excuse not to get hit with snowballs! With the snow as crusty as it was, the snowballs did kinda hurt. But it was worth it! =D}

Tormenting Nate as he tried to make a snow angel =)

We don't have any sleds anymore, so Daniel
tried using a big scoop shovel

Hardly what you can call a hill, but it did work for him

Then Nathan tried the shovel-sled...

Our neighbor later brought over some saucer-sleds that he had.
Daniel and his friend from next door had fun with those

We played some games and drank hot chocolate in the afternoon. It was nice to just relax. For my birthday meal, I requested teriyaki chicken, fried rice, and corn. After I opened my gifts, we watched a Hogan and ate sweet potato pie! Yum!

Catch-Up

  Beth told me today that there is no point in having a blog if you never post anything! For once, I guess she was right, so I decided I had better post something! =) Seems like we've been busy, but not with a lot of "blog-worthy" stuff. 

  We were able to spend some time at our grandparents last week, though certainly not for a reason which we would have chosen. Dad's sister-in-law had passed away, and we went up for the funeral. I think we only got this one picture the whole week, but I don't think Pap was up to much picture-taking because he had the flu and bronchitis! We managed to stay healthy in spite of him. =D

  We finished the quilt a week and a half ago, and gave it to a missionary's wife! We were so excited to have it completed! The picture doesn't do all the pretty stitching justice!

  Several weeks ago (you can tell it's been a while since I've posted) we had a good, old-fashioned, Pennsylvania taffy pull! We had two couples from church over, both of which are originally from Pennsylvania! =)

Dad and Nate had to get it started because it was so hard to pull at first

When it got too smooth, they had to take it outside
(when we actually had some cold weather!)

Mrs. Mitchell and Daniel cutting the taffy into pieces
(it wasn't really that cold in the house, just outside =P)

Matt and Anna taking a turn at pulling

Oh, it tasted so good!!

Last but not least, for those of you who don't already know, we got a dog! A cute, lovable, rottweiler named Bear. She used to belong to Paul, but they recently moved and decided to only take one of their two dogs with them. Since Bear was too docile to be much of a watchdog, she got left behind. But we were only too glad to take her! =) She has won over each member of the family!