New Years Eve

I almost made it to 2012 without a cold this Fall! almost...yesterday I was having nasal drip which is not a good sign. By last night, at bedtime, I was blowing my nose a little bit too much! 4 am I was up and my head was full and about to explode. No amount of blowing seemed to clear my head. It only made it worse. I am now sitting with my coffee and hoping that the nasal drip will soon stop and I will feel a lot better once I am up and around for awhile. Wishful thinking.

Tonite we are supposed to be going to friends for New Years Eve. A bunch of people will be there. I am hoping not to spread this germ. Unfortunately, where I go...it goes. For the past month, everywhere I went, there were people with colds and the flu. I seemed to get through the month without picking up anything but I guess I spoke too soon. Too many late nights and  being a bit overtired along with germs everywhere finally got me! Not sure how John gets by each year without a cold - especially living with me who always gets one! Must be all the water he drinks or maybe it's the koubasca!!

Happy New Year's Eve everyone!

Sorry

Sorry to all those people in Edmonton who were enjoying the no snow phenomenom. I washed my car last night and should have known better as I had a hair appointment on the other side of town and I have to take the Yellowhead. It always rains or snows when I have my appointment. The snow gods did not disappoint. It snowed about 1 cm and of course the gravel trucks were out immediately and the roads were filthy. My nice clean car (which I paid $11 for ultimate clean) is covered in muck! It cleared up and is now sunny and the roads are dry and so is the mud on my car!!! they are talking about more flurries tomorrow night so I am leaving my car dirty for another few days - until it gets cold again. Bah Humbug!

Forgot to mention...

Christmas Day has come and gone but I forgot to mention I got this wonderful gift...a new camera.  I have been complaining about my camera for a year now. I originally had a Canon and it was wonderful. I had it for two years and then one day it stopped. Just like that. It didn't work. It went black. You could not see what you were looking at and although it allowed you to take the pic it did not show what you took! I read up on it on-line but no solutions. My friend had one just like it and she bought it a month before I got mine. It died a month before mine did. The same problem. She took hers to the Canon rep and they said they could repair it but...it would cost. Not worth it she said so she bought a new one. I too bought a new one. A pink Sony hand-size. Very cute. At first it was great but later it did not do what it was supposed to do. I don't know if I played too much with it or what but the pictures occasionally turned out good - especially with natural light outside. Inside was a different story. Usually yellowish, shaky, fuzzy. I was getting upset.

However, that is all behind me now. John bought me a Canon Power Shot ELPH 300 HS. RED! I opened it finally last night and started to read about it. Sounds like it will be a perfect companion. Small and powerful. I have to put the disk in the computer so I can download some pics and I will do that shortly. I already know it takes good pics inside and when you magnify them, they are still clear! Now that's amazing!

Hard to believe it is already Dec 28th. Where did 2011 go? This year, I didn't even get postcard pics made up (I didn't have a good enough picture of us) and only got a few cards sent out of town. In-town did not get any this year. Maybe I will start a new trend!

I returned some gifts yesterday. Four gifts, four different places, four different line-ups and four different times waiting. It all added up to about an hour in total. Not too bad. I found a cute little outfit for my youngest granddaughter as I returned the dressy dress that our daughter felt she would not get much wear out of and a new pair of pj's which hopefully will fit my oldest granddaughter this time! My, how fast she is growing!

Well, I am debating whether we should take down our outside lights while it is still nice outside. They are talking about flurries later this week. Of course, it will snow tomorrow as I have my hair appointment on the north side of town. It always snows or rain when I have to go across town and onto the Yellowhead. How does IT know that??!!

Have a good rest if you are on holidays and if not, enjoy your work day!

Christmas Day 2011

Christmas Day has come and gone but the memories will last forever! We started the day on the phone talking to my brothers in Texas and wishing them both a 'warm' Merry Christmas. Actually it was warm here too! No snowfall in the past week. I guess it will come in January (just around the corner)!

Our combined service at church was very good and it was also a time of well wishes to the many people we normally miss from 2nd service as we are usually at the first one! Lots of visitors as well which was nice to see and to meet. We came home for a quick lunch and started preparing our supper meal. The kids arrived just after 3 pm and we began the task of opening gifts! So many!



The calm before the storm...





Here they come....notice there is not much snow and no jacket!





Always ready to pose!





Ethan made a bird house for Grampa



Josh made frame (with pic) for Gramma



The aftermath! Not too bad.



Turkey soup for lunch today!!



Not too much left of our 14 lb. turkey but enough for a good pot of turkey soup. We've already had a bowl and it is only mid-morning!  Looking forward to turkey sandwiches at lunch!

Still Alive

It's been a busy week with all sorts of good intentions but only a few things materializing. With the grandkids here, things work differently! A day is completely absorbed with their 'wants' and occasional 'needs' and housework takes on a new meaning! It is the little moments that I look forward to the most.  I get up and have my shower and it is quiet in the living room as no one is up or else the oldest child is quietly reading. He always turns on the Christmas tree lights. This morning he was on the computer downstairs by himself - John had already left for his usual coffee meeting and it was 7:30 a.m. I went upstairs for my coffee and Ethan came out of his bedroom all sleepy-eyed and sat at the kitchen island 'chatting'. Kids are so cute when they are half-asleep. He told me he would miss us but they had to go to their other grandparents place today to visit them but he would come back on Christmas Day! He talked about gifts and interestingly enough we had quite a long session on how to tell time on the 'old fashioned' clocks - the non-digital type! The concept of 5 digits beween the 12 and the 1 and then 60 in total and throw in those roman numerals as I, II, III or I mean 1, 2, 3 caused him a bit of consternation! By the end of the 15 minutes chat, I think he got it but we will have to wait till our next meeting to talk more about it!

We had asked our next door neighbor to take some photos of us all so that I could do up a Christmas or New Years Card (if I had the energy) or maybe just have a good shot for our photo album of this Christmas. 

We never checked to see what we were each wearing either!

We also took shots outside and inside and they turned out pretty good. We will try to do some more (maybe) when the kids come back on Christmas Day for dinner and gift openings. They may not have time to take portrait shots as they will be busy opening gifts!







This was hard to get everyone smiling and eyes wide-open; worked out except for Ethan!

Earlier in the week we had some fun times at the School Park close by us. Weather is nice but not lots of snow although the skating rink was flooded so they were able to skate. All in all, it's been a pretty nice winter so far (I don't miss the snow or the blizzards, either)!

Sugar cookies with sparkles!



School tire swing



Trying to make a snowman with a big snowball!





Enjoying the afternoon swing!



Well this took longer than I anticipated but at least you can see we are busy doing stuff with the kids. I will try to post some more pics later. In the meantime, I think I will head for bed - the sounds of silence is ringing in my ears! ahhhhhhhhhhhzzzzzzzzzzz

Recent Happenings

I have been busy the past few days. Life away from the computer was winning. Although I sometimes was near to it and needing to get responses back for things I was doing, I did not have time to sit and think. I don't now either but will take a moment to reflect.

We went to supper on Thur nite with friends. A very nice little restaurant that opened in Jan of this year - The Melting Pot.  It is a fondue place. Expensive but very nice. Definitely enough food and there was great conversation with friends as well.

Friday we left early for Bonnyville to go and visit John's mom. It was a short visit (round trip-just for the day) but a very sweet, early Christmas visit. She seemed to like her gift of a new sweater but was all smiles when we also hooked up her new 40" tv! She was like a little child when the picture finally came on after initializing for what seemed like forever!  It filled the whole screen with bright colours - the Smurfs were on! Bright red and blue! She was mesmerized. However, when I turned to the next channel showing"100 Huntley Street' she settled in and become more serious! Now this is her favourite show.  She was quite taken with the whole effort and wanted to know right away how to turn it on, turn it off and turn it up!

Sat morning I had my ladies brunch with a few close friends. A nice time of chatting, lots of laughs, serious discussion and gift-giving. Oh yes, lots of food too! Fellowship and food. That's what it's all about!

Sat afternoon I had to do some serious shopping and got quite a bit of it done but not all of it. It's always nice to leave something to the very end - just to get into the spirit of it all!

Sunday we went to church and in the afternoon, we both went to watch the Children's program . Even though our own grandchildren are not in it, we love watching the antics of these young kids. So cute - all dressed up and singing for all their might!

Monday it was back to work and in the evening we went out with our neighbors to a favourite restaurant that had moved last year and it was our first visit there for a year or two. There had been a fire in their complex (not their place) but the whole building was condemned and their restaurant with it.The Bistro Praha is excellent and it feels like the same place as they brought the chairs and tables and full sized wall mural with them! It only moved around the corner but it took them over a year to do so.  After supper, which was excellent (weiner schnitzel) and then a peach crepe for dessert, we headed to the First Presbyterian Church downtown to catch the 8 pm performance of the Greenwood Singers and the U of A Handbell Ringers. A very nice evening. All very Christmasy!

Tomorrow is our windup brunch for our Time For Ladies at our church. It's the last meeting until January 18, 2012. That will give me a few weeks in there somewhere to finish the reading and prepare the next lesson and get the new book read for the 1st of February to begin a new session on 'The Power of Prayer'.

Tomorrow is also the evening that our daughter and grandchildren arrive. Looking forward to their visit as they will be here for over a week. Excitment is mounting for Christmas! I also have a Commissioning Service for my Stephen Ministry program so will miss picking them up from the airport but will see them all when I get home. What a welcoming sight they will be!

I tried loading some pics but it was not working tonite. Guess my computer has taken some time off too.  Well, my 'down time' is up and it is time to do a few things. Mostly...go to bed! Pictures will have to wait for another day!

Smell the coffee

'Tis the season to be jolly, so I thought I would 'rest a minute' and 'regroup'.  It has been another busy week. I have decided to sit down and 'smell the roses'...actually the coffee as I am taking the time to make a cup of raspberry & cream fresh roast. Ummmmm I am smelling it now. I have the Christmas tree lights on, Christmas music playing softly in the background and I am surrounded with ribbon and paper and gift cards and gift bags. Makes for a relaxing moment.

We had our Blue Christmas for Stephen Ministry on Mon nite and many people said they thought it was good. Too bad more don't come out. Well...I think the ones that need it ...do. Sometimes being with a lot of other people and wanting to cry or be angry is not how they 'get through it'. Others want to be with other people as they are lonely or needing comfort and compassion. The evening I think definitely does that. Wonderful music, a time of thoughtful reflection and a good sermon to help get through the coming weeks. A little refreshment doesn't hurt either!

Our ladies group is winding down as well. Next week is the Christmas Brunch and then we are off until January 18th where we will continue again with (you guessed it) another brunch!! We do love our socials!  Once we finish our Sacred Roads dvd and study we will begin in February with a new book study called Prayer...Does It Make Any Difference by Phillip Yancey. Looks very interesting...a little intimidating but I think we all can handle a little 'pressure' from the inside out! I am looking forward to leading the group again.

Well, my coffee just beeped at me. It's ready....and so am I! Enjoy the rest of the evening.

Windy, windy, windy

It's 0 C but windy with gusts up to 90 kph. There is a little skiff of snow falling or else it is the stuff being blown around. Either way, it is a good day to stay inside and put up the Christmas tree. I started setting it up late last night and went to bed about midnight. About 2 am I was still awake so I got up and finished most of it. I did the remainder at 8:30 this morning and just finished the lights and poinsettias in the china cabinet. It all looks very nice.  Now...to get rid of all the boxes and start moving things around so I have room in this little house. Where or where do I put all this 'stuff' we have accumulated. Did I ever mention that I have 'hoarder' tendencies!!!

I just made a fresh cup of coffee - Raspberry vanilla - and it is soooo good. I will finish this little blog and then get my dining room table cleared off and hopefully wrap a few more gifts and get that stuff put away and maybe...just maybe...I will start cleanring up (again) that back bedroom. It is my nemesis! Even if it is possibly spelled incorrect.......it means the same thing to me!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.......