Merry Christmas

  Forgive me for my prolonged absence....... About two weeks before Thanksgiving I had a gall bladder attack. To make the holiday more festive, a few days before Thanksgiving I broke out with the Shingles. I am still dealing with both of these. There was a surgery planned for day before yesterday to deal with the gall bladder, that was set aside thanks to some nasty little bug that I caught Thursday. It has been a few years since I have been laid up with a bug as relentless as this one is. 

Come Christmas, I hope to find the Shingles and my little friend "The Bug" gone. As for the gall bladder, I have a feeling I won't be shed of it without surgery. That has been rescheduled for December 31st. I can't think of a better way to ring in the New Year than to be relatively pain free. WOW.... My idea of a good time has sure changed in the recent years. 

If You don't hear from me again before then...... Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to my dear friends and loyal followers!

~Jo

Christmas Memories

 

Some of my sweetest memories are those that include my children. 1. My yearly quest when my children were little was searching out a Santa for that photo with my babies. 2. Theresa's Grandpa was bound and determined that she should be the next Annie Oakley. This meant that Grandpa kept her dressed in cowgirl gear for the first few years of her life. 3. The first year that we stayed home for Christmas and put up  a tree, money was a bit tight. To get by with less we placed our tree in a corner and only decorated what wasn't against the wall.  Theresa took care of the decorations on the lower branches. 4. I will never forget the year that Chris made a bird feeder for me in Cub Scouts. He was bursting with pride when he gave it to me.

Chris' first Christmas he wasn't much bigger than his stocking. He was a sick little guy that winter. In fact, I don't recall many years that Theresa and Chris weren't both sick at Christmas time. Hey, I just noticed, I really was young once.

Christmas programs and concerts have always been part of our celebrations. Theresa's instrument was the flute and I so enjoyed hearing her play. 

This was the year that we moved to California. Knowing that the move was coming, I had Christmas bought, wrapped, packed up with the furniture and sent ahead with the movers. Sounded good at the time, but there was just one little catch. Once we got there we couldn't find an apartment right away to rent that would accept children. We did manage to find one apartment complex that rented to us for one month just out of the kindness of their hearts and the fact that it was so close to Christmas.   

For that one month our furniture went to storage along with the Christmas presents. Our furniture for that time was lawn furniture and sleeping bags. I believe our tree was the original Charlie Brown version sitting perched on a cardboard box with very few decorations. Santa didn't bring much that year, but what he did bring put smiles on my children's faces. That was the year that we had Christmas twice. What child wouldn't smile at that?

What a joy it was today going through old pictures. I not only found photos that had captured moments of happiness for my children, but I found priceless memories tucked away in that trunk too that warmed my heart and brought me happiness.

 I hope that you will take the time during this Christmas Season to rediscover your own priceless happy memories.

 

Where Does The Time Go?

I am thinking that I need to sit down and write myself a to-do list. I have a lot to accomplish in just a little bit of time. We will be getting together with our Yankee children and grandchildren Tuesday evening for our Christmas Dinner and for the children to exchange gifts. I will be making a green bean casserole and a sugar free jello and fruit bowl for the diabetics and dieters. Hopefully the weather will work with us so we will be able to make it off of the mountain.

We will be going back to town on Christmas Day to join Chris' family and watch the little ones open their gifts andto have a little quality time with the grandchildren. In the afternoon we will join Tersie and her girls to watch the girls open their gifts and share some quality time with the girls and our grand puppy, Lucy as well. It makes it difficult at holiday time when divorce happens within a family. I remember my mom commenting one year that Alley Oop has had so many Christmas celebrations by the time we get her, she is too tired to enjoy it.

Hopefully we will be able to get off of the mountain and back to town on Christmas morning. We had single digit temperatures last night and it is already up to 15 degrees at 11:00 AM (sounds like a heat wave doesn't it?). They are calling for snow and one of those wonderful winter mixes in the next few days. The snow doesn't concern me, it is when the road gets covered with ice, it can make for quite a trip down the mountain.

As I have been typing this post, my attention has been drawn to the beautiful display going on outside my window. We are having just the slightest bit of snow fall right now. It is absolutely beautiful....... The wind is swirling these tiny little bits of snow all around. As they dance through the air on their journey to the ground they are caught in the rays of the sun to give the impression that instead of snow falling to the ground, it is the tiniest of diamonds. What a magical time of year.

Following Christmas we need to get things together for a trip to Louisiana and Texas to visit with our Rebel children and grandchildren. Before we leave though, we have Britt's birthday on New Years Day and as tradition has it, T~Bear will be coming out to spend New Year's Eve with us. Like I said, I really need to get a to-do list started.

Hoping that you will have a day full of blessings!