Happy Birthday to Florence!

Happy Birthday, dear Florence! We wish you all the best today. And many more! Love, The Cousins

A cousin is wed

Warm congratulations to cousin Nathan Pepin, son of Steve and Patty, and his bride, Jen Stafne! They were wed last week in a small civil ceremony in Red Wing, Minn., and plan a larger celebration in May. Nathan, who just left the Marines, is starting an excellent job in Ames, Iowa. Jen is a dietitian.

Belated Christmas cheer from a few of the cousins

Your scrapblog editor is woefully late with this posting, but Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Feel free, cousins, to send me photos from your holiday gathering to post here. Here are a few:

Ho ho! It's that nice cousin Sammy!

The Miller girls get all festive. They are Avamarie, 3; Hannah, 18; Moriah, 20, and Elizabeth, 8.

Surprisingly, our surviving geratric cat, Turtle, almost 15, rather likes 3-year-old Avamarie (most cats are afraid of little kids, and dear departed Lucy and Turtle have been no exception). It would hard NOT to like Avamarie, a really sweet niece who calls me "Audy Bummy," her pronunciation of Auntie Pammy. Awww! Here we are at the Miller family Christmas, held on the first day after Christmas that cousins Pam and Chris both finally had off of work.

Noah's other grandparents

We were very happy to receive this nice photo of Noah's paternal grandparents, Barbara and Robert Johnson, at Christmas. They look a lot like Noah, and are very good to him. Barb and Bob split their time between McGregor, Minn., and Aiken, S.C.

More sweet Sprick pix

Three recent photos we really like from Uncle Joe and Aunt Mavis' branch of the family:

The legendary ones themselves, Joe and Mavis!

Mavis and Joe with daughter Cindy, grandson Monty Leiser and Monty's girlfriend, Elizabeth Wyre.

Granddaughter Katie, who resembles both her Sprick grandparents, we think.

Colorado granddaughter Tanya Cook, her husband, Levi, and their kids, Maria, Sonya and Perrin.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

This past week, little cousin Elizabeth Miller donated 7 inches of her beautiful long hair to Locks of Love, which makes wigs for cancer patients. We think she's equally lovely in before and after photos:

Meeting the nice scissors lady before the big cut. Best friend Sophie stood by to provide moral support.

Seven inches gone! And she still has long hair! No worries, E, it'll grow back soon. Thanks for your kind-hearted contribution!

Thanksgiving in Centerville, America

Your scrapblog editor and son Noah were lucky enough to be invited to ChrisMiller!ChrisMiller!'s house for Thanksgiving. Some snapshots from that lively event:

After the scrapblog editor told stories about her recent Miller-family-roots-seeking trip to North Carolina, including one about how our grandmother's first husband died in the influenza pandemic of 1917-18 and she went on to take a second husband, a Miller, we went around the table telling what we were grateful for. Hannah Miller, 18, paused thoughtfully and said, "I'm grateful for the 1918 influenza epidemic, because without it, we wouldn't be here."

Moriah likes turkey!

Other guests include Lavone, Dan, Marty and Nick Broberg. Marty and CMill got all tough in the kitchen. By the way, congrats to Marty, who will enter the U.S. Marines in April 2012!

No Miller family gathering is complete without people posing for photos for that well-known photographer Mary Miller. She managed to get the young people -- Nick Broberg, Zachary Miller, Noah Miller Johnson, Moriah Miller and Marty Broberg --  together for this shot. Most of them posed nicely. (Hannah was missing because she had to take a nap before her late-night Black Friday shift at Hollister.)

Then they got goofy -- at least those scamps Moriah and Marty did.

Then things really deteriorated! Luckily, no one was hurt and no property was damaged.

Foster dog Ty enjoyed the attention and the turkey scraps.

The festivities were exhausting, especially for little Avamarie Miller, 3. She wore her wedding dress -- or at least it looked like a wedding dress -- for the occasion. Happy belated Thanksgiving, everyone!

A very cool young grandmother

Love these photos from cousin Cindi's recent visit to her Cook grandkids in Denver:

Cindi with Sonia, Maria and Perrin.

Cindi monkeys around at the zoo. What a cool grandma! :)

Sonya is a star. Hey, we knew that.

Your scrapblog editor reaches the speed limit

I'm a little late in posting these, since my 55th birthday was on Nov. 2, the Day of the Dead. Noah and the nieces made it especially happy. Gotta celebrate every one, cousins, 'cause, you never know...

In this photo of a very large and delicious cake, you may notice some Millers. That's me with radiant Hannah Miller, 18.

Ohhhh, wouldn't she like to get ahold of my delicious cake! That's niece Elizabeth Miller, 8.

The Sprick chicks

We love this photo of our cousins the Sprick chicks, K., A and C. Beautiful and brilliant young people indeed!

More photos from Sandy's visit to Minnesota

Thanks to cousin  Sandy Kirkwood Turner for these nice photos from her trip to Minnesota:

Pretty clouds over Frontenac State Park.

Looking toward Lake City  from Frontenac State Park.

Sisters Jane and Sandy.

Your scrapblog editor in the park.

My lovely land in Old Frontenac.

Sandy relaxin' in Minnesota.

Ted and Katie, Sandy's nephew and niece and our dear cousins.

Lovely Moriah

Love these recent photos of niece Moriah Miller, 20. We think they were taken at Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis. Re the boot: Hope that leg heals soon, Mo!

Happy 91st Birthday to dear Anna!

We're a few days late in posting this one. Aunt Anna Sophia Sprick Smith turned 91 on Oct. 16. Anna, of course, lives at the Lake City Nursing Home now. We hope her head is full of sweet memories from long ago.

Anna and little sis Kate in July 1941.

A family stroll

Your scrapblog editor toodled down to Lake City and Old Frontenac today to visit cousin Sandy Kirkwood Turner, up from Nacogdoches, Texas, as well as Joe-and-Mavis and Kate-and-John, and of course little Anna, almost 91, in the nursing home. A few photos from our visit, which featured a short stroll in Frontenac State Park:

Siblings Kate and Elmer stroll amid the leaves. It was a beautiful day indeed.

Joe tried to shake down some apples from the upper reaches of a tree. Deer or tourists had cleared off the low branches.

The view over the edge from the park's pinnacle. Have seen it a million times, but it's always a rush.

Mavis, Joe, Kate and Sandy in the sunshine.

Then we went down to the Old Frontenac cemetery. The inscription on this plaque, by the Garrard graves, was written by Mom.

Israel Garrard's grave.

Yikes, so many kids died little in those days. Glad we have a little less of that now, at least in good ol' America.

Sandy and Kate on the front steps of Kate and John's place on North Prairie Street in Lake City (Grandma Sprick's former place). Kate's flowers are beautiful, as always.

A visit with cousin Sarah

Your scrapbook editor trekked to not-very-far-away Richfield last week to visit cousin Sarah Broberg in her group home, where she is well-loved by her friendly housemates and well-cared-for by some kind and capable folks. As most of you know, Sarah is in the early stages of Alzheimer's, so your scrapbook editor wanted to see how she was doing and if she still remembered very important family lore, such as, for instance, who her favorite cousin might be.

She did! She did remember the most important family item of that evening -- your scrapbook editor! She sang out, "PAM!" when I entered the living room where she and her housemates were watching a reality show, and never has my name sounded so sweet! We popped open the 12-pack of Diet Coke I'd brought and partied down with her housemates and evening caretaker, Moses, a fine fellow. Many burps were exchanged. Then I showed her some family photos. She remembered most of you, especially, it probably goes without saying, ChrisMiller!ChrisMiller!, whose photo elicited the most delighted table-pounding. There were poignant moments too, as when Sarah's eyes welled with tears when I showed her photos of her late parents, Marion and Wally Broberg. She showed them to her housemates, saying over and over again, "My mom and dad. They passed away. That's my mom and dad. They died. They passed away." Her housemates rushed to comfort her, and in a lame attempt to do so myself, I told Sarah she has a little of them inside her, which caused her to stick her finger in her ear, perhaps searching for them. Why not? The ear is close to the brain, that store of memory, and the heart.

As this photo fails to show, Sarah smiled a lot upon opening the birthday gift that your scrapblog editor went all-out on -- two precious five-dollar bills! Five whole dollars! Bills! American money! Two of them! I asked Sarah what she was going to spend them on, and she said, very politely, "None of your bizness." "How about gifts for your cousins?" I suggested, which prompted the look above. Even ChrisMiller!ChrisMiller! is not going to get one red cent of those precious greenbacks. You'd better believe it, buddy.

At home with Joe and Mavis

Your scrapbook editor doesn't get to Lake City to pester her relatives as much as I did last year, when I owned Mom's former place there. Uncle Joe has been good enough to send some photos from their wonderful new place in fashionable north Lake City, near Sugarloaf and, we are told, woods that are home to some old Indian mounds. Some of Joe's photos:

Joe and Mavis outside their beautiful new home. We are happy to report that it sports some priceless, precious blue plates -- hope they are heavily insured!

Mavis is catching all the bluegills that your scrapblog editor would be catching if I were there more often.

It's apple season in lovely Lake City! Mavis is making pies, or crisp, or something awesome. We think there should be a kind of apple called The Sprick -- large, hardy, sweet and red-cheeked.

What a lovely photo of Mavis and cousin Cindy, except for one glaring thing! What in the world kind of shirt is that Mavis is wearing? Why is it not purple? It's not Lake City, WISCONSIN, is it, now??!!