Happy New Year

My wishes for all are that this is a magnificent 2011 and that you are healthy throughout the year.  2011 will start very quietly for us.  No family for dinner.  Both kids have in-laws that were visited yesterday.  This, actually, suited me just fine.  The holiday decorations can be put away slowly and carefully.  I wish I had a way to just  put the tree in a closet, decorated and always ready to be pulled out and plugged in.  Christmas is my favorite time of the year.  Everything is so pretty and Santa is one of my favorite items.  There are at least 15 on the tree and many more throughout the house.  They will all go in their little boxes for another 11 months.

On to 2011.  We welcome you with open arms.

Christmas 2010

It is now the 27th of December 2010.  Our Christmas day was hectic, wonderful and a little painful.  It all started at 7AM (fortunately it wasn't 5) with, "Grandma get up, Santa was here".  Everything was in rapid speed from this point on. 

"Santa's" gifts were opened first.  He did a good job!  Then on to gifts from mom and dad and grandma and granddad.  Em was a happy little girl.  About 9:30AM, number one son came with his fiance and her 2 kids aged 11 (girl) and 17 (boy).  These are two kids that we have come to love very much.  I just can't wait until they are legally mine.  I digress.  The pandemonium starts again.  E is so excited that Uncle E and his family are here.  More gifts!!

I took a video of Uncle E opening one of  Em's toys.  The green OpenIt I got at Bed Bath and Beyond actually works!  Even with the use of the OpenIt, it took about 5 minutes to get the gift clear of the package.

Then Uncle M and Aunt C cane and guess what, MORE gifts.  We are now on present overload.  Oh well!

It is now 10:30 and time for brunch.  Standard Christmas brunch menu that we have been having for the last 20 years.  Two egg casseroles, Grands biscuits, jellies, cookies and this year I added mimosa's instead of just plain oj.  Now noon, we are all sitting around talking and drinking coffee and hot chocolate not wanting to move an inch.  At this point my back decides that it has had enough and I find myself in my chair in the livingroom for the next hour. 

All but Amy's leave and we now start dinner and all take naps, except for Em, of course.  But since she is 7 now, she can play a little by herself with her new treasures.

The day was a success and I believe everyone was happy with their gifts.  I was just very happy that we were all together for the day.

My wish for all is a happy, healthy 2011.  Love to all from my family to yours.

PP Cabin fever

Hi All,
Cabin Fever indeed!  We, in Western Pennsylvania, have been experiencing an early bout of lake effect snow (thank you Lake Erie).  Being a little on the old side, I don't drive in this stuff.  My entry was taken while sitting in my chair in the living room.  Hot tea beside me and a blanket wrapped around me.

Holidays 2010 #1

Since my last post a great deal has happened.  We went to my sister's, near Dayton, for a lovely 5 days of dinner out, shopping, dinner out, more shopping, Thanksgiving Dinner, and more shopping.  Thanksgiving was at my nephew's house with more than 25 people.  For dinner, we had 2 large turkeys, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, corn bread stuffing, macaroni salad, gravy, rolls and pie.  I' m sure I forgot something.  There was a lot of picture taking and a lot of laughing and talking.  All in all it was a fun day.  This is my nephew, the master carver, at work.

Later that night we got a disturbing phone call from our sister-in-law.  It seemed that our brother, that had been quite ill, had made the decision not to fight anymore.  My sister and I were devastated.  It was a very long 4 1/2 hour ride home Saturday morning and then another 1 1/2 hour ride to see him and his family.  Fortunately we did get to see him before he passed away, although he was not awake at all while we were there.  He died very peacefully Sunday noon.  There was the viewing and service on Tuesday.  It has only been a week, but seems like an eternity.

This picture was taken in July 2010 at a family reunion.  Five cousins.  Brother Jim being vastly outnumbered.

Enough of the sad.  My next blog should be of Christmas and a much more upbeat one.  Thanks for letting me ramble.

Pictures

Today was picture taking day for my family.  Both kids and their families were here for an early Thanksgiving dinner since we all have other places we are going to be on the day.  John and I worked very hard to get good pictures, but we really don't know enough or have the right equipment to get the pictures we want.  I may have to resort to hiring a professional.  I will include a couple of our efforts here.

We are so fortunate to have such a nice family.  Mom and Dad love you all! 

History of our remembering

Over the 43 years that we have been married, we have gone through many methods of remembering occasions.  First there were snapshots taken with the cheapest camera we could find.  The pictures were ok.

This our daughter and her cousins with their Irish Setter puppies.  

Then we moved up a little in camera quality.

This is our 2 on the first day of school.  E is in Kindergarten and A is in 3rd grade.  What a cute pair they are!

Then, of course, we moved up again in camera quality, just a little.

This is our granddaughter Emily.

All of this leads up to the fact that now we have a 
 Fuji Fine Pix S5100 with a 10x optical zoom
 Samsung SL620 point and shoot that resides in my purse
 Canon EOS Rebel xsi with several lenses
and a
 Sony Handycam HDR-CX150

This is my Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween Cactus.  John took this picture yesterday with the Canon.



Do you think we have gotten a little out of hand?  All of this leads up to the point of this entry!

Two weeks ago we, for some odd reason, decided to start organizing our photographs that were not in albums and that happened to be a lot.  We found 5 shoe boxes full.  Oh my, this was more than I bargained for.  It was a long and arduous task, but it is finally done!!!!!!!!!  I am so proud of us, that we didn't quit half way through.  Surprisingly we actually threw away a good many (still should get rid of many more).  Today I am putting the boxes, all neatly labeled, away.

Another Week

Another week has gone by.  Western PA is now fully ensconced in Autumn.  The leaves are still falling, but there are not many left on the trees,  The flowers are done for this year, although I still have a stray Delphinium blossom.  Even the mums have succumbed to the frost.  The ugly mesh cover is on the pond.  The fish are not swimming much.  This is the time of year that I like my yard the least.  Shades of brown and a little yukky green.  Maybe it is time to try black and white photography?