Monday, December 28, 2009

Not a Creature was Stirring, Not Even a Mouse

The house is much too quiet today and on its way to becoming much too clean. Our family has all left now and we're in the process of putting away the Christmas decorations. Gone are the wrapping paper and ribbons and bows. Now we're left with fantastic memories. We had a wonderful time with our younger son and his family and my brother and his family. The house rang with the laughter and play of two of our grandchildren, Hannah and David. We miss everyone already but are thankful for the time we had with them.

Hannah with her American Girl doll
David opening his Imaginext Batcave

We opened presents with our son and his family on Christmas night and we knew we still had the next day to all look forward to my brother and his family getting here. We ate together and opened more presents. But, aside from the fact that we enjoyed the food and the presents, we mainly just had fun being together as family. There's nothing quite like that.


Hannah and her mom, Jenn, checking out one of Hannah's gifts
Stephanie, our 15 year old niece
David, Jenn, JD, and Ann, our sister-in-law
Steve, my brother, opening one of his gifts



We missed our older son and his family but they were with the other grandparents and we plan to see them soon for a belated Christmas. We also missed our nephew Drew who is a trainer for the Auburn football team and had to be in Orlando for practice and other activities before the Outback Bowl on January 1st. As much as we missed him, we're so excited for him to have this experience. I know he's having a great time getting to be a part of all of the pre-game festivities. War Eagle, Drew!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Merry Christmas to the Farm Animals, Too!

We were ready to get out for a while today and go somewhere other than physical therapy. SO, we took a quick ride up to our Farm to feed the animals. We had four bundles of hay, 4 bags of feed for the cows and the goats, and 2 bags of kitty food plus some canned food. It was a beautiful day for a ride in the country.

Here's Santa's sleigh (AKA Pops' truck) loaded with goodies for the animals.


Two very contented cats

Here's our pond. You can see how the floods throughout the south have affected the pond. It's out of its banks all the way around (note the water line on the tree--the water is going down but more rain is expected on Christmas Eve).
Where is the grub and what's taking so long?


We left to come home knowing that all the animals were taken care of and would be warm and content for Christmas.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

In Sickness and in Health

Wow, I wonder if my hubby actually knew what he was saying when we spoke our marriage vows over 44 years ago. However, let me just say that I am SO thankful for him these last 10 days following knee replacement surgery. He has had to go above and beyond the "call of duty." When one has this type surgery, one is almost completely dependent on someone else for the first few days. He was there for every move I made. I really felt bad for him to have to be there all the time, but I really wanted him there with me, too. When we came home, he had to be creative in many ways in order for me to take a shower, sleep, eat, and just about every thing else. He came through with all of the above. SO, I thank God for a caring, loving husband who has taken care of me the last few days. Thankfully, I am much better now and can do most things for myself so he's getting a break, but I would not want to go through this without him.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

A Special Christmas Present/Decoration

Recently I decided to retire at the end of this semester. I've worked with many special people, but one in particular and I have job shared the last twelve years allowing both of us to work part-time. She's been my prayer warrior, encourager, and special friend as we've both been through serious illnesses, family deaths, as well as celebrations of life and large and small victories. There aren't many friends/co-workers like Ramona and I appreciate her very much and will miss her. Yesterday she stopped by my house and left a special present at the door for me---I didn't even know she had come by. As I've mentioned before, everyone in our family has graduated from Auburn University so we bleed orange and blue. Ramona's loyalty is to another team across the state so I REALLY appreciate this gift--it was a supreme sacrifice for her to pay money for this! Take a look at my cute little Auburn Christmas tree!


Wednesday, December 16, 2009

A Christmas Card Carousel

Even knee surgery and physical therapy couldn't keep me from taking part in Faith's Christmas Card Carousel! When she announced on her blog that she planned to host that, I wanted to take part in it. Be sure you go over to her blog to check out the many cute Christmas cards that people have linked there. Ours is a picture of our grandchildren when we went on a "field trip" back in May to Colonial Williamsburg. Since that was such a special trip to us and hopefully to them, I wanted to put their pictures on our Christmas card. They dressed in colonial costumes and walked around Williamsburg all day. What fun we had!!

Monday, December 14, 2009

Home for Christmas!

I wrote in a post last week that I found out I needed to have knee replacement surgery before Christmas. Last Wednesday was the day. I had a host of people praying for me and I went into the surgery feeling a peace from all the prayers. The surgery went well and I came home from the hospital yesterday. Tomorrow I will start out patient physical therapy. I have missed out on many of the "blog parties" going on during the holidays, but am thankful to be home and have the surgery behind me. For those of you who were praying for me, thanks so very much. Now I'm home and looking forward to Christmas and being with family. Merry Christmas to all of you and remember-----------Jesus is the reason for the season.

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!!

On November 13th I found out I needed to have knee surgery. That near the holidays PLUS the birth of our fifth grandchild threw me into overdrive! I immediately went out to buy stocking "stuffers" and Christmas presents, addressed Christmas cards and mailed them the day before Thanksgiving, pulled out all of the Christmas decorations, and got really, really busy. My hubby helped tremendously by putting up the tree, putting the lights on it as well as all of the ornaments. While I don't think I've done EVERYTHING I might have done if surgery hadn't been planned, I have finally gotten everything done that we really wanted to do and decided to take some pictures of our house. I LOVE Christmas and want it to look warm and inviting for our friends and family whether it's a year we can actually entertain or not. I really wanted it to look good for the physical therapists who will be coming in post-surgery! Here are a few pictures of our house ready for Santa!!
I love Santas and have collected them for a few years now. They always grace our mantel at Christmas time and each year I add one or two given to me by some of my friends or family. Also, this year I did something new. I've never had a wreath on the mirror about the fireplace but bought a live wreath from Home Depot this year and, after seeing a picture of a wreath on a mirror, I decided to try that this year. I really like it there.


The buffet has an assortment of Christmas items on it including Christmas plates and Santa pictures.


These stuffed animals sit on the stairs and wait patiently for Santa's arrival. I started putting them out when our grandchildren were born. They enjoyed seeing and playing with the bears and mouse so I still put them there.


The stairs have a simple garland draped on the banister with the addition of red bows. If I had more time, I would probably add a few things to the garland but this will have to do this year.


I love lighthouses and have one that I use at Christmas along with some other houses that people have given me. It's difficult to see them clearly in this picture, but they're on a table in our living room.

Finally, here's our Christmas tree this year. It's waiting and ready for some grandchildren to get here and shake the presents under the tree while trying to guess what's in each one. My mother made the Christmas tree skirt for us years ago (not too many years before she died) and every year I look at it and think of her love when I see all the stitches she put into that tree skirt. It's a special treasure because she made it especially for us.


Be sure to visit Thoughts From Over the Rainbow to see more Christmas decorations.

Monday, December 07, 2009

A Mosaic of Our Weekend

In the previous post, I mentioned our full weekend of birthday and basketball. I decided to just make a mosaic of the very full and fun weekend!

Be sure to visit Little Red House to see more mosaics!

Happy 11th Birthday, Ashlyn!

Last weekend we visited our children and grandchildren. It was a fun weekend filled with a birthday party and basketball games where we saw two of our granddaughters play, our grandson played his first basketball game ever, and our oldest granddaughter cheered for her very first time. They play and cheer for Upwards Basketball which is a really great Christian basketball league for children. However, this post is about the birthday girl so here are some pictures of the party. We thank God for a healthy, happy eleven years for Ashlyn!! We love you, Ash!