Happy Anniversary/Boxing Day

Today, December 26, 2008, is the 38th anniversary of our wedding. We have just concluded 5 1/2 days of our girls, Kelly & Hannah; their husbands, Mike & Steve; and our two grandsons, Dominick & Noel; gathered here for the Christmas holidays. We had three good family meals with Grandmother Marie Thomasson as well, including a pizza meal over at her house.

Kelly & Mike & boys left on Christmas Day, and Hannah & Steve left on the 26th at noon. Then Leslie & I put on our walking clothes and walked the trails at Landreth Park in 65 degree weather, over 2 1/2 miles. We watched a TV movie next, then went out to take care of Leslie's two watches at Kohl's. She had 4 links removed from one watch--which took about 45 minutes or so--and we bought a battery for her other watch. Now she has two fashion watches to wear for any occasion. Then we went to Mythos Greek restaurant at about 5:15 for a fine anniversary meal, to Wal-Mart then to May's for some shopping, then on to home. We wound up watching "So You Think You Know the Lyrics" and a movie, "Christmas Child," which was over at 10:30. Now it's quiet and time for bed.

All in all, a really nice 38th anniversary day. We are glad to share it with you all.

Pysanky on the brain

Here's what I've been doing of late...and I mean late. I've been doing pysanky every chance I get. I got some brown eggs that are really great to work with. Here are some of my recent creations. It always takes me a while to get in the groove, so some of these are underwhelming. Last night I gave a pysanky lesson to Jill Halbach, who works for me part-time in the Post Library. We worked until 11:30. I think I grossed her out when I showed her how to blow out the insides. Not a pretty sight!

Lest We Forget....the Ice

Today, December 8, 2008, is the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the ice storm that knocked us out of our house for a week (see the blog entry from December 10, 2007). It started on Saturday night, December 8, and by mid-morning on Sunday the 9th, power was out all over the area. We were out of our house from Sunday until Saturday afternoon, spending the last night at Barry & Barbara Williamson's house in Loma Linda.

We hope never to see such an ice storm in our lifetime.

Snow is predicted tonight, but not much to accumulate.

Deck the Halls....

Yesterday, Saturday, December 6, we started decorating for Christmas. We started around noon and worked all afternoon up till suppertime. Then I went off to the Missouri Southern basketball game, and Leslie continued working on the decorations. I did put up the garlands and lights, and the tree and lights. Meanwhile Leslie did everything else, from putting away the normal things and replacing them with Christmas items, including hanging the ornaments on the tree. The picture below shows Leslie early in the project.
We can't decorate for Christmas without playing Christmas music, and the very first music we must hear, year after year, is the Ray Conniff singers (see below). The reason we do this is that my parents had this record and played it at Christmastime, and I always associate Christmas with the Ray Conniff singers. It's dorky, I know, but it's necessary.

The next two pictures show the finished product, after Leslie spent all Sunday afternoon finishing up. Now we have the Christmas spirit.

The "Tree Corner" all finished, above.

It's nice to have the garland lights on the stairs, because we don't need to turn on the overhead light to go up or down the stairs at night. It gives a warm feel to the house.

We wish you a Merry Christmas!