Mizzou Football

Olive is a big Mizzou Fan. She is excited about the Texas Bowl where Mizzou is playing Navy. She is not very happy that Mizzou is behind at halftime.

Christmas Happenings

Our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. All ready for Christmas Day. My family all tucked in bed ready for the big day.

I prepared an egg casserole and my daughter rolled out cinnamon rolls. The recipe for the egg casserole is:

6 eggs
5 slices of bread
one package of bacon
1 1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)

Instructions: Preheat the oven at 350 degrees. Meanwhile, chop the bacon and cook it fully (I actually microwaved the bacon and cut up) and allow to cool down.

Now tear the slices of bread into small pieces in a large mixing bowl, mix the cooked bacon, bread pieces, and cheddar cheese together.

In another bowl, mix the eggs with milk. Season it with salt and pepper. If you wish, you can add minced onions in the mixture.

Take a pan and apply cooking spray all over it. Now spread the bread pieces mixture all over the pan. Pour the egg mixture all over it. Place the pan inside the oven and let the disk bake for about 20 minutes.

Everyone really liked the casserole. Some additions you could make would be mushrooms, peppers, sausage, really anything you would put in an omelet.

We had a wonderful white Christmas and enjoyed being together -- it just never is long enough.

Happy New Year Wishes to all. If I can get over my bad cold, it will be a lot better for me.

Merry Christmas

This is the vegetable Christmas Tree I prepared for my husband's work treat day. Trying to stay on the healthy side this year. I'm going to make this again tonight for my family to munch on after our Christmas Eve Service.

Everyone have a Very Merry Christmas. Thank you dear Lord for sending your son.

Luke 2:10-12: But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Luke 2:14: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

First Christmas

As many of you, we have multiple Christmas gatherings. Our first was this weekend at our home for my husband's family. We had brisket, ham, and many other dishes that made for a fabulous dinner. Our family adopted a family this year and after the meal we all wrapped and tagged the presents. Everyone really enjoyed seeing what was bought with love for this family.

The picture above is my SIL and granddaughters, Olive and Cora. Olive is growing like a weed. She is 2 months and Cora is 23 months. We are so looking forward to our family Christmas this year. Cora is at a great age to be very excited about Christmas. Our son will be home from Iowa and daughter and family will be joining us on Christmas Eve. Can't verily wait! Just a few more things to add to stockings and I'm ready for the big day.

My other picture is Cora playing hide and seek with Nana. She even wanted to hide in our coat closet. It was so cute.

Weekend Recap

Had a fun filled weekend. Friday night we had family over for game night and had stew (bought packaged stew at State Fair from "All of Us-Old Plantation Soups" and added meat), sloppy joes, and snack foods. We played "Sequence" and the guys beat the gals 2 out of 3 games! Boo! It was a good evening of catching up and enjoying good company.

Saturday we had two events that we attended. First was our Pastor and Wife's Annual Christmas Open House for the church deacon's and spouses. Our pastor's wife made many delicious goodies that she made as well as catered food. My husband is Chairman of the Deacons, so we helped throughout the party to keep the food stocked and the punch filled. Always a good event.

Later in the evening we had another Game Night at our friend's home and there were 5 couples in attendance. There was chili, chips and dip, veggies, buffalo chicken dip, desserts, etc. (BTW, how do you keep from gaining weight over the holidays?) We played "Catch Phrase" and had a lot of fun. A lot of laughing. We played guys against gals and by the end of the evening, I believe we came out even.

Before we went to the evening party, we drove by some homes lit with Christmas lights. I always enjoy looking at the lights. Hope to go out and see more during this Holiday Season.

Decorated for Christmas

I'm behind this year in getting my decorations up. Last year we threw away a tree and I forgot about that, so I was one tree shy this year. We took care of that last night and went and bought a prelit tree at Lowes. I hung the ornaments and then finished decorating the rest of the upstairs.

Our second tree is downstairs with a hunter motif. It is also a prelit tree and has ornaments of fish, dogs, antlers, etc.

We are having guests over tonight so that got me moving to complete the decorating. The picture below is our table set for dinner. We will be playing games after dinner. I have "Apples to Apples", "Cranium", "Sequence", and "Bunco" set out ready to play. They may also bring along some games. Should be a fun evening.

Tomorrow evening we are invited over to play games at a friend's home. This is definitely game weekend! Fun times.

Crafting - Tissue Cozy

Blogger friend, Lisagh - Grosgrain Garage, gave instructions for a Tissue Cozy that can be used as stocking stuffers or that nice homemade gift for teachers, friends, service people in your life. Follow the link above to see the instructions.

I already had the material in my craft closet along with the batting and so it didn't take long at all to whip these up. Really fun and cute!

I think I'll make one for my purse as well.

Lighting of the Tree

Checked this off my list. City lighting of the Christmas Tree. It was soooo cooold! There was a local High School Choir that sang first for about 30 minutes and the city provided hot cider, hot cocoa and cookies. They also had heaters in the area so you wouldn't totally freeze but I still about froze my feet.

The tree was beautiful and Santa and Mrs. Clause showed up to visit with the children and help light the tree.

A good start to the Christmas Season.

December Calendar

Christmas is coming! I feel like I am behind already! To get into the Christmas Season and to try some new things, we are going to participate in some local Christmas events.

• December 3 - Mayor's Tree Lighting
• December 4 - Downtown Living Windows
• December 5 - The Nutcracker Ballet with friends
• December 8 - Capitol Caroling
• December 11 - Game Night
  
• December 12 - Deacon Christmas Party
• December 13 - Adult Choir Christmas Concert
• December 17 - Go to Christmas Play
  
• December 20 - Christmas Caroling at church
• December 24 - Christmas Eve Services

Some other things that I have on my calendar are: Buy gifts for single mom and kids at church, take canned food to church, make a dessert and take to my neighbors, listen to Christmas music one evening at home, buy a new Christmas CD, e-mail and mail my family newsletter, take Christmas treats to nurses, watch a Christmas video, drive around looking at Christmas lights, go see "Christmas Carol" with Jim Carey, and host Christmas gathering for my husband's family and our immediate family.

Whew! I'm not really sure I'm going to get this all done plus Christmas shopping. The most important thing is to be thankful for Christ's birth and enjoy the time you spend with you family and friends.

Thanksgiving

Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. My son was home, so that made a great Thanksgiving for us. Our daughter and family had stopped in to see us before Thanksgiving on the way to her husband's family gathering. Love having a long weekend to see family, eat too much and sleep in.

I didn't do the crazy Black Friday shopping but am going to go out today and see if there are any sales. Do a little shopping with my son. He wants to buy a Wii and I want to find some work slacks for him for Christmas. It helps when he is with me and picks them out!

Many, many things to be thankful for this year. Good health, new births, good jobs, and family that we love and loves us.

Lists and a Movie

Lists are good. Lists really help me get my thoughts in order. There are times when ideas and thoughts are going round and round in my head and if I don't put them down on paper then I forget something and spend precious time trying to remember those thoughts. Not good!

Here is a sample of my current list. Very random, but still helpful.

• Buy black purse. (done)
  
• Write thank you note to ...
  
• Print photos (done)
  
• Develop gift card for mission project
  
• Buy gloves (done)
  
• Look up information about B6, B12, and D3 (done)
  
• Crochet baby afghan
  
• Sew edging on blanket
  
• Look at shot records and see what I need next for my trip to Kenya
  
• Send note to friend about mother's illness
  
• Buy towels and get monogrammed
  
• Test out table decor for Christmas
  
• Work on Christmas newsletter.
  
  Regarding my other topic - movie. We are going to see "The Blind Side" tonight with Sandra Bullock. I am really looking forward to this movie. I hope it is as good as it looks. We are going with another couple and then out to dinner. Looking forward to a relaxing evening.

Cookie Decorating

Getting a head start on Christmas cookie decorating. Not sure when my granddaughter will be back at my house, so we took advantage of the opportunity.

Cora, my daughter (her mom), Great Grandma and Nana (me) iced sugar cookies together.

We even had a great time eating the cookies. Cora was on a sugar high! She was very funny and giggly. She thought this was the greatest ever!

The cookies weren't anything fancy, just kept it simple. Memories.

Veteran's Day

My father (on the left) is a Veteran from the Korean War. He was in the Navy prior to my birth. My FIL (on the right) was also a veteran in the Air Force after World War II and before the Korean War.

Thank you to all the Veterans and soldiers, past and present. We appreciate your service.

Decoupage

Decoupaged this trashcan for my granddaughter, Olive's room. Each side had a different decorative sheet on it.

The "O" on the trashcan matches an "O" that I decoupaged for her wall.

I'm currently crocheting a baby afghan for my new great nephew to be born at the end of November.

Always need some sort of craft going!

5-0

Not Hawaii 50, but 5-0 as in I will be 50 on Saturday! When I was a child, 50 was forever old. Whole different story when you get there! One of my grandmothers was 53 and the other was 52 when I was born. And weren't they always very old?

While I wrap my brain around 50, my early birthday gift from my family is this Nikon D3000 camera. I was soooo surprised. But my family knows that I love taking pictures and this is a fabulous digital camera. I've been taking pictures and reading the internet to find out more about this camera and how it works.

Here are a couple of pictures I took. One is a picture of my lab Luke and the other out my front door.

Happy Halloween

My oldest granddaughter, Cora, is dressed as a pumpkin for Halloween. This costume was her daddy's when he was little. Fun!

Last year she was a chicken. Boy that year has gone by quickly.

I wish she could come by Nana's home for treats. This year she probably knows what candy is all about ... so good luck to mom and dad on that one!

My youngest granddaughter, Olive, is dressed up as a hotdog this year but I haven't gotten a picture of that yet. I'm sure she is a very cute hotdog!

Happy Halloween.

Fall Fun

Headed out to church to help with "Fall Fun for Families". I helped out by greeting children and families as they came to our church's gym. I may have scared a few! Definitely made some laugh!

We had a good turn out and I saw a lot of cute costumes. We had popcorn, soda, candy, bounce houses, stilt man, face painting, and other fun games for the children.

This coming Saturday a friend is having a Halloween Open House. Looking forward to visiting and drinking hot cider. I'm hoping to see a few trick or treaters at her house. She lives on a busy street.

One more thing ... Happy Birthday to my son. He is 24 years old today. My baby ... growing up!

Immunized

I have gotten both the regular flu shot and the H1N1 flu shot. Stay away flu! Since I volunteer at a hospital, the shots have been available to me. Hopefully more and more people will be able to get the H1N1 shot. I know several people that currently have the flu and pray for their quick recovery.

Butterfly Haus

While in San Antonio, the spouses of those attending my hubby's conference visited the "Wildseed Farms" where they had a beautiful Butterfly Haus. We also visited Fredricksburg which is a small German community in Texas Hill Country. They have many fun and unique shops on their Main Street.

It was a fun outing and I enjoyed meeting new people and learning about their life experiences as we drove one hour and back to the venue.

San Antonio Again

We recently returned from our second trip to San Antonio this year. Again, cool and rainy - which is very unusual for them. No suntan for me! We visited a few places we had not been to yet. One was the Tower of Americas. We enjoyed going up in the tower and looking around. The best part though was the 4D movie that we watched. There were snakes coming at us and rattling our feet and bulls jumping at us with spit hitting us in the face!

The second new location was the King Williams Historic District. Settled by wealthy German merchants in the late 1800s, San Antonio's first suburb consists of 25 blocks of historic mansions. There was also a restaurant, Guenther Restaurant, with outdoor seating that was really nice.

The following are pictures of some of the mansions in the Historic District. They were so beautiful. Really enjoyed walking the streets and looking at these historic homes.

I also visited a Butterfly Haus at Wild Seed Farms in Fredricksburg, TX. More about this and pictures on my next post.

Weekend at the Lake

The sun is shining, it is a beautiful crisp October weekend. Finally sun! I am splitting my weekend with exhibiting at a conference for work and a churchwide retreat at a lake resort.

My hubby and I borrowed my parents 5th wheel trailer and are camping. Looking forward to hanging out with my friends and getting to know new friends that are also enjoying the lake. This is the first time our church has coordinated this effort and I think it is a great idea.

I'm looking out over the Lake right now with the beautiful blue waters and the fall colored trees. Life is good. Thank you Lord.
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Back Home

This is a picture of my granddaughter - one week old. I spent last week with my daughter and family to help out once our little Olive came home.

Big sister, Cora, is doing so well with Olive. She calls her Odive. Cora is carrying around her baby doll and putting diapers on her doll just like Mommy. Cora is very concerned when Olive cries. She wants to make sure she is ok.

Now I am back home and after a day of laundry, ready to head back to work. It may be a crazy day tomorrow with catchup.

Looking forward to the next time I see my two little girls. Sure wish they lived closer.

2nd Granddaughter

My second granddaughter, Olive Mae, was born this last day of September. 8 lbs, 4 oz, 21 inches. Mommy (my daughter) and family are doing great.

Cora did so well all day. She loved on Olive and said "Hi baby".

We're so thrilled that she is finally here! Can't wait to spend more time with her and doing some really good Nana spoiling!

Stampin' Up

I would like to feature this blog. This is a friend that started "Stampin' Up" cards for service men and women. This information is from their blog:

From Our Hearts is a not-for-profit 501c3 that was started by stampers wanting to help service men and women stay in touch with their loved one back home in the States by providing them with quality handcrafted greeting cards. Today, our international effort has sent thousands of cards to our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, all donated by the huge stamping community world wide.

Check out their blog (www.fromourhearts.info) and see what they have done for our soldiers.

Garden Tour

I went with a couple of friends to the local Garden Tour. So many beautiful flowers and plants. So so much work that goes into every one of these gardens. It's amazing. Many if not all owners were Master Gardeners.

We visited five homes and I took many pictures. I'm not very good with plant names or garden knowledge, but I love to take pictures. Here are a few of my favorites.

Off the Beaten Path

Saturday we met family at this quaint restaurant that is "off the beaten path". We took a gravel road to get there. The family that own this restaurant only open on weekends and by appointment only.

They serve downhome cooking which includes fried chicken and ham along with the fixin's. For dessert they have cobblers and cheesecakes.

The evening was enjoyable with good food and conversation although the subject matter was not easy. More on that later.

The location is in MidMo and the town of Claysville right along the Katy Trail.
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Hoarders

Has anyone seen the new show "Hoarders" on A&E? Wow. It is actually hard to watch. Very sad to see these people in such bad shape.

Shortly after watching this show, I start cleaning up my house of any clutter! I still have several closets I could go through and pitch things. Watch a few more of these shows and I will be all about cleaning and throwing away!

Garage Sale Find

I found these Sundae Ice Cream glasses at a garage sale recently. I'm looking forward to using them soon when we have some guests over. Hot Fudge Sundae sounds good or maybe homemade ice cream over Labor Day Holiday. A good way to end off the Summer.

They were only $4 for all six. Great deal!