Thanksgiving and the start of Christmas season.

 Welcome! -Well here in the USA the Thanksgiving holiday has now come and gone.  

We had a very small and somewhat quiet Thanksgiving.  Most of my family spends the holiday with either their spouses family or just celebrates on their own.  So it was just Mike, myself and our daughter Greta and her two girls, Coleen and Joelle.  Greta's boyfriend had to work so he wasn't able to join us this year.

Greta did most of the cooking and prepared some great food.  She made a sausage/vegetable stuffing, green beans almondine, mashed potatoes and gravy.  We did the turkey and I made some cranberry/orange sauce and an Apple Pie.  I bought a Pumpkin pie (mainly for hubby) since I don't like cooked pumpkin pie.

Here is the food and company shots.

 

 

 

One of these days I'm going to have to remember to have someone take my picture as I was the one taking these and never seem to get into the family photos.

 

Of course after Thanksgiving we have a bit of a tradition of getting the outside Christmas lights up as soon as possible.  This year ours went up a few days before the holiday but didn't get turned on until after Thanksgiving.

 

 

We got one new elf and also moved my mom's Nativity set into our yard so that our daughters family could put up what they wanted in their yard (which use to be my mom's place).  They still have to get their house lights up but yesterday Mike & Coleen worked very hard to get the yard decorations set out.  Everything looks very festive now.

I spent the day getting down the holiday glasses, doing dishes, some laundry and puttering around here and there.

 

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are looking forward to Christmas and the holiday season to come.  

 

Thanks for stopping by.

Willy Nilly Friday Five and a Tribute

Welcome!

Well it's another "New Year" and I hope to be able to blog more this year and visit blogs more (no guarantees though).  Most of you know that my mom has Dementia now and looking after her can sometimes really cut into my personal time so if I'm not on the computer much you'll know why.

Anyway today I'm joining Tom (The Backroads Traveller) for:
WILLY-NILLY FRIDAY FIVE

1.  This Hawk has been hanging around a lot this winter. 

2.  Spotted this little Tire Snowman Family and had to get a picture

 3.  Christmas Breakfast - Yum!

 4.  Party Girls on New Years Eve

 5.  Frost on the table that our Christmas train sat on.

 6.  Bonus Cuteness:  Speedy G relaxing on the bed.

Today marks the anniversary of my dad's passing 21 years ago. 

 

 

 He was such a fun dad.  This is him and his little dog Rosie, who has been gone now for about 18 years. 

I miss him still although the pain has lessened over the years to where it doesn't hurt quite as much and I know he's in a much better place.

Flowers for his grave today.

Love you always Dad.

Willy-Nilly Friday Five - December 1, 2017

Welcome - I hope everyone had a good week and for those in the US who celebrated Thanksgiving I hope it was pleasant one.  Ours was quiet but nice.



Hard to believe but Christmas will be here in just 24 days now...so much to do yet.  We have the outside lights up and I'm working on inside decorations this week.  Our tree won't go up for at least a week yet.  We are waiting on a doorway gate to keep the cats out of the room so they won't destroy the tree.

Now let's join Tanya (Around Roanoke) for WILLY-NILLY FRIDAY FIVE.

Click to enlarge photos:

1.  Spotted in a field while out for a drive this past week.

2.  Flowers my youngest brother, (Roger) sent our mom for Thanksgiving.

Aren't they pretty.

3.  Sitting Pretty - Our oldest cat, Miss Dottie

She's been jumping up on shelves, counters & people this week.  Seems she has a new spring to her step. Not bad for an almost 18 year old cat.

4.  Coleen reading (hah, hah) a book for school homework.

5.  Saw this while driving down the street.

Couldn't resist this musical selection this week.

Have a great weekend everyone! - Thanks for stopping by.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday - December 14, 2014

Hello! - If you are dropping in for "Good Fences" just click on the link to be taken to that post.

I am so "behind" on commenting that it isn't even funny.  Just know I am enjoying your posts and will try to comment as time allows.

Joining in with Ashley (Ramblings and Photos) for
SCAVENGER HUNT SUNDAY.

This weeks prompts were:  Shiny, Underneath, Decorations, Fresh, and Colorful.

 SHINY:   This wreath had a very "shiny" bow on it.  I love looking at the different wreaths they have for sale at the Christmas Tree lot we visit every year.  We don't buy them though as they are usually way to expensive.


UNDERNEATH:

We just put our tree up yesterday and haven't yet decorated it.  So this morning I stuck some of the stuffed animals Coleen has one in those (claw machines) underneath the tree.  I think they look cute there and they may just stay underneath the tree now.

DECORATIONS:

Part of our yard "decorations."   Notice all the leaves around them.  We had super high winds this past week (Gusts up to 64 mph) and it blew leaves into the yard and whipped the decorations around.  I fastened down several of them more then once that day.

FRESH:

Coleen loves to visit Santa every year and have her picture taken with him.  Just look at the "fresh" happy smiles on their faces.  Such joy.

COLORFUL:

These 2 new Gingerbread ornaments are quite cute and "colorful."  They'll be heading onto the tree very soon.

SHS will be taking a bit of a break until after the New Year so be sure to stop in an let Ashley know how much you enjoy this meme.

Songography (Silver Bells Edition) and Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Well we are now on the count down to Christmas so let the Merry begin!!!
Click to Enlarge Photos.

Starting off with SONGOGRAPHY - So please join me and of course Kathy (You'll Shoot Your Eye Out) for the "Silver Bells" edition.

This was our front sidewalk on Friday morning,  Yikes!  Thankfully by Friday night it had rained and all that fluffy white stuff was gone. 

Silver bells silver bells
It's Christmas time in the city
Ring a ling, hear them ring
Soon it will be Christmas day.

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 Next let's join Ashley from (Ramblings and Photos) for some SCAVENGER HUNT SUNDAY fun.  -  The prompts this week were:  Lights, Tree, Big, Makes You Feel Merry and On the Door.

LIGHTS:  We drove around a little tonight to look at some Christmas lights and I found this really cool house with a ton of lights.  They were all set to music so be sure to watch the little video as well that will follow the one decent picture I managed to get.

Here is the light show.

TREE:  We decorated my mom's tree last Sunday evening.  Here are pictures of my great-nephew, Andrew and my granddaughter, Coleen helping to decorate.  I love how they both have nearly identical expressions on their faces.

BIG:  This display was in one of the local grocery stores.  That's one "Big" Santa.

 

MAKES YOU FEEL MERRY:  I bought this decoration for my mom many years ago but every time I play it I feel "merry"  - Again a picture and a video.

ON THE DOOR: - Well not exactly on the door but how about above the door.  This is over my mom's front door and one of her favorite decorations.

Well that wraps up another week.  I want to wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and thank you for stopping by my blog this year and for you wonderful comments and encouragement. 

Random 5 Friday is back!

Hip, Hip,  Hooray!  It's Random Friday day!!!  After a brief hiatus Nancy (A Rural Journal) has brought back Random 5 Friday.  One of my favorite meme's as you get to learn some fun and random things about fellow bloggers. 

Here are mine for this week.

Wow, what a busy, busy week.  I haven't been blogging much lately or visiting many blogs because....

#1  -  I'm still Christmas shopping.  I know it's coming down to the wire but that's generally how I roll even though I tell myself every year that I'm not going to wait till the last minute and yet I still end up doing just that.  So for those of you who have everything bought and wrapped already....phtttt....

#2 - We got our tree up and decorated and did my mom's this past weekend.  Our cats have been (fairly) good this year about not yanking to many of the ornaments off the tree.  Here is one of my hubby's ornaments that I bought for him.  Santa's a cool dude!  Oh and one of my personal favorites...Top Hat Cat,

#3 - Coleen had her school program this week and got to wear one of her fancy dresses.  Here she is in front of our tree before heading off to school that morning.

 

 

 

#4 - I tripped going up the bleachers at that program.  I managed to not fall completely but did crash into the metal bar on the stairs and of course EVERYONE there had to see me do it.  Insert "embarrassed" face here but thankfully I wasn't hurt.  My hand was a little sore (as was my pride) but that's about it.

 

 

 

#5 - Coleen has her very first Piano Recital tonight.  -  Everyone keep your fingers crossed that she doesn't get to nervous about being in front of people.  I'll try to get decent pictures to post later.

 

 

I hope to get around and visit a few of your blogs before Christmas but if I don't I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and thank you for being a part of my blogging experience this year.   I'll leave you with a lovely sunset picture from one of our sunsets this week.

 

Off to do more shopping!

 





Songography - It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas and Scavenger Hunt Sunday

What a busy, busy week...or month I should say.  Still trying to get shopping done, but at least the tree is up and the house is decorated inside and out.  Which is perfect because this weeks SONGOGRAPHY song is...

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas - Version by Michael Buble but there are plenty of other versions out there as well.

We went out today to get my mom's Christmas tree and I spotted these guys in the store, of course they had to come home with me.

 At least I only snapped a picture of this Santa but isn't he cool looking.

Some images from our tree:

 

 

I love all the different ornaments we have on our tree.  These are just a few of them. 

Many of the prompts for SCAVENGER HUNT SUNDAY are Christmas related as well so be sure to keep on looking.

Here are the lists of prompts:  The Weather Today, R is for..., Green, Joy & Drink.

THE WEATHER TODAY - Wow after sub-degree temperatures last week it was almost 50 yesterday and about 42 today.  Great weather for...

Fred the cat to climb a tree without slipping on ice or snow, which has now melted.

R is FOR...I wanted to photograph some Reindeer that use to be at the place where we get our trees but they weren't there this year.  Instead you get....

A Rooster that was in the shop instead.

GREEN:

One of several of my holiday frog figures.  I love the expression on this guys face.

Going out of order here as I want to leave Joy for last.


DRINK:

Nothing like a cup of Peppermint Mocha Coffee with a Candy Cane to swirl in it.

JOY:  My favorite image this week:

The Joy of a child visiting Santa. 

Be sure to stop by Kathy (You'll Shoot Your Eye Out) and Ashley (Ramblings and Photos) for Songography and Scavenger Hunt Sunday.

It truly is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Visions of Sugar Plums

Hello,  I've been away for awhile trying to get things ready for Christmas and haven't had time to post of blog surf/comment much.  I apologize for not stopping by your blogs and commenting but it's just been crazy around here.  I hope to be back to regular posting and commenting/blog viewing after the start of the New Year.

I did whip up this little photo today to keep you all in the Holiday mood.

I used one of Bonnie's textures - Pixel Dust Art Photo(Blue Me Away) on this photo.  Then I uploaded it to Picnik did a little editing there and added the text.  This is one of my Christmas Decorations.

Below is the same photo but look what happened when I used the (Auto Correct) feature in the Microsoft editing program.

Isn't that weird and yet I like it too!.