Ready for the second half?

After 5 nights at the cabin in Ellijay with my family we headed to South Carolina to be with David's family. We were the first to arrive of the kids. Mark and family were there by supper time. We stayed up late (1a.m.) and slept in most mornings. I loved watching our kids be with their cousins and Grandparents. We had fun game time, "intense" discussion (everyone talking over the other), build on the next statement time, good food and just being togther (like the brothers all took a nap together Sunday afternoon, every recliner was in use). I got to help Amy start her senior scrapbook project. Thanks to her we now go around the house saying the word upset like this " up se it" with 3 syllables. It has been hard on me to find my happiness again since arriving home after being with family for 10 days. I loved every minute of it. We stretched our time away as long as we could and arrived home at midnight New years day. We did run into some bad weather that delayed us

Christmas in N.C. 2008

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Where has the time gone?

I had such lofty goals of getting our Christmas decorations posted and everyone wished a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Sorry it didn't happen. Instead is a catch up post. Our family headed out to Ellijay, Georgia the Saturday before Christmas to a cabin and my side of the family.

My Pictures

My parents, my brother and his dog Max came from Kansas. My sister and her cat Charlie are from the Atlanta area and we of course came from Greenfield, In. The cabin was really nice and we made some fun memories there. The popular game this year was Mancala. It is a rather short game so it can be played about anytime. We had fierce competition in ping pong and I learned how to bake bread with the help of my "little" brother. All attempts since then have not measured up to the bread at the cabin :) Of course we took walks, some riverside and some up the mountain. The cabin was down by the river so it took a winding, up and down and very skinny road to get to it. We had 5 days together. My brother made and we ate 7 loaves of Challah bread. Somehow it was fun to cook there,eat like we were dying, do laundry there and all the normal chores of life for a family. I have the pictures ordered and ideas are running through my head for a scrapbook. Georgia and the cabin was only half of our holiday travel and family time. I will post the second half a little later.

Several things I've been up to. No particular order :)

Winterizing our outdoor grill

Making a Ribbon bar cheesecake for some of our Christmas guests

Buying candy, and organizing it for assembly, for the Christmas treats that get passed out at church.

Enjoying help from my "big helper"
It has been a busy week but full of fun things for the whole family. Some we have captured on the camara and other events will just have to go down as memories that we musn't forget. Today we have enjoyed a snow in day. The unfortunate part is this was our big Children's program and Cantata Sunday. Not sure when it will be rescheduled :{ The nice thing is since we didn't have to spend our time practicing yesterday we made a trip to the library for fresh videos (for the kids) and invited the Pastor and Michelle over for pizza and games. Played the game Mille Bourne. Great competative game that is played in teams. We chose guys against the girls and girls "Rule". It is so easy to smile when you are winning.
This next week will be busy too but all fun stuff again :) Great time of the year!

Christmas at the zoo

We have had a zoo membership this year and we knew this was one of the things we wanted to do for Christmas. We started out at the White River Gardens where they had this huge tree in the atrium. The gardens were transformed into a train collectors dream. Mostly large scale sets going everywhere. They provided a list of things to look for and find along the way.

I wish my camara was working properly but I still love this picture. We got to see Santa and Miss Ashley was the only one that wanted to talk to him. As we got closer I asked her what she was going to ask for and she said "shirts". Nothing about the laughing baby doll or something normal like that. Come to find out she was wanting the shirts for her Polly pockets. She looked adorable walking around the zoo in her pink coat, gloves and hat. We road the train around to see the lights. The kids haven't riden before and Ashley was a little nervous. David went to put her on his lap and her boot caught and fell off the train!! We hadn't gone very far so when we came back to the depot we had to have them get it for us. It kept the next train and all the people waiting. I'm so sorry people.

The kids letting Mommy take their picture. There were some awesome places for pictures like for a Christmas card if only I had children that were interested and a camara that worked.

I had such a fun evening...

Last night was our church ladies annual Christmas party. Diane Kennedy has been hosting it in her home for the past 10 yrs. Sis. Bryan was our speaker. I knew I would enjoy what she had to say and I wasn't disappointed. That lady has such grace and wisdom about her. The mix of friends that were there made for a fun evening. The food was festive, elegant and tasty. Ronda, thanks for going to so much effort in making the food for us all. This year we exchanged ornaments. I came home with a beautiful clear glass ball w/a snowman in the middle. The light at the top changes colors. I must admit that I had to "steal" it but that was part of the game. I almost didn't get to take the home tour (too busy chatting it up). I hurried around and was delighted again to see all the new ways that Diane had decorated this year. She is a master decorater and "only" had I think 16 trees up :) The pictures aren't good quality but that is the camaras fault not the photographer ;)

December 7, 2007

It's all my fault...

Just yesterday I took the Fall wreath I had hanging on the front door down and replaced it with this snowman.

This morning we had our first 2 hr. delay for this school year. It is a very moist snow as you can tell from this picture

Looks like a good snowman making snow. The unfortunate thing is most of our leaves fell late (like just last week) and we didn't get them raked up yet. Our snowman are going to look a little dirty.

Our home sweet home!

It's big, it's ugly....

and it's the head of one of these Elk proudly displayed on the wall of the Elk's club here in Greenfield. You say how do you know? Well David's Real Estate office has their annual Christmas party there and it was this past Saturday evening.
It was one of those evenings where you make conversations with strangers. It is a buffet dinner, holiday attire (not fancy) and we had a baby sitter so I shouldn't complain but it is not my favorite kind of evenings. Usually the buffet is set up right in front of this large Elk head but they had it switched around this year. We left with our annual gift of Ham (delicious by the way) but felt like maybe we should stay and be the designated driver for everyone :) I assume everyone made it home without our help. I guess I will see them all again next year at the Lodge.