Christmas Day snow...

Snow walk at dusk

Snow and more snow

 

Snow is so much fun and it creates so many beautiful scenes. On Saturday and Sunday there was a lot of East wind along with the fine snow drift which blew over the roof and caught on the back on the roof. Over time, it created this overhang which lasted until it hung out about 12 inches over the gutter. Then, whompfff, down it came on the back deck.

Snow and 22 degrees! Brrrr....

Well, I finally got my wish and we have LOTS of swirling, blowing, tingling snow! It is 24 outside and has been snowing nearly all day with little flakes of crystal snow mixed with real snowflakes. We are supposed to keep snowing all through the night and sometime tomorrow or Monday turn to freezing rain.
Now there is one I can pass on. A free skating rinks for cars. Anyone say bumper cars? But... I get to stay home if I want, as I am on break so life is good. Dad thinks it is a big party to go drive his big bus with chains in the snow and ice. Weird man he is. :)

Katie's Kindergarten Christmas Sing

Well it wasn't really a Christmas sing since school seems to think it is politically incorrect for it to be Christmas, so all the Kindergarteners sang 25 nursery rhymes and it was so cute. Katie had a fabulous time. And so did we. We love the Grandparent thing!

Wish all our grandchildren were closer!!!Drew had a fabulous time too!

Freezing Hummingbirds

I LOVE hummingbirds! I was thrilled when we moved back home that one decided to frequent my feeder as soon as I put it up. I have been filling it regularly. Uncle Roger and Sherry Burkman, both who have lots of hummingbirds, shared with me that you have to make sure that you continue to fill it during the winter once you start. Seems the silly birds get "on the dole" and begin to rely on you for food. But that is OK! I love watching them.

Today it is snowy and cold, about 27 right now and despite the fact that the liquid keeps trying to freeze up, the determined little hummingbird is there. I had let it run out last week by accident, but within 10 minutes of my putting "juice" back into the feeder, there he was! I thawed it out 4 times today and he just kept coming back. What a great little Christmas gift.

Little Christmas Town

For years and years we have had a small ceramic Christmas town. Lorilynn was far and away the best painter, but I think I rival her now. Once the girls moved out, there wasn't much fun to painting alone so I didn't for several years and then last year I decided to paint a new house. Actually a country house to go with the barn from years ago.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Can you guess what this is?

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble... what does the kitchen brew?

Yummy Caramel Christmas bears!

Remember them kids? Yummm...

Sunday Snow & the Grinch

What a wonderful sight this morning when we woke up to a dusting of snow. All day it has snowed lightly and it seems like fairy dust falling from the sky. I love snow to look at, not to drive around in, especially when it has ice in it as this does. I know, Christopher and Lori- you guys have REAL snow, but we are enjoying our 2 " now. And it is supposed to snow more on W and TH and perhaps this coming weekend. And, now don't laugh too hard, those of you in SNOW country, they actually cancelled church today! It was predicted to snow up to 4 " and have ice underneath it. So far, 1-2 " but it is such fun.

But lest you think it is too idyllic, the Christmas Grinch paid a visit too today. Yep, he struck at the toilet base. Ugh. Luckily I noticed that there was water around the base of the toilet in the upstairs hall bathroom before it managed to leak through to the ceiling of the bathroom below. And since we had just moved again and had the garage organized I knew right where to find that extra wax ring for the toilet repair. Right now, it is sitting on blocks of wood with a heater blowing on it to dry out the flooring and such under it as much as we can. Thank goodness we saw it!

Slippers and Sisters

I have one sister, Lori, actually Loraine Elyse, but we have called her Odie for years. The kids didn't say Lori very well when they were young and then when I had my daughter, whom I named Lorilynn, it became confusing which Lori we were talking about. So... she became Odie.
I have a terrific sister. She is 3 years younger than me but we have always been good friends, even when living at home together. And she has always looked out for me and I for her.

Last week I opened the front door to get the morning newspaper and there was this box on the doormat. Hmmm, I love boxes. So, in it came and I opened it hurriedly since it was from Canada. That means something from Odie.

When I pulled back the paper and looked inside, tears welled up in my eyes as I saw these beautiful slippers. You see, these are not just slippers, they are a link to the past and the present. My sister found a pattern months ago for little slippers and she and I tried our hand at them in April when I was there visiting, only mine were about 3 inches long and made of felt for babies!

Needless to say, I was amazed to see these gorgeous handcrafted soft leather slippers in the box. And they fit my feet like a glove. That in and of itself was a wonderful gift.

But the really wonderful thing was that Odie had lined them with rabbit taken from a rabbit dress coat that my mother purchased probably 50 years ago. Lori and I loved that coat and it is now falling apart from age. We would sit next to my mom at church or wherever she wore it and would pet it over and over and over. It holds great memories of our mom and of good times. Thank you Lori for such a thoughtful gift that warmed my heart and brought me to tears as I left for work. You win BEST Sister of the Year !

Denver doings

What a fun time we had in Denver. Amy and Misha met us at the Denver airport complete with signs welcoming us! It was so good to see all 3 girls and Chris and Jo and to give them real live time hugs! It had been over a year since we had seen them.

On Tuesday morning bright and early, Dad and I stood in for Chris and Jo at the LDS Cannery in Aurora, just N of Denver and canned PearSauce for 4 hours. I cored and cored and cored ripe pears and Dad assisted with putting the finished cans into this BIG metal round cage before they went into the pressure cooker. It was fun and we were able to bring home a few cans in our suitcase. Makes you realize how much you like your day job! What a blessing it is to have all the opportunites for service in our church.

We spent lots of time at their house just hanging out, playing and enjoying each other. One day they took us to Boulder, up in the foothills, and we hiked a bit up the mountain side. It was great even though it was at 1 mile high!

The girls had time to play with the Legos I brought, and Kristen loved to stack Jenga blocks and we built houses together.

Jo made a yummy Thanksgiving Dinner and we enjoyed it on their new dining room table with the china Christopher brought back from Grandma Andrews when she moved to Phoenix.

Once Thanksgiving Dinner was over, the girls wanted to walk to their school across the street and pick up garbage so it would look nice and then played on the swings and stuff for a few cold minutes. I was amazed at all the trash we all picked up. Even Kristen got into the action and would race Dad or I for the next bit of trash. Way to go girls.

We were so surprised when we were coming home Friday night from the Firestone rec center where we had gone for a family swim hour and little bits of snow started falling! They had forecasted it earlier in the day, but it had gotten too warm and we didn't think it would happen. By the time we woke up on Saturday morning, Christopher's house looked like this!

Well, we had a wonderful dinner at an Italian diner in big beautiful downtown Firestone. We went shopping for some Christmas presents on Black Friday and were able to catch some of the sales so we could leave their presents there with them and not have to mail them! Yay! As usual, I was VERY SAD to have to leave and cried when we started to get ready with the suitcases. It was a great time. We are so glad we got to go. Our big suitcase, the one we had to pay Frontier $15 to take ( they charge you for any suitcases you check ) took its own vacation to Phoenix on the way home and finally made its way to our house this evening about 7 pm, everything was in it, Yay! http://picasaweb.google.com/hightechmom/Denver1108#