December 25, 2015

 Joy to the World 

Christmas Day! 

December 25, 2015

What a great day of celebrations we had all day long.  I was up early, and started baking.  It was after 10:00 before the young adults were up.  The ham went in the oven and then we opened gifts.

For our morning celebration, it was just those staying at our house: David and Diana, Stephen and Kristina, and Ron and me.  We had fun opening stocking gifts and then the other gifts. 

There were lots of very nice gifts exchanged and I think everyone was delighted with their gifts.  Diana usually asks me to buy yarn for her.  She likes trying out new styles and colors of yarns and enjoys my selections.  She was working on winter caps for the Academic Decathlon team she works with at her school.

 This is the Christmas quilt I had been working on for Stephen 

and Kristina.  I actually finished it a couple of days later.

It took a long time to get all the food ready and loaded in the car, along with the gifts, to take to McAllen to our son Jeff's home there.

Dave likes sea horses so his wife gave him one.

 

In the early afternoon we went to Jeff's house and they had things about ready for our family lunch.  The food was delicious, and the family being together was great. 

The tree at Jeff and Barb's

After lunch, before dessert, we gathered around the tree for additional gift exchanges.  There were so many wonderful gifts and the children all enjoyed their things.  They had a good time and spent much of the afternoon playing with their new toys.

The spread for lunch

 

The adults spent the afternoon visiting and sharing the things going on in their lives.  I love to hear our guys together laughing and there was a lot of laughter all day.

Later in the afternoon, just before dark one of our granddaughters and I went out to the field behind the house so she could feed the horse.  The horse belongs to the brother of the man who owns the field, but the children feed it for him.  They are learning what is involved in horse ownership. 

Early evening we had some leftovers for supper and several of the young people decided to go to the movie of the new Star Wars film.  Some had already seen it but wanted to go again.  Later Ron and I headed home and the movie goers came together a couple of hours later.

Late in the afternoon, the grandchildren decorated cupcakes and made little decorations that looked like mugs of hot chocolate, out of marshmallows and little candy canes.

Hot chocolate mug decoration on a cupcake

 

It was a good day and I think everyone enjoyed being together a lot!

Our granddaughter feeding the horse.

December 23 - 24, 2015

Pre-Christmas Preparations

December 23-24, 2015

The last week has been so busy that I am a little over a week behind on my blog entries.  The holiday celebrations were great and I could not have asked for them to be any better.  I guess the only thing that would have made them better would have been to have the one son and his wife here who could not come this year and to have had Diana's niece and nephew with us, also.

Every year or rather every holiday, I tell the kids that I will take what I can get in terms of their visits.  If they can only come for one day, I will enjoy the time we have and do all I can to help them enjoy that time to the fullest.  It is a long trip for a couple of the boys and their wives.  For one it is one long day of driving and for the other it is two days each way of driving.

 Gift wrapping

 

Wednesday we went to the office as usual and it was quiet all week.  People were spending their money on Christmas and not on locks and keys.  I had paper work to do and Ron had a couple of short jobs to tend to. 

There was still grocery shopping and gift shopping to finish and gift wrapping to do.  I left the office early on Wednesday to finish some of those activities.  I have to admit that I was shopping until almost the last minute on Thursday.  This year I was very disorganized in the gift giving area.  Our son in Dallas and his wife are having some remodeling done on their house and I knew they didn't have room for "things" this year, since most of their things are in storage while the remodeling is being done.  It wasn't until Christmas eve that I found out something that his wife wanted, that they could handle until the remodeling is finished.

 Gifts started piling up under the Christmas tree.

 

Wednesday evening our son and his wife from Dallas arrived late, and we had held supper for them.  This was their first visit since their wedding.  It was so good to have them here and they were able to stay for about a week.

 Diana, David, and my brother-in-law, Jim at Christmas Eve supper

Thursday, I spent most of the day in the kitchen when I was not shopping.  I was preparing salads and desserts for Christmas dinner at our son's home in McAllen.  I baked pies and cookies as well as making homemade candies.  I had a ham to bake for Christmas dinner also.

Ron's mother was not feeling well and he kept checking on her as he could.  She was not planning to go to McAllen with us but I had hoped to get a meal to her.  She said just to bring leftovers from McAllen.

Our son and his wife from San Antonio arrived Thursday afternoon and supper that evening was at my mom's house.  She had a meal of Mexican food for us as is tradition for so many in South Texas.  We had tamales, beans, rice, chips and dips, as well as salad and dessert.  Our daughter-in-law Diana's aunt and uncle joined us for supper at Mom's.  They are newly retired, and were spending a little time at South Padre Island, so they were invited to join us for festivities. 

Diana and her aunt and uncle

 

We all had a great time at Mom's and it was good to all be together.  Our son and his wife always spend Christmas eve with his wife's family, but Christmas day with us.  That arrangement works well for me!

What a busy two days I had!  So many things to be done and things I wanted to do.  Having family with us is the high point of the activities and of course celebrating the birth of our Savior is the most important part of the whole Christmas season.

December 21 & 22, 2015

Christmas Week is Here! 

Time to Get Busy!

December 21 & 22, 2015

Inlaid wood quilt pattern ornament for sewing room tree.

 

This week is off to a busy start.  Monday morning Ron left me sleeping when he went to work.  As always, I appreciate that, but have things I need to be doing besides sleeping.  I spent the morning on paperwork.  Ron was out on a job most of the morning.  Then at 2:00 I got my haircut and returned to the office to continue the things I was working on.

After work, I went to the Wal-mart near our house and shopped for a few gifts and some food items.  It was 7:00 before I got home and I was tired.  I went to sleep in the recliner and slept until about midnight when I got up and cleaned the kitchen.

Little Santa with a quilted heart for my sewing room tree.

 

During the evening, before I went to sleep, I was going to work on a quilt in progress.  It is almost finished, but I found two little holes in it and sat there pondering how they got there and how I would fix them.  They are on the edge, so I can do it.  It just wasn't in my plans for this week.

Tuesday I was up at 6:00 to work a little on the house.  Ron had a doctor's appointment and I had an appointment with a contractor to come give us a bid to have a couple of small jobs done on the house.  He showed up about 8:30 and we discussed the jobs.  He will get back to us with a price and then we will see what to do. 

Made by my mother-in-law for the sewing room tree.

 

At the office, Ron was not there - still at the doctor's office and so I opened up and got to work on my Christmas cards.  I got some out in today 's mail and got some cleaning done.  I had a couple of good conversations with customers. 

Then I left at closing time and went to a newer Wal-Mart .  I got the things I had to have, but not the groceries.  So I will need to go back again Wednesday afternoon.  Tonight, I am cleaning the kitchen and doing laundry.  I talked to our daughter-in-law in New Mexico. 

The last couple of evenings I have tried out the new wireless microphone device for the television and have been able to do well with it.  I am eager to try it more and see if I am doing it right.  I still need to set up the one for the phone.  I am hoping my technology savvy sons can help me with it over the holidays.

Late in the evening I got a text from a friend.  I tend to call him a "young man" because that is what he was when we first got to know him about 35 years ago.  He lived with us one summer and with my mom another summer while he was in college and was here as a summer missionary, working in Mexico and in our area doing Vacation Bible Schools and physical labor on assorted mission related projects.  He is going to be coming to spend a couple of days with us. Some of you may remember this friend, Joe Schmidt.  So much of the mission projects our church does on both sides of the border in this area, have Joe's finger prints all over them.  We look forward to seeing him.  He now serves as the director of Baptist Student Ministries in Commerce at East Texas University.  Laughter is sure to get louder while he is here.

Made by my granddaughter last year for my sewing room tree.

Have a safe Christmas.  The traffic is terrible.

December 20, 2015

Quick Granddaughter Time

December 20, 2015

A fun Christmas ornament

 

This morning as I was getting ready for church I checked my phone for messages and there was one from our daughter-in-law in McAllen saying her girls would be at our church this morning because they had spent the night with friends from our church.  What a treat to see them for that hour of church.

 This elf has been in my family since my childhood -

 probably almost 60 years.

First, during Sunday School class time, we had a great bunch including some visitors.  One couple who have spent many winters attending our church came for a quick visit.  They had not been able to come for the winter last year, but they had come to Texas for Christmas to visit family and decided they just had to come for a visit when they were so close.  It was good to see them both looking so great.

A gift from Bob & Vickey

 

Our pastor was out today and our church school superintendent preached a very good sermon.  It was a good service, made better by our granddaughters sitting with me.

 Wonderful Counselor - part of this morning's sermon

 

After church, Ron and I picked up lunch and had a good chat while we ate.  After we cleared the dishes, he left to go to his mom's to take care of some things.  While he was gone I worked on wrapping Christmas gifts and made some good progress but it took most of the afternoon.  I am now caught up with wrapping with only a couple of small exceptions.

 Jesus is the reason for Christmas

 

The church is planning to have the sound system worked on soon.  I hope so.  It was hard even with the cable to my little radio, to hear some of the service.

 This is the ornament the choir gave out this year at their Christmas Concert

 

This was a good day.   I look forward to a great week ahead!

December 19, 2015

Mixing Up My Days and Nights

December 19, 2015

Wrapping workshop

The plans for today were for me to get up very early and go shopping.  I woke at 2:30 a.m. and decided that was not a good time to go shopping even if some stores were open for the holiday shoppers.  I spent the next 3 1/2 hours cleaning in the kitchen.  I cleaned out a cabinet and the refrigerator as well as some of the counter tops.  It does not take long to get them cluttered.  About 6:15, I went back to sleep and slept until 9:00.  As I said, that was not my plan.

I had some toast and left on the shopping trip.  As it was yesterday, I did pretty well, marking off a few others as complete on my list.  I again went to Michael's, then Target, and finished up at Wal-Mart, stopping to pick up a couple of gift cards along the way.  At Wal-Mart I bought a couple of frozen items, but not many groceries.

Gifts to be wrapped stacked on the floor

 

After loading the car, I got in to find out it would not start.  I texted Ron, who was just finishing his job (it was after 2:00).  He came to my rescue, jumped the battery to get the car started and got me and my melting groceries home.  I fixed us some lunch and then took a nap. 

This evening, I have spent some time wrapping gifts.  I only have about 7 wrapped, but it is a start.  I was able to chat with one of our sons online tonight.  That is the easiest way for me to communicate. 

December 18, 2015

FRIDAY!!!

December 18, 2015

Our newest Christmas ornament -

 from our trip to the Balloon Festival this past fall

It is always great to see Friday come around, but I was ready for this past week to go away.  Ron and I had plans for a nice day Friday and plans to join friends in the evening to celebrate a birthday.  Somewhere the plans got side tracked.

I spent much of the day on paperwork.  The top of my to do list was finish addressing Christmas cards.  It didn't happen.  I got one mailed.  I paid bills and took care of paying the state sales tax on line.  I had almost overlooked it and the fine is ridiculously high for being one day late. 

 An old favorite ornament 

 

Ron had emergency job pop up.  He had hoped to leave early on jobs and it was mid-afternoon before he got out the door.  There went the plans for the party we were going to attend.  Since he was not going, I decided to get the shopping started that had been put off too long.  I started with errands.  One was to pay a bill at a bank and it is no longer at that location.  Don't know if there is a local branch any more.  Then I went to the drug store to drop off some prescriptions.

The shopping started after the errands and although it took me a long time to make decisions,  I got a lot done at each store where I stopped.  First stop was Tuesday Morning before going to Michael's and then Kohls, and a couple more stops after those.  I marked four people off the list as completed.  Not too bad for the rate I have been going this year.

 I scatter red bows around the tree.

 

As I got to the first store, my cell phone rang.  It was our youngest son.  I was in a noisy parking lot and could not hear.  I got in the car, and he tried again, but it was still too noisy for me to hear him.  Hopefully we can catch up soon, but it may be when he and his wife come for Christmas.

When I got home I was there about an hour before Ron arrived and he said he would have to go back Saturday to finish.  A set of keys had been taken from this place and so it was necessary for them to get the job done soon.

For 5 years now, our church choir has passed out Christmas 

ornaments at the Christmas musical.  This is one of them.

I went to sleep soon after Ron got home - in my recliner as usual. 

December 17, 2015

Much Still To Be Done Before Christmas

December 17, 2015

 

Trying to always remember the true meaning of Christmas

There are so many things I still need to do before Christmas gets here.  I have about 1/2 of my Christmas cards in the mail and that means 1/2 of them are not in the mail.  I have about 1/2 of my shopping done, leaving 1/2 of it still waiting.  The house is about 1/2 ready, the baking isn't even started, the decorating is about finished.  It looks like I have some busy days ahead.

I got to the office this morning just after 10:00, said "Hello" to Ron, and when he responded to me, I realized I had gotten all the way to work without my Cochlear Sound Processor!  I turned around and drove back home and then again to the office.  A check list may become necessary.

At the office, I spent the day working on a little cleaning and a lot of filing.  Ron was out much of the day so I waited on customers often during the afternoon.  It was a good day.  I cleaned windows and did a little sweeping.  I changed our hours on the signs.  We are now open from 8:30 until 5:00.  I guess we may retire in 30 minute increments.  Previously, we were open 8:15 to 5:15.

Near closing time I started working on a deposit, but didn't allow enough time to finish it, so I will need to do it in the morning.  Ron will be out most of the day tomorrow.  I hope to finish our Christmas catds tomorrow.

At closing time Ron stopped by for just a minute and asked me go on to the house.  He had just had a call that he needed to go by his mom's house.  He met me in a little bit at the house and then in one car, we went to meet our friends to try a different place for supper.  It was OK, but not great and I think we will mark it off our list.

Once we got home, Ron got busy on some jobs he needed to do and I relaxed.  I am going to bed early again.  I slept 10 hours last night and felt good when I got up, but I am tired now.