ELLA
Oh Maxine, you should try sharing your chocolate with a guy! Ha Ha Ha
You know, you have to be nice and help out! ha ha ha
Get out and enjoy your day! We have had high winds so I walk my yard and my long driveway. But early in the morning when the sun is rising. Otherwise, here comes the wind!
We've been on an extended break. It was good to get extra rest and just do what we absolutely had to do. It was hard letting Avery go back to work but I am grateful as he is that he is working and keeping busy. God has been good to us.
I was a nervous Nellie and was always frightened of the Jolly Ole Fellow but I tried to be brave and always took a photo with him. This was in the Crews Beggs department store in my hometown ages ago.
Harrison James had a big smile for Santa. But Shea Avery Marie was wanting to get away from this strange ole fellow. Blakersman said "High Five Santa"! His brother said, uh no thank you. I like watching for afar.
CHRISTmas is in the air at our house. We do a little day by day. It has been so cold in the early morning hours and the Spring like weather comes along later in the day. We had a sprinkling of snow. We need more. Since my felt Advent Calendar is missing in action this year, I found this wooden Doug & Melissa one. The ornaments are magnetic and I sure love it. If you don't know Doug & Melissa , their toys are educational and Melissa's story and struggles with mental health is a great read. More and more people in important places are speaking up and it needs to be heard.
Love is...says Happy Birthday to Roger and Noelle having fun in Las Vegas, Nevada this week.
Happy Birthday to these two. Very proud of the phamily they have. The years they have spent together and when my mother told me Roger was a good guy, I had to trust her. Afterall, she never was wrong when it came to relationships. Enjoy your trip and time away from work.
I flew our USA flag yesterday. I remembered that yesterday was Veteran's Day as well as Rememberance Day in Canada. This is my mom's baby sister, my auntie Jo and on her wedding day. My Uncle Tom B served in the Army Air Corp WWII. I have been fighting with my edit button and finally , with much patience, found out that sometime you have to walk away and come back later to fix things right. So I think of and remember those who went before us and all those who served. Uncle Tom was an engineer and he was a great man. He and Auntie Jo were Dallas Cowboy fans and they were simply wonderful people. I tip my hat to him and all that served.
I have a long list but here are some of our loved ones who served:
Bruce (USN)the only child of my grandmother's cousin Frances who gave his life in WWII on a submarine.
James, the son of my mom's cousin Hedwig. He served in the USMC. He gave his all in Vietnam. He was barely out of his teens.
Virgil, my husband's uncle and youngest son of his grandparents. He served as a major in the UAF/
Edward "Munson:", my uncle married to another one of my mom's sisters. He served in the US Army/
Frank P, my mom's brother-in-law who served in the US Army as well.
Dan W (USN) a phamily friend,and a favorite person who loves the constellation as much as I do.
Jason S. (US Army) Three tours of Afghanistan. One of the kindest young men I know.
Carolynn, my husbands cousin who served as a nurse during Desert Storm. U S Army
Duane, Carolynn's dad, who served in WWII in the U S Army
George "Bud" B. my husband's uncle who served in WWII US Army. He is 91 years young these days.
Grandpa Carl, my late father-in-law who served in the U S Navy and was near Pearl Harbor on that fateful day.
He is in the second row walking off his ship (next to the 2 gents standing on the side)/ He taught our daughter Rebekah this song:
If the ocean were whiskey
And I were a duck
I would swim to the bottom
And drink it all up
Hiccup Hiccup
Carl B, phamily friend who served in the U S Army Vietnam
Richard C , phamily friend who served in the U S Navy
Kathy O, U S Navy
Marlene O , U S Navy
Michael O, U S Navy
Pat O, U S Army
Buckley P O'Gane, U S Army, and father to the above mentioned four siblings.
Bob H, my late former brother-in-law U S Army, Vietnam
Jesse H, U S Army , Vietnam gave his young life in his 30's due to the effects of Agent Orange
Kenny W, U S Army lost his life in Vietnam
Gary R, my late brother-in-law U S Army Korea/ He also worked for many years for the government.
Joe B, U S Navy, he always said being an orphan and having the Catholic school nuns give him beatings for his ornery nature , made him a better man who served three tours in Vietnam, a tour in Desert Storm and a federal job with the government.
Ray Sr., Ray Jr. and Frank who all served in the U S Navy and proud to say, are my cousin and his two wonderful sons.
Sam C. U S Navy my late cousin who loved serving his country.
I am hopeful I have listed them all and all those I think of daily and remember in prayers who I have met in this life and heard their personal stories. I apologize for being late but I had these people and all who served on my heart all day yesterday. They remain in my prayers always.
Welcome to Tuesday 4 in memory of Toni Taddeo
November is Here
1. Besides Thanksgiving is there anything you like/dislike about November?
I love the Fall and I feel like most of November shined gloriously with the colors of Fall. I do love
Thanksgiving as it brings back so many beautiful memories of my own childhood and the grand
celebrations my parents hosted for our extended phamily. I often wished it would never end. I am
not a huge fan of the cold weather and snow but having been born and raised in Colorado I am
use to it. I enjoy watching the snow from the inside of my home where it is warm and cozy.
November is bittersweet for me . My mom passed away on the very day her own mother was born.
They were two of the most amazing women I ever knew. I was grateful God chose me to be part
of their phamily.
2. How is November weather where you live? Does it suit you?
I think I stated this in my first question. Being a Colorado native I love having the four seasons
and although as an adult the winter months are no longer my favorite ones, I do love the snow and
all the changes winter brings. I love CHRISTmas with the snow and all the fanfare. But I also
love sunshine and cool but crisp days. Colorado weather can change in five minutes so I am
never shocked when I spend two days with 70 plus temps and drop into the 30's in a blink
of an eye! We can have snow and rain and sunshine all together with hail and thunder storms,
in no particular order. The weather during the holidays is usually perfect to celebrate my
favorite holiday of all, CHRISTmas.
3. When do you plan for Thanksgiving? Eat home or out? Menu?
We've been planning already. I think everyone has uped their Thanksgiving game.
Our grandson Andrew and his wife had invited us to their home for an evening dinner.
But we had already made plans. It is such a blessing when loved ones think of you
and include you in their plans. We are very grateful. We plan to slow cook a turkey this
year. There are lots of side dishes we like to include, the famous green bean casserole,
mac n cheese, mashed potatoes with homemade turkey gravy, a relish tray and all the
holiday favorites. Rebekah will usually make a pumpkin pie or two from scratch and
since Hannah shared her cheesecake recipe with me I tohught maybe I would make
a special one for Thanksgiving. I use to make Dear Abby's Pecan Pie, the easiest and
most delicious pie but no one likes it as much as I do so it is not worth all the effort.
I may bake rolls from scratch if I can do a trial run first. My mom and aunt Aung were
famous for all those homemade rolls.
4. When do you begin your decor and plans for CHRISTmas?
I see people starting earlier this year and I get that. I would love to be able to decorate
our whole house. We usually do it the day after Thanksgiving. If I put a small tabletop tree in our
bedroom I can wait for Avery to put up our large tree in the living room and Nick has a tall
pencil tree he used in his office area last year. The best part is decorating them. We have
tons of decorations and CHRISTmas fare. I have a large collection of Nativity sets and I
am going to put them in my collector cabinet. I use to have them in my china hutch cabinet on the
lower shelves. I think I will display them in my curio cabinet upstairs as I need to change that up
as well. While most people are downsizing their lives, I find lots of wonderful memories in
my Precious Moments collection, my teacups and saucers and teapots. I have Willow Creek
figures too. They are filled with wonderful moments especially with my parents so there
is no time to think of downsizing any of them.
I have a salt and pepper collection and of course, I have the pilgrims for Thanks-
giving.
These are not s/p shakers but things I love to have since Thanksgiving and turkeys do not get
the love like other holidays. I try to find items that fit the season. I do apologize that my photos are
scattered everywhere and I am needing to get better organized. I borrowed some google images.
I had my annual Derm appoitment. Everything went well and Mary Ann, my P.A. was as nice as ever. I am grateful everything looked great! Iwas happy!
Avery took me to my appointment and than we had lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory. It was packed. Which surprised us for a Tuesday afternoon. I had their delicious lasagne and he had his favorite, the meat lovers special. They have the best sourdough bread and of course, to finish your meal, the Spumoni ice cream cup. We took a selfie outside the restaurant. We were happy!
When I woke up this morning I had the Don Williams song, "Lord I Hope This Day Is Good" running through my head. All in all the day has been very good to us even with the cold front moving in.Happy!
"Lord I hope this day is good,
I'm feeling empty and misunderstood .
I should be thankful Lord, I know I should.
But Lord I hope this day is good."
It is a really beautiful song and a young country singer Kaylee Hammock redid the song with the one and only Alan Jackson. I love and always will love, the old traditional country music. Don Williams was a favorite of my mom too so we liked listening to his music. Music always makes me happy.
Maxine is usual right about her snarky statements. The time change has never been a favorite. We did get to sleep in today so that helped. But we nearly forgot the trash man was coming. HaHa ...he was late too. The time change is not favorable to the household pets either!
Throughout history many protesters worked hard to change things that were important. Take the right to vote for woman. Although many of the wealthy women who were involved, like Mrs. Alva Vanderbilt fought for the right to vote the first state to allow women to vote was Wyoming. New York, where Mrs. Vanderbilt lives, did not received the vote until years later. I always love history and finding fun facts.
