We survived the fire storms in Souther California. The ones in Corona were the closest
and that is about 20 miles north east of us but the wind was off shore so we got some smoke and ash. Monday I went down to Doheny State Park to reserve a site for Jeff and the thirty infinity soccer kids that are coming down for the harvest tournament on Irvine over Thanksgiving weekend and the weather was spectacular, bright, sunny and 80 degrees. It was better than most summer days at the beach. I hope it stays nice for their Thanksgiving day picnic at the beach. It will be way different than any Thanksgiving day I have ever celebrated. I am looking forward to seeing Jeff his buddy and all those kids and their parents. Here are some pictures of Doheny beach to show the girls Jeff. Also, good memories for those of you beginning to get cold and snowy.
Finally, Love all the posts on this blog and the ones each of you have. Keep them coming! Thank you Cassy for your pictures --- love the hat --- and the kids --- you to Bob and Nathan
love y'all Dad

HI ALL! Well, sometimes it takes Grandma’s a while to get those birthday presents to the grandkids, especially when they live soooooooo doggone far away! Such is the case with Grandma TaTa getting this year’s birthday presents to Shawnna and Drew. Actually, I didn’t do too bad with Drew, but I’m sure Shawnna had long thought she wasn’t getting anything from Grandma TaTa for her 7th Birthday (her 8th is right around the corner) – Anyway, I finally got the ‘Toys-R-Us’ gift certificates in the mail and you can see by their faces, they're happy about it and probably wondering when they can get mom and dad to take them to Toys-R-Us to spend those gifts!

The same goes for Jocelyn’s children, only really even more extreme. The time and cost for postage all the way to Luxembourg can be daunting, so Grandma Cass seems to take even longer to get the presents to the Dufforts. Thankfully Patrice was in the states the last two weeks on business and was willing to fill his second suitcase with b-day presents for the kids, which means they'll get to open their ‘birthday presents’ before their ‘Christmas presents’ – YEAH!! And I know one little munchkin that is really happy that her birthday present is FINALLY ON THE WAY HOME! Hope you enjoy Margot and hope Mom takes pics of all the kid’s expressions when they get to FINALLY open their birthday presents.

I love all my grandchildren and wish they all lived closer so I could hand those birthday gifts to them and watch them open them and make wonderful memories of the excitement and smiles of those moments! Oh, well, the life of a GRANDMA!!

Love you all,
Grandma TaTa / Grandma Cass

PS - If you're wondering, that's Grandma Ginn's taco casserole for dinner. Made my mouth water - YUMMMMMMEEEEE!!

HI ALL! Jocelyn sent me an email today with this message "this is the hat for you - a must have for Thanksgiving!!!" She knows how much I like this time of year, the Thanksgiving Holiday and all that goes with it, so, I just couldn't resist seeing what I would really look like wearing this 'SPECIAL TURKEY HAT' - I hope you all get as big a laugh out of it as I did, especially YOU - JOCELYN!

I want you all to know how 'THANKFUL' I am for all of you, MY FAMILY, and that I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving Holiday!

Love, Cassy

Happy Birthday Bobby.
I remember that day pretty well. Your mom was very calm as we
walked the halls of the hospital in Durham North Carolina. It was
early afternoon on a very bright and sunny day.
I can't remember how long we walked or what transpired to get
her ready but the next thing I remember is that I was in the delivery
room and your mom was prepped and ready. Your delivery was not
without pain, but it seemed to go quite quickly and without much stress.
It was special to hold you in our arms that day. You were a
cute little guy from the beginning. It has been,for the most part,
easy and fun to have you in our family.
The obstetrician believed in hypnosis and used it on your mom in
the months prior to your birth and also on the day of your birth.
We believe that is what caused your birth to be as easy as it was.
Hope you are having a great day!!!!

38!!!.....and I thought I was old! Love you Bobby, hope you have a happy happy birthday!

My mouth is watering just thinking about rolls. I think that the next time I make rolls I am going to try your recipe Marie. I can still remember the rolls with bits of orange. I always thought those were the best and always hoped you had made those too whenever you were bringing rolls. Wow, it has been a long time everyone. I just want you all to know how thankful I am for all of you. I love you all.

Marion

HI ALL! Thanks Marie for taking the time to post your wonderful roll recipe. I've always wanted a copy and was so easy to print from the blog. And to see your original recipe card was very special too! To know how many times you have used it to make those 'scrumpuous' rolls for us was awe inspiring!
Love you,
Cassy

Here is the original copy of mine. I don't think you can read it so I will enter it in a more useful form. Ed thought it would add "something to the blog" to see the original card.

What's Cookin' REFRIGERATOR ROLLS Serves 3 Doz.
Recipe from the kitchen of: Nona Moffat (Bartlesville, OK)
1- Combine 2 yeast cakes with 1/4 cup lukewarm water and 1 Tbs. sugar

2- Heat and cool 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup shortening, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 tsp. salt

3- Beat 3 eggs until fluffy

Combine numbers 1, 2 & 3. Add 4 & 1/2 cups of sifted flour. Stir well.
Let rise for 1 hour. Stir down, cover with waxed paper and put in the
refrigerator for at least 8 hours.

Three hours before using take out of the refrigerator and
divide into three equal parts. Flatten each piece and roll into a
rectangle (at least 3 inches by 12 inches )

Spread with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar & roll up like
cinnamon rolls then cut at one inch intervals to make 12 pieces.

Put in greased muffin tins and dot with butter. Let raise for 3 hours.

Put in pre-heated oven at 400 degrees and bake for 5 to 10 minutes.

Instead of just butter and sugar you can make variations:

Orange Flavored
3/4 sq. butter melted
1/2 cup sugar
grated rind of two oranges
1 tsp of concentrated orange juice

OR

Cinnamon Rolls
Add cinnamon and boiled raisins to sugar
Frost after cooking


It takes some time but its worth it. I usually make three or four
batches so I have plenty left over. Have fun and enjoy!

This is the second revision because we don't know how to make
the format so it makes sense. If you have printed it out before
please reprint it. This was edited once again Sunday the 16th
at 4:30 pm PST

Marie, I was wondering if you would post your Thanksgiving roll recipe? I have a copy of it that I jotted down on a piece of paper (I can see it in my mind) when I made them for my seminary class 20 years ago. I know I have never thrown the recipe away, and I run across it every so often, but I just can't put my finger on it at the moment. I had thought about making the rolls for an informal Thanksgiving dinner that we're going to tomorrow but might have to take the easy route and stop and buy some rolls on the way! I still thought I'd take the opportunity to ask for the recipe while I'm thinking about it. It's a must-have, must-keep recipe, in my book.
Thanks so much.
Jocelyn

HI ALL! Not to be left out, Tina wanted a pic of Jocelyn and her brood, so this is the pic I took and hung on the wall at Tina's place. This was taken on Jocelyn's last visit to SoCal - everyone is waiting at LAX to leave. I really love this picture and I have it on my home computer desktop. I know everyone in the picture has grown up since then, but looking at it always brings fond memories of this special time! And hopefully, that's what most pictures do for all of us - help us to remember fond memories!

Love, Grandma Cass

HI ALL! Long story short - a couple of weeks ago, my neighbor Tina, went into the hospital and then, to a senior assisted living complex, here in SJC. Because she was a little 'foggy,' all of her friends brought over pics so she could recognize and remember us all. She kept asking for pics of the Normand gang, and so these are a couple of the pics Andy shot, that I printed and hung on her wall. Thought I would pass them along, so you could see how everyone's doing in VA.

Love you all,

Till' next time,

Grandma TaTa

HI ALL! Not wanting to be outdone, while traveling to Ohio this weekend for work/training, Ninha found gas at an incredible '$1.82' a gallon - the likes of which I haven't seen for many a year! Gosh, if gas was at that price here in CA, I could fill my tank to the top and stay within my weekly gas budget of $40. Maybe it's time to move to Ohio!!

Love, Grandma TaTa

HI ALL!! Here's Drew enjoying his birthday party with his classmates! I know I should have probably saved all these pics and posted them all at the same time, but oh well...I did them as I got them. By all accounts and all the pics, it looks like Drew had a good time on his special day!

Love, Grandma TaTa

Hi All! Here's another pic of Drew enjoying a 'Birthday Sundae,' from McDonald's before anyone gets home! Looking at this pic, I can see more of Ninha in that cute face! He's sort of losing those 'Normand Cheeks'!!

Love, Grandma TaTa

HI ALL! Here's Drew enjoying a 'Birthday Cupcake' at his party at school. I'm still amazed that he's kept his blonde hair and coloring and still looks so much like his Dad. I keep expecting the 'browner-Ninha side' to show through-you never know, maybe when he's a teen! No matter, he sure is a cutie!
Love, Grandma TaTa

HI ALL! We’re all aware how the economy is going ‘down the drain’ and how much gasoline has cost over the past year. For me, driving a gas-guzzling SUV has been tough most of the time and we pay some of the highest prices here in CA, but every now and then, Andy likes to chime in and compare prices from CA to VA. So he sent a pic to verify that recently he was able to buy gasoline at “$1.99” a gallon at a little place south of where he lives called Woodbridge. At first, all I was looking at was the ‘2.98’ thinking that was a pretty good price – for us, anything under $3 would be amazing! Then, I really looked at the picture and saw the actual cost was only ‘$1.99’ and thought – GEEZ!! How great is that!!

Of course, Andy has no idea how long it will last but it sure felt good to the ‘wallet.’ All I can hope is that some of that ‘lower-priced’ gasoline makes its way to the pumps in CA.

Till’ next time!
Love you all,
Cassy

Hi All! You know when someone isn’t around any longer – sometimes all it takes is a smell or sound, a bit of music or maybe even finding something that person really loved to bring back fond memories, well, that was the way is was for Andy this past Saturday. He was out shopping with the kids at the local Costco when he came upon a huge pallet of ‘MALLOMARS’ and it made him think of Grandma and how much she really loved these cookies. For a long time you could buy Mallomars here in CA but then, they quit shipping them to CA (something about the chocolate melting) and the only place you could find them was on the East Coast. I remember, I think it was Marion sending or bringing some to Grandma on one of her trips out west and how delighted she was for the special gift and to be remembered. I know that whenever Grandma got her hands on ‘Mallomars,’ she was in seventh heaven. Mallomars and a great big glass of milk was ‘pure nectar of the God’s’ she would say, and then, she would eat them all gone!

A message from Andy: To the good times. I just thought a few good memories would help in this holiday season. She loved those Mallomars!

And we loved Grandma Ginn. Today is her birthday, she would have been 92 years young!

Love, Grandma Cass

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY!!

ANDREW LEON NORMAND IV

(aka Drew)

Hope you have fun

eating those cupcakes

at your party at school!

Wish I was there to give

you a big Birthday hug and kiss!

Love, Grandma TaTa

HAPPY 9TH BIRTHDAY!

GUILLAUME ANDRE DUFFORT

It was fun singing Happy Birthday

to you this morning and talking

about all the birthday fun you've

had and the fancy cakes you

enjoyed for your Birthday!

Sorry you have a cold and

hope you feel better soon!!

LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

Grandma Cass

Yup, I´m 30.

I have to say that David did an excelent job this year (it´s only taken 5 years to train him, but better late than never). First, at 12:30am he gave me my first present... cute little HPmini laptop (it´s so cute and so unlike him to buy something like this for me). The next morning we got up late and walked into town for our favorite breakfast...soggy, warm mini croisants and chocolate churros....and we wonder why we´re fat!?!?! We came home and I played with my new computer then he told me to get dressed (in a dress) because we were going to go to a fancy restaurant to eat dinner (of course we had to stop by his moms house first so she could give me my present). We got there and surprise surprise they had a little party for me! He´s getting better at lying...I´ll have to be more careful now!

Sunday I had to go to a Ward Conference in another ward and David went to eat dinner at one of his futbol friends house with another couple from the ward. He was sweet enough to come pick me up and take me to the dinner when I got done with the conference (I wasn´t going to go to the dinner). After dinner we went to be with Carlos.

All in all, it was a very good birthday weekend. Thanks honey!

Visitors from my home planet.
Last Tuesday I had a lovely visit with Dorthy Dalton and Bonnie Lynn from Capo 2. I met them in Plaça Catalunya and we went to dinner. Poor Bonnie had gotten her purse stolen that morning...I felt so bad for her. She was at a McDonalds and sad to say, that is the first place thieves hit (always lots of tourists). We did stop at a "blanket" and bought her a new purse for 15€ (one of the many blankets on the sidewalk full of fake Pradas and Gucci...). We really had a lovely time at dinner and then walking around Barcelona.
Thanks for the visit!!

BYU vs. CSU

Brett, Tristan, and Chris made a quick road trip out to Colorado for the BYU - CSU game on Nov. 1. I thought that I would post a few pictures of the event. It was a terrific game that went back and forth and in typical BYU fashion they went the length of the field in less than 90 seconds to score and win the game. Final score BYU 45 CSU 42. The boys stayed here with my family Saturday night and headed out first thing in the morning. It was great to see them all again and we had a great time. Thank you to Chris for putting together the last minute trip.

Nate

Bobby in Cali with Mom and Dad

Well I flew in for business on Wednesday and had meetings until Thursday afternoon and at that point mom and dad picked me up and we rolled out!



Thursday we ate at dads version of Harry's- (the old Bobs Big Boy by the mission viejo mall).




Friday mom went to work and dad and I hung out- Dad prepared his talk for Sunday and I watched tv and vegged.


Friday night we picked up Cassy and headed to the symphony- with a stop at Jerry's Deli on the way.



The symphony played some movie tunes from old John Wayne movies and a few others- fun to watch all the different musicians do their things! Then The Righteous Bro Bill Medley rocked out with the symphony- mom and dad did not like how loud it was. Cassy had a ball and I was entertained. He sang his popular hits from Dirty Dancing and Ghost- ( I had the time of My life and Unchained Melody)


Fun Night


Sat- Mom went to work because she is a workaholic---dad worked on his talk for awhile and then he worked the weed eater while I worked the Lawn Mower-it's such a huge lawn it took us an entire 25 minutes!

Then we washed his car, then mom drove up and so we washed hers too!

Sat evening- Mom, Dad and I took off for Carson Calif-with a stop in Santa Ana for some good Vietnamese food-(Pho is good)

Then we got to doing what we set out to do--Watch Real Salt Lake Soccer- Great game with Mom cheering her heart out the team ended with a 2-2 tie that sends RSL on to the Western Conf Championships!!! Go RSL GO!!!








Sunday dad gave a great talk and Bobby left to return to Utah. Happy b day Cindi


Great Weekend!

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY
CYNTHIA MARIE GINN
NOW KNOWN AS
CINDI MARIE RODRIGUEZ
or is it cindi marie rodiguez ginn gomez

Whatever we love you and have enjoyed
the time we have been together.
Mom and I are very thankful that
you chose to be with our family.

Have happy day today and we hope for
many more birthdays to come!

CHEER UP FOLKS!

You may not like Obama, but neither of the choices were really that great. At least Proposition 8 passed. Good work all you California members of the family!

A thought just came to my mind regarding our new president elect...
OBAMA
O-BAMA
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-BAMA
(did anyone ever see 'So I Married an Ax-Murderer?!)

Glad Gramma and Grampa aren't alive so we don't have to hear their ranting and raving! We're praying for the US from this side of the Atlantic, that's for sure!

Have a great day!

Just thought I would give you a taste of my mission.

Just a few comments.... Yes I think they look alike...and GREAT BOWL CUT on Nathan!!

Here is the complete picture.
Normally I stay way far away from comparing babies to family members but Saturday as I was looking for a rat in the upstairs storage closet I found this picture taken early in 1971. Nathan would be almost two and Bobby would be less than 6 months old.
Anyway, I think there are a lot of similar features between Bobby and Lauren at this age. If you disagree thats ok too.
Ed

Thought for the month
What is it?

Talmage says: It is the twin sister of humility.
Elder Oaks says: It is the foundation of faith.
Pres. Faust says: It is the beginning of greatness.
Pres. Monson says: Pride is its foe.
Joseph Smith feared: The lack of it as one of the
greatest sins for which Latter-day Saints would
be guilty.
Elder Wirthlin says: "It turns a meal into a feast
and drudgery into delight.
It softens our grief and heightens our pleasure.
It turns the simple and common into the
memorable and transcendent.
It forges bonds of love and fosters loyalty
and admiration"
It is a quality found in every happy person,
lacking in every unhappy one.
Cicero claimed: It is "not only the greatest
of all virtues, but the parent of all others"

GRATITUDE!

In this month of Thanksgiving let us ponder and be grateful for all we have. Grateful for the loved ones in our families. Grateful for the gospel and the direction it provides in our lives. For all the opportunities this mortal existence provides. For Father in Heaven's plan of happiness. For the Saviour's atonement that makes it all possible.

I'm very grateful for each of you.
Love Dad n' Grandpa Ginn

Look like anyone you know?

$$$CASH IN THE HOUSE$$$

LU and JOHN
visiting with Marie at Bobby's house.

Bobby Ginn kids 08

Lauren

Milena

Landon

Stacia