Another Week Closer to Company!!

Well, I've made it through another week. It's hard to tell what I'm doing because I'm making Christmas gifts and that is a big SECRET!! But I'm making progress and the hope is to be finished with making them by when my wonderful mum-in-law arrives this coming Thursday for a nice long visit. I will still be cross-stitching Mimi's sweatshirt but that doesn't have to be a secret. I've put a picture of Tiny's face into cross-stitch software and made a pattern that I'm doing with waste canvase for Mimi on a bright orange sweatshirt.

Last Sunday evening Claude and I sat in front of the TV to watch the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional on BYU-TV. When it came on we were surprised to hear it in Spanish!!! Claude went to another TV that uses another receiver (we have 4 TV's and 2 separate receivers to accommodate them, silly isn't it?) and it was also receiving in Spanish. The music was in English and after the choir did a special number then suddenly the meeting was in English. I'm thinkin' someone called it in but I'm not sure.

Tuesday evening was a fun event. The Countryside Homemakers Club I have joined has an auction every year in December. Every chapter donates at least 4 items to be auctioned off. Each new member is given $100 in play money. Each person that recruited a new member also gets $100 for each new member they recruited. Then they have a real auctioneer come and we bid our play money on the items we want. There were about 6 banquet tables full of items from food to handcrafted things to flower arrangements, etc. I was very careful with my $100 and came away with 4 items and had $30 left over. As you look at the picture you can tell this money isn't negotiable anywhere but the auction. It was lots of fun. Some of the items I bid on will be Christmas gifts. I did get me a little sign on a stake that I put in the front flower bed. The highest bid item was homemade bourbon balls. Gotta love Kentucky women!!

Wednesday was the busy day. Got my hair cut in the morning. I got the oil changed in my car for free!! Then I sang at the nursing home with Papa and visited with Mimi. Then I hurried back out to Sadieville to retrieve Claude so he and I could go home/visiting teaching. The Rennicks were our visit and they had suggested dinner out. We had Dave pick the restaurant and he chose BD's Mongolian Grill in Lexington. So off we headed to Lexington for a great dinner. This was our first time at this restaurant (it will NOT be the last) but Julie and Cordell introduced us to our 1st Mongolian Grill meal in Utah several years ago. Then Claude drove us to Coldstone Creamery for a bit-'o-ice cream for dessert. We then hurried home to watch the last half of Criminal Minds and then CSI NY.

Thursday was a much needed day at home to work on Christmas stuff all day long.

Friday night was the ward Christmas party. They started it with a tribute to veterans. They had all the men in the ward who had served in the military to perform in their old uniforms if possible. Then they told the true story of the Americans fighting and the battle pausing at Christmas while the two sides sang Silent Night. Very touching story and it was done really well. Claude was one of the officers who met the other side and exchanged a gift of his silk scarf with the other side. We had dinner and then lots of program. It ended with a visit from that man in the red suit. Guess who had the honor this year...okay, I'll tell you. It was Santa Claude!! He asked me if he could 'cuff' any of the bad kids. I assured him that would be in poor taste for Santa. When he came in the room the kids swarmed him. Holly Kolvig got to the microphone and assured the kids she was the 'mean elf' and they had to form a line because she took Santa's bag of candy and wouldn't get it to him unless they formed a line. Quite amusing. Now you are wondering...where is that picture of Santa Claude. Well, I will send it after Christmas is over...just because.

Today is Saturday and we started the day with a breakfast drive thru at McDonald's. My favorite breakfast is 2 plain biscuits and a Dr. Pepper. At our McDonald's I am forced to settle for 2 plain biscuits and a Mellow Yellow. Then we were off to the stake center to pick up our food storage order. The stake did a food storage run to the Knoxville Bishop's Storehouse and we added powdered milk, wheat, quick oats, macaroni, and rice to our food storage this time. Now we have to haul it all to the basement!! Then we went to HH Gregg. They sell TV's. Our TV in the living room is showing strong signs of imminent failure. So we thought we would do the beginning look and ask questions and get price comparisons, etc. while we were down in Lexington. Those who have been to our home know about the big TV in the basement. This is where it came from and we have had good success with it so we feel good about checking 1st at HH Gregg. The lady we spoke with cheerfully showed Claude the feature he liked best, a swivel base for Samsung and Sony models. I'm looking at the on/off button on the top to keep it away from Bailey's fast little fingers. We'll check some other places and then be ready when the time comes (we figure while all the family is here for Christmas it will give-up-the-ghost). Then we hit Michael's. Since Claude is trying the making of jewelry, he is a much easier sell on going to Michael's. Then we found the Linen & Things that is going out of business and went through it. Then we ended our day in Lexington at Chipotle's for a late lunch/early dinner. Claude just made his 1st loaves of French bread. He did a great job and brought me hot buttered bread from the oven just now. I'm sooooo spoiled.

One of the joys of this blogging thing is that I have all the family members blogs listed on my blog page. It tells me when the last updated their blog and I can quickly go in and read what is happening to all my nieces and nephews for which I have a blog address. It was fun to read about the snow received in Texas this week. I have this picture taken in 1962. Neffie is bending over picking up snow, Junie is in the middle and I'm on the right side of the picture. We didn't get much snow in Louisiana. I remember that when we did, Mimi would take snow and mix it with Eagle Brand Milk and something for flavor and make snow ice cream. We loved it. She would do this also if we were out west on vacation and ran into snow up in the mountains. One time we had a lot of snow, it seems like there were at least 4 inches on the ground or maybe a little more. We didn't have 'snow gear' to play in the snow in. So Mimi put us in socks with plastic bread bags over our socked feet and rubber bands to keep the bags tight at our ankles. Then we put on our rubber golashes (I bet I butchered the spelling of that word!) and off we went on a hike to the school playground to enjoy the snow. The snow was a block and a half away. As we started in the full block, Junie started to complain that her foot was cold. We just kept on going because we were all cold but we wanted to really enjoy this moment that really didn't come very often. When we got to the school ground, Junie was really uncomfortable. We looked at her feet and realized her boot had come off in a snow bank and she was just in her sock and plastic bag covering. So we retraced out steps and got this poor child her shoe back. Usually what we had in Louisiana was ice storms. I can remember Claude and I going to visit Mimi in the hospital after she had her hysterectomy. There was ice all over and I remember Claude saying, "You've got to love a person a lot to get out in this stuff."