On To The Next Holiday!

With Thanksgiving over it's time to move on to the next holiday. In fact, with an extra pair of hands around the past few days, I was able to get the tree up and mostly decorated. Even the blog has undergone a little holiday makeover!

We had the traditional turkey, dressing, potatoes and green bean casserole for our Thanksgiving. And I honestly don't care to see another turkey and all the trimmings for awhile! We felt like we were stuffed all weekend but enjoyed it anyway. I'm voting for something different next year, but when it gets that time again, I'll probably be out-voted in favor of "family favorites"! It was nice to have E home for a few days. She stayed around long enough to miss the snow showers and traffic jams up in Chicago land and make it back safely.

Our guests for dinner this year were son-in-law N's mom and sister and of course B, N and E. They paused long enough to get a nice little family portrait.

One more guest, was E's kitty, Decibel. After the first day, she and Beamer were friends again. He even shared his current favorite sleeping spot.

We managed to stay away from the malls on black Friday and instead drove over to Madison for a little old-fashioned main street shopping. Or the girls said they just watched mom shop! But they did have to stop and try on a couple hats in one little shop. Still acting like a couple of silly little girls! Of course we did manage to do more shopping on Saturday and even enjoyed a non turkey dinner at Havana Rumba. I don't know what I was thinking but no food photos folks. Sorry.

I'm not sure what's up with Blogger, but it's not playing nice tonight. Maybe it's the change I made from Explorer to Firefox but the compose screen does a lot of jumping around and I'm having trouble placing my photos. So hopefully I'll have more patience next time for a more interesting post.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week everyone!

My Valentine For You

Up, Up and Away to Valentine's Day!

It is so much easier to to snap a photo of these gigantic ballons at the grocery store than to actually bring one home !
We finally got some winter weather - but in the form of a thin layer of ice which was almost too much for this poor tree in our backyard. But it popped backup this afternoon when the sun came out. Talk about popping up - look at grandpuppy Leo's ears! He's losing his puppy ears and getting grown up German Shepherd features. I spent some time in the kitchen this afternoon so I could leave you with a valentine. So for those of you that I didn't get a card off to - this is it. But the only catch is you have to come help me eat them. Probably not the best choice for the healthy eating plan so what I don't give away will go in the freezer, maybe:)
Happy Valentine's Day !

Christmas Traditions

Merry Christmas !

Our Nativity tradition began about twenty-eight years ago when Dennis' grandmother asked what ceramic creation we wanted for Christmas. She was fond of wildlife and we had plenty of ceramic elk, deer and buffalo sitting around. At the time we had one little daughter and I thought it would be nice to have a small nativity set to help her understand the story of the birth of Christ. Not one to do things on a small scale, Grandma Mary presented us with this beautiful large set. I think we've only missed one year displaying the entire scene (when we were in the process of moving) Sometimes, we've had to put the wise men and their camels on another table - but after all, they had to come from far away! There are a few cracks in the stable walls, but super glue came to the rescue and it is still holding together. The cow lost a horn one year too, but I found that in the bottom of the storage bin and glued it back in time for the next Christmas. The angel rests precariously on top of the roof and someday I need to find a better way to stabilize it. Grandma did a beautiful job with the painting of the faces and clothing, even putting little jewels on the wise men's robes. In later years as she grew more shaky, her painting wasn't quite what it had been so we are so happy to receive some of her best work. I'm grateful to still have this family Christmas tradition to remember Grandma Mary by and to be able to share it with you all here and with our family for years to come.

The kids (with dogs!) will be arriving tomorrow and the next day, so the fun begins! It is supposed to be a rare warm December day tomorrow, so a motorcycle ride might be in the plans before J & J arrive. Of course, there is still cleaning, cooking and baking on my list! It will all get done at some point!

I may not get a chance to post again for a few days so it is our wish that you too have a wonderful holiday with your family and loved ones.

Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Holidays Are Coming

Here it is only December 2 and it seems like we are one of the last in our neighborhood to finally put up Christmas lights and decorations. For some reason, I've had trouble getting motivated this year but once I start it does get a little easier. So this week I worked on the tree. I am so thankful for pre-lit trees! Stringing the lights in the tree has always been one of my least favorite parts of the holidays and it seems like the one thing that no one ever wanted to help with!

Our tree has pretty much looked the same the last few years with lots of gold, red and bright (almost lime) green. This year I've added a little bit of bronze accent since that is getting more popular. I think it looks pretty good! Beamer does too as he has adopted the new tree skirt as his bed. There are not presents under this tree yet! I've got a long way to go in that respect.
Of course we waited until it was too cold to ride the motorcycle to put up outside lights! Dennis managed to climb on the roof without falling ! I guess those old builder's genes kicked in:) K - check out the stocking cap! We made a trip to the Bass Pro Shop and found this interesting pheasant Christmas tree. I've seen ornaments made from pheasant feathers, but never whole pheasants adorning a tree! Of course this goes right along with the entire taxidermy theme of the huge store. If you are ever in the Southern Indiana area, be sure to stop and browse this store. It was designed to fit in the huge space vacated by a local mall. When we first moved here there was a Dillards, several small shops, a large movie theater, food court and carousel in this building. Even if you're not into hunting, fishing etc, it is still fun to look at all their displays. Dennis has been shopping for insulated pants for winter riding and we found some here by Carhartt. He's determined to ride the motorcycle to work as long as he can if it's not raining or snowing! Saturday night we attended Dennis' employer's annual Christmas party. Please accept our apologies for these less than flattering pictures! This year it was held at a local Holiday Inn. The girls who put this together did a nice job and they always make sure that everyone comes away with a door prize. They also had a karaoke contest which I can assure you that we did not take part in! But it was entertaining and the two ladies who won could've held their own at America's Got Talent!

I could have told you all that I dyed my hair and had a total body makeover this week, but most of you all know me much better than that! This is one of Dennis' co-workers, friend and party organizer, Pam. (He looks a little embarrassed doesn't he?) Another co-worker was actually helping clear tables - or was he?? I hope you all enjoy this holiday season safely. Now back to working more home decor! I hope to get most of it done today and tomorrow so I can concentrate on finishing my shopping and doing a little baking and sewing. Until next post!

All That Remains....

Thanksgiving is over. The turkey is gone (except maybe enough for one sandwich), the table leaves are stored, the dishes all washed and the bedding is waiting to go in the laundry. You can see some of the remains of Thanksgiving 2007 here with these photos.We didn't have a huge dinner but there was certainly enough food to go around. N's mother joined us since her husband and other family were out of town and E made it in from Chicago area late Tuesday night. It was great to have her home again for a few days. We missed having J & J but know we'll all be together for Christmas (one month from today !!!).
Of course we had dessert! B made an excellent new creamy pumpkin pie that was a keeper and I made a streusel topped pumpkin pie with a cheesecake layer. It was good, but I think plain old pumpkin would have been better and much less work!

Of course we convinced E to take a short ride on Dad's new Harley! I'm not sure if she enjoyed the cold ride. Her comment was that she's too much of a control freak to ride along - guess that means we'll just have to get her to learn to ride her own! (Just joking E, I know it takes getting used to and even then, not for everyone)Late Friday morning, E and I braved the crowds and the traffic and headed to the malls. We missed the crazy early birds (on purpose!) and didn't have any parking or traffic problems. Usually we find all kinds of interesting things when we're off shopping together, but this time we only came home with a candle and eye-shadow! (No shoes, not that we didn't try!) The highlight of Friday evening was the arrival of my aunt and uncle from Ohio. It was great to see them again and spend some time catching up. We reminisced late into the evening as Uncle L went through a box of keepsakes we'd brought back from Kansas. On Saturday we did a short driving tour of downtown Louisville and the Churchill Downs area. They even rode along as Dennis had to make a stop at Bluegrass Harley Davidson to pick up some missing parts for his helmet microphone. The girls joined us from their marathon day of shopping for lunch at the Irish Rover. This is another one of our favorite restaurants in Louisville and we have taken just about everyone who has visited us there. L & S made an early start home so they would get home in time to see the KU-Missouri football game but S had to give Beamer one last goodbye kiss:)

Then she had to take her turn on the Harley. Dennis is so proud to show off his new toy! We've promised that one of our first overnight rides will be up to visit them in Ohio. It will have to warm up first! It will probably be next spring before we're ready for a trip like that. Thanks for visiting Uncle L and Aunt S! Come back again!

Our weekend continued with dinner out Saturday night with B & E. N had to work so he missed a great meal at Mojitos. I can't find their website but they are owned by the same folks that have Havana Rumba but Mojitos is a tapas bar. We ordered about 8 different tapas plates and I guess I enjoyed the meal (and my mojito!) so much I forgot to take any photos. I'm sure we'll be back again soon so I'll try to get one then. It seems that eating out is a family entertainment!

Hope you all had as nice of weekend as we did!

Happy Thanksgiving From Our Family to Yours

I am thankful for all of you who've been faithful readers, even while I'm still learning all this!

If you have time today - please send a comment with ONE thing that you're thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day 2007.

Have a great day - I know we will! Now off to the kitchen!

A November weekend

I don't have much to write about this weekend. We did manage a short motorcycle ride this afternoon. It was pretty chilly but the sun did come out for a while so we enjoyed the last of the fall colors as we drove up through some of the Knobs area. There are some scenic roads with colorful names like Honey Run, Whiskey Run and Daisy Hill Rd. Some of the farms have pretty new homes or well kept older farm houses but there was a fair share of shabby mobile homes with scary dogs and old cars in the driveways. We just kept riding until we finally found a road we were familiar with and headed home. My legs were beginning to get numb and it took me the rest of the day to finally warm up. Of course Dennis claimed he was just beginning to feel the chill! He's still riding the motorcycle to work on the mornings that aren't frosty so I guess he's building up his tolerance for cold!

We started out the day by winterizing the camper. It wasn't too hard, since we never even got it out this summer. We had every intention of going camping but we couldn't figure out a way to pull the motorcycle trailer and the camper at the same time with the truck that we have. Some states do allow you to double pull, but we didn't feel comfortable doing that. So we are thinking of selling this camper or trading it in on a toy hauler 5th wheel or a motor home. Right now we're leaning toward a toy hauler but haven't decided on anything yet. We'll probably wait and look at some of the RV shows early next year to see what is available.

Here's a better photo of little Leo. B brought him over last night to meet Beamer. Poor Leo wanted to play, but of course Beamer is not always very sociable to other animal guests. I think he might learn to tolerate Leo as long as he is still this size. They'll just have to come visit more often. Thanksgiving may be very interesting! E will be here lateTuesday but she's not bringing Decibel this time. It will be nice to have her home for a few days! I'm sure this will be a weekend of food and shopping. J & J are going to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving with her family. We'll miss them but holidays are all about sharing with the in-laws !
Hope you all have a nice Thanksgiving week. If you are traveling, please be safe. If you are cooking, please don't burn the turkey! And if you are eating - go ahead and have the pie!