The 29th of December

The 29th of December is a pretty important date in our family.  It is Clyde's and my wedding anniversary and it is the birthday of our first granddaughter - Carlye Anne Pfiester.  Yesterday we celebrated Carlye's 11th birthday here in Kerrville.  It was fun to be able to spend time with both Carianne's family and Pam's but to also see some of the friends we have made through the years.  Plus we consider Carl's family our extended family so it was fun to see Tiffany and Victoria with V's new baby brother Boston and to also spend the day with Cassie.  Then last night we went to Mr. Gatti's for pizza and ran into Carl's mom, Pat and Tiffany, Michael, Victoria and Boston, again.  It was like Carlye had family party there.  I will post more pictures later but I want Carianne to be able to post first.  Besides with so many people on the internet right now - things are uploading really slow.  Happy Birthday Carlye and Happy 39th Anniversary Clyde!

Counting My Blessings

I am sure I will get around to taking pictures tomorrow or soon after but today was spent catching up with my Pfiester family in Kerrville, Texas.  I am thankful for the opportunity to spend some time with them and pretty soon with the Davis family too. 

Last night I was also thinking about what an amazing family I have.  I not only am blessed with a wonderful husband, daughters, son-in-laws and grandchildren, sister, brother and their families but I also married into a pretty amazing family.  Saturday I spoke with Clyde's younger sister, Sara Warne.  She has cut two Albums and she asked me if I had listened to her Christmas one this season.  I told her I do every year - had my cry and put it away until next year.  Her music is so moving to me that I cry like a baby when I listen to it.  It is not something I can listen to over and over to because it is so draining.  On the other hand it is so uplifting that I have to listen to it.  It is a little like my watching the movie, The Bishop's Wife every year.  It wouldn't be Christmas without it.  I am so blessed to have talented people in my life to enrich my life and help me draw closer to my Savior.  But then isn't that what Christmas is all about?

Merry Christmas

This is picture of my family taken Christmas 1970.  I am in the front on the left, my brother, Bob Brugger is in the middle and Marianne on the far right.  In the back behind me is my grandmother, Sarah Tuttle and my dad, Archie Brugger and my mom Carolyn Brugger.  I think this was the last family picture we ever had taken.  I don't have one if there ever was another.  There weren't many more Christmas' where we were all together because of marriage, and logistics.  Sadly, the next two Christmas' would be all about me.  I would be spending all of my time with Clyde the next Christmas and become engage and on the Christmas after that Clyde and I would be getting married just a few days later.  I am astonished how self absorbed I was then and how loving and giving my sister has always been.  She is truly an example to follow.  I am glad our daughters ended up following her example more than mine!


I have come to the conclusion - even though I had a hard time sleeping last night (because of Christmas and travel plans) it isn't much fun celebrating Christmas without children around.  I look forward to our second Christmas in a few days in Texas with the Pfiester and the Davis families!  Merry Christmas to all of my family and loved ones.  May the joy of this season carry through with you throughout the year.

Merry Christmas

 My mother made this Nativity as a Relief Society Project.  It has gold and lots of jewels on it.  I made a small one and kept it all white  - in fact it never went in for the second firing - it looks like bisque.  I thought Mom's was gaudy.  Now I miss it.

For those of you keeping track, this is the last night of Advent.  The Advent Krantz pictured above is the one that got our family started.  The Voigt family in Germany gave us our very first Advent Krantz made of evergreens and red candles.  That was the year we went to the Mission home and learned the story of the lighting of the candles.  I have since heard another variation - the 4 candles represent the 4 Gospels of the New Testament.  I thought that was an interesting twist.  If there are 5 candles then it signifies the 5,000 years from the escape from Egypt to the birth of Christ.  Both are interesting interpretations.  I will stick with what I heard as a child.  


The thing that is special about this Advent Krantz is that it is from East Germany in a time when things were very hard to come by from East Germany.  Kaethe Voigt got special permission to visit her family in Eastern Germany and came back with a few heirlooms and this Krantz for us.  It has been very precious ever since.

Christmas in Germany

 My mother, Carolyn Brugger, working on a felt Christmas tree.  This was supposed to be a project we were all going to do together and then Mom couldn't stand the haphazard way we were doing things so she took it over.  Marianne and I eventually lost interest.

Bob stuck with Mom to the end of the project.  These pictures are mirror image.  They should be reversed.  I am not sure how this happened.  I thought I had put the negatives down correctly but apparently hadn't.  This is when we lived in the attic in Frankfurt, Germany.  This was a very hard time for Mom.  We would now diagnose her with S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder or Winter Depression) but then there was no diagnosis for the severe depression she went through that winter.  She constantly complained of the dark and cold.  She claimed she would NEVER complain of the heat again.  Of course she complained of the heat plenty later on both in Texas and Utah but I will never forget her lament of being so bitter cold and the sun never shining.   I look at this picture and realize she is about the age of my daughters right now.  That was a bit of a shocker!  I am about Marcus and Nathanael's age.

Popi's Doll Beds

I apologize for the blurry.  Picture.  We have tried to and tried to fix it but it was apparently taken blurry.  I obviously don't remember this Christmas.  It was just before my 3rd birthday.  Dad was just about to graduate from medical school at the University of Utah and he would be in the Army by that summer.  The next Christmas would be in San Antonio.  I still had that doll bed when Carianne was born and then my dad and Clyde threw it away when they started making beds for their granddaughters.  (It was getting beyond repair.)  Carianne's was made by my mother and me - which is why it so simple.  Clyde and Dad cut the wood but their hearts were not into the furniture making yet.  Heather's cradle is made from a pattern for a miniature doll house that we blew up.  It took months!  However after Heather's cradle, Popi and Clyde knew from that point on they could build anything.  Dad built some beautiful furniture because of my ambitions for toys!  Eventually Popi went back to the old tried and true and built doll beds for Heidi and Pam like mine above.  Now Heidi's bed is being enjoyed by her daughters'.  The only change from the original design is instead of wooden wheels, Popi put on big roller wheels for ease of moving around.  It made it fun for the girls when the wanted to use it for a wagon or push each other down the halls!  Popi made it sturdy enough, so  the girls could sit in it for quite a while - basically until they simply could not fit inside anymore.

P.S.  I just spoke to Heather.  She has my doll crib!  It was not thrown away when I thought it was.  It was given to her by Popi when Bella was a baby.  We will see how many generations it will go through now!

Carianne's First Christmas

This is me on Christmas Morning 1977.  We were at Mom and Dad Brugger's house.  My mother always liked all of the opened gifts put under the Christmas tree so that when people came by, they could see what we had received.  That is what I am doing - arranging the gifts under the tree.  This is the year Carianne was born and though she isn't in the picture, she would have been a little over 2 months old.

Red Christmas Jumpers

Every Christmas Until I was about 8 or 9 I had a red velveteen outfit for Christmas made by my mother for Christmas.  I would wear this every Sunday until my birthday.  Marianne usually had a matching outfit.  This is the first picture of our matching outfits.  We have others but I think this was the first year Mom actually did the matching thing from head to toe.  When we moved - until we were teenagers - Mom would make Marianne and me matching clothes so she could spot us.  Then we balked and wouldn't put up with it anymore.  Now I would love to have a matching outfit with my sister again.  I think that would be so much fun!

Christmas at the VA

 Pam and Heather in the Dining Room/Computer Room of our tiny duplex.  Within just a few more months that wall would be covered in boxes for our move to Utah.  (That duplex would seem like a mansion compared to what I am living in now!)

Heidi posing in Christmas finery.  It's been a long time since I have seen some of these decorations.  We lived on the VA property for 2 Christmas Seasons.  This was our last one before we moved to Utah.  Gr'Anne and Grandpa Bill Bailey had sent these shirts to the girls so we took pictures to mail to them.  Heidi is standing in front of her 'Noel' pillows. My village she is also standing in front of is much bigger now!  Probably twice that size.

Christmas Angels

I was probably about 6 almost 7 when this was taken.  I love how both Marianne and I are rolling our right foot.  I know we were told to stand up straight and stop that - so it was not posed.  Every year our ward in San Antonio would put on quite a Christmas Program for the Ward Christmas Party.  There was always a large Primary Choir with 'Angels' in it.  We were either dressed all in white or had capes like these on to cover our shoulders.  My mother would make a part of the capes and couple of the other mothers would make the rest.  They were out of white felt - when felt was the cheapest material you could buy.  I remember this Christmas program one of the boys my age sang, "All I Want for Christmas!".  I think it was Robbie Roberts or maybe Mike Sparrow but I am not sure.


On a very sad note in my life:  Yesterday I was told the Sedona (the place I have worked out for the last 7 years) had to close their doors as of yesterday!  I feel like I have had a death in the family.  It has been so convenient to go over there and work out and visit with friends.  Now it is all on me.  It would be anyway in 18 months when we retire but I hadn't anticipated it this soon.  I guess I better get used to this.  But I did cry a lot yesterday.  

The Giant Poinsettia Bush

This is Christmas Day just after Marianne's 1st birthday, so I think it is Christmas 1956.  Texas was going through a drought quite similar to what has been happening this year.  But this Poinsettia Bush loved the weather!  I know it is Christmas because I remember Dad taking our picture and saying no one would believe the weather.  We had lived there less than 2 years and were still marveling that Christmas could be spent in a swimming suit poolside some years!  Other years a 'Blue Norther' would come through and you would know it was winter.  Nothing could get you warm! That Bush was still there when we left that house 5+ years later.  It went to the top of the second story window at that point.  When we came home from Germany, the people that had taken over our duplex had it taken out.  My mother was very sad about that.  My parents loved plants and always had something growing even in our tiniest apartments.  It made my mother happy to have some greenery to attend too.

40 Years Ago!

Clyde took these pictures of Marianne and me 40 years ago.  My time flies when you are having fun!  I don't know if I was engaged to Clyde yet or not but it would happen soon if it hadn't already.  Marianne and I became best friends once I went off to Snow College.  It was a very memorable Christmas to say the least.  The top picture is Marianne and me looking to see who was at the front door.  Don't know who it was now but I still remember the layout of the apartment well.  

Our First Christmas with Carianne

The year Carianne we were in the process of moving.  I went ahead and set up the Christmas tree even though we would be in San Antonio for Christmas.  We had this tree until we moved back to Texas from North Carolina.  I wish I could find one this size now.  It would fit our apartment perfectly.  Anything bigger just doesn't work.  Anyway, I made Carianne's stocking and hung it up.  I was on the spot with each of the girls there after until Pam.  For some reason she didn't get one until she was almost 5!  I am not really sure the reason.  When Pam threatened to make her own - I finally broke down and made her one.  That is truly a case of being a bad mom!

Letters to Santa

People that know me well know that I still believe in Santa Claus.  Imagine my delight when I saw this mail box dedicated specifically for letters to Santa at the Shades of Green Resort in Orlando.  I had to take a picture.  It had a pretty steady stream of letters being dropped into it as I sat in the lobby.  I loved it!  There was a TV about 5 feet to the left of this picture and there were little chairs set up in front of it.  It played "The Santa Clause" continuously.  In the halls as you walked to and from your hotel room there was also Christmas music being piped in.  It was very quiet but very much there.  I loved sitting in the hallway - just outside of our room, reading and listening to the music.

The Resort and Magic Kingdom

 This is the chair that Santa sat in to visit with the children in the lobby of the resort we stayed in.

This is a chair that families sat in and had pictures taken in under a huge Christmas Tree in the lobby.  One night we were there, children decorated full sized gingerbread houses.  Each child had an assistant to help them with the royal icing and decorating.  When a mother asked how in the world was she going to get this home on the plane, the response was that they would be mailed home.  Some of the pictures of the houses were absolutely beautiful!


Our last evening was spent in the Magic Kingdom.  First we hopped the train to Frontier Land.  Then we went to Adventure Land and got our Fast Pass to Jungle Cruise.  We couldn't get on until 6:30 so we went to the Tiki Room.  That was fun.  Then we went to Liberty Square and had some dinner and went to the Hall of Presidents.  I had seen the Hall of Presidents when it was introduced at the New York World's Fair in the mid 1960's.  This was the same time the Christus was shown before it was put on permanent display in the Visitors Center at Temple Square in Salt Lake City.  Anyway - when I saw the Hall of Presidents, it ended with Lyndon B. Johnson speaking.  It was quite interesting to see how many more presidents had been added in the ensuing years.  After that it was time for the Jungle Cruise.  Our guide was over the top and full of himself.  Of all of the rides it was my least favorite because of him.  When the Hippos 'charged' the boat - he pulled out his credit card instead of the gun and said, "That is how you stop  a charging hippo."  No one laughed - in fact most groaned.  A few people went looking for the management when we got off to complain - it was that bad.  After that we went to the Pirates of Caribbean.  There had been a 45 minute wait before this and suddenly we could walk right onto the boat.  Unfortunately we were sitting in the very back of the boat so we go wet - but it was fun.  After that we were going to leave but were trapped by the 'Main Street Electrical Parade'.  Not a bad way to be trapped.  We started walking against the parade and saw it all - just not standing still.  We did not stay for the fireworks.  We got on the monorail and headed back to the hotel.  The next day we packed and came home.  The one thing I wished the whole time I was there was that I had grandkids and or daughters and son-in-laws with us.  It was fun with Clyde but it would have been so much more fun with the rest of the family.  Hopefully there will be another time with the rest of our family.  That would be a blast!

Our Second Day at EPCOT

Because our time was short the second day we went to EPCOT, we had to decide what we wanted to do.  We didn't even get to the park until 4:30 p.m.  The first thing we did was to get our fast pass to 'Soarin'.  We could get on the ride at 7:30.  We road the boat of "Living the Land" and then we had some really good sweet and sour chicken.  The thing that was unusual about this dish was that the chicken wasn't dipped in batter.  It was just plain chicken and vegetables in a sauce on rice - really good.  Clyde and I figured out really early that one serving was plenty for both of us.  Then we headed over to "The Seas with Nemo and Friends."  There we rode the clamobile and basically watched a 10 minute undersea version of finding Nemo.  After that we watched "Turtle Talk with Crush" which is a show that Crush the turtle from Nemo interacts with the audience.  That was a really cute!  We walked around and looked at the aquariums after that.  It was quite dark by this time and the aquariums themselves were not lit - so it was kind of murky but quite beautiful.  Then we headed back over to "The Land" pavilion and watched a video called the "Circle of Life" narrated by the Lion King characters about being responsible citizens of the earth.  At first I thought it was going to be over the top but it was basically don't litter and pay attention.  It was really quite well done.  We still had a few minutes to wait until we could ride 'Soarin' so we sat in the food court again.  Floating on the ceiling were these hot air balloons. I had to take the picture that I started this blog with.  It was so dark that is the only picture I got of our outing that day and really of our experiences in the park again.  Then it was time for "Soarin".  Soarin is a virtual hang gliding experience.  It was by far my favorite thing we did while we were there.  I would have ridden that a dozen more times if the turn around had been faster.  It was so much fun!  By the time we finished that it was time to head back to our room.  A great finish for our time in EPCOT.

Day 1 at EPCOT

We got on the ferry and arrived in Germany.   In Germany in EPCOT there is a miniature village.  I had to take some pictures.  It brought back memories of walking through a similar little village in Holland.  That is the Weinnachtsman on the roof in blue.

 This pictures is for perspective.  I took it so you could see the legs of people against the village backdrop. 

I had it all lined up to take a really sweet picture Mary Poppins and then this girls father said something obscene!  Sadly apparently the little girl is used to it.  Mary Poppins was the only character we saw when it was light enough to take pictures.  We saw Belle and the Beast together.  Apparently that doesn't happen that often.  They are usually separate.  We saw Sleeping Beauty in pink and Marie from the Aristocats.  We saw Goofy dressed as a pirate, Minnie and Daisy, Pluto and Mickey but all from a distance.  During this time in EPCOT we learned about Christmas Traditions in Italy from La Befana, in England from Father Christmas and a logger in Canada.  Then we lucked into the Christmas Processional which is the story of Christ from the Bible told by a popular narrator and the Christmas carols sung by a living Christmas Tree made up of High School Honors Choirs from all over Florida.  The Narrator the night we went was Edward James Olmos.  This is his 12th year narrating this.  He knew the program so well that he sang along with the carols.  The woman that was signing for the deaf looked like a dancer as she signed.  It was beautiful.  We then wandered over to China and watched a movie in the round about China.  This was really special because I have a niece teaching there right now.  We had to stand for 15 minutes to watch the movie.  I wanted to see what Christina was seeing so badly that I stood and watched and ached the next day.  I also bought myself a fan from the gift shop there.  I love the way it cools me down plus it is really from China.  We wandered back to the Monorail and then back to the hotel.  We were both exhausted.  I was too tired to sleep once we hit our hotel room but it was a wonderful day.  I could have easily spent 2 days in that part of EPCOT.

We're Home From Disney World!

We are back from 5 days in Orlando and Disney World.  It was a great 5 days.  We actually only spent 3 days in the park.  Clyde was there for a conference for work and we knew our time in the parks would be limited.  Thanks to our friend Diane Campagna, our time in EPCOT and the Magic Kingdom was fun and mapped out.  Plus because of her guidance we are able to see things that we would have missed otherwise.  


We arrived Monday and ended up spending over 5 hours in the International part of EPCOT.  We were able to go through several of the countries and see several Christmas tradition story tellers and the Candlelight Processional.  We really lucked into a lot of things because we happened to be standing at the right place at the right time.  We saw everything we wanted to on that end of EPCOT on Monday and went to the hotel, tired and happy.  Tuesday I paid for it.  I had fought a flu bug all weekend and had a relapse Tuesday plus my knees hurt so bad from all of the standing and walking - I could barely walk.  I will blog my one picture of a character I got because all of time we spent in Disney World was at night -  hard to take pictures in the dark.  I will also tell about the rest of our days in the parks in the coming days - however I have to say the military resort we stayed on (Shades of Green) would have been worth staying on without going to the park!  It was beautiful, restful and the staff bent over backwards to be helpful.

And We're Off...

For the next 5 days we will be in Orlando, Florida - Disneyworld to be exact.  Clyde has a conference there and I get to tag a long.  This is our first trip to a Disney theme park.  I have dreamed of going to EPCOT since it opened.  Last night I couldn't sleep I am so excited.  We will see what wonders this day and week brings.

Advent

When I was a young girl, my family moved to Germany.  Our first Christmas there, Theodore M. Burton and his family invited us to his home for Advent.  We had no idea what this was.  This is the German sister that gave us the story that our family has been repeating the first Sunday of Advent ever since.  Technically you should start Advent 4 Sundays out from Christmas.  Our family does it so it falls the first Sunday of December and then the last one is on Christmas Eve.  My mother started doing it that way and I thought that is how it was supposed to be.  It wasn't until recently I realized that is a Brugger tradition and not traditional.  Happy Advent everyone.

Two Little Angels

Every time I look at this picture I smile.  I was in charge of the Ward Christmas party in Durham, NC.  It had been tradition for years that Santa would come.  At the last minute a few people balked and complained that Santa shouldn't come to a Ward Party.  I literally whipped up angel costumes from bed sheets an leftover white material I had.  Rebecca Scholes older sister was Mary and I think her oldest brother was Joseph.  We quickly put together this pageant using one of our daughters dolls for the baby.  The bishopric were the Wisemen and they were the gift givers that night as well.  Now I wouldn't have bowed to those two families wishes but then I wanted to make everyone happy.  I guess I am meaner in my old age.  I realize now that they did not represent the whole ward - even though they acted like it.  I now go and check and see what the consensus really is before I switch things up.  If the majority really don't want something - then I will change it, but not because of just a few anymore.  However because of that situation, I certainly got a cute picture of Heidi and Heather.

Christmas is Here!

As in years past I am going to post Christmas pictures, Past and Present.  My past pictures will be limited since I had never backed up the pictures I had on my computer when it crashed last spring.  I love this picture of Marcus, Anneke and Luke Bahlmann.  It was taken 4 years ago.  Luke just celebrated his 4th birthday this last Monday.  There is a similar picture with the three older siblings holding Mallory.  It was lost from my computer when it crashed.  Hopefully Heidi has a copy of it.

Happy Birthday Heidi

I don't have any pictures of Heidi's birthdays because she has them all.  This is actually Heather's birthday with Heidi (in the back) and her best friend Ashley (in the foreground).  Heidi was 3 at the time.  We were living in Durham, North Carolina.  Happy Birthday, Heidi.  Your dad and I hope you have a wonderful birthday and that this year brings you the dreams of your heart.  We love you very much.