Here Come The Holidays!

We went to our first Christmas get-together yesterday evening. Sister Rose had everyone over to her house - nieces, nephews, in-laws, sisters, mothers, sons, daughters, grandchild and a few friends - the whole crew was there. Fortunately she has lots of space for us all to spread out so we had a noisy good time. Food covered the countertops and stove and table - we did a potluck meal as usual being the sensible people that we are, but Rose still did a lot of work to pull the dinner together. I tried to get a picture of each person, so let's see how I did as I lay this out. Here's Rose, Erika (with a bag of ice for her allergy eyes), and Chris with girlfriend:



The newest family unit: Jason, Mackenzie and baby Nolan, visiting from Cleveland:


Margy, Abby and Laura: (Phill has already gone to Hilton Head and they'll meet up with him next week):

Mom, Kelly and other family and friends:

And so begins the holiday season! This coming week brings the annual Christmas play at church, my company dinner with co-workers and spouses at The Precinct, and a gathering of our friends from church for a fun games night. And then Christmas Eve! This week's going to fly by and suddenly it'll be ... Christmas Day! Remember my motto for the season: Keep it sane, keep it simple. It's really all about a Very Important Birthday, not the "stuff" we get so caught up in.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

I think I’m slowly getting a bit of Christmas spirit. I’ve been trying to take this month one day at a time so as not to become overwhelmed by all the Things I Have To Do by December 25th. So far that approach is working. It helps that we are trying really, really hard to keep the season simple, with less talk about gifts and who-wants-what and the material things.

A couple of Sundays ago I went to the annual Cookie Exchange at Sue’s house. We all baked a batch of 4 dozen cookies and each of us ended up with about a half dozen of each type of cookie. Yum. Equally good were all the snacks made by Rose and Sue – especially good since I hadn’t had time for lunch after church. We had a great time eating, talking, laughing, eating some more, catching up on news and finally we got around to swapping cookies. Got home just in time to see the Bengals win another game.

Our house has Christmas lights this year! Nothing crazy, no inflatable snow creatures, just the traditional lights-hanging-from-the-gutter and some happy little colored bulbs on the porch railing. Thank you, Chris, for climbing the ladder to do this, indulging the Baby Bird in her wish for lights on the house. They look wonderful!

We got our Christmas cards out in the mail this past weekend (right on schedule) and also put up the tree. No live tree this year due to budget cutbacks (that’s OK, we saved a tree…) so we borrowed the old “family tree” from Ma & Pops. We figure it’s about 35 years old? We opened the box and stared at the pile of prickly green limbs, trying to decide how to go about making them into a tree. We sorted the pieces into piles by color of the tip and Thank God, when we got to the bottom of the carton, there were the torn and tattered instructions. So up went the tree, then the challenge of the lights (half are flashing, half are not - ?!?) and finally the garland and decorations. It’s bee-yoo-ti-ful!

While Chris strung the lights I worked on the Nativity set and unpacked my collection of Nutcrackers. I’m trying to resist the urge to pull out ALL my Christmas knick-knacks (I have enough for several families…) and keep it simple, keep it sane. So I chose my most favorite items and arranged them to my satisfaction – and voila, it’s Christmas in our house!

My on-going project is the Christmas ornaments that are to be family gifts. I baked salt-dough shapes a couple of weeks ago, as did Kelly – I’m doing letters of the alphabet, she’s making fun things like dogs, bunnies and hearts to give to her friends. We stocked up on a new supply of the little bottles of acrylic paints and have been painting like crazy, making them into colorful works of art. I’m about half-way done, so I’m on track to have them finished in plenty of time.

Halfway through December and still sane! Oh, and just 97 days until Spring!

Where In The World Have I Been?

I've been reading a number of interesting blogs over the past couple of months, finding some great stories and beautiful photos to accompany them. But I'm beginning to feel like I haven't really "lived" somehow, because I haven't been to numerous foreign countries and had all sorts of colorful adventures. To make myself feel better I decided to make a list of all the places I have been just to prove that I've been outside of the great State of Ohio. Here's what I came up with:

Maine (visit friends/relatives in Portland, Lake Nahmakanta Wilderness Camp, Monhegan Island, Acadia National Park)
Michigan (Mackinac Island twice, Saulte Ste. Marie, Troy)
Iowa (visits to Aunt Hilary)
Florida (St. Augustine, Longboat Key, Orlando)
Georgia (St. Simons Island, Atlanta to visit a friend)
North Carolina (trip to Outer Banks, summer of 1992)
South Carolina (Hilton Head with my sisters family)
Kentucky (Mammoth Cave, Natural Bridge, Louisville)
Indiana (Indianapolis and many other short trips)
California (Huntington Beach, Disneyland)
Arizona (Grand Canyon)
Louisiana (visited friend in New Orleans)
Tennessee (Memphis, Nashville, camping/hiking in Smoky Mountain Nat’l Park)
West Virginia (New River rafting trips 3 times)
New York (family trips to Buffalo, Niagara Falls; Albany, Binghampton)
Pennsylvania (family trips to Doylestown, Philadelphia)
Washington DC/Virginia (family visits to Uncle Bill)
Connecticut (Grosvenordale - Aunt Mary’s)
Minnesota (Minneapolis)
Colorado (camping/hiking Rocky Mountain Natl Park)
Nevada (Las Vegas)
New Mexico (visited friend in Albequerque)
Virginia (camping/hiking in Shenandoah Nat’l Park)
Texas (Dallas)
Massachusetts (family trip to Cape Cod)
Canada (family trips to Montreal, Expo 67)
England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales (family trip in 1971)
Puerto Rico (El Conquistador Resort, San Juan in January, 1995)

(Entries in RED were business trips that always included a little fun and sight-seeing. Not exactly a real vacation, but they still count!)

(This list doesn't include all the states that I've merely driven through to get somewhere ... that would make a much longer list, but that would be cheating, wouldn't it?)

Photos from our trip to St. Simons Island, Georgia: A little piece of heaven!

Places I Would Love To Go Before It's All Said and Done ...
Williamsburg, VA
Vermont in the Fall
Whitefish, Montana to visit my brother and his family
Alaska - anywhere in Alaska - it looks so beautiful!
Rte. 1 along the East Coast and West Coast
Redwood National Park, Ca
Wisconsin Dell area
Mt. Rushmore/Badlands

I don't really have a hankering to travel overseas much. Would I go if someone offered a trip? Probably, as long as it was a fairly civilized (safe) area of the world. But this great country of our has so much to offer, so much to see, that I can't imagine ever wanting to spend time overseas when there are thousands of incredible opportunities right here in the USA. Not much of a global outlook, granted, but I love this country and all that it has to offer. Too many places to go and not enough time! I pray that I live long enough to take many, many more trips with the people I love, enjoying the places that I've wanted to visit.

~Looking forward to an adventure-filled retirement!~

The Four Letter Words of Winter

Snow. Cold Rain. Wind. Gray Days.

There’s not much good in these frozen months, the Worst Season of the Year. I know it’s a necessary evil – we must endure the bone-chilling temperatures, the long cold days and the even colder nights in order to enjoy the rebirth of nature that comes with Spring. But we’re only a few weeks into this season and my hands are already chapped, I’ve slipped on ice more than once and have had to scrape my car windows too many times. My mood is way down in the dumps as the days get shorter and the skies fill with gloomy clouds. Bah! Enough! The only way to keep my sanity is to focus on the warmer weather even though it’s a distant dream, counting the days ‘til my calendar says “First Day of Spring!”

Let the countdown begin: 103 days until March 20th!

It's Really Over

Our last really nice weekend was in early November so I took advantage of the warm sun and finished cleaning up and cleaning out the gardens. I had left all the potted geraniums as long as I could, keeping them in the safety of our covered deck so they wouldn't get the frost. But a couple of days of freezing temps really did them in - froze 'em up, then they just collapsed. Such a sorry sight. So I cleaned out my last dozen or so pots, pulled all the remains out of our two big oak barrel planters and worked through my last flower bed. I trimmed back all the mums and hollyhocks in my final flower bed - above are THE LAST flowers anywhere in my gardens. *sigh* Summer is really over. That's sad news for someone who loves their flowers.

My constant companion while working was the ever-active Tango. The dog always wants to play ball, day and night, begging constantly by "dropping the ball." She'll follow us around in the house, ball in mouth, dropping and catching, dropping and catching the ball as she walks around. She really has a problem - an OBSESSION - with playing fetch. Chris was giving the back yard a final mowing for the season, so she alternated between me and him, giving us both an equal opportunity to throw the ball for her. What a pain in the neck she can be with that darn tennis ball! She would drop it at my feet, or sometimes in my basket of clippings (above) making it very clear that she was ready for the next toss. Then for a while she decided to follow Chris as he mowed the yard, back and forth, back and forth she would follow him, sometimes at his heels but sometimes moving in front of him and the lawnmower. The result is a chewed up tennis ball (above) that has been spit out by the lawnmower. Ugh. But does that bother Tango? Oh, no, in fact she kind of likes a ball that been split open because then she can chew on it like a piece of nasty old chewing gum. And she still expects us to throw it, covered with grass clippings, dirt and dog slobber. In a dog's opinion, I'm sure, that's an afternoon well spent with your people.

So that's my tale about a sunny November afternoon, enjoyed by humans and pets alike. We all slept well that night.

A Thanksgiving Feast

We had a wonderful meal on Thanksgiving day as we always do, thanks to the all the planning and hard work by Ma. She baked, she cooked, she slaved in the kitchen for hours to make sure we had yet another delicious holiday feast. A perfectly done turkey, homemade out-of-this-world rolls, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, jellied cranberry ... we all ate 'til we couldn't stand it, then made an attempt to eat some dessert an hour or so later. Groan. The pies were beautiful ... one of them more tasty than the other (oops, Ma, forget a little something in the pumpkin pie?!).

Of course the most important thing about a Thanksgiving Feast are the people who gather together to celebrate being a family. My mother was able to come with us over to Ma & Pop's house which she always enjoys immensely. Abby gave her the grand tour of Grandma's living room and dining room, showing her all the special things on the shelves and cabinets. Chris took over the carving of the turkey (men, sharp knives, meat ... they all go together somehow). Ma made the gravy at the very end of the preparations, as usual ... mmmm. Betsy made her favorite sweet potato casserole (Abby helped by taste-testing the brown sugar to make sure it was just right). And Pops was smart enough to help when needed, but kept clear of Ma's cooking space until it was really clear that he was supposed to be doing something specific.

Food, family, fun ... so much to be thankful for, today and every day. Life really is good, isn't it?