:: January Happenings ::

The ice was finally thick enough to go ice skating on our neighbor's pond a few weeks ago so we went down one afternoon to have some fun with a couple of our Amish friends! Since then the weather has warmed up and the ice melted so no more fun afternoons skating for awhile!

 



 

Boys vs Girls hockey game :P

(The pictures were from my mom's phone so that's why they're not the best quality)

 

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This past weekend Joshua and I went out to Arizona for Harmony in the Desert, an annual event our family likes to attend.  It didn't work out with Dad's work schedule for the whole family to come out so just Joshua and I went to spend the weekend with friends.

 

 One afternoon we went and played tennis with Juliana and Hunter...

 

 Joshua went down to spend a few days with the Strite boys and I stayed in Tucson with Juliana.  Saturday there was a BBQ at the hotel where Harmony is held and then we went to play volleyball with the young people at a park near-by.  We flew back to PA Sunday morning after an awesome weekend in the sunshine!! :)

 

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Every year after Christmas we get a recycled tree for our feathered friends... Mom loves to have her bird tree up every year on the back deck and this year was no exception!  We had a heavy snowfall this week so the birds have been flocking to the tree.  We all enjoy watching them from the back door as they enjoy peanut butter covered pinecones, birdseed, and fruits hanging on the tree.

 

 The blue birds are probably the most beautiful feathered visitors to our tree!

 

 

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Lillia and David made us a yummy pumpkin roll the other evening. 

David was such a cute little helper "washing the dishes" :)

 

For the Sanger 10,

~Kaitlyn

 

:: on the backside of the desert ::

 

When you have a dad that works for the airlines, you never know when you and your family might go on a spur-of-the-moment day trip across the country!  Which is exactly what we did this past weekend. :) On Saturday morning it was mentioned that since the first Jubilee message of 2014 was preached in Sierra Vista, AZ, we should go out there for church on Sunday! (can you guess who's idea that was??! ;P) So Saturday morning around 11 o'clock, after checking flights, the decision was made, we were going to Sierra Vista for church!  We packed a few carry-on bags, loaded up into the van, and by 3 p.m. we were on our way to the Philly airport to catch a 6 o'clock flight to Phoenix!  After arriving in Phoenix Saturday night we drove to Sierra Vista and Sunday morning we attended church at the home of Bro. & Sis. Isaacson where we listened to the Jubilee message, "Shalom."  (Jubilee Messages are sermons preached by Brother Branham exactly 50 years ago to the day.  50 is the number of Jubilee and last year the 1963 sermons lined up perfectly with our 2013 calendar.  In 2014 the sermons will be on the exact dates until the end of February.)

 After church there was a potluck at the pond.

 

Bro. John & Sis. Connie
Brother John was four years old when Brother Branham preached Shalom at the Baker home.

After the potluck about 50 of us went to the site of the Baker home,
about 10 miles east of Sierra Vista, where Brother Branham preached, "Shalom."

 From where we parked the cars it's about a two mile walk in to the site.

The house burned down 13 years ago but you can still see some concrete slabs remaining there on the right.

Remains of the sidewalk going to the house.


A few of the Strite's were able to attend church at the house two times before it burnt down.  Here Jaylon explains to Dad where the buildings were.  All that is left is a few concrete slabs, a pile of bricks, and the propane tank.


There is a huge uprooted cottonwood tree there that the kids enjoyed climbing on.

 At one time this was the largest tree in Arizona, measuring 42 feet in circumference.

 

 All the young people/Sunday school class climbed up and sang some songs while we were there.

 Enjoying a snack before hiking back out to the cars.

We left Sierra Vista at 7 p.m. and drove with the Strite's to Benson where we said our good-byes.  We continued on to Tucson where we stopped for a few minutes to say hi to Aunt Robin and her family.  Our flight left Phoenix at 11:45p.m. and we arrived home in PA by 6 a.m.  It was a really short trip but it was so much fun!  We all had an awesome time with our friends and it was such a blessing to be able to visit the site where Brother Branham preached the powerful message of "Shalom."

~Kaitlyn

An Old Fashioned Taffy Pull - Keepers

Thursday we had an Old Fashioned Taffy Pull with Keepers at our house.  Our wonderful Amish neighbor's invited our family over years ago to make taffy and Mom decided it would be a fun thing to do with our Keeper's club.  So Becca and Lillian, (the ladies who also taught our club how to make doughnuts) came over and helped us make five flavors of taffy!

 

Lillian and I started the first two batches...

 

 ...while Becca showed some of the others how to cut the wrappers out of wax paper.

 

 Joanna and I started the next two batches while Hope and Elisabeth learned how to pull the taffy!

 



 After a while the taffy becomes harder and harder to pull!

 

Once you've pulled for a while you add the flavor and coloring. 

We made orange crème, chocolate, pina colada, vanilla, and peppermint flavored taffy.

 



 Once the taffy has been pulled until it becomes stiff enough, it is stretched into a long cord and twisted.  It's then cut into pieces and wrapped in the wax paper and placed in the tub containing that flavor.

 

Twisting the taffy prevents it from sticking to the wrapper.

 



 We did five batches of taffy during the afternoon.  It was quite fun to pull the taffy with our friends!

 Everyone got to take home a bag full of their favorite taffy's!

 

 

 

:: Recipe for Old Fashioned Taffy ::

 

4 cups sugar

1 pint milk

1 pint Karo syrup

1 T. knox gelatin

a walnut size of parawax (slice into small pieces before adding)

 

Boil the sugar, milk, karo, and parawax for 15 minutes before adding gelatin. 

Soak gelatin in 1/2 c. cold water for 15 minutes before adding to boiling mixture.

Once your mixture reaches 260*F pour into 3 buttered 9x13 pans and let cool until you can touch it without burning your hands... now the fun begins!!  Butter your hands so the taffy pulls easier and doesn't stick to your hands.  Pull the taffy until it turns white-ish then you can add your flavor and coloring.  Keep pulling to mix in the flavor and color.  Once the taffy is stiff--but still soft enough to chew--twist it into a long cord and then cut into bit sized piece before wrapping.

 

 

It was a very fun meeting and we all got to take home some of the yummy candies :)  thanks to Becca and Lillian for teaching us!  Have you ever made taffy?

 

~Kaitlyn



:: December Christmas Celebrations ::

During the holiday season the Amish schools have their Christmas programs.  We were privileged to be invited to two different school programs in December of 2013.  On of our neighbor's is teaching a school full of 29 energetic children and invited us to her school's Christmas program on Wednesday.  An Amish school Christmas program is usually around 1 hour long.  They're packed full of poems, songs, and skits by the scholars.  Each child memorizes amazing amounts to recite to the audience of parents, siblings, and friends.  The teacher always gives her students Christmas presents and so this year our friend bought tan material for the girls and red for the boys.  They took the material home and their mothers made the boys all matching shirts and dresses for the girls to wear at the program.  We weren't able to take any pictures during the program because most Amish don't believe in cameras/pictures, but she invited us back after her school children went home on Friday.

 

On our way to our friend's school we saw this wagon full of school children coming home from caroling...usually we see them in horse-drawn wagons but this time it happened they were being pulled by a tractor.

 

Her grandmother came in one day and painted the winter scene on her chalkboard in about four hours!  Notice the alphabets above the chalkboard...It's the German cursive and print above the regular English cursive and print alphabets.  The older scholars practice writing passages of scripture in old German cursive in school.

 

 Streamers and snowflakes decorating the ceiling...

 

 She also traced all her students feet and put them on the ceiling with a quote that said, "Jesus will lead us every step of the way".

 

Window decorations...

 

The desks are pushed to the sides of the room and benches they use for church in their homes are brought in the day of the program to seat everyone.

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Christmas Eve we exchanged presents with each other and then on Christmas Day we drove down to Delaware to Grandpoppy & Grandmommy's house.

 

 Benjamin's first Christmas! :)
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New Year's Eve the youth group had a gathering at the Bomberger's but since it was only until 9 p.m., and some of us still wanted to hang out, we invited some of our awesome cousins over to Grandpa & Grammy's until 2 a.m.  It was a very fun night and great people to pray the New Year in with!  :)

 

Hoping each one of you had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

May 2014 be filled with blessings from the Lord and wonderful memories with family and friends.

God bless you!

 

~Kaitlyn, for the Sanger family :)