Afghans from Nana

 I crocheted two afghans for my granddaughters for Christmas.  Cora loves pink and Olive loves yellow.  They ended up taking longer than I expected so I was crocheting non-stop right before the holidays!

They really liked them and hopefully they are enjoying their warmth this cold winter (although pretty nice temperatures right now).

These afghans are just their size - big for them but not adult size.

I'm ready to start another project for the month of January ... what will it be?  I need to do some sewing - I have so much material. I'm sure I'll come up with something!

Christmas Goodies

I tried a few new recipes this year for Christmas.  They were well received at the Christmas parties we attended.  My daughter's MIL gave us this recipe:

2 bags "natural" popcorn - popped - remove kernels

3 C Rice Krispies

1 16 oz. jar dry roasted peanuts

1 package vanilla almond bark

3 T peanut butter

Combine dry ingredients

Melt almond bark in microwave

Stir in peanut butter

Pour over dry ingredients - coat

Spread on wax paper to dry

The other recipe I found on Southern Hospitality -  Crockpot Chocolate Candy.  This was easy and made quite a large batch.  

Both recipes tasted great.  The other goodies I made over the holidays was Magic Bars, Applie Pie, and chocolate covered pretzels.

Christmas Decorations

Christmas Tree

 I have cut down on my decorations this year.  Usually I decorate two Christmas trees but decided to just put one up in the living room this year.

The Christmas music on the piano is some old books and sheet music that I used as a child as I learned how to play the piano.  I still love to play, "Santa Clause is Coming to Town".  Displaying it lets me reminisce.

The Wonderful Counselor picture frame is new this year. I found this on someone's blog but cannot remember where .  Sorry - I wish I could provide a link.

Christmas Music

Our church choir sang today a musical called "Tapestry of Light: A Celtic Christmas" by Joseph Martin and Joseph Martin came to our church and accompanied us.  That was very special.

Our families gather for Christmas this year on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  We will be very busy those two days with extended family and our immediate family festivities.

I have quite a bit to accomplish before those two days.  Seems like there never is enough time!

Foyer Display

Kitchen table display

Shrimp Boil

Olive

Cora

My granddaughters visited over Thanksgiving and we had a good time beading necklaces.  We also played barbies, playdough and read books.  We squeeze in a lot in a short time!

New sunroom

Christina, Cindy and Jo enjoying the shrimp boil

On Sunday, after Thanksgiving, we had a shrimp boil with my husband's family at our house.  We spread out to our new sunroom to make plenty of room for all.

We also had salad, apple salad, and corn bread to go along with the boil and pheasant as an appetizer.  We went a little overboard on the food so sent home food with everyone at the end of the day.


Everyone really enjoyed the boil and it was fun to do something different than turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving

Big plans for Thanksgiving?  We are hosting both sides of the family this year.  One on Friday and the other on Sunday.  Thursday we plan to help out at our church's community Thanksgiving Dinner.  I have an apple pie to prepare for that day to donate.

Friday, my family will come and we plan on eating out and then dessert at our home.  This will be a smaller group with my parents, brother and his wife and my husband and son.

Sunday, my husband's family will be coming over and we plan to do a shrimp boil.  We are using Paula Deen's recipe:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/low-country-boil-recipe/index.html.  This will be fun. Everyone will have already had turkey so we wanted to do something different.  You put paper or wax paper on the table and just roll the food out onto the table.   This is a bigger group of about 13 people.

My daughter and family will be coming by Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving on their way to her husband's family.  I'm looking forward to seeing them and playing with the girls.

Please have a Blessed Holiday.

Birthday

I have been very busy this last month and haven't been able to post for awhile.  I have gone to three conferences where I exhibit for my company and also have had a cold, so I've either been away or not feeling well.

I have been able to keep up reading my blog reader, so I have kept up with that aspect of blogging.

One exciting thing that has happened since I last posted, is I had a birthday!  That in itself is not that exciting, but my husband bought me an ipad ... that is exciting!  I love technology and so love to get some of the new toys.  I'm really enjoying it and learning about new apps to download.

One of the fun toys on the ipad is Facetime.  I'm going to play with that soon and post a funny picture soon.

Conference Planning - Branson

 My husband had a planning session for an upcoming conference in Branson.  I traveled with him and we stayed at "The Chateau on the Lake".  It is a very beautiful hotel overlooking Table Rock Lake.

While visiting Branson, I was also able to do some outlet shopping at Tanger. I bought some jeans at Levi, a long sleeved shirt at Banana Republic and some Christmas gifts for my family.  It was a relaxing short vacation with beautiful weather two of the three days.

The trees are just beginning to turn in this area, a couple more weeks and it will really be picturesque. The last picture is from my hotel balcony.  Great room and view.

Picture from the hotel balcony

Sisters, Sisters

My granddaughters ... sweet sisters.  

I will enjoy watching their friendship and love for each other develop.

Photography

Some interesting shots I took while in Chicago.  I love my camera and love to take pictures.  That's a good day for me ... just taking pictures.

Chicago, Chicago

Beautiful day in Chicago.  We had perfect weather for the day.  We drove into the city and walked around Millennium Park, Michigan Avenue and took a boat tour down Chicago River and out onto Lake Michigan. We need to visit again real soon.

Apple Pickin'

County Line Orchard, Hobart, Indiana

We visited County Line Orchard.  It is a really large orchard and a lot for families to do.

Kristopher ready for the tractor ride

We took a tractor ride to the orchards and picked gala's, golden crisp and jonathon apples.

Several apples were ate along the way but the orchard encourages that so we know what we want to take home.

It was a beautiful, sunny day.

Cora and Olive taking a bite of apple

Beach Time

Cora playing in the sand

The first part of the week was sunny and so we swam and played in the sand.  The last part of the week was windy, rainy and cool, so we still played in the sand.  The waves really got high on the windy days and the water pretty cool, so we didn't swim after the first few days.

On clear days you could see Chicago in the distance.  Beautiful lake, sand and skies.

Cora and Olive really have fun playing on the beach.

How high can we jump?

Olive leaving her footprints

Vacation on Lake Michigan

Buckley Homestead

We vacationed in NW Indiana in Ogden Dunes.  The house we rented was a couple blocks from Lake Michigan.  Besides playing in the sand, we took day trips around Lake County, Indiana.  We lived in this area for ten years so we did some blast from the past   touring.

Deep River

Deep River Waterpark

My husband use to work for Lake County Parks and   here are some pictures from a few of the parks.

My next few blogs will be about our vacation.  Chicago, Apple Picking, Bowling, and Beach Time.

Our daughter and her family and our son were able to join us on this vacation.  We had a wonderful time together and not every family can find the time to be together or get along together ... we are blessed.

Missions

Our church had Missions Sunday today.  This video is from the Kenya Trip that my husband led.  Our church has mission opportunities locally, nationally and globally.  We have adopted a local elementary school, our youth went to Joplin Missouri to help with the tornado cleanup, and besides Kenya we also work in the Dominican Republic.  It was a blessed day.

Yo-Yo

These are called yo-yo's.  Sew a button on top and put a barrette on the back for a cute child hair clip.  I use my scrap material and use a Clover Yo-Yo Maker.  Very fast craft project.

Check out this link that shows how to make a yo-yo purse.  http://www.craftstylish.com/item/9596/how-to-make-a-yo-yo-handbag

The Help

I read this book and really enjoyed this great page-turner.  I was excited when I knew a movie was being made and couldn't wait to see it.  I called a couple of friends and we went to see the movie the very first night.  Those at the movie  really responded as the movie went along and even clapped at the end.  It was a great movie!  This may be one to purchase when it comes out on DVD.

Did you see it or read the book?  What did you think?

Missouri State Fair

Cora talking with Otto the Car

Having fun at the Missouri State Fair.  It was a great day and great weather (until it rained).  It wasn't too hot .... that was the important thing!  There are several places at the fair for the girls to play and have fun.  They really enjoyed Papa's fair!

I stayed overnight and enjoyed the fair for a second day.  I love the Home Ec building.  Displays and demonstrations about crafts and cooking.  Always gives me great ideas.  

The fair ends this Sunday, so soon my husband will be back home and finished with working at the Highway Gardens for this year.

Cora and Olive having fun riding the whale

Olive and Smokey the Bear

Cora enjoying the balloon ride

Baby Girl

My daughter is turning 29 tomorrow!  How can that be?  We called this her Pebbles look - putting her little bit of hair into a barrette.  She always played so well by herself.  These were sweet days, when she was little, and I am reliving this now watching her little girls be so similar to their mommy.

We are getting ready to go on a vacation back to where both of our children were born and lived until my daughter was in 3rd grade.  I'm sure there will be some reminiscing for both my husband and myself. We are vacationing as a family with our daughter and family as well as our son.

Looking forward to making more great memories.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl -- love you.

Sundress

I made this little sundress for Olive.  It is McCall's 2213.  Very sweet and simple pattern.  I made one previously that was brighter colors.  This has white eyelet material on the front and blue plaid on the inside.

I looked through my button jar for quite a while to find the perfect white buttons for the straps.  Olive tried on the dress for Nana and she looked very precious in it.

Hopefully I will get a picture of her wearing it before the summer is out.

River View

Our city now has a walk/bike path over the river.  We took a late evening walk and took a few pictures of the beautiful Mighty 'Mo.  We almost waited too long and I was afraid I wouldn't get good pictures, but I really like they way they turned out.  The blue colors are great.

I also got a picture of a train coming into the Capitol City.  We only walked halfway over the bridge to the viewing spot.  Next time I'll put on my tennis shoes and walk all the way over the bridge and back.  Having a great view on a walk helps encourage exercise!

I'm not sure I needed the sunglasses this time of evening.

It was a wonderful evening, great breeze and beautiful view.