Letter from home - December 28, 2014

 

Dear ones: Hope you all had a blessed, loving, joyful Christmas! I did, I did!. Thank you all, for everything! I love my gifts, enjoyed all your food and drink and am grateful that you all like to ‘come home’. Dana, I forgot to thank you for the poinsettia. It is a bright spot in my dining room and will be there to help guide me to Spring.

We had a skiff of snow Christmas eve day. Only a skiff. But when we got up Christmas morning, it looked like a White Christmas for a bit. We are thankful that the roads were clear so that travelers could get to where they were going. Traci and Craig, we were go glad that you had clear sailing to Wisconsin and back. Also, thank goodness for the price of gas. It is $1.99 in Creston yesterday. F I N A L L Y! I think we must have been the last community in Iowa to dip below $2.00. I filled up when it was still $2.04 but I had 30 cents/gal savings with my Hy-Vee card. I usually don’t think to use the card so I was so pleasantly surprised when I looked at the receipt.

I’m calling this photo “Controlled Chaos”. Even ‘tho it wasn’t. Controlled, I mean. lol

Somebody in that picture is a blur; she’s moving too fast.  I have to admit, I lost control this year. Instead of opening presents one at a time, it spiraled out of control. Okay, Lee. I think you set the tone! No, I’m just teasing you. You will know the rules next year. Plus, we had a little time constraint this year so I wasn't so rigid in my thinking. Next year, it will be back to the ‘one at a time’ gift opening procedure. 

 

From all accounts, Santa and the reindeer got around and found all the little ones. Did anyone get any nanny cam video of Santa or catch a bit of beard in the fire place trap?  My dad always threatened to trap Santa Claus in the fire place which worried the small children and made big kids laugh. 

I have heard that there are still a few of our family under the weather. Hope you feel better soon!

 

 

 

These girls were up to something! but I never learned what.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Christmas Day, Johanna and Lee brought over a pot of chili. We enjoyed that (way good!) while I pushed leftovers at them -- crab dip, pie and whipped cream and all manner of sweets.  Then Audri was off to her dad's for the weekend.   

Saturday, Dana came over and he and dad pulled out the termite-ridden door header and 2X4s in the east dining room wall -- old insulation and termite debris. Then Dana put in a new header and studs. They dry walled and taped up the seams. Now all we need is a little mud and a new paint job and we will be good as new. Erica, Maddie and Morghan came by. I had thawed turkey stock for Christmas Day and as I hadn't needed it for lunch, I knew I had to cook it today.  It all worked out as I was able to feed The Freys turkey and noodles and use up the thawed turkey stock.

Looking better!

 

Sunday, we didn't do a thing and didn't see a person.  I crocheted just a bit, walked to Hy-Vee and back for a few groceries and I watched three hours of a series on the Queen of England.  I first remember Queen Elizabeth and her children when I was a small child.  My Mama always told me I was born on Princess Anne's birthday. 

 

Here's my Princess Grace. 

Someone tell me, is this little girl drinking wine?

 

 

This will be the last letter from 2014. 

 

Happy New Year to all!  Here's to Health and Prosperity in 2015!

 

                                                       Love, Ma

Letter from home - December 22, 2014

Dear ones: it has been a good week but dreary. Lanny and I don’t remember so many days in a row where the sun won’t shine! Seriously, I remember about two hours of sunshine in the last 7 days. The snow we got for our white Christmas has melted so now you “White Christmas” people will be wishing for snow again!

I worked Tuesday and Wednesday this past week, in the kitchen. Thursday, we drove to Bondurant to care for little Miss Bella who ran a fever all week. The doctor said “viral” so no antibiotics. It had to run it’s course -- and it didn’t run very fast! She still had a low grade fever on Saturday but Sunday, so far, no fever.

Friday, we kept Audri Lu who had strep, the doctor said. She was on antibiotics and wasn’t feeling too bad but she did agree to a little rest after lunch. Saturday, I guess she was going strong again.

Today, I slipped out to Erica’s after all the hard work was done at the Christmas cookie fest. Erica and Maddie had all kinds of cookies baked and all colors of frosting. I got there just in time to decorate a few cookies. There were some creative cookies produced today.

 

This guy supports his teams!

 

Here's Maddie and Audrianna; how did I miss Casen?



Too pretty to eat! 

Dad and I, this past week, wrote our Christmas card letters. I am cutting way back on Christmas cards as I didn’t send them out to any of the nieces or nephews. I will send out to my friends, your dad’s brothers, my siblings, etc. If I get electronic cards, I will respond with a Christmas letter via email. I think it is a good plan.

We also baked 2 nice big loaves of the chocolate chip banana bread and a bunch of cinnamon rolls. There will be a pan for each of you to take home for Christmas morning. Aren’t they pretty?

I have not ordered the usual Grandchildren Christmas card. At our Christmas Eve get together, I will try to get one good photo. If I can, great, I’ll have prints made up for us all. If not, I’ll wait and have professional photos taken next spring or summer for PaPa and Nana’s 45^th wedding anniversary. It has been 20 years since our last professional photos.

Also, I have not ordered the Hofmeister Annual Calendar yet.  I don't know what I'm waiting for -- except that it makes me a little anxious that I will forget someone or something!  It will happen!   

Audri wanted to make gifts for her cousins so this is what we came up with. It is a secret! But you probably won’t see this before Christmas. If you do see it, don’t say anything! These are dough ornaments (1 cup salt, 1 cup flour and ½ cup water. Knead as tho for cookie dough, roll out and shape. You have to bake them, or let them dry out). We improvised our stencils by using refrigerator magnets. We painted, decorated and glittered! Then tied a little ribbon on. We think they turned out pretty good.
 

We love Our Morghan Grace, all teenager now : )

until next week, love Mama

 

Letter from home - December 17, 2014

Dear ones: The good news is I have had a great week! The bad news is that it wore me out and I spent all day Monday resting up! Seriously, I enjoyed every minute of the weekend.

I worked Monday and Tuesday, last week, then put my foot down and took Wednesday and Thursday off. When I went back to work on Friday, all day long I thought it was Monday! It was just so very strange.

Friday, we drove to Stuart and met Craig and Traci’s  for supper at Burger King. We gathered up the Three Hof children and brought them home for the weekend. They were all eager to jump in the car and come along with us.  Erica and Dana had plans that evening and Jack had a friend to stay, so Maddie came along with us too. Audri had been sick on Friday and didn’t go to school so she had to wait to come over until Saturday morning. Her mama said she was up and had her suitcase packed about 6 am Saturday!

Peekers!  the rascals.
 

Saturday, we had a whole lot of playing going on. Bella, Audri, Maddie and Gabby. Joey, of course, found his way to cousin Jack’s.

Saturday afternoon, I got the cookie dough out and we girls went at it. We cut and baked about six dozen cookies. After a tea party and more play, we mixed up about 6 different colors of frosting and iced those cookies. I am still wiping frosting off the floor today! But it was fun, the girls were good and creative and we had a great time.

Sunday morning, we got up, dolled up and along with Erica and Kristy, we headed to Des Moines to the Hoyt Sherman Place to see the Nutcracker. We also met up with Traci and Johanna and Lee and so it was, twelve of us sat up in the balcony, Section C, to watch the classic Christmas ballet.

The Nutcracker Suite
 

Afterwards we adjourned to the Zombie Burger restaurant where we all had various forms of the ‘in’ hamburger. The hamburgers were good but the sauces and appetizers were better yet! I'm going to try to make that garlic mayonnaise. 

Our beautiful models!

Joey was brave and joined us.  He and Lee, 2 men amongst 10 women.
 

I didn’t have to work Monday which was a very good thing. I slept late, lazed around in the morning but by afternoon, Lanny and I got in the baking mode. Lanny cooked up the hamburger and cabbage for Runzas and I stirred up the dough. Always, with Runzas there is extra sweet bread dough so we ended up baking a pan of caramel rolls and a pan and a half of cinnamon rolls. We sampled the cinnamon rolls and they were delicious!

Kristy’s birthday is Thursday. Where have the years gone? Seems like just yesterday I was anxiously (and nervously) awaiting the birth of my first baby. Those days and the following years of three more babies and all the  years of childhood, school, sports, sleepovers, holidays et al, were the best of times! (You really don’t remember me grumping, complaining, yelling, do you? I hope all that has faded over the years!)  Wish we could all go back and do it again.  With what I know now, I would do it all better! 

                                                                                       Love you all!  Ma

Letter from home, December 7, 2014

Dear ones: The Austin Family Dinner is behind us. We survived another Austin get-together. I got home about 5 pm Saturday. Sunday afternoon your dad and I met ’The Sibs’ at the Windrow. They all had eaten lunch but we got there in time for me to join them for coffee. Afterwards, we all moved the party to the Y where we watched the creston area theatre , the “Regifter”. It was just pretty hilarious and I had worked with one of the actors at Heat Tech. Aunt Mary worked with him too and she said “Bill isn’t really acting. That’s how he is.” which was ‘cheap’. haha

With the ‘party’ done and over, now we ‘girls’ will look forward to seeing the Nutcracker Suite next Sunday, December 15. At Hoyt Sherman. Did you all know Hoyt Sherman Place is haunted? Supposedly. And the house is historic. We should go back someday to tour the original house.


“Hoyt Sherman Place, built in 1877 for Hoyt Sherman who served as a Major in the civil war and started Equitable Insurance of Iowa. The house stood empty after his death until 1907 when members of The Des Moines Women's Club began using it as their clubhouse. The Women's Club added a gallery to display their art collection and thus Hoyt Sherman Place became the first public art museum in the City of Des Moines. The Des Moines Women's Club, always active in the community, invited many guest speakers to Hoyt Sherman Place to entertain and educate. Speakers included: Amelia Earhart, Helen Keller and Grant Wood. Eventually they needed more room for their speakers and activities, and the 1400 seat theater was completed in 1923.”

　

I worked today in the school kitchen, 6:30 - 2 pm. I will work again to tomorrow ‘same time; same place. I am going to decline Wednesday and Thursday but have agreed to work Friday.

And here are some photos from the Austin reunion: 

                                                                                    Until next week,  Love, Mama

Letter from home, November 30, 2014

Dear ones: 

Boy!  Gee whiz!  It seems like forever since I wrote a letter – and it has been! Today, I have made up my mind that I will write a weekly letter again. I will find the discipline to write a letter. I will ‘gether done!’ And I will put the weekly letter here, in Nana's view.  By writing a letter, I will accomplish three things. I will ( 1) get in the habit again of writing and ( 2) I will be updating my blog at the same time and (3) I will be journalizing.


Crazy beloved Kids!

Erica and Dana hosted Thanksgiving again, this year. We all pitched in and cooked a feast, didn't we?  The only thing I think we didn’t serve was dad’s green onions and radishes – and he didn’t even miss them. Today, three days later, Lanny and I just finished off the mashed potatoes, gravy and dressing leftovers. I am still eating on the sweet potatoes. I am upset – I just remembered that I had a hold of a bowl of cranberry relish at Erica’s and I didn’t get it home with me!  Who ended up with the cranberry salad? 

We sure appreciate that Erica and Dana’s will have us at Thanksgiving as you have more opportunity for the children to entertain themselves. There are the electronics of course but the 4-wheeler too. The children will remember the Thanksgiving they pulled each other in the snow, behind the 4-wheeler.  Also, it is nice as Chad's mom and Dana's folks are there too. 

I could not/did not get a good picture of the 4-wheeler pulling small children
 behind and dumping them off into the snow.  It looked like fun!

 

This past Friday, I got up my nerve and rode to Des Moines with Kristy and Erica. No, No.  It wasn't Kristy or Erica or their driving -- it was the dreaded Black Friday!

It had been many a year since I ventured out on Black Friday. We didn’t leave town until 7 am so it wasn’t like we were going in the middle of the night or early morning hours but I still had visions of long lines and aggressive crowds. We were pleasantly surprised at our first stop, Homemakers. It was an ordinary “Saturday” there.  No madness, no crowds and no long lines. The crazies, the die-hard Black Friday shoppers had gone Thursday night! And except for Kohl’s, we found that to be the case at the other stores too. Shopping Friday was busy but not frantic. Kohl’s on the other hand had a long, long line and that line wasn’t moving. I was going to pick up a couple of things at Kohls but with a spontaneous, unanimous vote, we ditched the shopping cart and left the store. I still feel a little guilty about not putting the items back on the shelves and putting the cart away but just once in my life, guess I won’t go to hell. Haha

Johanna had to work : ( so wasn't able to go with us.

Kristy and Erica found some bargains; I got my Christmas Shopping started!  A good day!



Craig and Traci were in Wisconsin.  Bet you had a good time! and evidently you had good weather and roads, the whole way. 

Lanny got lucky and got to go to the Iowa / Nebraska football game.  Thanks, Dana.  I think Lanny enjoyed the game, Kinnick Stadium, et al.  He would have liked it better if Nebraska was the loser . . . but there's always next year. 

Saturday, Dana, Jack and Clayton came by with a big hydraulic wood splitter. Dad and I had acquired some big logs that we had not been able to split with Lanny’s little log splitter. This big bruiser handled all they asked of it and could have done more. Jack and Clayton handled most of the wood stacking so you would have thought I would have been snapping some photos. I didn’t get a one.

Last week, Lee brought us a load of wood and he and Lanny split up some of the bigger pieces with Lanny’s small splitter. I got the wood stacking duty and I still had time to get some photos so guess Saturday I just ‘laid down on the job’.

Team Work

Calendar: Dec 6, Austin christmas, 12 noon but open earlier.
                            Bring a gift if you want in on the gift exchange. 
                 Dec 14, Sunday. Nutcracker Suite at Hoyt Sherman. Starts at 1 pm.
                 Dec 18, Thursday. Kristy’s birthday
                 Dec 24, Wednesday. Christmas at the Hof’s. come anytime.
                               We’ll serve supper.  We’ll have chili and sloppy joes or
                                something like that.  Maybe Tacos.  veggies and fruit. 

So far this year, I have made eight afghans, working on the nineth.  I have another six or seven to make in 2015 and I also want to crochet some ear warmers, a baby bonnet or two and some bitty baby booties : ) 

Saturday was a great day!  Fine, fair weather.  Lanny thought it was time I had a lesson in putting up Christmas Decorations.  He taught me everything but how to set the timers!  That will wait for another year!

This is 1 reindeer and 2 Christmas trees. 

 

 . . .  Love, until next week, Ma

 

2014 July 21 Berrien Center to Cassopolois, Cass County, Michigan

Family history lesson:  Clarence (Shorty) Hofmeister and his twin brother's mother, Eva Walker Hofmeister, died when the twins were about 2 years old.  Later, their father William Hofmeister remarried.  He married Dora Fickel from the Prescott area.  He and Dora had a large family, half siblings to Clarence (Shorty).  William and Dora moved their family to Anita, Iowa and then on to Cass County, Michigan.  He moved all the children there too but some chose to return to Adams Co, Iowa.  Two of those who returned were Shorty and his half brother, Julius (Jude).  William lived out his life on a farm in Cass Co, Michigan and is buried in the Crane Cemetery with his wife and several of his children, their spouses and grandchildren.  

 

 

William was a carpenter.  He built barns.  And if he built barns, I'm pretty sure he built anything else he wanted to.  Can you imagine building a barn?

 

One of William's daughters Tressie Hofmeister (named after her Aunt Tressie Fickel) married Leroy True and lived near her father and mother.  Tressie  and Leroy had 10 or 11 children and the youngest was Patricia.  Pat married Larry Overton.  In 1970 they bought a house and acreage near Barrien Center, Michigan.  There they have raised 3 or 4 children and have built a comfortable resort where they enjoy entertaining relatives, friends and neighbors.  Lanny and I visited them this week.  We had met them before at Iowa Hofmeister reunions.  They host a True / Hofmeister reunion each year around the 4th of July. 

 

 

Pat says she isn't a gardener but she has flowers all around. 

 

 

I envy Pat her hollyhocks!  Mine are 1/3 that size and the ones we had here in Creston last summer, didn't come back. 

 

Pat reminiscing with her husband Larry.  Lanny is listening and looking.

 

 

 

Lanny found this in the shed.  What is it?  4 of us, 63 years + (that's 240 + years of knowledge lol ) didn't know what this was.  The closest we could come was to call it a boot scrapper.  We really have no idea . . .

 

Once Majestic Barn is now run down and needing TLC. 

 

A view from the farm.  William and Dora owned 160 acres.

 

 

The old farm house is gone.  Pat is showing me about where it stood.  She points out the living room, dining, Uncle Jay's small bedroom, Gramma and Grampa's.  She looks for the rock her mother stood on as a girl.  She retells stories she heard from her mother.   Pat is glad of the chance to remember and we are glad of the chance to hear. 

 

" The row of pine trees is completely gone.

 

That tree over there was on the other side of the yard fence."

 

Uncle Jay was a bachelor and lived on here after his folks were gone.  He farmed and tended it all his life. 

 

Stones abound in Michigan, Pat and Larry told us.  Dig a hole and you will find a rock.  In Michigan, the farmers had rock boats.  It was a skid, with sides.  You hooked it up to a horse or two.  The horses pulled the skid out into the field and people (probably children) picked up rocks and threw them on the skid for the horses to pull out of the fields.   

 

Top of the barn. 

 

Amazing that the other three stories are below grade.  On this side, William or someone, graded dirt up and tamped it down to make a ramp so that a team of horses could walk right inside.  Pat remembered where the horse stalls were, the cow stalls, the bin where the hay was tossed down.  You could tell she enjoyed the memories.  "I am so glad you came!"  she said. 

 

We were so glad we did, too.

 

 

The old water hydrant.   

 

I want to go back.  I will copy old family pictures and news articles for Pat and hope to see old family pictures that she has.  I have much to learn and see and enjoy.  I would love to pass it on to all of you.