Little Christmas

Today, January 6th, is Little Christmas, so I thought it wasn't too late to post my Christmas pics, after all. I have been experiencing some rapid heart rate problems the past several days, so that is why I am late in doing my Christmas post.


First of all, Stosh, Tammy and I started our holidays off by visiting my Mom's place of rest and honoring her with a Christmas wreath the weekend before Christmas. The banner across the middle reads 'Mom.' She always visited friends' and family members' graves each year and saw that they all had flowers. Now it is her turn to receive flowers. Below is the new name plate I had made for her, having the first letters of her name in larger letters than the rest and also had 'Beloved Mother and Grandma' added across the bottom.






My daughter's birthday was on December 15th, but she was in Montreal on a business trip that week, so we celebrated her special day on December 19th with this birthday cake. Somehow, we managed to mess up the 'B' in the word 'Birthday' while getting it out of the box, but, believe me, it didn't affect the cake's taste one bit. (It was chocolate!)



Below is the new centerpiece I bought the day my daughter and I went to Greenville shopping. I put it on my kitchen table and think I'll leave it there for awhile! I love snowmen! Unfortunately for the snowmen, so do my cats! I found one of the little carrot noses pulled out one day, and so now it has little teeth marks on it!

I don't put up a tree as the cats would just tear it down, so I decorate outdoors to share with my neighbors. One year my tree was knocked down 3 times, so no more big trees until some of these cats grow out of the devilish kitten stage. I have the little tabletop tree that I purchased for my dad when he was at Duke Hospital days before he died, but I forgot to take a picture of it. I placed it on my mantle and then took it down each night and put in a closet.

Below are pics of my outdoor decorations...

My gingerbread train...and deer in the background...

Mr. and Mrs. Gingerbread to greet guests...

Below is a pic of my daughter's outdoor "Winter Wonderland" decorations...

This is a picture of her 9-foot Christmas tree. It has 3,000 lights on it!

Gee, I wonder what this gift could be????

Tammy loves her Aunt Jemima frozen waffles plus she loves to cook and bake, so I made her this apron as her gag gift this year. She loved it! I am going to make myself one next.

She had Christmas Eve dinner, and this was her display of goodies afterwards...

This is her Nativity scene. Looks like I blurred the picture when I took it...

This is her village....one year she displayed it even larger on a 4x8-foot sheet of plywood, but this year she cut back and didn't display all the pieces...

And, of course, Buster had to get his picture taken! As you can see, he is doing very well after his invasive surgery and chemo...

And, of course, he had to engage in his favorite sport of the season...removing the bows!

And we can't forget Sweet Pea! She was enjoying the big squirrel I gave her and Buster. She tore right into it! So you can see that she is doing quite well since her 2 cancer surgeries and 19 radiation treatments. She and Buster both are such sweet cats!

This is Sweet Pea with the squirrel. I am posting this pic so you can see where her hair came back all white at the radiation site. You can see the white streak on her back. But so far, both she and Buster have had good reports with their ultrasounds and chest x-rays!

This is a pic of my ex's home all decked out for the holidays! I took this as I was leaving there on Christmas night. You can see the city lights in the sky 8 miles away behind his home! (You can see him standing on his front porch. No, we didn't leave him there...he just posed for the picture. He soon followed to Tammy's for more gift opening.)

This is his Christmas tree and gifts for the kids. They open their packages at his home. We later went to Tammy's to open up gifts there. We have to bend our holidays a little as Tim has to drive in from Orlando on Christmas Eve and never gets in til quite late. (The dates are wrong on the pics....seems when I put new batteries in, it messed up the date thing in the camera!)

This is a pic of Stosh, Tammy and me at his home.

He also loves his village display and plans to do it even bigger next year. He and Tammy share their love of Christmas villages.

I loved the centerpiece of his village....a waterfall!

This is an electric animated ski slope...

A car stuck in the snow with people pushing it up the hill....

I loved the scene below of an old-fashioned sleigh ride....

And I thought this was kind of a cute scene, too...decorating the arbor in the middle of town....

And last, but not least, his nativity scene. We remember the Reason for the Season!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We always enjoy our family times together! Wishing you all a great 2009 with good health, lots of fun times and many blessings! I am so grateful for all the new friends I have made through blogging this past year!

I just now received an email from Michelle about Taylor! It is good news! Please visit Michelle's blog and read the latest update on Taylor!

UPDATE ON TAYLOR

Taylor

Taylor's mother has posted an update on her condition on her blog, so you can read all about it here. I'm sure she would appreciate everyone's support, as well as the continuing prayers, at this time. Be sure to read my previous post about Taylor's accident, if you haven't already. C'mon, everyone, this little gal needs all our prayers for a miracle!

FELLOW BLOGGER ASKS FOR PRAYERS

Taylor

I recently received the following email from a blogger friend, Michelle, in FL. She is asking for prayers for her 10-year old daughter. I know we all can pull together on this one! This little girl needs all the prayers she can get right now. We are all mothers and can read this mother's pain between the lines even. Please read on.....and pray for this beautiful little girl!


Nancy, I need your help.

We had a bit of a rough Christmas. Taylor had an accident. She was playing at a friend's house and was shot in the eye with a BB. She has been on complete bed rest since Tuesday. She isn't allowed to read, play video games, run around.....nothing.


We go back to the ophthalmologist on Monday. Her eye has been completely dilated. We are hoping for the best, but nothing is sure right now. She does have the best doctors, and best case scenario, she will keep her sight after surgery, worst is she will lose it. We are hoping that we have done everything right. If she ran around, or didn't follow direction, her eye socket will rebleed and that is really bad. We are also looking at the possibility that she may have a cataract caused by the trauma. That can be fixed with Laser surgery. She 's been so good about it all. I think the Doctor really got through to her how important it was for her to follow his orders.


She's just been my little Tiny Tim. She's bored out of her mind, but she has been a real trooper.


I need as many prayers as you can muster........EVERYONE YOU KNOW!


Monday is the deciding factor. We need all the prayers, everyone!


Love

M

AWARD TIME AGAIN PLUS ANOTHER GIVEAWAY

I received a few more awards this past week...so wanted to get them posted and thank those who passed them along to me! Plus, there is another Giveaway going on!!!

Be sure to drop by and visit Hootin' Anni. She is having a great Blog Giveaway. If you haven't met Anni, you will love getting to know her. She is a wonderful lady with a heart of gold, and she's been blessed with many talents. The deadline for her giveaway is Dec. 31st, so hurry on over and get your name in just by posting a comment! To get to her Giveaway, just click on the button below!

The following is from Hootin' Anni' as her Holiday Gift! Thank you, Anni! I haven't known Anni all that long, but it doesn't take but one visit to her blog, and you'll also be hooked! She is one talented lady and is always coming up with a different new header on her blog!




My good friend Merle at Merle's Third Try gave me this lovely Butterfly award recently...and I am supposed to pass it on to 10 bloggers. I would like to pass it on to ALL of my regular readers since the last time I chose a certain few to receive an award, there were hurt feelings, and I am not out here in Blogland to hurt anyone's feelings. Eventually, everyone ends up receiving it, anyhow. Merle, I hope you understand why I am doing it this way, and I do hope it is okay to do it like this. Merle is from Australia and has the neatest blog. If you're having a bad day and could use a good laugh, you need to visit Merle's blog! You will fall in love with her just as I have! She is one grand lady from 'down under'! Thank you so much for this lovely award, Merle! Your friendship means the world to me, and I love ya!




This Christmas Spirit Award was kindly passed on to me by Mary at Mary's Writing Nook. Thank you, my dear friend.

Below are the rules of this award:


1. You must be a true Christmas lover to receive this award.
2. You must link back to who gave you the award.
3. You must list 5 things that you love about Christmas.
4. Pass it on to however many you like, but to at least one person to keep the Christmas cheer going.
5. Let the recipients know you have tagged them.

Five things I love about Christmas.

1. The spirit of love that surrounds us this time of year.
2. The joy of giving to others.
3. The quality time spent with my children.
4. The shopping, wrapping, and baking days my daughter and I share together.
5. The holiday dinner with both of my children at the dinner table at the same time, a rare occasion now that they are grown and one lives away!

I am passing this award on to ALL of my regular readers. I am tagging you all! Please take it, enjoy it, and pass it on!

This next one is also from Mary, given as her Christmas Gift to all of her readers. Thank you so much, Mary! It is just so touching!

And another Butterfly Award! This one is from Mary. Thank you so much, Mary! I value your friendship so much and love you for the fine lady that you are! Mary has a great blog and a great big Husky dog, too! Her photos will take you all over as she gets around to many interesting places! She is from Canada and I have seen places, through her blog pics, that I have never seen before.

And......two more from Mary! Thank you, again, Mary! You are so generous with your awards to everyone!

In a few days, I hope to post some pics of some Christmas decorations..... If I don't get to them, I will post them right after Christmas. These next few days are going to be kind of hectic for me! Just in case, I am.....

Wishing you all a verrrry Merry Christmas!!!

But let us not forget the real Reason for the Season!

Happy Birthday to my Daughter

Happy Birthday, Tammy!

This is my letter to my daughter who celebrates her 44th birthday today, December 15th...

Dear Tammy,

Gee, it doesn't seem that it has been 44 years since you came into this world! You were our first-born, and your birth made us a family. Your dad and I were in heaven, so to speak, at that time. We were like two kids with a new toy!

It was during doe hunting season, and I had been helping Grandma Squeek (my mom) with her hunters. I hadn't been feeling very well at all that afternoon, December 14th. I managed to sit on a kitchen stool and do what I could to help. You began to let me know that you were getting kind of restless that day. After supper was over, I told my mom that I thought I was having contractions.

Being December, you might know that it would be snowing quite heavily. Your dad took me back to our home to get my things so we could head out on the 20-mile drive to the hospital across those narrow country roads. But once I got home, I just had to take a shower, shave my legs, etc. Finally, an hour later, I said I was ready to go. By then, your Uncle Jake (my brother) was there, more nervous than your dad. He was going to follow us to the hospital in case we slid off the road. It really was a wicked night to be out on the roads, period. There were several inches of snow covering the roads, and there were no tracks from other vehicles to even follow. The roads hadn't been plowed yet, as the highway department would usually wait til the snow let up before clearing the roads. We had quite a perilous drive up Keating Summit Hill and then down the other side! The final 10 mile-lap was all flat road, thank goodness!

Finally, we arrived at the hospital! They were anxiously waiting for us, worrying about us driving through such a storm to get there. In a small town, where everyone knew everyone, and they all knew Aunt Naomi and Aunt Biddy, knew that I was their niece. There really wasn't any hurry since you ended up taking your good old time to be born! We put in a rough night together, you and I, but then finally, at 5:28am on December 15th, you were born! Your birth brought us so much joy! You were a beautiful baby but bald as could be! I had you by natural childbirth, so I was awake to see you born. We were just happy that you were healthy and had 10 little fingers and 10 little toes! We didn't care if you were a girl or a boy! Back in those days, no one knew whether the baby was a boy or a girl until the baby was born.

Your dad was with me all through the night, getting no sleep at all. Uncle Jake was calling all of our relatives who lived in that town (which we later moved to) telling them I was in labor. Your dad went to your Great-Grandma Jenny's in the morning to get some sleep, but he said he got very little, as her phone was ringing constantly with relatives calling to see if I'd had the baby yet. The day was busy with visitors coming to see you. We couldn't wait to bring you home! Oh, what a fun day that was! We knew nothing about babies, but we learned in a big hurry, thanks to the help of Grandma Squeek (my mom). You were such a good baby and started sleeping the entire night on your sixth night at home.

Poppa Steve, with his Bell & Howell movie camera in hand, came with your dad the day I was discharged. He filmed you and me through the hospital window and then later while leaving the hospital with you in my arms. Once we got home with you, I left you on the sofa while I got out of my clothes and into a robe to be more comfortable. Poppa Steve and Grandma Genevieve were there to undress you, the camera rolling all the while. What a blessed Sunday that was! I watch that video every year on your birthday. Poppa Steve knew what he was doing when he was filming everyone all the time. He gave us all such wonderful memories on film to keep alive forever.

You have done nothing but bring us joy all these years! We have always been so proud of your accomplishments during high school, college and now in the working world. You are the sweetest daughter I could have ever asked for! You have grown into a caring, loving, beautiful young woman. I know you are in Montreal on a business trip this year during your birthday, but you are still right here in my heart, where you'll always be. We will celebrate the big "4-4" this weekend! Happy Birthday, Honey! Always remember how much you're loved! We love you!!!

Grandma's Apron

An old-timey pic showing bib-style aprons

And this is my Grandma Jenny on the leftGrandma Jenny, Mom, Me, and Rose in hunting season when I was in high school

THIS IS THE STORY OF GRANDMA'S APRON....

I can see Grandma in the kitchen with her apron on... can't you??? What a wonderful memory this is! I don't think our children even know what an apron is. I have always loved aprons. I guess it's because my mom always wore one. These are some my Aunt Naomi made. She loved to sew and knit. These aprons are about 50 years old! I was maybe 12 or 13 years old when she made these for me.

The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath,

but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and, on occasion,

was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks,

and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy children. And when the weather was cold, Grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow,
bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.
From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables.

After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples

that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road,

it was surprising how much furniture that old apron

could dust in a matter of seconds!

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something

that will replace that "old-time apron" that served so many purposes.

REMEMBER......... Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool.

Her granddaughters set theirs on the kitchen counter to thaw.

Awards Day

First of all, I want you all to know that Abe is home and doing better. He has posted about his illness and has some new pics on his blog. He is a professional photographer and writer and has some really great photos on his blog. Check it out at Brookville Daily Photo.

Boy, am I ever behind! I need to thank those who have sent awards my way. Below are some buttons/awards I received some time ago from Mary over at Mary's Writing Nook. Thank you so much, Mary!!! I do apologize for being so tardy in posting them and thanking you properly. I love and appreciate them so much! I need to learn how to add text to a pic so I can make some of my own to pass on. Mary seems like the type of person who would be there if you ever needed a hand or a friend! Do check her blog out...I'm certain you will enjoy your visit with her! She's really a lovely lady and has a very enjoyable and interesting blog!!!

How true the one below is!

And I am so late in getting these in a post, too! These are also from Mary! I just loved this one with the black cat! She has the cutest things up her sleeve over there at her blog!

And we all know Halloween just wouldn't be Halloween without a witch riding her broom!

And then this Thanksgiving one is also from Mary! I just love this one, too! I always have loved the story of the Pilgrims and love anything in the theme of Pilgrims! Thank you again, Mary! And I promise I'll not be so late next time in getting things posted on my blog.

And then I received more just this week....

Here's the lovely "Proximidade" award given to me by Gramma Ann of Ann's Quotes and Things. I received this one from Merle of Merle's Third Try a while back, too, so I am properly thanking you, also, Merle at this time.

This award is a fine one because it focuses not on the glory and fanfare of blogging, but in the PROXIMITY to one another through online-world. Thank you, Gramma Ann! I sincerely appreciate the award and your thinking of me. Visit Gramma Ann, and you will see first-hand just what a wonderful lady and friend she is!

"Blogs that receive this award are 'exceeding charming,' says its author. This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this clever-written text into the body of their award."

I am to pass this award on to 8 people. I find it very, very hard to choose just 8, and I see some of you that I would like pass this on to have already received it. I am very pleased to pass this award on to the following 8 blogs:

Do Drop Inn

Home on the Range

Lib's Private Paradise

Lisa's Place

Old Lady Lincoln

Pam's Ponderings

Pea's Corner

The Clark Homestead

Below, Lib at Lib's Private Paradise had these awards posted on her blog and said to take them if we wanted them....I thought they were cute so I took them. Thank you, Lib! Pay Lib a visit as she posts some really great recipes and is quite a crafty lady!!! She makes some really lovely things!

I will look at this one, longingly, throughout the winter months while I wait for Summer to arrive!

And this one describes ALL the blogs I read!

Have a great weekend, everyone! My daughter is taking me shopping to another city tomorrow, so I'll see how long I can walk. I love to get out and shop during holiday time, but the legs and back don't allow me to do much. So I am so happy that my daughter is taking me and will be with me. It should be a fun-filled mother-daughter day!

P.S. I've had some blogger problems today...spacing, text color, etc., so please excuse the mess of this post! I've been working on it off and on all day since 10:10 this morning, and it is now 6:04pm! LOL