It Snows Again.

I woke to 2 or 3 inches of new snow this morning and it is still snowing in fits and starts. This one is very wet Rob says. He would know as he ran Hank early this morning so Tanya could get out to work! The forecast was for a quickly moving lightly accumulating snow event, I think it may have passed that point! At this rate I don't expect to see my lawn until March or April! Shoot, I may not see my street before then. The city plows--which seems to do no good at all--or maybe they are only throwing de-icer and sand at it but the plow is down. I don't mind as I don't have to go out very often. We have a good supply of eats etc so we're all good here.

Taking care of Kolby!

Kolby has been a sick little guy lately and in the interest of getting him really well he's staying with me for a couple of days. So this is his morning nap! The cats were there first and vacated a little while later--they always look at him as if he's a bomb about to explode!

All the latest!

We had a lovely Christmas here, I was spoiled by my lovely children but just having them around is such a gift that I hardly need presents! All I was missing was Steve, Candice and Nora. (By the way kids that does not mean that you can get off without presents next year!) We had a huge snowstorm beginning on Christmas Eve, an actual blizzard, which is very rare for Kansas City. It was still snowing on Sunday. Hank the Hulking snowthrower got a real workout! I finally read a snowfall total of 9-12 inches--considering that we usually get no more than 3 inches in December--that's a significant amount. I have not been out of the house since before it all started. Poor Kolby caught the flu and decided to share--his family got sick on Saturday. Scott, Bri and I got sick Saturday night/Sunday morning and Rob on Sunday night/Monday morning. They call it a 24 hour stomach flu, this is day three for me and I'm not actively sick but still quite weak and with a sore tummy. (On the upside I lost 5 lbs!) So far Tanya and Beth have eluded the bug, may it stay that way!

I have nearly finished the backstitching on Brayden's Christmas stocking, Hallelujah! I think I would be finished but I ran out of thread and haven't been out to get more. Maybe today, I do have several errands to run and more snow is forcast for tomorrow I just have to see if my energy level is up to it!

All ready, just waiting!

I'm all set for the big day. Today I will do some prep work for the Mexican spread we are having tomorrow but otherwise I'm set. There is one more gift I might work on today depending on how things go. The children (read Rob, Tanya, Scott and Bri) are trying to get me to allow them ONE present tonight! I'd swear they were still little instead of adults!

To everyone in blogland a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and a Blessed New Year!

LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE!

Gail

Getting ready....

I've been very busy getting ready for Christmas. Even though I scaled back on the baking and gift-making I am behind, sigh. I feel just slightly off kilter, and it seems like everything takes twice as long as it should! Today will be better, I hope. I only have one errand to run today, the bank. I have to go deposit the check I received for the Van (sold it yesterday) and get a new ATM card--there was weird internet activity on it so the bank called and we canceled it. It's nice to know someone is watching out for that stuff.

I took the boys to see Santa last evening when I picked them up from daycare. Which is exactly what we did, saw Santa. I took them to the Bass Pro shop as that's where Larry and I took Brayden last year and it was empty. Apparently, word had spread as the line to talk to Santa was about a half a block long! Brayden announced that he only wanted to see Santa not talk to him so we did! (I can get behind not waiting in line while holding a 24 lb Kolby! Silly me, didn't think to take the stroller.) They always set up a train, a remote controlled car, some coloring pages etc so we enjoyed those. Kolby was just all eyes taking in everything. After about an hour we headed off to the Cracker Barrel for some food (Brayden thought there might be a toy in it for him--he was right!) I had forgotten how much work it is to take little ones out to dinner! No wonder we ate at home! Well, aside from the fact that we were broke when ours were little. When we finished eating (and shopping) it was already time to take the boys home! It's work but it sure is fun!

Holiday shoot!

No one ever plays with Brayden!

Kolby never gets any love!
Kolby, Granna Gail and Brayden

The "injured bear" a Larry Story

Larry collected Teddy Bears, well I bought them for him he was after all my Teddy Bear. A couple of times each year I take all the bears off the shelf and run them thru the dryer with a damp towel to dust them--they don't get icky that way. A couple of years ago Larry happened on me emptying the dryer of his teddies, oh boy you'd have thought I'd have wounded him personally! He grabbed this bear up and proceeded to tell me I'd broken his arm and quick he needed soft fabric to make a sling for it! So one scrap of a cleaning diaper became his sling--all the while Larry's telling this bear how sorry he is and how he won't let me hurt him again. What a goof! The little bear was never hurt but I haven't the heart to take off the sling.

Catch up on me

As you can tell from the previous posts I've been busy decorating for Christmas! Then cleaning up the mess of decorating for Christmas. I've been working over my finances as I have an appointment with my financial advisor tomorrow, so my least favorite thing to do but I must! Today, I had an appointment with my primary care doctor. Checking out my blood work and getting referrals. My Cholesterol counts made her happy so I guess I'll be taking that medication for a while (like the rest of my life, it could be worse.) She gave me several refill scripts and will take care of some referrals must importantly for the carpal tunnel release on my right hand in January. The cortizone Dr Elton gave me last summer has definitely worn off and I am having strength issues with it--I won't put it off as I want to be sure I don't have permenant damage. I'm keeping very busy doing some stitching and lots of shopping. It finally turned cold (really cold for here tonight's low -3 F), the storm dropped a little snow and the wind dropped the 'feels like' temp even further. I love it when it's cold!

My Tree

For the first time I have a tree in my bedroom. It's only a tabletop as I don't have room for anything bigger! Some of the ornaments I had purchased for the years I used a live Norfolk Island Pine tree in the livingroom and a few are new this year. I think it's fuller than the one in the living room!

Christmas Decorating!

These are the two new North Pole Cottages; Jolly's Jigsaw Puzzle Factory and Santa's Beacon. They are displayed on the top of the bookcase/hutch in the next photo. There are also cottages on the top of the pie safe. I love the way these light up a dark end of my living room and am always sad when I take them down.

It's done! I think.

After spending the greater part of this day working on financial matters all of the paper work relating to Larry's passing is finished (please the gods there will be no more.) It feels good to have that behind me! (Unfortunately it doesn't count as a finish for OPAM!) I have reduce the mass of my mess to a pile of receipts still to be entered and figures to take to my Edward Jones guy next week. Not fun but not more than a couple of more hours total! I'm really have a tough time with this, just putting it back into my schedule is hard. You'd think that being a stay-at-home I wouldn't have that problem but no matter what you do you never have a enough time!

Today, I received the North Pole cottage I ordered earlier--a light house! I'm putting them up on Saturday so I'll take a pic and put it on the blog (using the old point and shoot!) then.

Picked up the backing for Kolby's fleece blanket on Wednesday and got lucky--Hobby Lobby carries Robert Kaufmann solids, so I got a different blue for my Irish Chain! It's all washed, not ironed but it will soon be ready to cut and sew! Can't wait, but I must.

Tomorrow, I'm off to Christmas shop. The hard stuf--stocking stuffers.

Tuesday at home

I returned home on Sunday after spending the Thanksgiving holiday with Bri's parents in St Louis. We had a wonderful meal of all things Thanksgiving-y for Up-state New York. Which isn't entirely like our more southern traditions. I had my very first taste of rutabaga--now I won't be afraid of recipes which call for one! I wonder if they sell them here? The Lennon's are a fun bunch, Scott got very lucky! I also reconnected with a Mizzou friend, Lynda and hubby Max. I seem to manage to see them every few years so we stay relatively connected. Scott and I took in the sites in old town St Charles, very neat, lots of specialty shops inculding one carrying candies etc from Great Britian. We had Chocolates! Yummy, much better than a Hershey bar. It was a great time spent with him just meandering.

I have been feeling dull and boring lately, think maybe Larry's passing is catching up with me again. Ah well, this too shall pass. I haven't begun any new projects and can't seen to get into any of the old ones so tomorrow will force myself. I did order fabric for my Irish Chain quilt, didn't do too well matching colors on the internet (no local shops carried the solids I needed) so now I have to decide if these colors will work or if I need to try again. Urgh. I also got some cute fleece with construction equipment for Kolby a blanket, that's an easy make, maybe I should start there? Still plowing thru all the paper work. Just made a decision to finish that this week and have it behind me. Plus the holiday shopping, I did a bit on line today but stockings are not filling up very fast! Like I said dull and boring!