Christmas EVE - Colorado

Hi everyone,

Tonight, we had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. We prepared cookies, milk and carrots for Santa, et al. and the girls opened up their first presents, pajamas. Thought you might enjoy a couple of pictures.

The girls were so antsy they were bouncing around the pay station cheering Chris to get on the ball and get the parking payed so they could get to the beach. It was about 11:30 AM and bright and sunny about 65 degrees and no breeze so it felt very warm. Julie is a great mom getting a big bag of sandwiches and stuff ready as well as the kids, Oh! as a side note Gracie got sick in the middle of morning preperations and Julie was in the bathroom with the fan on and she couldn't hear Chris yelling for her at the top of his lungs as he picked up Gracie and got her over the kitchen sink as she hurled over him and into the sink. When it was over she walked into the kitchen as Chris was cleaning up and said I did't hear a thing the fan was going. Chris and I just looked at each other with that um I don't think so look. The first part of the day at the beach the girls just played chicken with the waves while Chris took pictures and Julie read and worked on her tan. It was a delightful day. I slept a while. Slept some more when I got home. My blood sugar would not come down and now we are ready to eat homemade pizza. I'll probably sleep through Christmas.

The Hillmans are getting out lunch now that we have settled in. After lunch Chris and the girls spent the afternoon building sand castles. They had a couple of starts that got washed away but the last one was far enough up the sand that it lasted until just before we left around 3:3o pm.

The last picture reminds me of the poem where the guy was complaining that the Lord deserted him during a time of trial and the Lord replied that the reaason there was only one set of prints was because the Lord was carrying him. Something to think about this Christmas season!
Love to all and MERRY CHRISTMAS.

12:36 am - 25th of December 2009...in Spain!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Lots of love from David and Cindi

The Hillmans are coming. The Hillmans are coming. The Hillmans are HERE!
Pictures later.

Again...another lame post, but hey, it´s something!!

hugs!

Remembrances of the years from 1943-1945.

Since my dad was older and didn’t want to be drafted in to the war he left Virginia, me, grandma Marion and Jimmy in Bozeman Montana and went to Salt Lake City to get work on the Railroads.

I don’t know when he left exactly but it must have been late 1942 or early 1943. He chose the railroads not only because he liked railroads but it was considered a vital war effort industry and men working on it were exempt from the draft. Dad worked as a fireman shoveling coal into the furnace to make steam to run the steam locomotives. He wanted to become an engineer but never had the chance. His trains ran from Thistle to Helper and up to Vernal Utah and back it was cold hard wet work and dad was sick a lot of the time but he worked anyway. Virginia was the main reason he avoided the war. She was not very good at living without dad. So instead of taking care of the beautiful home he had built with his own hands she left it to be with dad. He loved her for wanting to be with him but I don’t think he ever really forgave her for leaving that home. They lived in two towns near Salt Lake City Bountiful and Woods Cross. Both were very much rural communities. Mom got a job with the Federal Housing Administration hereafter referred as the FHA. Dad was always looking for a way to make an extra buck. A trait he practiced all of his life. So they raised chickens, turkeys and mink. They had a milk cow. Mom the city gal loved collecting the eggs but her arms and hands became almost paralyzed when she was first learning to milk the cow. She was amazed how far a chicken could run without a head and blood spurting out of the neck.

She learned to pluck the feathers off of the chicken a very hard and smelly task and then cook it so it was edible.

Dad only raised mink for a little while because they are very mean and very hungry. He would have to buy old horses scheduled for the glue factory bring them home and shoot them in the head in the side yard and then butcher them to feed the mink. Dad had a real soft heart and finally looking those old horses in the eye before he killed them got the best of him and he gave up raising mink.

During this time there are two stories about me that where handed down from my mom. During this time there was a cough syrup called CHERYCOLE It was a very potent cough syrup. I think that it contained chloroform, alcohol, and an opiate derivative and cherry flavoring.

(Label reads:
4 Ounces Chericol ® With Codine
(UpJohn)
ALCAHOL 3%
Each Fluid ounce Contains:
Chloroform 2mins.
Codeine Phosphate, 1 gr.
Potassium guaiacol Sulphonate , 8 grs.
Ammonium Chloride 8 grs.
Antimony and Potassium Tartrate, 1 ½ gr.
in a cooling vehicle of
White Pine and Wild Cherry Bark
Dose-Adults, 1 to 3 teaspoonfuls. Repeat every 2 to 4
hours pro re nata (Chericol with codine is also
adapted for administration to small children) Infants,
1 month, 2 to 3 drops; 3 months, 4 to 6 drops; 6 months,
6 to 10 drops; children over 1 year, ½ to t teaspoonful
according to age.
Exempt Narcotic, Record Required )

I loved it. It tasted good and knocked you on your butt. Remember I was only 2-3 years old at this time. Anyway, there was some Cherycole syrup on top of a dressed and I wanted some so I stealthy pulled the drawers out of the dresser and made a stairway to heaven. No one knows how much I drank but I was home and grandma Marion was watching me as I stumbled around the rooms like a drunk and then she found the bottle on the dresser and being concerned called the doctor and he said no matter what you have to keep that baby awake because if he goes to sleep he may never wake up. Terrified she called mom at FHA and mom being likewise terrified left in a rush to get home. They took turns walking me for the next 24 hours. So at that time I didn’t make it to heaven.

In the forties it was not, really not, appropriate to take your children to the office.
The FHA office was in a big building in downtown Salt Lake City. I was only maybe four years old at this time. For some reason mom needed to take care of me at work, maybe I had been with Marion shopping I don’t really know, but I remember being greeted by mom in a waiting area that had a long hard wooden bench and I was wearing a white Eaton suit. I felt very grown up on one side and very much in awe of this big building on the other. I knew this was a special occasion and that I wanted to please my mom. So when she lovingly sat me on that bench and looked straight into my eyes and said “Now Champy you mustn’t move off this bench until I come back in awhile to get you and we can then go home together. OK?” and I said yes! I knew I wouldn’t move and I didn’t. I just sat there and took in the massive building and the people coming and going and was completely entertained. That is not to say that my butt didn’t get tired. And that I didn’t wiggle a little and maybe scoot side to side on the bench but I never got off of that bench. It seemed like hours to me and my mom said it was almost an hour but it was more likely a half an hour at the most. A lot of people say a kid that age would not do that but I swear I did.

Last night the 15th of Dec. 2009 the house on the corner of Calle Del Campo was lit up as always but this year they not only had Santa for pictures but 6 Marines in their Dress blues accepting gifts for the Marines annual toys for tots Christmas drive. There was quite a crowd of neighbors in line to give gifts and see Santa and show the Marines their appreciation for the work they do. My silent prayer was that all of these young men will come home in the future to celebrate Christmas with their families. God bless them!

I am so glad to see you got it. You look adorable in the hat.
Love dad

First and probably only Christmas present arrived today!!

Thanks Santa!

I was just about to walk out the door when the mailman buzzed (that´s why I´m wearing a hat), glad I didn´t miss him!!

Bobby was here yesterday. He is going to donate bone marrow to an unknown cancer victim. We went out to eat last night and went window shopping. It was fun just bouncing around looking at stuff. A car picked him up at the airport and drove him to our place and this morning it was back to pick him up and take him to St. Josephs hospital for more tests of his blood. He will then fly home. They are scheduled to take the bone marrow from him December 30 th. He will be able to bring Gina with him on that trip so she can help take care of him if he needs it. They plan on staying here a couple of days and we look forward to having them around. Too bad they can't sneak Lauren or Millie in their bags.
Sorry Cindi no more Christmas lights yet.
Later Dad

Just looked out my kitchen window (that looks out to the same big street as the photo in the blog before) and saw that there are two more balcony´s with lights!!

And on your street...are there lots of lights??

Told you all....lame blogs!!

Since nobody else seems very into blogging, I´m blogging totally lame stuff to see if you all get sick of it and start blogging something worth seeing!!

This picture is taken from my living room. You can see my lights on the balcony, but the important things to see are the lights on the building in front of my place (I circled them so it would be easier to see...it´s not the best picture!!). Our balcony is no longer alone! I was hoping that by now there would be more lights...it would make for a better picture, but maybe in another week?!

Hugs to you all!

Jeff was down for soccer tournaments last week and stayed over a few days. It was nice to have him around. He was nice and put up the lights and outside tree for us. That is all that is done so far but I think next weekend mom and I will have to do a little on the inside since Chris and Jullie and the kids are coming down for the BYU -? bowl and staying for a couple of days. TJ and Christy may make it down also but don't know for sure yet. Cassy just informed me that Sister Weech died yesterday she was 92.
Well here is our picture to respond to Cindi's request. Will send more when the inside gets done!
Love ya'll have a happy season and throw in some service to others cause it will brighten up your day/ DAD

DAD, LOVED THE STORY!!

Would love to hear (read) more!!!

hugs.

Ready for Christmas in Spain

It´s beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Our balcony.

Our bulding.

In our building no one else has their lights up, but there are a few others that do in the building in front of ours.

Mom and dad, I put some other pics on my blog if you want to check it out.

I would love to see what everyone else´s Christmas decor looks like!!

Ed Ginn Jr.

So we have been talking a lot about Family History in Gospel Doctrine lately and I guess it made me want to know more. I am requesting memories of our family.

Dad(Ed),
Can you blog us about an experience you had when you were living in Montana?

Cassy,
Can you blog us about an experience you had when you were living in New Mexico?

Mom(Marie),
Can you blog an experience about life growing up in Provo?


Just a quick story- 1 or 2 paragraphs. Thanks

Here is dads paragraph or two. _ thanks dad

ED GINN

I was born June 30, 1941 in the Deaconess Hospital in Bozeman, Gallatin County, Montana.

My father Edmund C. Ginn, Sr. and my mother Virginia Ruth Vance were married on August 25, 1939 in Bozeman Montana. My dad worked at a men’s dress store and my mom worked as an usher at the local movie theater. My dad loved my mom very much. So much in fact that he built her a home from the ground up pretty much by himself. I remember him telling me how in the middle of winter he dug the basement by hand. He would go down in the hole, fill a bucket and carry it up and out. During rain and snow he would work on it. One day after some rain water accumulated in the bottom and every time he would take a bucket up and out he would come back down and find more mud had filled in the place he had just dug out. He got so frustrated and cold that he finally sat down on the edge of the basement to be and cried. About that time his dad William (Will) came by with some hot coffee and to see how things were going. They had a chat and Will encouraged dad to keep working and said that that things would become better. Things did get better. The house he built in 1939 was beautiful then and is still in service today. Another time when dad was building the chimney to this house he was three-quarters done and he noticed that the chimney was a quarter inch off. So he took it all the way down to the ground and did it again perfectly. He put copper piping in the walls for steam heating. He was definitely a jack of all trades and master of most of them. He was always trying to learn about how things worked and more importantly how to improve them.

Meanwhile, mom was working at the theater and taking care of Jimmy Ginn my half brother from my dad’s first marriage and fixing up the house.

After I was born my mom delighted in pushing me in a carriage downtown. I am told I was a good child and happy. Mom told the story of once when she was diapering me she stuck me with the pin and I didn’t yell until she started to pull it up through the diaper on the way out. She and Ida Ginn didn’t get along too well cause Ida was always putting her down and telling her how to raise Jimmy and me but more about that some other time. Ida didn’t make any points when I was born either. On one of her first visits to hospital after I was born weighing only 4 pounds 6 ounces (very small for a full term baby in the 1940’s) she looked at me while my mom was in the room and said “He will never make it!” My mom and I showed Ida how mistaken she was. So there Ida!! Mother-in-Laws can be such a pain.

_________________________________________________________________
On a side note--- while I was doing some research I found this info on William Ginn's Grandpa William Ginn

William Ginn was said to have run off to America from N. Ireland in theearly 19th Century with a daughter of Lord and Lady Dobbs, who owned orat least were associated with the Castle Dunlee (Dunluce). The daughterwas said to have been childless. He remarried and the line descendedfrom the second wife who is unknown at this time. Vera Ginn visited Ireland in 1974 andcontacted Ginn Anscestors outside of Londonderry who has also heard thesame story about this long lost ancestor.

(So William Ginn cme to America had a son James Ginn who had a son William Ginn who had a Son Edmund Ginn Sr. who had a son Edmund Ginn Jr.)
________________________________________________________________

Mom and Cassy--waiting for your stories!

Major League Soccer Cup 2009

Jeff and Bobby Hangn' in Seattle at the MLS CUP 09

46,000 fans mostly there to see this guy but we were there to cheer on our Real Salt Lake!!!!
Go RSL GO



Pikes market -Jeff, Bobby and Brandon(jeffs old roommate)
Bobby's first missionary APT in Seattle!

Fun at the Aquarium and Ferry ride to Bremmerton



1/2 mile march with @5k fans into the stadium- 2 bands lots of scarves= tons of excitement.


GAME TIMEEEEEE




After RSL won....we hung out and enjoyed the moment.

Our ticket into the "invite only"" afterparty!


Bobby and Nick Rimando (Game MVP)

Bobby and team captain Kyle Beckerman


KISS IT BABY


ITS OUR CUP NOW!