The "S" Word

The weathermen can be happy...they predicted snow (the "s" word) and we did get some. It didn't stick...but was very pretty as it was floating through the air. I enjoyed watching the snow fall as I put more decorations on the tree. I would guess that I am about half-way through my ornaments...maybe (hopefully) a bit more than half-way. I have done lots of little jobs today. One was to tie ribbons on five little packages that needed to go in the AZ box. After I did that then the ball was back in Woody's court to pack the box and get it sealed with tape and addressed. He did that after he came back from WalMart and Kroger. He did our weekly shopping a bit early today taking advantage of Kroger's once-a-month senior discount (first time that he has done this). He came home with clues as to some cooking projects down the road...Chex Mix ingredients (really must be Christmas! I can hardly wait to smell it baking in the oven...Woody makes the Chex Mix...and I nibble...if I can get passed his stirring spoon!), some special cookies that he makes at this time of the year and other goodies. He also got the ingredients for my Cottey Wassil (the way they spelled it) that I make every year for our Sunday School party. The recipe that I use dates back to my Cottey College ( in Nevada, MO) years. It is the recipe for the Wassil that we had after we walked around campus hanging wreaths on the doors of buildings (Hanging of the Green). We went back to one of the residence halls and had wassil and sang Christmas songs. Ahhhhhhh memories...at least I can still remember those times! I will be making the Wassil at the end of the week...at least a day ahead of the day that you are serving it...so at least by Saturday. Woody took the package to the Post Office and mailed it...so...again...it st be getting close to Christmas...since their packages are on their way. We also shopped today...online. We have just about finished with our Christmas gift buying...just one more grandchild to get a gift for ( I think). 'Tis the season! Well, back to getting "things" ready for the party!

What Day Is It?

Oh, right...it's Tuesday...Woody has been gathering the trash to take out to the road. I got up and headed straight into the sewing room and got to work on finishing the last little doll outfit that I was making for my great-niece Julianna, who lives in AZ. Well, I finally got all the doll sewing finished a couple of hours ago. Then gathered up the gifts for AZ and took them downstairs for Woody to wrap. Then I put bows on them, etc. I just put the last ones on the table that need to be wrapped. He can do that when he returns from the prayer room at church or in the morning. He started writing our Christmas letter.

This morning my four little art students came over a bit early as their mommy and daddy were going her OB. She was having an ultrasound. Woody went next door to take care of Elijah. I was hoping to have art finished before our heat pump supervisor came to inspect...but he came early so Woody and Elijah came over here. The children drew the shape of a Christmas ornament and then decorated it the way that they wanted to. Then I gave them the outline of a giant ornament and they drew a design on it and then some made the design out of cut and/or torn paper. They did a good job on them. Esther put spirals on hers which got us to cutting spirals...before long all were cutting spirals. Graham managed to cut one that ended up being long enough to stretch from the top of the stairs to the bottom. After art, The four oldest children went back next door and they got back to work on their school assignments. Kathy and Nathan got a good report from the doctor...everything is fine with baby Dorrell#6.

Our Christmas tree is still lacking ornaments. Maybe I can get busy on it in a few minutes and really concentrate on it tomorrow. I need to get all those boxes emptied so Woody can put them back in the "Christmas closet." Lots to do before my Sunday party!!!!! The to-do list is growing rather than shrinking! It's raining and one of the weather forecasters mentioned the "s" word for tomorrow.

First Ornament!

Elijah got the honor of hanging the first ornament this year. So far I have four ornaments on the tree...Joy hasn't hung one yet. I spent a good part of the day clearing off tables and wrapping up decorative items that are out year-round. The stack of boxes grows taller in the hallway. The good thing is that all those boxes are now either empty or have "normal" decorations in them. I still have the shadow box in the kitchen to turn into Christmas. I had forgotten all about it till sometime this morning and then couldn't find the box with the little Christmas things in it. I ended up finding it downstairs with the Christmas tree ornaments. Esther helped me a lot this morning. She carried boxes up and down the stairs. While she was here I got the dining room table all cleared of tissue paper and boxes, etc. and then she and I got the "center piece" ready for the table. I can say that the dining room is totally finished (except for removing the step ladder...so guess it isn't completely finished!). Late this afternoon I finally managed to cut out a doll dress...that will let me get the sewing things off my sewing table. Then I will move the sewing table closer to the Christmas tree so I can put the boxes of ornaments up on the table so I won't have to bend over so much. Woody and Elijah went to the "can man" to recycle the aluminum cans. The money that they got will be put in The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. There are quite a few at church who save their empty aluminum cans to be recycled so the money can go for this offering. We happen to be the drop-off place for the cans...or Woody picks them up from church at a drop-off spot...then they are stored in our garage till enough gather to make it worth the trip to "the can man." Woody also got another treasure hunt going. It started with Abigail this time, but she quickly got Graham in on it with her and lost interest before Graham did. But then the rain started and that stopped the treasure hunt for today and probably for the next day or so. We ate supper over at Nathan and Kathy's this evening. Woody left from there to go to Monday Night Prayer Meeting at church. I stayed a bit longer looked at the latest robot that Graham had built and watched Graham and Nathan practice passing juggling rings and then Kathy joined them. I read a couple of stories to Elijah, Esther and Joy. The girls showed me the new toys that they got this weekend when they juggled for a Christmas program in Kentucky. Now I think that I will sew for a while on this little dress since it needs to find its way into a wrapped box to send off to AZ. I feel quite behind with AZ packages this year. We are still waiting for a delivery before we can even think about sending it off so I have a bit of a reprieve! Then it is get serious about the Christmas tree. I think that I will have a bit of help tomorrow...we have art tomorrow (I'm only doing a "little" school this week since I am getting ready for "my" party.) and we will be taking care of the five of them for a little while when Nathan and Kathy go for Kathy's ultra sound tomorrow...getting really close to our newest little one who is due the middle of January.

Hanging of the Green

Tonight was the Hanging of the Green Service at our church. Four of our five youngest grandchildren were in the program. I didn't think that I was going to be able to post a picture of Esther's preschool choir as I only took a movie during it. But I fooled around with three of my photo programs and found that one of them would let you capture stills from a movie. So that was my "learn something every day" moment of today! Esther's choir is the top one. They made their t-shirts...handprint wreaths. Graham, Abigail and Joy are all in the same choir. All the choirs did a very nice job making us get into this advent season. The church looks very pretty with all the "green" hung.

Woody and I went to the early service and then went to Sunday School. Woody taught his sixth-grade boys' class. We came home and Woody continued to make the Ham and Barley Soup that he had started before we left this morning. This soup has quite a bit of cutting and then several stages of browning veggies and then a long cooking time. I helped along the way with a bit of cutting and stirring...but this soup we will give credit to Woody for! We each had a bowl late in the afternoon. Very tasty! I continued the decorating...getting closer. I can almost say that all I have left is the big tree...but not quite. Maybe before the evening ends?

A Window on the Past

Tonight's blog picture shows the manger scene that our family used when I was growing up. My sister sent it to me in with our Christmas gifts this year. I had been trying to figure out a place to display it and last night when I was putting angels on top of our china cabinet I thought that it might fit in the middle of the top shelf of the china cabinet...and, it did! It is pushed together a bit more than it would be in a larger space, but it is in a place that we can see it and enjoy it. This scene is made of cardboard...though it doesn't look it. I guess the amazing thing is that most all of its pieces still exist and some of them are quite small. The tabs that hold it together are a bit worn and have been mended a few times with tape, but they still are there and continue to hold the scene together.

It has been a pretty busy day for both Woody and me. Woody has checked on the roofers at Nathan and Kathy's several times. Things went well and they have a new roof on their garage and house. Woody managed to get the rest of the leaves mulched. He ran several errands...the last of which was to attempt to purchase some turnips for our Ham and Barley Soup. He had purchased a rutabaga by mistake yesterday, which I think could have been substituted for the turnips...perhaps we will try both in the soup this time...after all, "it's soup". We often say "it's soup" when we are making soup and not following the ingredients and/or the amounts in the recipe exactly. We have found that you don't have to be exact when making soup and that you can often change ingredients and you still "usually" end up with a tasty end product. I have made enough different soups at this point that I usually know what will work and what won't. I have pretty much stayed busy in the house working on cleaning and decorating. I have done a little bit of this and a little bit of that...vacuumed carpets, shampooed carpets, dusted furniture, polished furniture, washed my cup and saucer collection, dried the same cups and saucers, put the cups and saucers back in the display shelf, taken down decorative items, put up Christmas items, emptied boxes of Christmas decorations, filled boxes with everyday decorative items, gone up and down the stairs numerous times, made the pile of boxes shown in last night's blog picture higher, moved furniture, moved same furniture back, and when I sit down to take a rest I have found myself dozing off...once in front of the computer and the other time when I sat in a chair in the living room after completing the shampooing...best for me not to sit on days like this! Seems like a long day...but I can see some light at the end of the tunnel (but that light is still pretty small!). Woody managed to get our big Christmas tree box out of the closet and down the stairs so it will be there when the moment comes that I am ready to put the tree up. This has definitely been a "Tis the Season kind of day! Hope I survive till it is "Tisn't the Season!"

Scary?

I don't know if this picture is as scary to you as it is to me! This is what our upstairs hallway looks like and this doesn't really show it all! Plus all the boxes aren't out of the closet yet. Some of these boxes are still full of Christmas decorations and ornaments and some have already been emptied and filled back up with regular every day decorations. The scary part to me is that my Sunday School party is just a little over a week away. Finally this evening I have started doing a bit more of the decorating...but I really should be sewing another doll dress as that present has to be sent to AZ. I got all the ornaments that I have been working on over the last several months to their next step. The next step is to put on their hanging cords. This afternoon I made cookies for an event at church in the morning. So I have been busy...just not making much headway in the decorating department. Woody walked his four-mile route this afternoon. It has been a beautiful day. The temperatures were in the upper 20's early this morning, but the day warmed up into the 60's...very nice! On Woody's walk he counted eight houses getting new roofs. A while after he got back he got to oversee Nathan's roofing crew as they arrived rather late and Nathan and family were away at the time. They got the garage shingles taken off and started getting the tar paper on and then it was getting dark so they put a blue tarp over things and went on their way. Woody came in quite pleased as he had been able to communicate successfully in Spanish. Woody said to one of the workers, "manana" and the worker replied, "si." Too funny!

Now for an explanation. One of my blog readers asked about our Deacon-Widow banquet as to why the banquet had that name and what the name meant. Twelve years ago Woody and I were visiting Nathan in TX while he was in seminary. He had an engagement at a church to juggle as the entertainment for a banquet. The person who asked him to do the program found out that we were visiting and we were invited to the banquet, too (perks of being the juggler's parents!). It was a special banquet where the widows at their church were honored and it was given by the deacons of their church. Woody came back and made the suggestion that we start this tradition in our church. The deacon's (and their wives) had for years and years had a banquet at Christmas so it was decided to invite the widows of our church to the Deacon Christmas banquet...and thus it became the Deacon-Widow Banquet. The widows really seem to enjoy being our guests at this banquet each year. Last night, I believe that we had close to 25 widows in attendance. Each deacon in our church is assigned to 12 or so families and is responsible in keeping up with their needs. It is called the Deacon Family Care Plan. Most deacons have at least one widow in their Family Care Plan and they are responsible in seeing that "their" widow/s get invited to the banquet and offer to pick them up to take them to the banquet. Last night it worked out that Woody and I were able to sit at the table where "his" widow sat. The deacons serve the food at the banquet to their their widow/s and any other guests (pastoral staff, deacon's wives and entertainers for the evening) (and themselves eventually!). There is always entertainment after we eat. At the end of the banquet there is a gift given to each widow...this year a poinsettia. It has become a very nice Christmas tradition. I'm very glad that Woody took the initiative to get this started in our church.

Back to a little decorating...preparing for putting angels on top of our china cabinet...lots of up and down on the step ladder!

"Us Two and a Guest"

I'm really late blogging...and, no, the Deacon-Widow Banquet did not last this long. It was a late evening for us but we have been home for over an hour. I got distracted and then had to download pictures and then had internet connection problems. We had a very well attended banquet as you can tell by the top picture. I have a pretty wide lens, but couldn't get all the tables in one picture...but you get the gist that there were quite a few of us in attendance. Good fellowship, good food, and good entertainment. Our entertainment was a local group called "Us Two and Him," but "Him" wasn't able to be here tonight so they had a guest guitarist who joined them. They are really funny. We all had a good laugh to start out our Christmas celebrations. I ate too much and really should have passed on the dessert, but it was really good cheesecake and I just couldn't and I ate all but one bite which I did share with Woody just so he could see what he was missing! He had pecan pie...couldn't have been as good as the cheesecake!

We have had a busy day. Elijah, Esther, and Joy came over for school lessons. Then Abigail had her sewing lesson. Today she prepared fabric for Esther's placemat. She did a LOT of cutting. I think that her hand was tired when she left. While Abigail sewed with me, Woody walked to the Post Office. After lunch Woody and I went to Lowe's and WalMart to look at microwaves (ours died a couple of days ago). We came home with a new one and it is all plugged in and has warmed a cup of tea for me...so I know that it works. Then this evening we had the Deacon-Widow Banquet. So a very busy day. It was good that Woody felt like going to the banquet. The last one that we attended was three years ago...just days after he had been told that his melanoma had returned. He was in a lot of pain at that time and was pretty miserable and all I could think about was his diagnosis...that wasn't the best memory of a deacon-widow banquet...so it was good to be back in attendance and to have him enjoying it once again.