Great Reunion

Thanks to Amelia for making a great blog. This is sweet good.
The reunion was a blast and we thank all who made significant sacrifices to be here.
Dad.

A "Puppy" Christmas

When thinking of the Landes family reunion, one of the first things I thought of (and think others will remember as well) was the plethora of puppies we had. The picture above of Allison with Helga on her lap Christmas Eve next the the fire pretty much explains it. Mom and Dad's King Charles Cavalier "Hermione" had a litter of puppies that were 9 weeks old for the reunion and provided great entertainment for the whole family. Everyone except maybe the nauseously pregnant Adrienne (sorry!). Anyway, we had a great time doing so many fun things. Below are pictures and a recounting of the amazing puppy Christmas!

First off, we had Mom's Birthday. Yay! Dad made an upside down pineapple cake. Delicious. We are so happy she was born 49 years ago! She has gotten so much done this year, including but not limited to : Getting the majority of her masters in clinical psychology finished, breeeding the family's Cavalier King Charles dog and getting a goreous litter, planning and executing (while Dad financed) Amelia's wedding to Matt Murdock, the choir director for multiple awesome choir performances (including a great one during this christmas season), painted a portrait of Mama Mae and Papa Kay, and many more things. One of the most memorable moments of the entire Christmas reunion was when Mom accidentally cut the pull string on Sterling III's brand new Woody doll from Santa. She was trying to help and cut it out of the packaging and accidently cut the little pull string and it disappeared into the Woody doll forever. I think little Sterling was more shocked by Mom's reaction then by the cut pull string. So funny! Happy Birthday Mom!




Amelia cutting out cookies, Mom eatin her beloved beef jerky :)


Cookie decorating with Abigail, Charlotte, Amelia, and Eleanor.





We spent Monday with all the kids in the family (except Allison who was in Idaho still) making and decorating Christmas sugar cookies! We had so much fun. Mixing, rolling, cutting out cookies, talking with siblings and parents, decorating with the kids-- What could be a better family activity? Charlotte loved decorating the reindeer cookies. Somehow we didn't get any pictures of the beautifully artistic cookie decorations.




Another major part of the reunion besides the puppies was Dad's cooking. We planned out so many delicious meals and Dad made them all amazingly well. The above picture if the epitome of Dad at this reunion. Him in his kitchen looking over his delicious pizza creation.

Our Christmas Eve dinner takes the cake for best meals of the reunion though. Above is Allison making gnocchi by hand with Dad's new gnocchi board. We had shrimp and scallion scampi, homemade gnocchi with homemade sauce (from tomatoes grown in the Landes garden), prime rib, lobster, ceasar salad with homemade croutons, focaccia made from scratch, roasted butternut squash soup. We love Dad's cooking!

The next cooking event we had on Christmas Day was the Annual Landes Pie contest. We had 10 amazing entries. I think it was the highest caliber of pies we have ever had. The entries are as follows:

Dad- Triple Chocolate Mousse Pie
Robert- Deep Dish Bumbleberry Pie
Amelia- Salty Honey Pie
Matt- Nutella Heaven Pie
Abigail- Pumpkin Pie
Allison- Raw-mazing pie
Mom-Coconut Cream
Mom- Banana Cream
Russell- Peanut Butter Nutella Pie
Ryan- Lucky To (not) Be Here Pie

Mom's Banana Cream Pie

Robert's 2nd place Bumbleberry pie

Dad's 1st place triple chocolate mousse cake

The newly married couples first Christmas with their new puppy, Winifred

We also went to the Springville art museum and saw Amelia's paintin being exhibited there. Above is a picture of the model, Ryan, next to the painting!


Mom, Dad, Amelia and Matthew all attended the Manti temple at the beginning of the reunion. It was wonderful to be part of the live session and to see that amazing, beautiful building. Such a great experience to go with family. Hopefully future reunions can have more family members attending a session.


We also spent a night going out to dinner at the Macaroni grill with everyone including Mamma Mae and Papa Kay and then went to this fun game place the the Riverwoods in Provo. Below is a video of Robert playing a hilarious jumprope game with light. Thanks Dad for such a fun night!


I also found a super funny video on my phone that Abigail made. I did not know about this video. It is a video she made of her puppy Annabella. Abby is awesome.

If anyone has any other memories or pictures they want to share let me know and I can make you an author for the blog so you can do your own post.