Another Christmas to remember

The joy of having almost everyone together. (missing-- Andy in Utah, Walter and Jessica celebrating with Walter's family, and KoKo, feeling too sick to join in the group photo.)

The joy of babies' first Christmas. Laila and Colby are just one month apart in age.

The bitter-sweet joy of having KoKo with us for her last Christmas. She mainly kept to herself, being in pain from a sudden, rapidly growing and huge cancer tumor. But on Christmas Eve, when we were gathered in the living room celebrating the birth of our Savior, she joined us. She is out of her pain now, and passed away peacefully this morning. How I am missing and sorrowing for her. After we get back from our trip, I'll post a memorial for our beloved pet.

Christmas is for remembering...

Christmas pasts -- 1954, with brothers Wally and Charlie. Lots of snow, icicles hanging from the doors and windows. Getting up in the wee hours to see what Santa brought and waiting for parents to wake up before we could open our presents. Seeing the decorated Christmas tree for the first time on Christmas morning, following the custom of my mother's native Austria, where the tree would be decorated while the family was at mid-night mass.

First Christmas in Texas, as newly weds in 1974. Our only Christmas without kids. What added joy each new addition to the family brought each Christmas.

Christmas is for remembering all of this and much more -- loved ones who have passed on, family members who can't be with us this year( our Andy in Utah), our extended families, and friends who have touched our lives. But most of all we remember the birth of our Savior, who has given us all that we have, and brings peace, hope, and light to our lives. Merry Christmas to all our loved family and friends!

Happy Birthday to Mark!

It's hard to believe that Mark, our oldest son, is 29 years old. It seems like yesterday when Mark's older sisters were first introduced to him after he was born, and 21 month old Lauren said, "What a silly baby!"

Mark was a sweet, happy little boy, who played well with his siblings, loved the new babies, and didn't give us any worries, other than the time he fell out of a two story window. He miraculously survived without injury, defying gravity and missing a square of concrete below.

Mark grew up to be an artist (he created the mural pictured above for a wall in our high school), an Eagle Scout, adventurer, out-doors man (he is snowboarding with brother Andy in above photo). He went on a 2 year mission to Latvia, Estonia, Belarus (bottom, left photo), and then graduated from BYU (microbiology/chem) and went on to dental school at U.T.San Antonio (he'll graduate in May). His two greatest accomplishments are marrying his lovely bride Courtney and .....

becoming a brand-new father! Mark loves children and will be a great Dad to sweet little Colby. We love you Mark!

a birthday salute

Couldn't let this week go by without doing a birthday blog for our oldest child, Emily, who was born on a beautiful sunny day on Dec. 3, 1975. ( For this year, I'm going to do a birthday blog salute for each of my children and their spouses (so look out!).) Next year, it'll be for the grandchildren -- after that, who knows.) We feel so blessed to have had Emily as our super exciting first child. Emily was such a sweet, good baby, and as she grew, showed a very compassionate nature. She'd clean up the house without being asked to, and,with her sister Lauren, was such a help with babysitting. The highlights of her life are her mission to northern Germany and her marriage to a very sweet, caring husband and the birth of her own four beautiful children. She is also a very good cook, interior designer, and an awesome graphic designer and artist (who is a few credit hours short of her degree in graphic design, due to the birth of her first baby). Emily also loves music, has played the piano growing up, and has sung in choir in junior high and high school. (When she was a toddler, my piano teacher heard her singing and told me she has "perfect pitch".) Well, hope all this bragging hasn't embarrassed you too much, Emily. Happy Birthday ! We love you!

Something to be thankful for!

On Wednesday, we headed to San Antonio with a turkey and all the trimmings, and came back on Saturday, the proud grandparents of our 8th grandchild, Colby Michael. Usually, the gang all comes to our house, but with Lauren and Dan's family heading to Utah and Emily home with her new baby, we decided to take Thanksgiving to Mark and Courtney's, hoping the baby would make his arrival while we were there. On turkey day, Courtney was feeling too miserable to eat anything. That evening, we all headed for the hospital and got to be there to welcome this precious baby, when he entered the world, very early the next day.

Three generations of Ellis men (including the first grandson to carry on the family name)

The number 8 is Colby's lucky number: We have 8 children. Colby is our 8th grandchild. Colby was born on Nov. 28, 2008, weighing in at 8 lbs. 9 oz.

weekend get-away

The weather was perfect when we arrived in Austin on Friday, warm and sunny. I had fun running half of the boys' course (Grandpa walked it), and then we relaxed by the duck pond. The next day, the day of the state cross country meet, the first really cold front blew in, with chilly 20 to 30 mile gusts of wind. Carl could hardly see where he was running, with all the dust blowing in his eyes. His time wasn't his best, and his team didn't place very high, but they had so much fun going to state in a chartered bus, staying overnight at a hotel, eating out, and competing with the best from all over the state. It was awesome of Mark and Courtney to join us. What a trooper Courtney is, ready to have that baby any day and walking around Old Settlers Park to help cheer on Carl. After the meet, we went to a nearby Ikea to get their baby crib (but it was out of stock). We had fun walking around, looking at all the cute stuff. We went out to eat and parted ways--back to San Antonio for the expectant parents and back to Houston for us. (Thanks for coming, Mark and Courtney. Courtney looks so great for being in the 9th month, but she's definitely ready to pop.)

A very busy week!

I just got back from helping Emily this past week. While she took care of new baby Laila, who is very good and calm, I helped with the kids and did the cooking. The house was so clean, I didn't have to do any housework other than sweep the kitchen floor and fold some laundry. I sure enjoyed the grandkids and new grandbaby.

We celebrated Brian's birthday while I was there. He played one of our favorite new games with us, "Horton Hears a Who". Brian has so much fun when his mother-in-law comes for a visit!The day after I got home, Grandpa and I hopped in the car to watch Carl and his team win 3rd place at the regional meet (after coming in 1st at the district meet). They made it to State! So next weekend, we head to Austin to watch that.
Go Mustangs!

grandchild # 7

I was out running when Brian called saying Emily had the baby -- 2 weeks early. Philip took the message and mistakenly told me she weighed 6 lb. 8 oz. (I was worried about our little "preemie"). We headed out to Beaumont that day (after watching Carl run in the district cross country meet) to greet our healthy, 8 lb. 9 oz. new granddaughter, Laila Isabella. What a joy to hold her in my arms! She was so alert, looking all around, and making good eye contact. Emily looked great and didn't seem tired, just happy and relieved. I'm heading out on Monday to help Emily for a week, and enjoy those precious grandkids.

Here are the kids meeting baby sister for the first time. Dario takes his role of big brother very seriously and loves holding Laila. Aiden is very excited, while sweet Ava isn't too sure of what's going on. (Stay tuned for more photos in a week, and check out Emily's blog -- she's already made an entry her first day home from the hospital!)

Saturdays

Our Saturdays go like this -- Around 5:00 A.M. I wake up to fix a pancake breakfast for Carl, as he gets ready to board the bus at 6:00 A.M. for a cross country meet. Then Grandpa Carl and I hop in the car and drive out to the meet. We've been doing this for about 12 years, starting with Andy, then Jeremy and Philip . We've rarely missed a meet all these years (the exception being a few Saturday morning general conferences). We've been there for most of our young coach's career.


A sprint to the finish (Clear Creek meet)

Carl, a junior in high school, is happy to be running on the varsity team. He's been one of the top four runners of his team.

A Wild Ride, but it could have been wilder! (so long Ike!)

After a night of listening in the dark to the winds howling, trees snapping, the upstairs shaking (during the worst of it), this is what we woke up to (not too bad, lost none of my trees, only branches, no damage to roof or house)-- With the power out (for 9 days, and some people in our city went even longer without), Lauren and Dan and girls moved in with us, since we had a generator. We were blessed with a cool front for most of the first week. It was so nice to have a generator to power our frige, freezer, a few lamps, box fans and T.V. (non-stop coverage on the hurricane recovery).

The hurricane was such an adventure and fun for the kids. Uncle TaTa introduced the girls to boxing. Jessica did neat crafts with them. Kyla says, "Next time we have a hurricane, Grammy, and we run out of food, we'll come over to your house and help you make lunch." (They were so grateful to have cold milk at our house, and normal meals.)
Thanks to our generator, we were also able to do some laundry. Dan enjoyed folding clothes.

It was a minor inconvenience being without electricity, compared to what folks went through who lived closer to the gulf. We feel so fortunate. This is a photo Philip took when he was with a Mormon "Helping Hands" crew in Galveston. When he knocked down a wall, and a hive of killer bees was exposed, he set a new personal best time in the mile, escaping with only one bee sting to his lip. The water line in the home, came up to his chest. Inches of water still stood in the home a week after the storm. The smell was so bad, it almost made him sick. The family had just bought new furniture a few weeks before the storm. All was ruined. It'll be a long time before the Galveston we knew gets back to "normal".

Yikes! It's Ike

We spent today boarding up windows, clearing the yard of any loose items. It's scary to have such a huge hurricane bearing down on us. Many of our neighbors are staying, including us. When I visited the police station today, they said we should be O.K. if our street has never flooded before. We've been here through some pretty bad tropical storm flooding situations, and have been high and dry. We're still feeing anxious. I'll let you know after the storm passes, and when the electricity gets back on, how we fared.

The stork is our new family pet!

These three gals, my daughters and daughter-in-law, are all expecting at the same time! Courtney is expecting her first, a boy, at the end of November. Lauren is expecting her first boy, after 3 girls, at the end of February. Emily is expecting her fourth, a girl, in the beginning of November. When these three are born, our grandkids will outnumber our kids. This Grammy is very excited to meet the new little ones. I love their mamas (and daddies) very much!

Elayna turns 8!

On Aug. 23rd, her birthday, our sweet Elayna (our oldest grandchild) was baptized. All her little Texas cousins and most of her Texas uncles and aunties were there, and even an uncle and auntie from Utah. She sets such a good example as the oldest of many cousins on both her mommy and her daddy's side. Love you Elayna!

Olympic fatigue

Grammy and Grandpa are feeling major exhaustion heading into the final stretch of the 2008 Olympics. But we are so addicted to the Olympics and have enjoyed every minute. It's been fun watching 3 of the athletes whom we've seen complete in person. We saw BYU grad Josh McAdams (steeplechase) running in a meet at BYU (Jeremy got to run with him his freshman year.) We saw Leonel Monzono (sp?)(men's 1500--he didn't make it into the finals, which are on tonight) run at almost all of Jeremy's state meets. Jeremy competed against him at state in the mile and beat him in the mile (but Monzono was having a bad race, having just come off the 800, which he won). Monzono, who was a year ahead of Jeremy in school, was terrific in high school, winning every state cross country meet. Another athlete, who ran for LaPorte's high school and was in our district was Kerron Clement, who medaled in last night's 400M hurdles. I remember how amazed I was at the effortless grace and speed with which this high school athlete cleared the hurdles, and knew he'd go far.
This is our official Olympic souvenir all the way from China! A delegation of chemists from China visited the lab at the refinery (Exxon Mobil wouldn't let them visit!) and Grandpa showed them around. They told him how China is about to build a huge refinery, bigger than any of ours. They were amazed at all the fancy equipment the lab has. In China, where there is such a big labor pool, they use people to do a lot of testing that is done by high tech equipment here. One of them gave Grandpa this "Beijing Official Licensed Product", complete with the added security feature of an "anti-counterfeiting label". (Who knows what other features it has, like an embedded spying micro-chip.)

Hi Ho Silver, Away!

Those were the days! Growing up in the 50's was fun. Kids were free to be kids. We were outside from dawn to dusk --spring, summer, autumn, winter. Only hurricanes, blizzards, or a bad case of poison ivy could keep us indoors. We were all over the place, riding bikes, roller skating, running around. You drive through any neighborhood now, and ask yourself, "Where are all the kids?"
We had our heroes, the main ones being our fathers, who had come home triumphant and proud from World War II. Some of our other heroes, were the Lone Ranger, Sky King, Davy Crockett, and Robin Hood. This picture of me and my side-kick, the Lone Ranger, is especially for my niece, Sylvia. Thought you'd enjoy seeing your dad, the "distinguished" Dr. Charlie N., as a little boy.

"Date" with Grandaughter

The first thing we did was to see the very entertaining children's theatre production of "The Pied Piper" at Alvin Community College. After that, Elayna got to choose where to go for lunch -- MacDonald's, of course.

Elayna got to spend the night, and the next day, she tried out her culinary skills making mini pizzas for lunch. She made buttermilk biscuits from scratch to use for the dough

Elayna's awesome pizza won her title of "Junior Food Network Cooking Star", and she's on the cover of this month's "bon appetit" magazine! (They really need to fire their lousy photographer.)

We even got to "visit teach" Jolene. Elayna knows why this picture is a puzzle. We strained our brains (more so for me, than Elayna) trying to put together a 1,000 piece puzzle. Whatever was I thinking when I bought it -- next time it'll be 500 pieces. It's so much fun being a grammy and spending time with a precious grandchild!

Ordinary Miracles

Whenever I look at these flowers in my garden, I am reminded of life's ordinary, everyday miracles. A quote one of my high school English teachers constantly drilled into us (from a famous author) also comes to mind, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever". It lifts my spirit and I feel God's love when I look for these miracles every day. As the song you are now hearing (if you have audio on your computer) says, "life is like a gift wrapped up for you, everyday".

Beach Babes !

My Texas sister-in-laws (soon to be my ex-sister-in-laws, after they see this blog) and I had a relaxing time at the beach. I wish I had taken a photo of the little old guy who rented us the beach chairs and umbrella. He looked like the eternal beach bum, with a triple layer tan, grey dreadlocks. His beach rentals were his pride and joy. He was constantly sweeping away sand from the vacant chairs with a little whisk broom. We recieved stern warnings never to sit on the very end of the lounge chair.
(Donna -- the only one with a tan--, me and Sharon)

Sister-in-law Leah enjoying her all too short summer vacation from teaching school.

After a few hours at the beach, and eating some Tex-Mex food, we chilled out at Sharon's. (Leah with daughter Tessa, and Donna.)

Sharon and her big blue Ellis eyes.
(I am expecting a lot of comments on how bodacious we are!)

Proud to be an American!

We had a fantastic 4th of July -- fireworks, swimming, beach, and birthdays (Courtney's and Philip's -- the 7th & 8th )

The daughter of a World War II Vet and a "war bride" from Austria, I am proud to be an American. My mother, who was born on the 4th of July, knew as a little girl, growing up in Vienna, that she would someday come to America. My father's mother immigrated from England when she was a little girl, while my father's father's American roots go back to the 1600's, when they immigrated from England to become one of the founding families of Cape Cod. God bless the USA!

A mile in my shoes

A proud, sweaty smile (minus make-up, ouch!), because ....

...I've finally made it to a mile! That is, running for a mile (and 1/10) without stopping. My speed is nothing to brag about --- 11 min. 50 seconds without dog, and 13 minutes dragging along an 11 year old dog (poop scooping not included ). It's not impressive to my super athletic blogging buddies, but to me it is major, because it all started 2 years ago with tiny baby steps. It started with walking to the count of 5 and running to the count of 5, and building up my run walks by counts of 5s. Then at a certain point, I focused on increasing the running times, building up very gradually. My goal for the next 6 months is to build up to 2 miles, and then, by this time next year, I hope to be up to 3 miles. It would be fun to enter the "old ladies" division of a 5 K race and maybe win. (I love New Balance Running Shoes (made in USA!) and get them for a real good price at finalscore.com)