Merry Christmas & Happy New Year??

Yes... I know.... it's April.  I'm a bit behind.  Here's the quick summary.  Over the next few days, I promise I'll get myself caught up to spring.

Christmas for our family this year was at Jimmy's house.  With the addition of Soeung, Miles and Camille this year, his house is much fuller!!  We arrived early on Christmas morning and looked in the windows to find the 3 kids already checking out the gifts under the tree.

We quickly joined in as the wrapping paper and ribbon began to fly around the room.  Star Wars and Wii games seemed to be the hits this year.

This was the year I finally finished Will's needlepoint stocking.  Having started this project shortly after Will was born, I had promised myself that I would complete it by the time he finished high school - I'm ahead of schedule!!  If I take this long on every stocking which needs to be completed for our newest family members, I will need to work at it a good bit faster than I did on this one.

Even the adults in our family get stockings.  In fact, this is usually much more anticipated than the wrapped gifts.  There's always a bit of a surprise in each stocking, and it has become quite the challenge to surprise each person with an unexpected treasure.  We really enjoyed seeing Miles, Camille and Soeung get into this family tradition.

Marci and Ryan arrived with our newest granddaughter - Malenda Sage.  At 4 months old, Malenda was quite delighted with all the activity.  Her cousins were absolutely taken with this new little baby.  Marci was able to find a quiet corner for Malenda, who still snoozes quite often.  But, when she was awake, she was all smiles.

Everyone contributed to the Christmas dinner.  Jimmy's sweet potatoes were a particular favorite this year.  And what would Christmas be without granddaddy's famous cheese grits casserole!  As usual, there was so much food that all of us had to eat that evening and the next day to finally finish it.  The cat, Butterscotch, seemed quite content with his catnip toy and didn't even seem to notice the feast on the table.

How many in our family now?  10??  Last year we had one grandchild - now we have 4!  What fun we had with these kids!  We were tired at the end of the day, and went home to sleep well - the best part about being grandparents!!

Thanksgiving with Family

What better way to spend Thanksgiving than with family!  We started the Thanksgiving weekend by traveling to Sparta to share Thanksgiving dinner with brother and sister-in-law, Jack and Pat.  What a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner Pat had prepared.  My favorites were the "little birds" - otherwise known as Cornish game hens, and the cooked apricots.  Pat says she is a rebel when it comes to including the cranberry sauce.  The apricots were indeed a refreshing new touch.  Best of all, everything was low fat, low carb and absolutely delicious!

Friday evening, we traveled down to Tullahoma for the 50th anniversary celebration of my 1st cousin, Ray and Ann, hosted by their son and daughter-in-law.  Now, it seems to me that these milestones are only for grandparents - I remember my own grandparents' golden wedding anniversary back in the 50s.  Can it be that my cousin is there already??   WOOPS!!  Guess I'm not that far behind - we celebrated our 42nd anniversary this year.  This comes in the category of "everybody else is getting old - not me"?!?  We had a really fun evening and Ray and Ann were surrounded by friends and family.  The meal was delicious, the conversation rich and warm.  We finished the evening with a champagne toast and wedding cake with the best frosting I have ever tasted.

Saturday was the day for Thanksgiving dinner with children and grandchildren.  Butch absolutely hit a home run with his 19-pound turkey a la Martha Stewart.  It was beautifully browned and REALLY moist.  Martha doesn't make it easy, but the result was fabulous.  Marci brought the broccoli casserole and the cheese grits (my mother's recipe), Jimmy prepared the sweet potatoes and Soeung made her favorite 7-layer salad.  I contributed the cranberry relish and we had chess pie and pecan pie, compliments of Simply Southern in Pelham, one of our favorite local restaurants.  Those of you who may remember my grandmother's reputation for chess pie will be surprised to hear me say that this one is as good as I remember hers to be.

This was Will's first time to meet his new cousin, Malenda.  He and Camille were quite excited to hold her and Malenda was a perfect champ - actually seemed to be quite fascinated with her new cousins.  We have gone from 1 grandchild to 4 grandchildren in less than one year.  The joy - and the decibel level - has multiplied many times over.

We had put up the Christmas tree and the lights.  The 3 grandchildren began digging out all the ornaments and garland.  Before we knew it, it was beautifully decorated, and Jimmy topped the tree with the angel. The kids rewarded themselves with orange juice- well deserved!!  I may never decorate the tree myself again.  Wonder if they will be around when it's time to undecorate the tree?

I love this holiday season - and I'm giving thanks every day for the wonderful family that we have around us.  Our house and our lives are indeed full - and now strangely quiet!!  We had a couple of inches of snow this weekend, and I'm sitting here in this quiet house feeling very warm as I look at this very special Christmas tree!!

We are looking forward to Malenda's first Christmas.  I just can't get enough of this beautiful little 3-month old child.  The joy and hope that she expresses every time we see her reflect the true message of this season.

"A baby is God's opinion that life should go on."  -Carl Sandburg.

I Love Being a Grandmother

One of the things I miss most about being away from Tennessee is my grandchildren.  Fortunately, Marci and Ryan and Jimmy and Soeung send pictures, but it's just not the same as being there to get a hug and seeing them in action.

Just before we came out to Montana, we went on our annual Mt. LeConte hike in the Smokies.  Will has been hiking Mt. Leconte since he was 2 years old, the first two years on his Dad's back, and then at the age of 4 he made the entire hike up on his own and every year since then.  This year, Soeung and her two children, Miles (8) and Camille (6) made the hike with us as well.  All 3 kids made it up the mountain and down without a problem.  Kudos to the parents, who worked in plenty of breaks along the way to make the hike more fun for them.  We stopped at the stream and at "squirrel rock" and fed the critters there who are always looking for an easy snack.  Soeung, who teaches environmental science, has a quick eye for flora and fauna and found little creatures that the rest of us would have just walked right past.

On our recent quick trip to Tennessee, we arrived on a day when Miles had a soccer game.  It was a beautiful, perfect fall day - no snow there!!!  Miles is 8 years old and actually scored a goal during the game.  I don't even know which team won, and I couldn't tell that the kids even cared.  They just loved playing the game and had a great time.

I asked Camille (age 6)  if she wanted to play soccer.  She informed me very quickly that she played the piano, so I guess that means "no"?

Will, on the other hand, seems to have some interest in the game.  Of course, Jimmy loves the game so much and he and Will carry a soccer ball with them at all times.  On this particular day, Wiill was practicing "head shots" with the ball.  It goes like this:  throw the ball in the air toward Will and he bounces it off his head.  And, let me tell you, he didn't miss many!

Camille had found a group of girls to play, and after Will got tired of the head shots, he wanted to walk around the track that surrounds the soccer fields.  I needed a good walk anyway, so off we went.  At age 6, I am pretty impressed with Will's conversational skills.  We stopped at the creek and threw sticks in the water to see how fast they moved, talked about messages in a bottle and following it all the way to the ocean and how long it would take to get there, about riding horses in Montana, and how many books he has read.  This is what I miss!!  I could have talked to him all day - I'm not sure Will felt the same way!  Hahaha.

A couple of days later, I was off to Nashville for a quick visit with Marci and Ryan and 6-week-old  Malenda.  I stayed in Nashville as a "Mom's helper" for 2 weeks after Malenda was born - my goodness, what a difference 4 weeks makes!  This little girl was smiling, hitting at her mobile toys and almost sleeping through the night.  She now weighs 12 pounds and still eats with such gusto.

Marci took advantage of the time I was there to go out to lunch with some friends and run a few errands.    Malenda and I had an hour-long stroll and she slept through about half of it ... again, the weather was just beautiful.  She takes very short naps during the day, which leaves lots of good play time.  We play silly sound games - sticking out our tongues, buzzing our lips,  making raspberry sounds, animal sounds, etc.  Too much fun!

Marci just sent some new pictures.  She is growing so fast.  Two more weeks and I'll be back in Tennessee and not just looking at pictures.

Now, I know it's my job...  but, I really do have the cutest, smartest, best grandchildren in the world!  I absolutely love this stage in my life and I love being a grandmother.

The Long Road to TN Bluegrass and Back to MT

We had a quick trip to Tennessee, and as you can tell by my previous post, we left Montana with snow on the ground and arrived to a beautiful Tennessee fall day.  Actually, it was  after midnight by the time we got to Nashville.

I had an unused leg on a round-trip flight, which I used on this trip and Jim got a roundtrip ticket on another airline.  We were to meet in Nashville within 1 hour of each other.  It's been said.... "the best laid plans...", and stormy weather across the midwest made for a rather eventful day!  My flight from Bozeman to Chicago was on again, off again, then on again because of ground delays in Chicago.  Then the flight to Nashville was delayed, delayed, delayed.  Meanwhile, Jim was in Minneapolis delayed, delayed, delayed.

I got to Nashville at 10 pm, tired and totally starved only to find all restaurants in the Nashville airport closed.  All I can say is thank God for Hooters!!  At midnight, I was wolfing down a burger and onion rings watching a hula contest between some beer-drinking guys and the Hooters waitresses.  Long way from Montana!!!

Jim's flight finally got in at 12:45 a.m. and we got to Monteagle at 3 a.m.  Whew!!  Our goal the next day was the  Three Sisters Festival in Chattanooga.  Sponsored by the Fletcher Bright Company, and true to champion fiddler Flethcer Bright's legacy, this is an all bluegrass event and we couldn't wait to take our grandson Will, who, at the age of 6, is already a huge bluegrass fan.  But, more about grandchildren later!

The first band we heard on Friday was Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper.  What a treat!!!  Michael Cleveland is 29 years old and is the current and 7-time winner of the IBMA Fiddler of the Year award.  Why had I not heard of this guy before?  He gets sounds out of a fiddle that others only dream of.  I happened to see him the next day, sitting with his dad on a park bench.  I asked him when he learned to play the fiddle - he started taking Suzuki violin when he was 4 years old, then began listening to bluegrass fiddlers who lived around him.  Did I mention that Michael is blind?  He is surrounded by an amazing band including the IBMA Mandolin Player of the Year and Bass Player of the Year  PLUS the band won the Bluegrass Band of the Year award.  Well deserved, I say, for this original and authentic group of musicians.

Infamous Stringdusters were next to take the stage, followed by the Grascals.  Stringdusters are relatively new on the scene and the Grascals band members are real bluegrass veterans, and both bands I would pay to see in a solo show - that's how good they are. Both bands play lots of original music, mixed with some country and bluegrass traditional favorites.  The newest Grascal is IBMA Banjo Picker of the Year Kristin Scott Benson, the only female member of the band in a predominately male industry.  She is so understated, smiles sparingly, but picks the strings off a banjo!!  Their award-winning original song, Me and John and Paul, brought me to tears.  Before they sang it, they asked all veterans in the audience to stand and be recognized.  Read the lyrics...  you'll understand the emotion I felt.

On Saturday, we picked up the grandchildren, Will and Miles and Camille (Soeung is their mother), and headed back down to Ross's Landing for day two of the Three Sisters Festival.  The kids were more interested in the playground and the "box hill" than they were in the bluegrass bands, but they were within hearing distance, so I'm sure they soaked in some of the music.

We got there just in time to hear John Reischman and the Jaybirds.  They are from Vancouver and we have heard them on several occasions here in Montana.  The first time I met them, the guitar player Jim Nunally told me that he and the banjo player had made a Flatt & Scruggs pilgrimage to Sparta, TN, my hometown!  I have been a fan ever since and try to go to their gigs whenever they are close by.  All of them can sing and write wonderful original songs, but the bass player Tricia Gagnon simply has one of the most soulful voices in bluegrass today!  At the end of their set, they invited Fletcher Bright up to the stage to fiddle a few songs with their fiddler Greg Spatz.  What a treat!

After a fabulous spaghetti dinner with Jimmy, Soeung (Soeung makes one of the best spaghetti sauces I have ever had anywhere!) and the kids, the festival was topped off by the Kruger Brothers and the Del McCoury Band. Jens and Uwe Kruger were born in Switzerland and for the last 10 years have been living in North Carolina.  I had never heard these guys before, and their style defies description - country, jazz, classical - it's all there.  I could have listened to them a lot longer than they played.  At the end of their set, they invited Michael Cleveland on stage to fiddle a few tunes with them. He stood between the banjo and the guitar and went back and forth "Deliverance" style for a good 10 minutes - simply amazing!!

Del McCoury and his band were the last to take the stage.  One of the most popular acts in bluegrass, this band never disappoints.  It had been a long day, however, and Will just couldn't stay awake any longer and Miles and Camille were struggling to keep it together.  So, we left about half way through their set.  It was a beautiful weekend with great bluegrass and family all around!

Let It Snow!

Well.......  summer is gone here in Montana.  I can't fully explain the palpable excitement among locals here when the snow starts.  The ski shops open for business and everyone starts waxing and tuning their skis.  I can't believe we won't have an Indian Summer, but right now I'm thinking about that big plane I'm getting on tomorrow and hoping they have the de-icers ready!!

The snow started this morning and really hasn't let up all day.  The good news is that the roads are still warm and, barring a 16 degree overnight temp, we should be fine to drive to the airport tomorrow.  The forecast in Big Sky predicts overnight lows in the low 20s for the next week.  It's a good time to come back to Tennessee while the snow accumulates in Montana. 

Look for more pictures of grandchildren, coming shortly on this site!!

If I Were An Eagle ... looking at Old Faithful

But, I'm not an eagle...  I had to hike a half mile and climb 250 feet to get this view.  It was well worth the trip.  The sky was blue and Old Faithful had one of its more exuberant eruptions,  The view from down below is always impressive, but there are always so many people, even in the off-season.  We found a spot where we were all alone, and just sat and waited.

When we left Big Sky for the park, the sky was very hazy.  As we got closer to the park, the haze picked up, and sure enough, we started smelling smoke.  A wild fire on the eastern side of the park, ignited by lightening strikes over the weekend, was burning and we suspected that we might be in for a day of low visibility and no photo ops.  Unbelievably, just about 3 miles before we got to Old Faithful, the smoke cleared and we had a picture perfect environment.  Smoke goes wherever the wind blows, and fortunately the wind was blowing from the south taking it all away from us.  Unfortunately, the wind gusts caused the fire to spread.  We have had an unusually wet summer here and no wildfires until now.  The last two weeks have been dry, however, and there's enough dead wood (thanks to the pine beetle) to provide ready tinder when lightening strikes. 

Old Faithful is located in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone, part of the larger caldera that bubbles and spews constantly.  Off in the distance, we could see Castle Geyser which erupts about every 14 hours.  It's a long wait, compared to Old Faithful which erupts on a 90-minute schedule.  But, when you see Castle Geyser, it may erupt for as long as 90 minutes.  Indeed, we hiked down on the west side of the overlook and in the 30 or so minutes it took us to reach Castle, it was still erupting.

Solitary Geyser stands alone in a forested area at the bottom of the overlook trail.  The sign tells us that it erupts about every 5 minutes, but this is one of those bubbling eruptions that sounds more like a mud pot.  This is one of the more beautiful geysers, deep blue in the center surrounded by yellow sulphur powder.

Most of the Upper Geyser Basin is connected by raised walkways and bridges.  The Firehole River meanders through the basin and the geysers empty into it.  We walked back over the river and headed to the parking lot.  As we drove back north toward West Yellowstone, all the smoke had blown away, but we did see the smoke plume to the east.

Word today is that the fire is contained to 9,600 acres.  A cold front is on the way and 4-6 inches of snow is forecast for tomorrow.  Sounds like a good time to head to Tennessee!

Black Butte, King Butte, and Beyond

Just another perfect day here in Yellowstone country!!  Just 18 miles south of Big Sky on Hwy 191, we enter the northernmost boundry of Yellowstone National Park.  Most of the park is in Wyoming, but a small percentage - about 3% or 100 square miles - is in Montana just south of us.  That means the trails are maintained and the wildlife and environment are protected.

We decided to hike a new trail today, the Black Butte trail named for Black Butte Creek which flows down from Black Butte mountain through the drainage into the Gallatin River.  The 600-acre privately owned Black Butte Ranch, which has been owned by the same family (Patten family) for 4 generations, is just to the west of the trailhead and adjacent to the park boundary.

The trail parallels Black Butte Creek through stands of mostly lodgepole pine, but there are also a few groves of aspen and Douglas fir.  Black Butte is just south of the trail and is the first landmark we passed.  The trail climbs about 600 feet for 2 miles and then forks with two options - neither of which we took.  The more challenging option - for another day - is to continue on for 7 miles and a 3100 ft climb to the summit of Big Horn Peak, and if your're really energetic, on to Shelf Lake 3 miles further.  The other option is to connect to the Daly Creek trail, a more moderate challenge that continues on for another 10 or so miles.

Neither of these options was our goal, so we just found a log at the base of the massive King Butte and sat and ate our lunch surrounded by the silence.  Oh, we heard a few birds here an there - a junco and a magpie - and the breeze was strong enough to make a low whistle.  But, there was not another person on the trail.  Nor was there any wildlife other than a few flying grasshoppers and an occasional squirrel busily collecting his stores for the winter.  We saw some evidence that elk or grizzlies had been around:  grasses matted and bark stripped from tree trunks - but no live sightings.

But, we don't have to go far from our front door to find wildlife.  Thursday night we were having dinner with friends in their home which overlooks Lake Levinsky within walking distance.  As we sipped our wine on the balcony, we spotted 3 moose - one cow and two bulls sparring for her affection.  It's just a constant reminder here that we are sharing space with these magnificent creatures.

The views on the way out were just as beautiful and, since the trail was downhill, we made the return trip in about half the time.  When we returned to our parking spot beside the Gallatin River, we spoke to a fisherman just jumping into his waders and getting ready to flyfish for trout.  As we say... just another Chamber of Commerce day.