The “gremlins” have struck again!

Most of the local grands came over for a while Christmas afternoon while their mom and Avery had to work.

This was my village before they arrived.

These pictures are just a bit blurry—sorry.

Secondary shelves with older buildings.  These were left alone.

Hmmm—how did those carolers get up on top of the school, especially having to haul the baby buggy up there, too!  

And the pigs escaped from the barn and decided to attend church in the upper right corner!

And, doesn’t every coffee shop have a slide up on top??  With a sheep at the bottom, no less.  Guess you can work off some of your hyperactivity after drinking all that caffeine???

Those were the main things. 

Now, tomorrow they will all be here, along with Ken’s sis and hubby, and a sis-in-law.  Let’s see what happens to my village then.  Hopefully, they won’t read this before then and get “ideas”!!  lol

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Granddaughter, Mindy, came up from Nashville to her boyfriend’s parents place for Christmas.  They stopped in for a visit yesterday afternoon. Was so nice seeing them.  She brought a copy of their demo CD for us.  I think it is so good!  They wrote 3 of the songs.  I think I have put all three up on here—I know I did two for sure.  She said it is so hard to do any singing together with Hannah.  Hannah’s hours at Walgreens were such that she had to close the store each night she worked, which made it hard to go and sing anyplace.  Now, Hannah has been promoted to a manager, and will get out earlier.

We found out that Mindy’s boyfriend, Andy, is moving down to Nashville now.  He worked in the corporate office of Ashley Furniture over in western Wisconsin.  Guess he really missed Mindy, and didn’t like sitting at a computer all day.  He was able to get a job at an Ashley furniture store a couple towns away from Mindy, and has an apartment there, too.  It is in Brentwood, which he says is a quite wealthy suburb of Nashville, and the Ashley store there has not had any slowdown in their business.  He says he will enjoy dealing with people again—instead of being stuck in an office.

They were leaving for Nashville this morning.  His parents are driving down, too, along with some other relatives—a 5-vehicle entourage!!  Each will be carrying some of his things down, too.  His family all has to be back up here by Monday morning for work!! 

I was really upset after they left.  Realized I forgot to take any pictures!!  Who knows when we will see them again??

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Won’t be commenting until after tomorrow or later.  Too much to do.  Just had to take a break to rest my feet!

Have a great weekend!

Shortly after 8 o’clock last night the doorbell rang.

I couldn’t figure out who it would be, except maybe grandson, Silas, who was in our neighborhood visiting his girlfriend’s family.

Ken had just gone up to bed.

I turned on the outside light and looked out the door window.

This is who I saw!!

I almost didn’t open the door, but then I recognized the eyes.

It was our nephew, Paul.

For years he has played Santa at various stores and for parties.

On Christmas Eve he always has several families that hire him to come and give out a few presents.

He had just finished a home nearby, and his next appointment wasn’t for another half-hour, so he stopped in to wish us a Merry Christmas.

We hadn’t talked to him in a couple years, so it was a great visit.  Paul is one of Ken’s godchildren—his first one, actually.

It just was weird sitting here with Santa sitting on our sofa!!!!!

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Hope all of your Christmas gatherings are going—or have gone—-well!

Merry Christmas again.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Ken and I want to wish you the blessings

that first Christmas brought

to us all. 

May you all have a wonderful time

with family and/or friends.

And say a prayer for those who have lost loved ones this year. 

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Since Ken’s birthday is next Tuesday, we will have our Christmas combined with Ken’s birthday on Sunday.  Besides local kids, some of Ken’s family will be coming, too.

Today we are having more snow—on top of the blizzard yesterday—again!!

Our washer went out on Monday.  At least it waited until my last load.  Yesterday, Ken went out shopping for new washer and dryer.  The dryer is as old as the washer—somewhere around 30 yrs.  So decided to get both new.  There was no way I was going out in a blizzard again—not after Sunday!!!!—–so he went himself.  The ones he decided on at Lowes were not in stock, so we have to wait until Jan. 6, unless they come in earlier.  He called me from the store, and I said that was OK—I had enough underwear to last until then! And, of course, he turned to the salesman and told him that!! lol  The washer and dryer are our Christmas presents to each other.  We don’t buy for each other anymore.  We just usually get what we each need or want for ourselves as we go along.  And, right now, we both need and want a washer and dryer!!!!!

Merry Christmas!

I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY must love my grands.

Otherwise I NEVER would have gone out yesterday.

Their Christmas program was yesterday morning, about 1/2 hour away.

The display in the car showing the outdoor temperature.

Intersection in town

Along the lake

We got there very early because we didn’t know how long the trip would take!

Daughter-in-law, Lori,(on left) was a greeter.

Son, Greg (right) was usher.  Hmm, do you notice that they cannot seem to talk without using their hands????  lol

Seeing these two, Louise and Sylvia, perform (along with little Linden), made the journey worthwhile.  I only have Linden on video, whch I’m not putting up here.

It was very enjoyable, and it is always wonderful to hear the beautiful Christmas message through the performances of the children.

Then, we had to come home!

Their church is on the outskirts of the next town, and the wind was really blowing hard when we walked out of church.  They have a field behind them, and nothing to impede the full force of the wind.  Thank goodness we didn’t have far to walk to the car!  Lots of drifting happening all over.  With the 7 below temperature, the wind chill must have been over 30 below zero. 

The kids were all surprised that I came—–they know I don’t even go out in weather that isn’t nearly as bad as this was!

I love them, and this is a once a year occurance, and I know they love to have family come to see it.  So it was worth the effort. 

Now, if I had had to drive myself, there would have been NO WAY!!  lol

I was VERY glad to be back home.

The first thing I did was make myself a cup of hot cocoa!

ENOUGH, ALREADY!!!!!

Plowed snow is almost as high as the truck.

View out one of our front windows.  Normally, you cannot even see these branches. 

And winter isn’t even officially here yet!

Roasting Marshmallows!

Yeah—-we’re nuts!!!!

I was just getting ready to write a blog this morning, when the telephone rang.  It was our local kids, saying that they were coming over in  a little bit.

I barely hung up the phone when they knocked on the door.  They called from their cell phone while standing outside the house!! 

They came bearing gifts—–well, food anyway.  Sub sandwiches, potato chips and soda.  Thanks kids.  The food and the company was great!!  Ken and Greg watched the Packers lose. 

We certainly didn’t expect them to stop by today, when they had just been here last Sunday.  They must be trying to rack up brownie points before Christmas!!  lol

I was planning on finally writing about their visit here last Sunday—-our delayed Thanksgiving dinner.  Here are some pictures from last week:

The tree, waiting for them to decorate it.  I have since taken down the angel from the top.  It was too dark.  Bought a star to replace it, which you will see in a later picture.  The angel was put on the fountain.

Before the decorating, though, we have to fortify ourselves with food!

Ken loves to do dishes, so he was put to that job while I put the food away.

The rest went about their tasks.  The kids decorating, Lori unwrapping the ornaments, and Greg—-”supervising”.

Job well done, kids!!

The tree after I put the poinsettias, stars, ribbon, beads and new star on.

Here is the fountain—which is shut off.  (I forgot to take the Santa cap off of the angel–lol)

My new Merry Christmas picture.  Took a mirror down.

My Christmas theme seems to be angels and nativities.  My first Christmas cards are in the bowl.  Thanks, Cyn and Fran!!

If any of you know the Frontgate catalog, you know how expensive they are.  I love a lot of their things, but certainly cannot afford them.  This nativity, and the all white one (shown later on) were in their online outlet catalog after the holidays.  I bought this one a couple years ago at 75% off, and the white one I bought after last Christmas at 60% off (I think).  LOVE those sales!!

This little nativity is at the base of our tree.  One of Greg’s former girlfriends made this for us one Christmas—back around 1980.  She painted and fired all the ceramic figurines.  I always tease  daughter-in-law Lori that I am going to give it to her in my will.  When they were here last weekend, I didn’t have the figures unpacked yet.  She noticed the bag of figures, and stuck it way underneath everything in the ornament storage bin.  I realized it was missing the next day, and knew Lori had been sitting right by it.  I figured out what she had done, and found the bag.  Then called her, and we had a good laugh.  I also have a ceramic tree made by former girlfriend that has a place of honor in the center of the kitchen table.  That is “in the will”, too!!   We have fun joking about it!

This is the new white nativity.  Most of the figures are over a foot tall.

Close up

At another time, I will put up pictures of some of my other decorations.  I love Christmas!!!

Now, I have to get back to my Christmas cards!!

Have a great week.  Hope you all stay warm.  It was below zero this morning here!!  We have been getting an inch or so of snow every couple days, and it looks like more of the same this coming week.  YUCK!

Hope you all have had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Ours was quiet.

Ken went to the store and bought a rotisserie chicken and an apple pie.

We will have our “Thanksgiving” on Sunday, when the local kids will come for turkey dinner—–and to decorate the tree.  They have to earn their dinner!   lol

On Monday I woke up and went into the bathroom, and looked out the window to a winter wonderland.  We have a Mountain Ash outside our front window.  It has so many berries on it this year.  Normally, the robins eat almost all of them, but not this year.  So, we can look outside during the dreary winter and see the beautiful red color.  Took a picture of the white snow on the red berries.  I love it when it is not windy when the snow falls.  The flakes cover every tiny branch.  So pretty.

Later that day Ken had to go to the store for something or other.  (He seems to “have” to run for something or other every couple days).  He came home with a “surprise” for me.

Nice surprise, huh???  They are his favorite color (s).  He likes the bicolor.

On Tuesday we had to get up early and head to the dermitologist to have the cancer removed from Ken’s ear.  If you are squeamish, don’t look at the picture.  I took the picture when I changed the bandage. They are pretty sure it will heal well—-as long as we take care of it.  Otherwise he will have to get a skin graft on it. It is about 1/16 of an inch deep, and about the size of a dime. He goes back again in 2 weeks to have two spots surgically removed from his right arm.  They also removed the stitches from the two spots he had removed from his back two weeks earlier.  They said they could see more coming out, and he is supposed to return in about three months to have them checked.  In four weeks time–Dec. 16, he is to have a bunch of spots sprayed. 

Let this be a warning to those of you who love to be out in the sun!!!

What a way to end a Thanksgiving entry!!  But we are thankful that we have excellent doctors to treat these conditions before they turn deadly!!

First of all, I want to wish you all a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving!!

I probably won’t be back on here before then.

I am in the middle of decorating for Christmas.

I like to have it all done before Thanksgiving, except for the tree, which gets done over Thanksgiving weekend.

It is just getting to be more of a chore every year, instead of being fun.

I love the way my tiny house looks when it is all decorated, though.

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  We always tease our local daughter-in-law, Lori, about being a grinch this time of year.  She dislikes all the commercialization of Christmas.  There were even a couple years she wouldn’t even put up a tree.  Last year they put up their tree early.  It was a patriotic tree—beautiful.

Last night I received an e-mailed picture from them:

Lori, with her own personal Grinch, and their decorated tree in the background.  I had a good laugh over that!!!

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Had to stop to take a phone call from the travelers.

The tournament finishes up today.  Jeff was calling on their way home from church.  He was dropping the family off at the campground and then heading to work.  He will finish up tomorrow.  They have to have all the signage off of the course itself by tonight, because Donald Trump is having a big charity tournament tomorrow.

The other day he was out on the course in his cart, and went out behind the driving range for some reason.  He discovered another course there.  He was riding along, and a golf cart passed him up going the other way.  I think he said they waved.  A minute or so later, another cart came by and stopped by him.  The person asked if Jeff saw another cart come by, and what hole they were heading to.  Jeff told him he didn’t know the holes, but pointed out the direction the other cart went in.

After the cart drove off, Jeff realized who he had been talking to——”The Donald” himself—Donald Trump!

The travelers are not sure where they are going from where they are.  They will stay in the central FL area, because Jacob will be flying into Orlando just before Christmas.  Jeff’s next tournament isn’t until April in Valdosta Georgia, so they will probably just stay in the FL area for the winter.  It all depends on where he can find some short-term work until then.

Their Gretta, age almost 15, was just confirmed today.  Since they have been on the road, she has not been able to attend regular confirmation classes at any of our churches.  But she has been studying on her own, and the pastor at the church where they have been going in FL tested her and said she was ready, and he would confirm her. Some of our churches have “examinations”, where either before the church council or the whole congregation, they are asked many questions to be sure they are ready for confirmation.  Others have their confirmands give a speech which shows their understanding. This church does speeches.  Gretta had to get up and give her speech in front of church before Pastor’s sermon.  Her topic was the Good Shepherd and his place in her life.  Jeff said she would e-mail it to me whenever they get somewhere where they have hook-ups for the computer.  He said it was very moving, and she did so very well.  Wish we could have been there to see it!!  This is the first grandchild’s confirmation that either Ken or I have missed.

God bless you, Gretta!!

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The baby, Catalina is getting bigger.  It seems neither of their cameras work—-so no pictures!  Nuts!!  She had been a bit fussy for a while.  They said it reminded them of Jacob when he was born.  He had colic for several months.  Catalina is better now, Jeff says,  not so crabby!!

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Jeff said that Hannah had called them from Nashville.  She is the one who is working at Walgreens.  She is still in her probation period, but the manager has already approached her about becoming an assistant manager.  She would be third in charge.  He told her that they HAVE to do interviews, but that he wants her to have the job.  It will mean a $1.50 hr. raise, and she will be entitled to benefits.  Good for her!!

I didn’t get to ask anything more about their singing, though.  I know they were going to perform for an open mike night someplace one night last week.

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Well, I have to get back to my decorating.  This was just going to be a short blog—-and then Jeff called. 

Thank you for your prayers for Gr8Grace’s grandson.  I know she appreciates them!!

Now, on to some good news—for a change.  lol

It seems as though all I have had is bad news for about a month now.

I was going to call the “travelers” before I wrote this, but I know they are watching the NASCAR race, and it is only about half over. 

Whenever I call them I will let you know any news.

BUT!!!

Granddaughter, Mindy, called us a short while ago.  She and her sister, Hannah, are the ones who moved to Nashville.  Hannah has been there for almost a month, but Mindy had to return to Wisconsin for a couple weeks to finish her job here–in order to get her vacation pay. 

Anyway, Mindy finally got down there a week or so ago, and got a server job at Olive Garden.  Hannah found a job at Walgreens, cashiering and working in the photo dept..

They have been asked to join the choir at church already, and Hannah has  been asked to play her guitar at the Thanksgiving service.  They are also going to an open mike night on Tuesday to perform.

Mindy was VERY excited when she called.  She said that she and Hannah went to downtown Nashville—to Broadway, where a lot of the bars are that have performers.  They wanted to hear what other performers sounded like.  They knew that these mostly local performers just perform for tips.  But, since a lot of the country music big shots visit those places, it is a great area to get exposure.  They would like to try to get into one of these places.

Since Hannah isn’t 21 yet, they could only go into these places until 6 p.m.  They had left a place near 6, and were walking along.  They came to the Wild Horse Saloon, which is well known.  It is quite large and has big shows.  A fella standing outside asked the girls if they would like to go in.  They explained that Hannah was only 19.  He said that it was OK.  Go on in.  They did, and Mindy said there was a red carpet set up.  They realized a TV show was going to be shot that night. 

Don’t know if any of you are country fans, or if you are acquainted with the CMT cable tv channel.  It is all country music or other country programs.  They have a reality show on called “Gone Country”, where they take people from other venues of show business and have them compete with each other.  The winner gets to record a country single.  One past winner has been Enrique Iglesias.  Some of the contenders for the upcoming season are Micky Dolenz—from the old group “The Monkees”;  Justin Guarini—American Idol runner-up;  and 5 others that I cannot remember right off-hand.  They are all brought to Nashville, and live together in a big house, and work with songwriters and such to come up with a song to perform.  The host of the show is John Rich, who is a singer, songwriter and producer.  Rich is also half of the duo “Big & Rich”.  I think he was also a judge on “Nashville Star” on NBC last year (not completely sure about that one).

Now, you may also know that most tv shows with audiences like to have pretty girls down in front.  When Hannah and Mindy got inside, they were asked if they would like to sit down in front.  Well sure!! Duh!!  Mindy said they had dressed up, so really looked good—-two tall beautiful girls.

They were not there long before a producer came up to them and asked them if they would like to be judges for the show!!!!!!  Can you imagine???

There were 10 judges, and they sat next to a singer that was under contract to John Rich, the host of the show.  So, Mindy gave this guy a copy of their demo CD, and he said he would be sure that Rich got it.  One of the other judges was a drummer for “Prince”.

The show they were on was the final show, and the girls didn’t know who won—said the results were not in.

The series will be shown on CMT starting in January, but the girls won’t be on until the final show in March.  I will let you know the date when they find out.  I don’t know any more than that.  Didn’t think to ask if they got to talk on camera, or what.  I have never seen the show, so don’t know much about it except what I found online.

How exciting for them.  Here Mindy just got to Nashville a little over a week ago, and they accidently land in the middle of a nationwide tv show!!

Mindy will be coming back to WI for Christmas.  She will be staying down in Sheboygan by her boyfriend’s parents, but will come up and visit us.  She also said she will bring along a copy of their demo CD for us. 

They wrote a third song, and they have it up on their My Space web page.  It is the first one on there.

Katrina Rose page

Whether the girls make it or not, they are having a wonderful experience, that is for sure.

Our future “stars”

Now, I may have gotten some of this wrong, because I was trying to furiously write everything down as Mindy was telling me about it, but the main gist of the story is right.  Maybe they will read this and correct me.  Not sure if they read my blog or not!

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Hope you all have a good week.  I actually got my Christmas village set up already, and all the rest of the Christmas decorations out of the attic and piled into the extra bedroom upstairs.  Now I can slowly work at it and hopefully get the house decorated by Thanksgiving.  Then I can start on my and my dad’s cards and letters.