Bad, Bad Leroy Brown

One of my favorite childhood memories is sitting around as a family {and by family, I mean everyone... grandparents, cousins, aunts & uncles, siblings} singing songs on my Grandma's player piano. 

My favorite songs were always the Christmas carols and Bad, Bad Leroy Brown. Oh and We Have No Bananas! Classics. We'd play them over and over and over again for hours. Listening to my Grandpa's beautiful baritone voice singing with us as he sat on the old piano bench covered in dusty blue fabric, pumping the foot pedals up and down.

How my Grandma acquired the piano though is kind of legacy in our family. 

The piano belonged to my my great-great Grandpa Delroy and Grandma Orpha Peacock. They passed it down to their son George Kenneth and daughter-in-law Hilma Peacok who then gave it to my Grandma Nan Jewkes. My Grandma H. Peacock actually had two pianos, one went to my Grandma and the other to my Great Aunt Buehlah's son. My Grandparents were living in Price, Utah at the time they got the piano. But my Grandpa Don Jewkes refused to move it for her because they didn't have anywhere to put it except in the basement and he knew it wasn't going to fit. He said it would never, no way, ever, ever fit in their little house and if it got stuck, that's where it was going to stay.

Forever.

My Grandma N. Jewkes cried and cried and cried about it. One day when my Grandpa D. Jewkes was at work, she asked her two brothers, Paul and Delroy, to bring it to Price for her. They brought it over in one of their trucks and left it on the porch. Where it sat until my Grandma N. Jewkes convinced Grandpa to move it downstairs. 

Where it got stuck. 

Sure enough when they got to the bottom of the stairs, just like my Grandpa D. Jewkes had predicted, it got wedged at the top under the floor beam. I'm sure there were a few more tears shed and a few colorful words used. Grandma just brought out a handsaw and handed to Grandpa. He thought she wanted him to saw the piano in pieces but she told him to cut the ceiling. He cut a notch out of the floor beam, which happened to be a support beam (yikes!) and the piano went into the basement.

When they moved to Logan, my Grandpa said the piano wasn't going to come. But his company, Nabisco, provided a moving company to get them from Price to Logan so the piano came to Logan too.  When they were moving it into the basement and halfway down the stairs, one of the guys told my Grandpa a moving guy had been killed the week before moving one of the old, upright player pianos. I guess it really upset my Grandpa to hear he was risking someone's life just to get that darn piano into the basement... again. Luckily, the basement wasn't finished yet so it was a little easier to get down the stairs. He literally built a room around the piano! He always said the piano was going to have to be sold with the house when they died because there was no way it was coming back out of the basement again.

After my Grandpa died, my Dad got the piano. I'm wondering if he got it because he was the only one crazy enough to try and get it back up the stairs and then into his house.

Why my Dad decided to put the piano in a basement again I have no idea! 

I so wish he would have taken a video of the poor piano movers trying to get it out of my grandparent's house and then down the stairs at my parent's because those guys deserved a raise. My Dad said when they saw what they were getting into, they weren't sure they still wanted the job. Apparently old, upright player pianos are the least favorite piano of movers because they are so massive. Not only did they have to lug it back up the stairs at my grandparent's house, scrapping the ceiling all the way up, but they had to figure out how to turn the corner into my parent's family room once they got it down their stairs. The only way to get it in the family room, was to turn it up on it's side at the bottom of the stairs. He said it was a little scary. Which coming from my Dad probably means he closed his eyes and said a silent prayer that he wasn't going to have to cut a hole in the ceiling or wall. Or scrap a dead piano mover off his floor.

Well. The piano sounds great. The big kids (aka, Kurtis) and the grandkids love it. It brings back a lot of memories of my own childhood watching Pearl, Ruby, and Cole pedal away singing at the top of their lungs. 

I love old things with a rich history... stories. And just seeing all of the dings and scratches makes my heart soar. The wood is just gorgeous from years and years of love and aging. 

It's beautiful. And if you look closely, you can see the keys playing.

Everyone can play a piano like this! No musical experience required.

I remember playing with all the little knobs and medal sticks (I have no idea what the technical term is for that little thing) that adjust the piano's sound and foot pedals. 

But as a kid, my most favorite part was when the song was over and you got to flip the switch and "rewind" the piano roll again. As fast as you can! Until it flipped off the little hook and starting flapping around. 

But I never remember those darn foot pedals being so hard to pedal. Apparently I'm a little out of shape. And so are they.... we must be vintage.

Look at all of those beautiful old piano rolls. I think I'm going to have to start antique shopping now.

So grateful for the wonderful memories this gorgeous heirloom brings to me. And I'm hoping it continues to create memories for generations to come. 

That is, if we can get it out of the basement.

Rice Krispie Teddy Bears

I've written before about the teddy bear mold.

It holds special childhood memories of Christmas with my Grandma. She always had baskets full of teddy bear rice krispie treats. And now that it's my turn to continue with the tradition, I want to ask her how many batches of these things she made! Goodness! Either my childhood memories are grossly exaggerated or she bought every single pack of marshmallows and box of Rice Krispie cereal in the store! Oh, and she must have stockpiled on the heart-shaped Red Hots because I drove all over town looking for them! Apparently they are a Valentine Day only treat. And... one more "and" I promise... if anyone knows where I can find those teeny, tiny Reese's balls for the eyes and nose, let me know. Round cinnamon drops and mini M&Ms will have to do I guess.

Jeff was super sweet to help me make all of these for my family {despite his funny face in the picture}. I think he liked decorating them more than he lets on... that or he wanted first dibs on eating them. Well, on second thought, he was probably worried I'd put too much cereal in and they wouldn't be ooey-gooey, fall apart in your hands soft.

I only remember my Grandma using the teddy bear mold, but she also had a Christmas tree mold and some Easter molds. So we decided to decorate a few Christmas trees too.

Oh it makes my heart happy to see all of these sweet treats in that basket. 

 

And even more happy to see the smile it brought on my Dad's face.

2nd Christmas

A few days after Christmas, we had "2nd Christmas" at my parent's house. My siblings and I always fight over who will get these handmade ornaments that ME and my grandma made when I was a kid. I will admit that Jesse was there, however; he was not the most enthusiastic, happy child despite what false memories he has of himself so I will split them with him.

Glad we cleared that up.

The kids had fun opening presents again. For the 4th time (Christmas Eve with Jeff's family, Christmas morning, with David and Vickie, and now "2nd Christmas").

My brothers tease me about a shirt I have that says "I'm a Zero" from the Zero Fatalities program. It's a shirt to remind me and others that I will drive safely. I thought I was pretty clever when I was able to get two of these shirts for "my favorite brother." He he. They both wanted me to confess who the favorite was.

It takes a lot to truly surprise Jeff and get a smile like this. My brother got him a hat signed by Bobby Wagner, former Aggie football great and {spoiler alert} soon to be 2014 Super Bowl Champion.

And in true me form, I came up with an idea for my mom and Jeff's mom about a week and a half before Christmas. A really awesome idea. Hand stamped jewelry from A Vintage Pearl. Their amazing creations are so adorable! But the problem was, I was a few days too late ordering them a necklace with vintage spoons stamped with the initial of their grandkids. I was so bummed. But Jeff told me to order it anyway and just tell them Santa was slow delivering their gifts. To my surprise though, they showed up on Christmas Eve day! I was so excited! I think they really loved the gift, even if Jeff added a lizard to the box.

I got a really cute terrarium from my sister, a new cookbook and Lincoln logs from my sister in law, and a bucket of soda with some money from my parents.

We had the traditional Christmas morning breakfast casserole, fruit, and yummy breads. Trying to win some brownie points with my niece, Anberlin, who screams every time I touch her, I plopped her down on the counter and let her eat the bread by herself. She still preferred Aunt Kimmy.

My grandparents live down the street from my mom and dad so they came down for lunch. I was so excited to give them their present! I always feel bad because I come up with something at the very last second for them and then throw it together. But my brilliant (ha ha) mind just works better in overdrive when I'm totally stressed out and exhausted I guess. Several months ago for Young Women's we made family pedigree charts but with a twist. We wanted something cute enough that the girls would actually keep it and put it somewhere they could see it. So we designed a tree with leaves that they could write their ancestors names on. I loved mine so much that I decided to make one for my grandparents. It was fun looking up all of my ancestors' names... I wondered who they were. I was so excited to watch my grandparents' reaction!

I actually liked theirs better than mine. I was able to put a full five generations on there, which is a lot of leaves! My mom was hoping I'd hidden one somewhere under the tree for her once she saw it.

My grandparents loved it. I've said before that my grandma has struggled the last several years with mental health problems. I was so grateful today was a good day. And once she opened her present it became an even better day! She started telling me stories about people and about her life. Like the time she was working for the federal government and went to Chicago for meetings. While there, Yogi Berra (a very famous MLB player for the Yankees) was staying at their hotel. My grandma and her friends wrote him a letter asking if they could get tickets to the baseball game. Well he did better than that and not only gave them tickets to the game, but told them to meet him afterwards! Grandma said he was a very nice man. How cool is that!

She was tickled with the gift.... the best compliment she has ever given to me was when she told me that she looks forward to my Christmas presents every year to see what I've come up with for them because I'm so clever and thoughtful. She said this family tree was the most thoughtful gift anyone had ever given her. It made my heart happy. 

We had so much fun! The kids cried and cried and cried when we told them it was time to go home. I remember those days myself.....