Christmas Decorations

We got a good portion of the decorating done this weekend.

The stairway received some garland and poinsettias along with Christmas pillows from friends.

The quilt I made a few years back.

Quilts are perfect to put in this spot.  It is viewed right as visitors come in the door and it would be hard to put pictures in this area.

A good view of the lovely red poinsettias.

This nativity I painted when we were first married.  I worked in downtown Lafayette, IN and there was a ceramics store a couple of blocks away.  I would go down there on my lunch hour and found these.  Tom worked many different hours and I was home alone in the evenings.  This passed my time very nicely.  It is now about 30 years old and there are some chips but all in all it is still beautiful to me.

The finished decorated tree in the daytime.

Here is the tree top angel we call Gloria.  She also is almost 30 years old.  I picked her up on a shopping trip to Merrillville IN.  She has survived well.

We enjoy a very full tree.

Here it is at night as I play with the flash and shutter speeds.

Moving the camera sideways.

Moving it up.

Gotta always keep track of the days till Christmas.

I love my snowman collection picked up on my own and also given to me as gifts from very dear people.

My newest one is the guy with the star on his head and also holding a star and he looks like he is singing.

Boy am I glad I didn't sell this corner cabinet!

Simple yet elegant decorations.  We have gotten a little snow today.

Here is some snow blowing off the roof.

Wall Decorating

Tom and I were able to get some items on our bare walls in the Gathering Room this last Saturday.

These are all crosstitched samplers that I did.

The only one that I didn't do is the bottom, 3 from the left.  My Mother stitched that one a year before she passed away.  These are all very dear to me and have a lot of meaning.

We got some of our family pictures up.  Makes it feel more and more homey.

The large picture in the middle was a drawing art class final.  The title of it was "The Face of God".

You were supposed to draw your interpretation of God.

I chose my children as toddlers along with the seasons and weather.

This was done in graphite.

I tried to show it in regular lighting.

The flash doesn't do a real good job off the glass.

Here were two beautiful pumpkin pies with very flaky crusts for our family Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving in the D

For the past three years we have been going to Detroit for Thanksgiving Day.

The city has a large Parade and before it they hold a race called the Turkey Trot.

The first year we went we really just went for the football game.

Then the next year we decided to stay downtown and participate in the race.

Tom and Sam would run and Kevin and I would walk it.

This year our neighbors Dave and Nancy Rauch came with us.

This is what is looked like Thanksgiving morning walking to the race site at 7:30 a.m.

This year 17,000 people participated in the race.

They were saying 1,000,000,00 people were going to watch the parade along the parade route.

Here is the group of us waiting for the race to begin.

The fast ones, Tom, Dave and Sam were going to take off at 7:45.

The ones just for Fun, Myself, Nancy and Kevin are taking off at 8:00.

It is a fun atmosphere, people are dressed up and music is playing.

People bring their animals to run with them.

The park downtown is all decorated up.

A funny story that happened.

There is a point in the race where the people running the 10K split and ran 3 more miles.  All of us were signed up for the 5 K (3.1 miles) but Sam had his headphones on and didn't hear the people with the megaphones saying 10K TO THE RIGHT-5K TO THE LEFT!  Sam went to the right....Tom after he had finished called me on the phone and said to watch for Sam apparently he went with the 10 K runners!  Great thing about Sam, you can call him on the phone anytime and he will answer-even running a 10K race.  That's how Tom found out where he was. 

He got credit for running the 10K at 1 hour and 6 minutes.  Not bad for not having trained or even run for a year.  He was VERY sore the next day.

Good going Sam!!!

After we got back to the hotel and showered, The Rauchs and Tom and I went to the Detroit Lions  football game against the New England Patriots.

It was a good game for the first 3 quarters, then the Lions lost momentum.

The biggest highlight though was halftime with Kid Rock.

It was great!

Click on this to see it.

We finished up the day with a Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner at a restaurant called Fishbones in Greektown.

While we were walking to Fishbones Nancy and I spied this pastry shop that was busy and had DELICIOUS looking pastries.

We stopped by and had a hard time deciding.

We had a full and fun day in the D!



Happy Birthday Sam

Wednesday the 24th was Sam's 19th Birthday.

Every year we think "how did this happen"?

To go from this.......

To this........

in what it seems like a really short time. 

We love you and are proud of you!

Happy Thanksgiving

May you have a good Thanksgiving.

In the hustle of preparing food and cleaning the house or traveling.

Give a thought to the blessings that you have,

and be thankful.

Ahhhhhhhh

I LOVE Saturday mornings.  To know I don't have to get up and do anything or get ready for work 

A good cup of coffee is so welcome.  It starts my Saturday off just right.

I am so glad they come around once a week.

Tags

I have gotten more tags done to send to Lady A.  It has been great fun doing them.

I still haven't gotten all 25 done yet, my husband had us booked up this weekend socializing. 

Book Review-Plain Secrets...An Outsider among the Amish

This book takes place around the Ashland Ohio area.  The author, Joe Mackall is a professor of English and Journalism at Ashland University.  He lives among the Swartzentruber Amish in that area.  This group of Amish are the most traditional of all the groups.  Mr. Mackall has developed a good relationship with his neighbors the Shetler Family which is composed of 9 children and both parents and grandparents.  This group of Amish do not believe in using lights on their buggy's nor even slow moving vehicle signs. They have only wooden chairs in the house.  The church tells them how to live their lives, who they can talk with and whether they can accept a ride from the English.  I enjoyed this book because it gavee me insight of why the Amish live their lives away from the outside world and why they deny themselves. 

I give this book a 7 out of 10 stars.

A little decorating

I started putting decorating items out and also put pictures on the walls.

This is a Rowe Pottery Crock with a bunch of sunflowers placed in it.

A couple of pictures on the bathroom wall to complement the arrangement.

Here is our religious wall.  I have picked up some different crosses and statues and thought they would look nice here.

The outdoor bathroom got some attention too.

This is a Patience Brewster fairy that she designed.

All of the things in the outdoor bath had to do with gardens or Flowers.

Here is a wall in the eating nook.

This my friend Theresa and her husband Larry got us for a housewarming gift.

It is just the perfect spot.

This handy thing is great.  No more tangled necklaces.  

The backside is just the same.

Soap Run

I made my yearly soap run to Marshalls Department Store this last week.  These soaps are the most fantastic things.  I only buy moisturizing soap and there are usually the most enticing flavors of these.  The bars are HUGE and you should cut it in two because if you drop it on your toe there is a possibility of bruise or break your toe.  All at the cost of a mere $3.99!

The flavors I pick up were Cranberry, Spearmint Eucalyptus, Pineapple,  Pink Grapefruit.

We also get beautiful boxes, and this one you can put your gift card in it too.

Book Review

I finished this book this weekend.  It was a very refreshing book that didn't dwell on her bad marriage to Prince Charles or her eating disorders.  It was written by her butler Paul Burrell for the 10th anniversary of her death in 1997.  The book told about what it was like with the non-public Princess Diana.  What it was like in her home in Kensington Palace.  He became her personal butler in 1992 up until her passing.  It highlights the great love that she had for her boys, William and Harry.  It also tell about another love Dr. Hasnat and that they broke it off in July of 1997 and that she had only been dating Dodi Al Fayed for a few weeks when they had the accident at the end of August 1997.  It has a chapter about the auction of her dresses and how they were chosen.  It was very interesting learning about all the different friends she had and the wonderful caring things she did for people.  This was a very enjoyable book and it made me all the more sad that we don't get to grow old with Princess Diana. 

And The Winner Is:

This is for the 25 made by hand, Christmas Tags.

I had two wonderful people sign my comments section.

Lady A listed many favorite books but her first one was a favorite one of mine,

The Lovely Bones.

It was one I could hardly put down and it also made me not want to let my kids out of my site.

It also gave you a whole different view of what Heaven could possibly be.

Congratulations and I will be sending these to you by the weekend.

Organization

It is great to be some steps closer to organization.

The big question...

ARE WE EVER TRULY ORGANIZED?

It is an ever changing picture.

Today, I got the buttons in the jars.

I got my new clock set up. 

Just the right size.

An inexpensive Big Lots find.

I got this great light all together.

It's quite handy.

I had the tray in another box.

I also got my desk drawers organized....for today at least. 

Blissful Day

That's what I did today.

This is the first day off I have had since we moved, and I didn't have to go anywhere. 

It was wonderful.

Sunny, a light breeze topping out at 65 degrees.

Total Bliss.

The only thing that went wrong...

It went too fast.