Birthday Memories

Does your family have birthday traditions? Mine does! My sister just had a birthday, and thus the idea for this post was born.

So, when I was little, it used to always be the same thing every year: No school, a special breakfast (in my family, a 'special breakfast' is when Mom buys sugared cereal!) that usually consisted of a peanut butter/marshmallow/Cheerios bar, or coffee cake, or puffed pancake, or muffins . . . whatever the birthday child wanted—within reason, of course. ;)

Then we'd eat the special lunch picked out by the birthday kid. Then, in the afternoon, we'd go over to our grandpa & grandma's house so mom could bake and decorate the cake! Now, the cake was a big deal. Like, we'd pick out the flavor and how we wanted it decorated, and Mom would spend the longest time decorating it just the way the birthday boy/girl wanted it. (When we were little, Kordell and I actually got our own separate cakes! Spoiled, weren't we? *grins*)

Then, we all ate a special birthday supper (can you see a pattern going here?), and afterward, all the grandparents would come over for cake and ice cream (also specially picked out, of course) and presents.

However, everything changed on my 11th birthday. Kordell and I *gasp* had our very first sleepover! I'll never forget that birthday. We each got to choose one of our church friends to have over for the night. (Kordell, remember that huge pillow fight the four of us had? I quit early because your guest hit me in the head with his heavy feather pillow. *shakes head*)

I remember one hear, I had a tea party and invited some friends and cousins over for the fun. We went bowling once. But my two favorite birthday parties were my 6th and my 17th. For our 6th birthday party, Mom went all out—invitations we handed out at church, a theme, everything. (Y'know those themed birthday parties? Yeah, we don't do those.) It was our cowboy birthday party. Everyone wore cowboy boots and hats, and some even wore bandanas! (Our grandma had actually made us kids cloth chaps awhile before that, so I felt so special wearing mine with the princess knee patches!)

Our 17th birthday, however, was much different. By then, two of our brothers were married. So there we were, all eleven of us sitting around the table eating supper (Our grandma had joined us), laughing, joking. Angel food cake with whipped cream and strawberries. Then, when Mom and Dad left to take Grandma home, the kids all split into two groups and played the Farming Game. Now, if you don't know what The Farming Game is, I'm so, so sorry. You are seriously missing out! Comparable to Monopoly, I suppose, only about five times better. We played for, like, 2 hours. It was so fabulous.

Anymore, we don't really do gifts. (My mom gave me a coat like 6 months late last year, haha!) The married siblings might give the others a bag of candy or something. Grandparents give some money. Nowadays, I listen to my friends talk about the gifts they get at their birthdays, and I'm just like, "wait, you get presents?!" But really . . . I don't necessarily miss it.

It's the memories that make birthdays special.

What are your favorite birthday memories?

Memorable Decorations {Part 2}

Last time I talked about the memories behind our Christmas decorations, we ended in the front room.  I'd like to now take you over to the family room, where more surprises await.

First of all, let's hop to the south side of the house, where windows offer perfect places to drape some greenery.  And what better addition to the greenery than snowflakes?  Probably about ten years ago, my grandma patiently attempted to teach me how to do a simple chain crochet stitch, which I promptly left to do other, more interesting things.  Well, finally, a few years ago, she gave me the idea to make lace snowflakes for my mom.  I readily agreed, not knowing how tedious it would be to learn new stitches and put them to use.  But I'm quite pleased with how they turned out!

A hop and a skip away, and once again, we've got a homemade gift that the guys made probably six or seven years ago.  Mom wanted stocking hangers, and so her sweet husband once again surprised her with eight shining, gold-painted hangers.  I remember that we all gave them to her—Daddy and us kids—and though I didn't do a thing, they were still partially from me, and that was special.  Though it made my brothers slightly irritated.

And let's just take a moment to admire these stocking handcrafted by my very talented mother, shall we?  Not only are they simply stockings, but cowboy boots!  Yeah, have I mentioned her love for western decor?

Now let's take a step back from the mantle (where we put the village every year until we decided to put it on the piano this year) to examine Kordell's fascination/obsession with lights.  The dude seriously finds a new place to string lights every year. (Let's not forget that one year Birdo strung garland across the room suspended from the ceiling... but that's another story.)

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Our house is certainly all decked out this year!  How about yours?

Memorable Decorations

Today marks the start of the 12 Days of Christmas blog party!

Come with me, I'd like to take you on a tour through our house.  Our Christmas decorations are put up, and there are some specific ones that I'd like to show you, each with a special meaning or memory. (And thanks to Kara for taking most of these pics!)

First stop is the front yard.  Looking at the house, you'll see a tree covered in lights, and then a star of lights on top of the house.  That star has been on the house every winter pretty much as long as I can remember.  But once upon a time, Mom really wanted lights on the house, and one year Daddy suddenly surprised her with a homemade star.  You can see it from a couple miles away, and it's certainly a major part of our Christmas decorations.

Next stop: front room.   Remember the Christmas tree that I mentioned?  If you turn to the right after entering the front door, you'll find that tree, laden with lights, garland and ornaments.  Have I mentioned that handmade gifts are kind of a thing around here?  Kordell made mom a box of cutout western (western decor is Mom's favorite) ornaments—bull heads, horseshoes, cowboy boots, etc., and Mom then wrote names of Jesus on them.

A few feet from the tree, you'll find Mom's grand piano covered with a ceramic village.  This village has been collected over the years, with my grandma adding to it every year for quite a long time.  It's probably the decoration us kids enjoyed putting up the most when we were little.

Next to the piano, you'll find a short chest of drawers with this nativity on it.  Us kids had our own nativity scene that we were allowed to put up ourselves.  I don't know how many pieces have been hot-glued (have I ever mentioned that hot glue is another of this family's specialties?) back together again.  So if we got to put up Mom's good brown nativity, man, we were privileged! (If you look closely, you can see that the angel's wing has been glued together... yes, we did mess up sometimes)

On a second chest of drawers around the corner lies this nativity calendar.  On each day of December, counting down to Christmas, you open one of the little doors and pull out an item to stick on the scene.  I remember calculating the number of days to see which of us siblings got to open baby Jesus on Christmas Eve.  We alternated every year, even though we argued about it every year.

These two characters are found pretty much anywhere in the house.  Pushing the yellow sticker on the mouse's foot presses a button that activates it to start dancing and playing its guitar and singing Jingle Bell Rock.  Santa has a switch to turn him on, and once that switch is flipped, he sings Jingle Bells any time he senses a loud noise, or when someone taps him.  These two guys were the best white elephant gifts ever!

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Everyone has their favorite Christmas decorations and memories.  What are some of yours?

Also, don't forget to check out Faith's blog for all the links to the other participants in the blog party!  (Also, there's an epic-looking giveaway going on with all sorts of epic stuff like books and music and I don't even know what else.)

Silly Songs with Kaitlyn

The part of the show where Kaitlyn comes out and... well, pretty much does nothing but ramble about one of the best kids' shows of all time.

Because if you like to talk to tomatoes, if a squash can make you smile, if you like to waltz with potatoes up and down the produce aisle...

How can you beat VeggieTales?!  I know some don't exactly like it... but you're missing out!  VeggieTales is a classic, fun, and lesson-filled show.  It's even got puns and jokes with meanings only people teenaged and older will understand woven throughout the entire thing.
And of course we can't forget the interruption in the middle of the show—"And now it's time for Silly Songs with Larry, the part of the show where Larry comes out and sings a silly song."

One of my very favorite episodes is The Ballad of Little Joe.  Not only does it bring back amazing memories of watching it with my siblings during sleepovers at grandparents' houses, but it's downright funny!  Like dodge ball city.  The dodge ball avalanche still cracks me up.  And I still sing along to the birthday song—"Yippee-ki-yo-ki-yay, today is a special day!" and "Look, I made a frosting cow!"  Besides, it's a western.  You can't beat westerns.  Especially when this particular western makes references to Gunsmoke.

Along with the movie, the silly song in the middle is one of my very first VT memories.

"Belly button?" "Uh-uh!"

Yeah, I'm still fuzzy on the point of that song.  I mean... Mr. Lunt has no belly button?  Oh, the tragedy!

One silly song that nearly broke my heart when I was little, though, is Pizza Angel.  The poor dude waited for hours and hours, and then his hopes were dashed when the delivery boy shows up, having eaten Larry's entire pizza—and says, "you don't have to tip me or anything."  Made me mad, but it also devastated me, actually almost brought tears to the eyes of little me.  I guess back then the saddest things I knew were missing pizza.

One of my least favorite silly songs would have to be the one that of course happens to be Birdo's favorite.  And, since he's such a good impersonator, he naturally enjoys mimicking Mr. Lunt.  Drives me nuts.  But then again, driving little sisters nuts is what brothers do best, right?

And... it's about cheeseburgers.  They do say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, so I guess it's no wonder.

"Cause you're his cheeseburger, his lovely cheeseburger, he'll wait for you-ooooooo!"
That's another song that made me sad.  And mad.  He betrayed the cheeseburger!  For bacon & eggs!


Y'know, now that I think about it, there were several that made me sad.  Pizza Angel, His Cheeseburger... and The Hairbrush Song.  I mean, Larry can't find his beloved hairbrush!  And we come to find out that Bob actually betrayed Larry and gave his hairbrush to the peach—a FRUIT—without permission!
Not that it was wrong for Bob to share.  But to share poor Larry's hairbrush?  Shame on you, Bob.

Well, now that we're on the subject of sad songs, another one is Oh Santa.  Larry made Santa cookies and stayed up late just to meet Santa and give him the cookies he worked so hard on.  And then comes a bank robber, a viking, and that very same peach that took his hairbrush—and ate his cookies!

A song that really cracks me up is Hopperena.  Especially when Archie starts dancing.

I'll stop with the silly songs for now.  Though I could go on with The Water Buffalo Song, Barbara Manatee, The Song of the Cebu, among others.
Do you enjoy VeggieTales?  What's your favorite silly song?

Happy Birthday Moby!

You remember that one person in your life who would come visit your family from hours away, and they'd always pay special attention to each one of you and your siblings instead of just talking with the adults all the time?

For me, that's my Aunt Moby.

The energetic aunt that taught us the words and signs to the song Our God is an Awesome God, the aunt that spent countless hours picking mulberries with me and my cousins when we'd all be here in the summer, the aunt that let us climb up her legs and do flips when we were little, and the aunt that loves reading as much as I do.

Moby, do you remember all those times we played Battling Tops?  And Uno?  And all that time spent playing Simon Says?  Oh, and you & Kara playing Twister and ending up on the floor at the same time?

You love playing pranks.  Remember when you put that case of our pop in our oven, and that was the one day that we didn't check our oven before turning it on?

But we love tricking you too.  You've always been so easy to scare.  And remember when Sasquatch put Vaseline on your glasses?

So many memories.  Good times.

Happy birthday, Moby!  I love you! <3

Dear Daddy...

Dear Daddy,

How can I put this into words?

Mama became 'Mom' or 'Mother' or 'Ma' or whatever I wanted to call her in less than 15 years.  You've always been Daddy, and I think you always will be.

You're the kind of guy that most people think is grumpy all the time, just 'cause of the way you look.

I know different.

Of course, you've still got that glare of purest steel that scared the living daylights out of me when I had done something wrong, and I'll never forget that muffled snap of the fingers we'd get as a warning when we were acting up in church.
But you've also got that laugh, and smile, and that smirk you get on your face and sparkle in your eyes when I know you're just teasing me.
You're the one that wouldn't allow me to wear skirts too short, shirts too low, or jeans too tight.  You're the one that taught me how to ride a horse, and how to ride a bike.You're the one that always says, "Kaitlyn, when a guy comes calling, I'm looking forward to telling him no."
You've never been afraid to play with us kids; you'd play with our toy farm equipment with us, you'd wrestle with us, give us 'horsey' rides.
You're gentle.  I remember that when Mom would brush my hair, I would be screaming because of the pain.  When you brushed my hair, somehow it didn't hurt as bad.
When I would have nightmares, I would run to your bed, and you would let me sleep with you for the rest of the night.  Even if it squished you and Mom.

Some people would call you strict.

I would call you... well, strict.  But in a good way.

Remember your favorite verse?  You certainly lived by it. XD  But you disciplined us in such a way that we knew exactly why we had gotten the punishment we had gotten, and that we had brought it upon ourselves.

You've always been super patient, and y'know, I don't remember you ever yelling at us.  You never lost your temper, even when us kids were being brats, and when we would 'help' you stack square bales, although we were just being in the way.
You taught me to drive tractor and move bales, and never lost patience when I made crooked rows or turned a bale on end, going at a snail's pace the whole time. ;)

You are the one person in the family that has ALWAYS shared my love for old western TV shows.  Sure, everyone else likes them, but when we're looking for a movie to watch, you almost always take my side. ;)
One night, I had really been looking forward to watching a western.  But everyone (including you) were already in bed.  So when I came to tell you goodnight, you offered to get up and watch one with me.
I declined, but… I went to my bed and just started crying.  Not because I was missing a western, but because my daddy loved me enough to actually be willing to miss some sleep for me.  That meant more to me than you'll ever know.
You've always loved us, and make sure that we know that.
You took up being the spiritual leader of the family, and helped lead me to Christ.  You pray with us, read Bible to/with us; you're the role model that every child needs, and then some.
Daddy, you'll always be my first love.
I love you.
~Kaitlyn

From Google Images

Dear Mom...

Dear Mom,

One of my first memories of you is when the guys were wrestling in the family room, you and I would be sitting in the comfy chairs watching them.  I wanted to join them so bad, but I was scared to because they were so rough.  Then you would give me a smile and tell me to go play, and you made sure they weren't too rough with me.

I also remember you taking me to get my booster shots.  I was scared to death, but you sat right beside me and tried to keep my attention off the needle and the pain even though it didn't work.

I remember rinsing dishes while you washed them, and how proud you made me feel when I could stand at the sink without a chair.

I remember filling my hands with suds, and smearing them on your face and neck.  I had no idea how you would react, but you in turn did the same to me, and it turned being a sud-war, ending with us giggling so hard and suds on the kitchen walls.

You taught me how to read, how to add and subtract, how to tell time and how to tie my shoes when I was little, then how to play the piano, how to do laundry, how to marinade a steak and how to plant and care for a garden when I got older.

You have been patient with me even when I was a little twerp when I was little and when I've been grumpy.

You and Daddy taught me what true beauty is, by telling and showing; that "man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart".  Y'all were and are my role models, and you've lived up to that.

You've taught me life lessons, and have brought me up to know the Lord and what it is to know Him.

Mom, you're amazing.  I love you.

~Kaitlyn

Memories and Traditions

Hi people!

Today I will be sharing something special with you.

You know those special times with loved ones, sad times, or just plain silly times?  I've had a few of those. And I'd like to share some of those memories with y'all.

Something that I will remember always is just a little thing. I remember our cousins visiting from out of state: two girls and a boy. Two of them are older than me, and when they would visit, my mom would put a Lonestar CD in the player.  The very first song on the CD is "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", and us kids (ranging from the ages of 10 to 3) would just dance around the house.  I was the youngest at that time, and to be included in their fun, to dance and laugh… now, every time I hear that song, I think of dancing with my siblings and cousins. ;)

December 25, 2008

It was Christmas morning.  All the children were excited to open presents and stockings. Kaitlyn was on her way to the Christmas tree when the phone rang.

They didn't open presents that morning.

They rushed to the local hospital, where Kaitlyn's grandfather was being airlifted to the city with severe pneumonia.  

There he stayed in ICU for 40 days.  

He was not expected to live.

I remember visiting the hospital, staying in the waiting room doing jigsaw puzzles, jealous because my older brothers could visit Grandpa but I couldn't because I was too young to visit ICU.

Until one day.

My parents came to us with face masks to put on.  I didn't like the masks, feeling that they made me look silly.  But I put it on, and Kordell and I were ushered into Grandpa's room.  He looked so weak, with tubes and IV's attached to him.
"They're happy to see you," Grandma said. "You can see it in their eyes."
The doctors had let us see him because he wasn't expected to live through another day.
But God performed a miracle; in February of 2009, Grandpa was released from the hospital and he is still alive and well today!

Traditions.
They are fun.
(Yes, that's all I have to say; what more needs to be said?)
We have several traditions in the Krispense household.
1. Each year, we make Brenig with my grandma.  We go to our grandparents' house, and us kids will roll the cookies and place them on the pans while Grandma cuts them. (I'm sorry if that sounds confusing; it's hard to explain.)  Brenig is a foreign peppermint cookie that is about the texture of heavy cake.  It's a Krispense favorite.
2. Christmas Eve program at church.  Somebody organizes some sort of program, whether it's a simple candlelight service or a pageant performed by the kids.  This year we're having music with a slideshow. :)
4. Daddy usually reads an advent story.  We especially like the books by Arnold Ytreeide: Tabitha's Travels, Jotham's Journey, Bartholemew's Passage, and Ishtar's Odyssey.  Each of these books actually have one or two of the characters from the other books, so it's neat to see how all the stories tie together. ;)

And, I suppose another tradition would be listening to the Oak Ridge Boys Christmas CD while decorating, or making brenig, or eating on Christmas Eve :D
I'll include the first song here.

Well, there ya go; a couple of Christmas memories, and some traditions that our family enjoys.
What are your favorite Christmas memories and traditions?
~Kaitlyn