Happy Holidays

This past weekend we celebrated Christmas with my side of the family as we do every year, with dinner and gifts, watching the Seahawks game and fellowshipping together. This year we added a bit of a twist and it felt so good. Instead of buying each other gifts that we don't really need, we all brought gifts to donate to toys for tots. Instead of opening gifts we spent the time playing Apples to Apples and Nintendo Wii. It was great fun, probably the best gathering that we have ever had together.

One Beautiful Lady - A Tribute

Yesterday, December 10th, 2007 would have been my mother in law's 78th birthday. Unfortunately, lung cancer cut her life short. In March of 1987 at the age of 57 she passed on two weeks after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

Bertha Mae Rische was born to Melvin and Elfrieda Rische, on December 10th, 1929 in Mound City, SD. She grew up, the third of nine children, she and her siblings were very close. Bertha graduated from Glenham High School in 1949. After graduating from high school she worked as a nurses aid at the Mobridge Hospital and then later as a sales clerk and clerical help at Montana Dakota Utilities in Mobridge, SD. She married Henry Liebelt in June of 1954 and they later moved their family, first to California back to South Dakota and then to Washington State, where they settled. All together they had four children, of which my husband was the third. She was a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother. A very talented homemaker, Bertha could sew and crochet beautifully. She was a wonderful mother-in-law, who was incredibly patient with her not so skilled daughter in law. She was one of those people who make you feel at home instantly. I miss her very much.