Still Sequestered, But The End Is In Sight!

Most exciting news of the new year - Josh and Jaylene are engaged! 

They flew to San Francisco for the day, where he proposed with a video he had made on his iPhone. 

For months, he has been having his pic taken, holding up a sign that says, "Will you marry me!" 

Knowing for a while that she is the one, he put that together cleverly with each family member on both sides 

making comments about their loved one. They flew home that evening and everyone 

on both sides of the family who could be there, greeted them at Jaylene's home.

They are adorable together and we love her!

Josh is our oldest grandchild and has always been so very special to us, so his future wife had to be amazing, and she is!

Josh's announced engagement was a bright spot in a long sequestered January.

I cooked, baked and shared with friends and neighbors lots of food.

Here are some pics of some of it:

oatmeal coconut cake

Homemade angel food cake with raspberry sauce and whipped cream

Blueberry pound cake

Roger made my birthday dinner - Surf 'N Turf!

For my Valentine birthday, which we have celebrated in Las Vegas for years, we stayed home. Roger barbecued a filet mignon we shared and fixed Alaskan crab legs - he even cracked them for me! He brought me these gorgeous roses and my dear, dear ministering sister, Janice, sent me a gorgeous flower arrangement. I received so many lovely cards and sentiments from family and friends, old and new, and my kids sent gifts and cards and grandkids made cards and we iChatted and it all made me so happy and feel loved.

Mindy texted this pic from the Big Island, where she and Jeff are celebrating Mindy's 40th birthday. 

Jodie responded with this pic, asking if Mindy would like to trade places.

So I took a pic today (the day after Roger and I received our second Covid vaccination - YAHOO!) with my birthstone (amethyst) sparkly slippers on that Stacy sent me for my birthday.

She actually is sending me (some are still to come) 6 or 7 different pairs for me to try on and choose, but I told her after I tried these on that they will have to pry these off of me with a crowbar if they want them, because I'm keeping them - I LOVE them!

We are now working on combining our personal histories into one book and I am writing the story with Roger's input and editing and lining up the scanned pics in the computer.

Here are some of the pics we found this second time through slides and other sources:

!

After looking long and hard, we were tickled to find a pic of Roger's car when we were dating, a 1957 Ford coupe with a four-speed shift on the floor surrounded by a Roger-made naugahyde boot!

Roger is a real cowboy!

Pam and little Ricky in Lubbock, Texas

Roger, the jet pilot in full gear

Our little family in front of our base housing in Biloxi, Missippi

This is about where we are in the story, in Wichita Falls, having added our first little girl to our family.

 

A growing Gabrielsen family group shot, taken at about this time

The end of this long, sequestering tunnel is in sight! We can't wait to visit our kids and grandkids and try to catch up on the many missed hugs! 

In the meantime, we will soldier on with our personal histories book,

 knowing that this is a far-reaching project into the future. 

After being forced to spend so much time on it during Covid, I guess there's light at the end of that tunnel, too!

Christmastime, Pandemic-style

Knowing that we, just the two of us, would be celebrating Christmas at our home in St. George, 

we still went through all of the motions getting ready for Christmas. 

After all, it is the celebration of our Savior's birth, and that, in itself, is worth all of the excited preparations! 

Last Christmas, we were in Phnom Penh, Vietnam, with Rick and Jodie's family, which is such a fun memory and probably the most unusual Christmas we ever had. This year, we wanted to do all of the traditional things, 

even though we couldn't be with our kids.

This is our Christmas card, 2020.

Front

     Back

We hung our stockings and put Christmas cards on our mantle . . .

. . . decked the halls . . .

This is the new light-up paper cutout Nativity scene 

we purchased at the famous post office in Phnom Penh.

. . . and made friends and neighbor treats. For the last several years we have shared our homemade granola. 

For many years, Steve and Barb Young have sent us this delicious English toffee from a small candy shop 

run by a mother and daughter. 

There was a note from the company that this will be their last Christmastime in business,

so I took a picture to remind us of this delicious treat!

Our kids are always so generous to us in their gift-giving. 

We had received our gifts from them and had them under the tree, then a surprise came 

on Christmas Eve from Stacy. It was so pretty and festive!

Dinner for two for Christmas 

was bone-in ham and ham sauce, candied yams, smashed potatoes and asparagus. 

We had some sour cream lemon pie from Croshaw's for dessert.

We chatted on iChat most of the day with our kids  - best part of Christmas!

We got a couple of cute dressed-up Sprite bottles for neighbor gifts.

We fixed a New Year's Eve King crab leg dinner for two with cremini mushroom and asparagus rice 

and fresh orange coconut cream ambrosia. Couldn't party, so we ate!

Dessert was a chocolate s'mores dump cake. It was pretty rich, but, hey, we had to celebrate!

New Year's Day feast was our favorite, wedge salad . . . 

. . . and grilled rib-eye steak with compound butter and baked potatoes.

2020 hasn't been all bad. 

We got some deep-dive projects done and others started, 

the Gospel studied more intently, 

and many new and tried and true recipes prepared and eaten. 

(The last thing mentioned has been both a blessing and a curse!)

My e-library bookshelf is overflowing with books I have read.

Now, if I just could remember the names of any of them; it was confusing going from one to the next, 

trying to not search for the characters in the previous book in the one I was reading!

Like so many have said, as this year wound up, I have learned to appreciate what is truly important 

and more fully cherish relationships with family and friends.

We are so grateful that Lois was able to celebrate her 95th birthday 

and we still have her to love and cherish 

and we added a new member to our ever-expanding family with Sadie marrying Joe. 

Life keeps going forward and we are grateful we are here to be a part of it!

Will It Be Two or Three More Sequestered Holidays?

Holidays keep marching by!

When we get past Valentine's Day, 

it will have been a full year round of them since the Pandemic began.

On Veterans Day, every year for the last several, Roger and I have had fun 

making the rounds to several participating restaurants, taking them up on their free food offerings for veterans.

Roger looks forward to it, dressing up in his flight "bag," shaking lots of hands 

and getting into fun conversations with other vets wherever we have gone to eat. 

This year, there was either pick-up curb service or the handing out of coupons to be used after the Pandemic.

So nice of businesses to do that!

Roger picking up a curbside coupon at Texas Road House to be used later.

President Nelson challenged all of us to every day post what we are grateful for 

on the days leading up to Thanksgiving.

Here are some of our great blessings that we posted about on Facebook:

So grateful for my Father in Heaven and His Son, who, much like my dad did, make me feel loved, comforted and with a peaceful heart. #givethanks

His Son, Jesus Christ

It's fun exchanging "Fish Face" with grandson, Blakey - in person and across the internet. I adore this kid! #givethanks

So grateful for my roots - my grandparents, my parents and my siblings. People filled with integrity, all! #givethanks

I am grateful that, 54 years ago, Roger and I found each other. We have since found joy loving each other, through the thick of it and the thin of it. We are blessed! #givethanks

Who knew that when we had our firstborn, that we'd get five of the greatest kids in the world? And now, they have each had their own greatest kids in the world! Our family totals 37, and we're now adding greats, starting with Syd and Jake's little Charlie. Love beyond measure. HAPPY THANKSGIVING! #givethanks

We were invited to go to Boise to be with Missy and Jedd's family this year, 

but with the safety precautions out there, we decided to stay home. 

But what's Thanksgiving without a turkey dinner and all of the trimings? 

Roger and I worked together all morning. 

We had a roast turkey, homemade stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, candied yams, green bean casserole, 

sauerkraut and whole cranberry sauce. 

We had returned from up north the night before, where we had picked up a Market Street Grill pumpkin pie. 

We had the turkey from Costco waiting for us in the frig and had all of the other ingredients ready to go.

I should mention, a few days before Thanksgiving, we had gone up north on an overnight trip 

to drop off Christmas presents to our niece, Whitney, to take to Boise for Missy's family, John and Cindy, 

Lois, Patty and Karleen. It was a quick but very fruitful trip, because we also had a quick visit with Lois, stayed in Rick and Jodie's empty house overnight (they had gone to Watercolor, Florida, for Thanksgiving), met Karleen to give her her Christmas present and catch up a little, 

and drop off a present for Patty and catch up with her and Hal in Elkridge!

So here is our Thanksgiving Dinner for Two! 

That's never happened before in our lifetime, and, though we had a pleasant day, 

it hopefully won't ever happen again - 

Thanksgiving is a time for family to gather together!

So we continue to carry on with our routines each day, looking forward to when we can gather in person 

with friends and loved ones. In the meantime, we are appreciating and enjoying our zoom meetings 

with our Come Follow Me group and our kids each week.

Roger is getting in lots of golf and he has also wandered about and taken many pretty pics 

of the beautiful area where we live.

We are hanging in there, with the vaccine getting ever nearer. 

Many life lessons are being emphasized and some new ones learned, the biggest one being 

our gratitude to our Heavenly Father!

But I can't wait to hug my grandkids again!