Our Father's Day

What a day! We started off with a fun surprise at church. On a previous primary activity day, the children decorated old ties that had been collected. There were ties of all decades of fashion. Wide ones, skinny string ones and everything in between. The kids unleashed their creative juices and with large amounts of glue (apparently, judging from the surplus on the ties) glued all manner of embellishments on said ties. There were pipe cleaners in various configurations, pom pom balls of all sizes and colors, many and varied jewels, and even some feathers. Bright ones. The ties were then folded and placed into blue lunch sacks and each man received his fashion statement for the day as he arrived at the doors into the chapel. I loved how the men were good sports and wore the ties with their suits, etc. An excellent way to start the day. I wish I had gotten a picture of some of them. Our ward Relief Society has volunteers bring in pie for our guys. We cut it up and plate it in the kitchen and then take it to Priesthood Opening Exercises to serve them. I think it is the best attended Opening Exercises all year. Guys do love their pie.

Once home I went into cooking mode to get things ready for dinner. Grumpy chose Swiss Steak for dinner this year, and that takes a little prep. He came in and cut all the meat up for me as he is better at meat cutting than I am. He did the onions for me too and then I banished him from the kitchen to take a nap somewhere. I will post the pics of the prep and recipe for Swiss Steak on Nana's blog. It is a recipe I got long ago from Gramma Harmon. Over the years we have modified it a bit, not the ingredients, but the finished product. She and Papa Harmon were coming over for dinner and were bringing their own baked potatoes. We have learned to eat Swiss Steak with rice instead of potatoes, so they were bringing their own side dish. I made squash from our garden and some corn and peas for the little ones that don't appreciate squash yet. I made Grumpy's favorite pie: Coconut Cream and then I made a Lemon Cream too. (my favorite) Taya made a delicious Peach Cobbler (also one of Grumpy's favs) and we had some vanilla ice cream on hand for that. We had a great dinner, and a great time visiting. I wish I had gotten pictures of Taya's Peach Cobbler, and the pies on plates, but I didn't.


As things were being cleaned up, Faith came and asked me to please go and sit on the couch by Grumpy. I assumed the kids wanted to give Grumpy his cards, etc., so I went in and sat down. We were both given the cutest cards ever. I guess Tawna was up to her creative vices and made these funny cards. I love them.





Our kids all went together and bought us a big surprise. We were a little speechless. At least I was. I will preface the gift by saying how sweet it was of all of them to do this. Lots of thought and a lot of money went into it. It was a combined Mother's Day, Father's Day present and I am still tearing up every time I look at it.



You can't tell by the picture, but it is a new Microwave. We have all completely worn out the microwave in Papa's house. I don't know how old it is, but it is definitely in it's death throes. It is quite the process to get it to work, and you have to hit it just right for it to come on, but if you don't do everything just so, the door falls apart and you get to figure out how to put it back together so you can warm up your food. I kept saying we were going to use it until it refused to work anymore. The kids must have believed me, so mercifully got us a new one so we could put the other one out of it's misery. I can't wait to get a couple of the boys over here to install it. It was such a nice thing and I hope you all know how much we appreciate it. You guys are the best and we were really surprised. I would never have guessed.


Above, Papa poses for me with his pirate patch on. He had cataract surgery on his left eye last week and is doing great. We do 3 kinds of drops 4 times a day to keep it that way. Bob and Sydney had him over for breakfast and Tracy and Kevin had him over for dinner on Father's Day. Papa always comes home and tells me all about the dinners (breakfast in this case too) and is full of love and appreciation for his children and grandchildren. He received many nice cards and presents and loves anything we give him. We all love him so much and hope he can feel our love and concern for him. We couldn't have asked for a better father. He had a great day too, and of course helped us eat the pie and cobbler. Family is everything.