Snow, snow, snow, snow.....snow!!!

I know that ya'll must think we get a lot of snow, but we don't. Last year was extremely unusual, and so far this year is looking pretty abnormal as well. We ended up with 9 inches. You're probably getting tired of snow pictures, especially if you live somewhere that gets a lot of snow, but since we don't  usually have it, I just love these.

Self explanatory - swing set in the back yard.

Up close - and at a weird angle. Gotta wonder what she was doing.

 

Part of our neighborhood.

Another street in the neighborhood.

These remind me of pictures I've seen of places up north.

I just love all the snow on the trees. (Don't bother telling

me it's dangerous - I know it is, but it's still pretty.)

A walking trail we have not too far from here. Actually, the

back end of it loops fairly close to the house, but you have

to cut through the woods (almost impassable in the summer)

in order to get to it from our cul-de-sac.

A creek runs next to the trail,...

but I guess in order to deter people from walking close to it,

there is not clear path from the trail to the creek. Here Bree is

climbing down to get closer to it. I'm told that this photo was

snapped about a half second before the inevitable happened and

Bree took the express route down. I was also told that both she

and Ri ended up in the creek before it was all over with.

One of many snow ball fights that took place over the

last couple of days.

The girls had lots of fun, and since I didn't have anywhere I needed to go, it didn't bother me in the least. I got to sit back and enjoy the view, all the cold, wet, excited children, make snow cream and drink hot cocoa. It can go ahead and snow just any ol' time it fits this well into my schedual. :D

A White Christmas

That's right, a white Christmas. According to the news it was the first time snow fell on Christmas day in our area in over 60 years. We had a little snow on the ground last year at Christmas, but it was only a little left over from a rare, early snow we had the week before. The girls had made a big deal out of it, figuring they would never again see snow on the ground at Christmas. This time the snow started during the day and had everything completely coated before dark. Superman had come over early to open presents with us on Christmas morning and was planning on staying all day, but he ended up having to leave well before supper because the roads were getting pretty bad. He did manage to hang around long enough to have a snow ball fight with the girls though. Then they had another snow ball fight this morning with one of the neighbors' sons, who came down to spend Christmas with his family. I got a few pictures of the girls throwing snow at one another when they were cleaning it off hubby's car too. I'll see if there's a couple I can post tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!!

My best wishes to everyone for a very Merry Christmas!
I hope you each have a day surrounded by those you love, making fond memories for the future.

Homemade Gifts and Blessings

We were so blessed today.
When Ri, T.Lynn, and I went to pick up our milk this afternoon, Mrs. Diary Farmer met us out front with a big bag of of grapefruit and oranges. I was so tickled. Then a couple of the girls called me (they were very excited) and told me that Grandma's pastor and his wife had stopped by and brought us some packages the church had made up for their shut-ins. I kind of understand bringing something for Grandma, but I never would have expected them to bring a package for everyone in the family, plus one extra. There were apples, oranges, tangerines, boxes of raisins, and of course candy in each of the packages. Just look at all this fruit!

Mmmmmmm! See, I told you - we are very blessed.

Isn't that beautiful? Maybe I should start giving out fruit. I sure do like getting it as a gift.

Homemade gifts are another good idea. We almost always give out several homemade gifts each year. Sometimes it's just packages of baked goodies, but those always seem to be greatly appreciated as well.

Here are some things we made this year.

Ri cross stitched a couple of bread cloths. The other was

the same pattern, she just made the line in green instead of red.

You can find the bread cloth material for as little as $5, and it doesn't take much thread. You can pick up an inexpensive basket; I've found red and greeen ones in the Christmas stuff, just the perfect size for a bread basket for as little as $1, and have a cute little gift for under $7. Or you could just wrap it around a loaf of cinnamon, or banana nut bread. We're doing that this year.

I knitted some dishcloths. I used this pattern.

I made all of the dishcloths above from the spool on the right, which started life the size of the one on the left. These large spools of cotton yarn costs less than $7 (and no, I don't mean it was $6.99). The colored yarn for the stripes was $1.99 for a small skein. You don't have to make the stripe, or you could make all the stripes out of the same color if you wanted to save a little money. I plan on keeping various colors around to use many times. A couple of the stripes were made from leftover yarn I had from other dishcloths I've made in the past. It takes very little of the colored yarn, so I have no idea how many of the stripes you could make from one skein. I have already made eight dishcloths, and I'll be able to make a few more out of the rest of the spool, so each dishcloth would cost less than $1 to make.

In years past I've also made cross stitched dish towels, embroidered pillowcases, dresses (for little girls, not for women because that would require fittings), decorative pillows, and the occasional craft. I also like to make cross stitched bibs, or hooded towels for baby gifts. A few times Ri has worked with me and we made matching sets that would have a hooded towel and a washcloth, or a towel and a bib, and once we made a set with all three. Home canned food is also a good gift idea. We've given away jelly, preserves, and apple butter, and this year I'll be giving my older brother some of the apple pie filling we canned because he really enjoyed the pie we made at Thanksgiving. After eating a piece he asked me for the recipe, but I told him that the only part of the recipe I could really give him was the crumb topping. The filling was some we had canned and my recipe makes 7qts of pie filling (add to that the fact that I don't really measure all the spices out - I just add and taste), so trying to cut it down for just one pie would probably be a shot in the dark. To make it a little more special, I decided to mix together the dry ingredients for the crumb topping and put it in a ziploc baggie with instructions on the outside, and then put that together with one of the jars of filling in a gift bag. All he'll need is a pie crust and a little butter and he'll be able to have another apple pie, this time hot out of the oven. 

Years ago I remember hearing my step-mother say that she loved to receive handmade gifts because she knew the person that made it had thought about her everytime they picked up the piece to work on it. That kind of stuck with me and I try to get around to making a few things every year.

Well then, he needs to run really fast!

I think T.Lynn sometimes forgets that Superman's main reason for visiting is to see her sister.  They could have been siblings for life the way they run around playing, wrestling and teasing one another. A few months ago, the two of them got into a huge tickling, wrestling match (in Superman's defense, it started when she tried to swipe his keys off his belt loop - again) that ended up with both of them on the floor trying to make the other one smell their feet. It's a good thing she was wearing pajama pants under her dress. At any rate, one of her favorite things is for him to throw her up in the air. WAY up in the air. The ceiling in the living room is 10ft. high at it's lowest point. I have no idea how high up it is in the peak, but I think Superman is doing his best to at least let her see the top side of the ceiling fan. She gets very high. It's a good thing I'm pretty laid back about that kind of thing. Note to self - NEVER let my mom see him do that.  After many months of being thrown in the air almost every time he came over, they decided to add a twist. She jumps off the the stairs and he catches her. They've worked their way up to more than halfway up the stairs. Of course, I'm not kidding myself to think they ever started on the first - or even the fifth step. I think they're up to the eleventh - I know she's jumped from the tenth numerous times. There are only 16 steps. I'm begining to believe the only thing that will keep them from going much higher is how far out it's necessary for her to be able to jump to clear all the steps. I'm glad she's little. I'm glad he's strong, but I do need to work on that absolute trust she's apparently placed in him. Not that I don't want her to trust him - I do, but there are limits to everything. When he was over a couple of days ago they were once again at the whole kid throwing thing. At one point he told her he was going to throw her, "...over that way.", indicating with a nod of his head toward Ri, who was, for the record, objecting. T. got a little confused (a side effect to all that rapidly changing altitude I'm sure) so I told her he was going to throw her to the left. Her response? "Well then, he needs to run really fast!"