Traditions

We have gathered as a family nearly every year of my life.  This year, I won't have two of my sisters nor my parents with me.   I am lucky to have one sister, her boys, and all four of my children coming, and my two grandchildren.   So, traditions change, but they continue on.   I have tried to continue many of the traditions I grew up with, and yet create a few of our own.   I hope that you enjoy your Christmas traditions and share them with your loved ones....enjoy!

And, happy birthday to Grandpa Shorty Shafer up in heaven watching over us...we miss you and love you!!! 

Special Day!

Yesterday was my mom's birthday.  As you know, in the past I repeated my post I had written about her each year.   I didn't do that this year, but you can find it here:  Mom

Yesterday we made a surprise "day" trip and took her, dad and my sis out to lunch.  It was so great being able to spend the day with my mom on her birthday.   I am so glad we got to do that!   It was a special day, and we even sang some Christmas carols while she played the piano...what treasured memories continue on for me!   I love my mom!!!

My sister, Jolyn, me and my mama....

Memories AND Happy Birthday Dad!

My sister reminded me of a memory in an email and I wanted to share it with you all. It made me misty, and I longed for the days of childhood once again, to be able to just be the little girl and enjoy the wonder of it all...

My Sister:
It was so beautiful this morning with the snow/ice on all the trees. It reminded me of when we were growing up and all those trees were around our yard. When the snow/ice was on all those trees it was a shield from the rest of the world and we were in our own little winter wonderland........BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

Me:
Awww, that brought tears. You are so right!

My Sister:
Oh how I wish we could just have one of those days again and go play in the yard.

Don't you ever want to have a day where you could be the child once again?
I LOVE YOU SIS!!!

AND....Drum roll please...

Happy Birthday today to my dad! He is the best! I could never want for a better dad, and I miss him, especially today!

I LOVE YOU DAD!!!

Memories

Easter 1961

(No, I don't know what I am doing with my hands like that? Do you have a clue??? But, see, I already liked purses!)

Weekend Memories

Tina and Adam will have memories of the weekend to talk about in years to come. On the way to Alliance Friday night with the enclosed trailer (that took the last load up to Wyoming last weekend), Adam started having car troubles with Tina's 4-Runner. At almost 11 pm, she and her dad had to go get the trailer and Adam and bring them to Alliance. They go here at about 3 am! Then, the next day, bright and early, I made breakfast, they took care of a couple things and then they (hubby, Adam and Tina) had to load up the car trailer, and go get the 4-Runner and take it to a neighboring town here to a transmission place. Let's all pray it is nothing major!

The rest of the time was spent finishing up the last load, and taking care of a few things. It appears that they even got the house here rented, which is great since it hasn't sold yet. Everyone was pretty tired Saturday night!

This was dinner, at Adam's request on Saturday night:


Guess you can barely see the good old fashioned chicken gravy, but this was just the old fashioned fried chicken dinner, which was enjoyed by hubby, Tina, Adam and our friend very much...as I don't fry chicken very often...you know, the grilled chicken breast is how we usually have chicken any more! I made a german chocolate cake as well, which they had with ice cream! After their long day and showers, everyone (but me.. I stretched the night out, hoping to slow down the morning departure???) went to bed fairly early!

Watching them drive off Sunday morning to start this new journey was a little hard on this mama.

Churches...

You may wonder what's up with all those pictures of churches in my recent post. Well, let me explain..

My husbands uncle is selling this house in Hartville:Included in the sale of the property:

(Yep, a church...) So, anyone interested?


And, then in Guernsey, there was another church about a block from my folks' place that had been for sale, and recently sold...
We wonder if it will be a church in the future, or it will be used in another manner now.


And this is the Catholic Church in Guernsey (St. Anthony's), in which we were married (over 30 years ago now...)


And finally...my "home" church:
I will be writing a post about my little home church soon...

The Weekend in Pictures...

....stories to follow...many of them...