Extended family – Page 33 – Letters from Home

A Wonderful Story

I’m at 9,300 words in my grandmother’s history. This week I have written about forbidden marriages, ocean voyages, WWII valor, sacrifice, family traditions, family recipes, and a lullaby. I’ve gazed at baby pictures of people I only knew after they had wrinkles. I have laughed, I have cried. I have seen how my great-grandfather looked in Paris and smiled at his beret. My source materials include letters written in the 1990’s to me, copious notes from Grandma’s stories, photographs that Paige took of photo albums and objects, my great-grandmother’s collection of newspaper clippings and photos, slides that I have painstakingly scanned over the years, and previous histories and careful genealogy work by my dad and aunt. I have had a Finnish letter translated. I have hoarded and identified every photo I can get my hands on. We have done some of my family’s temple work. Whenever I revisit family history, it fills my life.

My mom just finished her parents’ history and shared it with us on Sunday. It is a treasure and I came to love my grandparents even more through the reading of it.

The more I learn, the more I see that Norman Rockwell was painting OUR STORY! That little redhead on the top could be my Mark.

My projects are his projects

1954-04-14 David — My dad, two days before my mom was born

I am so glad that Richard assumes the role of technician and editor so I can write and create. He makes my ideas become something more than dreams. I’m so grateful that he knows computer languages, English grammar, and is so unselfish about time.

When I was studying Greek philosophy a year or two ago, Richard came home with a book called A Pheonominally Phrank History of Philosophy (Without the Poncy Bits) so he could have conversations with me. This was an incredibly endearing gesture.

This week he knew that I had some photos to edit, so he sat down to preview some programs to help me do it. He worked on this picture of my dad which was covered in black dust spots. Thank you!

My March Project

Scan-130304-0002 — John, Ruth, David, Jeri, September 1951

The winter months have been devoted to cozy projects. My extra minutes in January were spent making our 2012 family album. February’s minutes went to violin practice. This month, my project is to make a third draft of my Grandma Ruth’s history that I began writing in 2008 after spending a week “interviewing” her. I’ve collected many pictures and I’m currently scanning slides so this little history is full of images.

A Very Special Celebration

We threw a family Christmas party last night at our house. My mom and I worked on it for about 6 weeks. Here are some photos from the evening.

Place cards for 36 people

Special cookies, most of them decorated by Paige.

Centerpiece and place settings

The little girls’ table

Mom and Dad

My Aunt Kate and her family

Joe’s family

Paul and Care looking great.

Paul and Care and the kids.

Susan and Richard’s family

Sarah and Bryan

Derrick

Happy Stacy

Little David

I loved the family talent show after dinner. The Christmas pageant was beautifully costumed by Susan. The gifts were generous and so much fun.

Happy 39th anniversary! We hope you love the carolers, Mom.

Merry Christmas!

Take a bow!

These photos are evidence of many years of dance. The daily and weekly sacrifices that Paige makes to be a dancer are enormous. Paige is graceful and she is strong. We are so proud of her. It’s not easy joining such a tight-knit studio in the middle of Nutcracker rehearsals. She did a beautiful job.

Both sets of grandparents were able to come to the performance! Thank you! Thank you!

Temple Square Christmas Lights

My mom took the boys on a quick, impromptu tour of Temple Square since she had an appointment downtown.

True, the lights are beautiful, but as my Mom explains, the real beauty is the temple.

Mark really liked the scale model of the interior of the temple that they found in the visitor’s center.

The big photos were taken by Timothy. He was proud of this photo of the Christus statue.

Thanks, Grandma, for taking them to Temple Square! It was Timothy and Mark’s first trip to see the lights and probably the first trip that Daniel can remember since he was only two years old when he first saw them.

Happy

My brothers sent this picture to me today. Holy smokes, we were cute. This is me with my brothers Joe and Paul. I keep looking at this every few minutes, all day long. A little voice is telling me to try to do an oil painting of it.

Thanksgiving weekend

The house feels really empty today after spending 5 great days with these people. The boys had their first Thanksgiving in Utah. We have such a big family network here that I only needed to prepare desserts!

And that’s really all I have to show you from our weekend. We made jello, pies, and dozens of sugar cookies. Richard spent approximately 18 hours raking leaves while we did all of this baking.

And when those autumn cookies were gone, we made some Christmas cookies. This morning I discovered that my children had taken pictures of them on several cameras. Maybe we all thought that if they were properly photographed, they wouldn’t be missed after they were eaten.

My mom came by and she and Paige rocked the polka dots.

Timothy won the school Reflections contest for his short film of Spring Lake.

Mark lost his first tooth. I owe you a picture.

Somehow we also neglected to take pictures of all of the family we saw this weekend. Boo!

The Sanchez Women Honors

The Sanchez women have been through a lot this year. Here is a picture of us in January 2012. Since this photo most of us have dealt with huge changes in our lives. Most notably, we gained a new sister-in-law this month.

My mom is finishing college this month. She also housed two families as they went through major life changes.
My sister Susan fought a terrible infection this year and is still feeling the effects of it.
My sister Sarah helped her husband finish medical school, moved to Utah, and will be moving to a new city this week for a new job. She also ramped up her puppet business.
My sister-in-law Becky gave birth to her fourth son.
I moved to Utah and gave up my homeschooling career.
Care kept us happy through it all with her handmade creations.

I decided that each of these women deserved a medal so I made some. Can you guess which medal belongs to whom?

I presented one to each of them when we went out to lunch this week.

Becky couldn’t be there, but here is everyone else, including our new sister-in-law Stacy. Well done, ladies, well done.

Sweet gestures

My mom took me out to lunch for my birthday. We couldn’t remember the last birthday we spent together. It was warm and sunny and everything tasted good.

My mom brought a home movie that my cousin made of my grandmother’s surprise birthday party. Watching my grandma and great aunt laughing together brought back beautiful memories of family celebrations with them in Salt Lake City when I was a little girl. Susan always had something special to give each guest so we could remember the occasion. The food was always delicious. I have never found anything to equal Great-grandma’s and Aunt Susan’s parties.

Mark was appalled that he had to go to school on my birthday. He said that he should stay home with me and help me with my work, eat with me, and wash my car. What a lovey.

Timothy gave me a diorama of a road leading to some mountains, I think to remind me that my wish to live in the mountains has finally come true.

My cake was cream filled and delicious and Richard got me the book that I wanted.

I was disappointed to watch my friends preaching to one another about the election online. If only everyone could have just come over and given me birthday hugs, I am sure that would have been a better use of everyone’s time.