Starting the day with a great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY for eldest son, WES!

That's my boy!

Fifty years ago today at Brent General Hospital in Detroit, Michigan this gentleman his appearance making one of my fondest wishes come true–to be a momma!  Now for what appeared on his and the other children’s cake for years.  Happy Brithday!  ( I really wasn’t the brightest bulb in the package!!! )

Yesterday was the first productive day in a long time.  First I managed to tear up and box most of the cardboard that had accumulated in the mud room since before my surgery.  In the process I broke the blister that the tape had made on my ‘clipped finger’.  At least I didn’t pick it with a pin.  This resulted in a little bigger on the bandaid but no additional pain.

I spent yesterday morning putting ham and bean soup made from the Christmas ham into jars and freezing it. There was a bowl each for our lunch and five pints in the freezer.

In the afternoon I peeled, cored, and sliced all but two of the apples from the peck we had got free with the half bushel we bought  before Christmas.  I then canned 11 pints of Apple Pie filling but lost one when boiling them in the canner.  Needless to say I was ready for  bed before 10 pm and was satisfied with my day.

I want to thank my other son, Les (SEB) for moving the phone and the rocking chair back into Momma’s Corner it was a delight to see it there!

Again Happy Birthday to my son and a very Happy New Year to all of you!

20 degrees with a light, softly falling snow outside my window this morning.  I decided to get up and run through the E-mail and the blogs because I was suffering from the old fart syndrome.  What is that you ask–well it is when it seems like every joint in your body is taking turns broadcasting aches and pains.  You feel you can’t lay in that bed any longer because your mattress has turned into an alien torture machine.  So you get up take a couple of aspirins, do the cat, dish washer, and coffee making routine making sure you have a nice warm flannel shirt and slacks on to start the day.

My hand has been pretty quiet the last couple of days except when I rammed the tip of that ring finger into the leg on the kitchen table.  Yes it bled a little but with a fresh bandage and a pain pill  it was better.  I have to remember to pad that thing well and try to keep it out of harms way.

I spent the last two days in waiting rooms while Jay had some tests done.  This is not a difficult task when you have Dan Brown’s novel The Lost Symbol  to occupy your time.  I’m over half way through and it is calling me constantly to pick it back up.  Well the next couple of days will be quiet so I plan on reading quite a bit.  ( If I don’t help make Apple Pie filling.)

I don’t plan to ‘undecorate’ this place until the finger is healed a lot better.  Then I can start packing every thing up for another year.  I have quite a lot to put away so I’m in no hurry to get started.

I will asking Les to change the blog back to the old format.  I would love to have the rocking chair and old phone back up but he said that isn’t possible right now–so we will take what we can get.

Do have a good rest of the week and keep positive thoughts that the new year will improve the lot of everyone!!

This indeed was an unforgettable Christmas Eve.  Two of my family were absent from the table leaving a hole also in our hearts.

Son Wes

He is out of the country working and

Les' daughter Courtney

She is out of state still working.

The rest of the family was here and we were happy to see them.

At one end of the table.

Friend Richard (I call him my adopted son), hubby Jay, and son SEB (Les) talking and eating like men do!

At the other end of the table.

Les’ wife Anne, our daughter Cindy ( of Cindyisms), and our ex son-in-law David.

On the couch Wes' family

Daughter-in-law Debra, Grandson Dakota, and granddaughter Jasmine.

Debra brought her great Spinach salad to the dinner.   Other menu items to follow.

Cindy brought cookies, candy, cheese, and the deviled eggs.

Les and Anne brought olives to go with our homemade pickles and pickled beets.

They also brought two kinds of delicious bead to go with the peas, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, and  ham that Jay and I prepared.

The cheesecake (from Gordon foods) plus one that Cindy made was part of the dessert.

Jay's Apple Spice Cake.

This train wreck was absolutely delicious despite the fact that it fell apart coming out of the pan.  We decided it tasted good enough to keep.

Add to this chips and two kinds of dip (ranch and homemade deviled ham and cream cheese) and also popcorn made the menu complete.

gifts

Regressing back to childhood I have to show you what I got!!!!

Books, a Neil Diamond CD, over the ankle slippers,  and a double sided suet feeder for woodpeckers.

The feeder

There now I can grow up again.

But the thing that makes this Christmas Eve most memorable is this.

Yep my finger!

While helping Jay slice apples to dry for part of Les’ present I sliced a part of the tip of my ring finger off. Doctor said it will be ugly but I figure if that were the only ugly thing about me that would be fine.

So I hope your Christmas was full of surprises because mine sure was!!!!!

This is the time of year when we look back on life as we knew it.

Parade time.

The many memories of sharing the holidays with friends and family shine brightly in my thoughts.  The gathering of our family on Christmas Eve was past down from my father to me and we will again be together except for my oldest son who is not available. Yep my dishwasher loader is not going to be with us this year and I will really miss him.

We will try to remember to take pictures and with Skype we should be at least be able to talk Wes.  So please accept our good wishes for a happy holiday.

The First Of Four

I finished it this morning and hung it on the tree.  I probably won’t get another one done before Christmas because of commitments I have made.

Jay and I went to McDaniel’s Farm Market for some fruit and while I was there David, the owner, and I talked about last year when I bought wreaths for my kid’s front doors.  I explained that this year money wise it was out of the question.  I said maybe next year things will be better.  I might even get one of those 36 inch wreaths for the front of my house.  David said I didn’t have to wait until next year because he was giving me the one he had hanging on the wall in the market.  He explained with only four or five days until Christmas he didn’t think it would get sold so I might as well enjoy it instead. I told him that jars of jam will be forth coming all next  year and thank him very much.

A gorgeous addition to the front of the house!

I had asked Phyllis, my neighbor, if I could borrow her husband, Steve, to hang it for me.  He wasn’t at home then and a few minutes later my doorbell rang and Phyllis wanted to know where the ladder was.  She hung the wreath and put the ladder back herself explaining that it needed to be done before it got dark.  She had also brought over a loaf of pumpkin bread and this dishtowel that she had embroider on her machine.

Gifts from Phyllis

When she left it was with the little green wreath ornament I had finished today.  I can always make another one!

So it was a very happy day for me and it reaffirms that that sharing with others brings good things into one’s life!

A few little odds and ends before I return to my project.

The flag

I changed the flag yesterday to my Christmas one.  I’ll change it back after the 25th.

They are back!

My mice are back on the little shelf by the kitchen door.  Unfortunately the little schoolhouse that shared the shelf has bit the dust.  But old things sometimes get broken no matter how hard you work to keep them.

The hanger

Last year I made four of these and kept one for myself.  I haven’t looked for the kits this year but it is a project I would like to do again.

Pulled out the sparkles again!

I didn’t get to make any of these last year so I thought I’d get at least one done for this year.  That means leaving the keyboard and sitting at the table so I’m gone.  I hope your projects are on schedule and the holiday plans are progressing!!!!

It started out at around 54 degrees this morning but has gone down hill since then.  It is 43 degrees now with gusty winds.  The picture outside was anything but snowy for 10 days before Christmas.

It was supposed to be white out there!

I remember when the children were small and we would have weather like this.  There would be sleds and skates waiting under the tree and not a flake to be found!!!!  The worry lines deepened with each passing day.  What will we do if there is no snow?  But it would finally come and we relaxed.

This last couple of weeks I have been exchanging places in line with people who had less to check out than me.  Trying to do a good deed for the holiday.  Well at the grocery store today the checkout clerk looked at me questionable when I let a lady go ahead of me.  I explained my actions and about that time a woman behind me let a man move in front of her.  See I explained we just want to make someone’s day a little better.

My appointment yesterday had some good news and the doctor gave me a prescription for my runny nose and sore throat because he said he didn’t want any stitches pulled do to coughing.  I’m doing well with the healing and he doesn’t want to see me again unless there is trouble.  I guess that old song ‘Breaking up is hard to do‘  isn’t really!!!!

Well the gifts are falling in to place now with that old worry–will they like it– is it right for them?–will they understand we aren’t well to do? –but I feel I did the best I could.  The only thing else I can give them is love!!!

It has been a bad two days for me with the coughing, sneezing, runny nose, headache , and sore throat.  Of course I tried several things and wound up constipated which made my right hip joint malfunction.  (I don’t know why but it does and it is so painful that I can’t walk unaided).  I kept my appointment yesterday for the mammogram but it was a heralding experience try to move my foot between the gas and the brake pedal.  Then last night the cold starting receding. ( Not clear yet but 60 percent better.)    Last night I took three great big handfuls of cashews and that has started to clear the other problem up.  (Again I don’t know why it works but it does and the pain in the hip is almost gone.)   During all this poor hubby has tried to find something for us to eat, help me put my sore leg into bed when I couldn’t lift it, and tried to keep some semblance of order around here.  A call from the doctor’s office let me know that the test yesterday was good.  I  seems to be getting better today so I’m going to make lunch for when Jay gets in from dialysis and attempt supper a bit later also.  I may be on the road to accomplishing the tasks that holiday planning always brings.

Oh the snow is back!!!!

A big thank you to grandson Dakota and his friends for carrying on the Tranquillity III participation in the celebration for The Lake Orion Lighted Parade.

A fine young gentleman and his lady

Another view

Only three but they do make me proud!

A closeup

I don’t know if Debra, his mother or Jasmine, his sister, did the makeup but either way it was a very fine job.  Thank you guys very much for getting out there in the cold and making people laugh!!!

One side

Another side.

Each item you hang on it brings back memories of when Pammie made the wooden ornaments.  The ones the children made for you years ago.  The ones bought by them with special care more recently.  Even a card sent by a friend before she lost her husband.  Each one a reminder of dear ones and those not with us any longer.  What a wonderful way to spend time reliving memories.

Yes it is done!  Even though you don’t feel like messing with one this year take my advice the sight will lift your spirits up tremendously.   So even if it is only two feet tall put one up and delight in the feeling it brings.   Momma