This and That and Kitchen Stuff

Ack!  Not exactly a few days later.  Well, in my defense, I've been busy!  My big Bernina 830 sewing machine was in need of a spa treatment and the best technician lives in Montana.  He does come over to the Spokane area once a week to pick up machines at several designated drop-off points so we had taken Moby Stitch (the great white Bernina!) up earlier and we picked it up last week.  That's a day out of town, but there is a Trader Joe's up there which is, of course, a mandatory stop.  :-)

We've had Daniel over each Sunday night through Monday dinnertime since the beginning of August until this week as Ann had to be back to work at school, prepping for the new year.  He's so easy to have, but still it seemed like the days went differently when he was here as we visited and found things to do.  School started last week on Wednesday so he's back to learning.  Fifth grade this year!  Where does the time go?

Last Monday it finally worked out for Dan to have my birthday party and Ann and family showed up with pizza to share dinner and cake with me. Such a fun, wonderful time we had!  

Since my machine was back, I have ventured into my sewing room and have started a new round of bibs.  I had only two left in my gift pile and they were both for girls.  I've embroidered five new ones and cut out about twenty blanks to work on next.  

But enough on this stuff.  I mentioned in my last post that I'd do a kitchen post, so here goes.  

In May when we were at Costco I stopped to look at a Ninja Foodi Flip Air Fryer they had for sale.  I have friends who love their smaller air fryers but I didn't have a space for one, either on my counter or in my pantry, and I draw the line at storing kitchen items in the garage! The foodie is made to flip up and take up a smaller amount of counter space when not being used.  As I pondered the display, Dan picked one up and put it in the cart. "Happy Mother's Day!" he said.  Okay!

It took a bit of figuring to decide where to put it in my crazily designed kitchen but I finally put it in the corner where my mixer has lived and moved the mixer next to the frig.  It works, and somehow it seems I have even more room in that corner than I did before.  And we love our Foodi!  I've always loved the Mexi-fries at Taco Time and now I can make my own.  Score!  And the Foodi is more than an air fryer, it is a convection oven, a toaster and can broil, too.  It has a much bigger capacity than the usual air fryer and so is great for families.  I made little pizzas last week using ciabatta bread from Costco and they were so good using the air broil feature on low.  And it's perfect for reheating things like pizza or crispy casseroles so they aren't soggy the second time around.  

In its down position, otherwise up against the side wall

Yummy ciabatta bread pizzas!

And in other kitchen news, we are awash with zucchini!  Awash I say!  Last year we could hardly get any to grow and this year Dan brings up four or five (or more!) a day.  I'm working hard to be a good zucchini steward and use it all, so varied recipes have been used.  One winner was a chocolate cupcake recipe found in the August Costco magazine.  Oh my!  As I've told all my friends, it received rave reviews from everyone who ate it (I made it into a cake).  The zucchini chips featured in the article are good, too!

This cake from the Six Sisters is also a winner. And last week I found this recipe for zucchini onion pie.  I did change it a little; I caramelized the onions instead of adding them raw.  We loved it! Of course we've already had multiple dinners using my old stand-by summer squash skillet. Zucchini bread?  Of course!  

And thus ends this summer's zucchini themed post!  ♥

Catchin' Up . . . Again

This summer has just whizzed by.  Between those three weeks of subbing at the church office and a few other things, it seems like I've kinda missed the whole season. Better catch up quick the rest of this month!  :-)  Soon it will be time to replace all my Americana decorations with fall ones.  

So, some summer pictures.  First up one from June taken in an Oregon friend's backyard when Ann and Daniel visited for a few days.  The perfect picture of summer fun!

Next up, a couple of not the best pictures of our newest great nephew, Kirsten's little Luke Clay whom we got to meet a couple of weeks ago.  

And last, a finished picture of my Pumpkin Patch counted cross stitch picture.  I had such a good time stitching it!  Now to get it framed so I can hang it when I change things out for fall.  

And that's about it for today.  I'll be back in a couple for a kitchen update!  

Busy, Busy!

Who knew when you get old-er (haha), working, even part-time, would leave one with so little time.  I'm still filling in for our church secretary but I think tomorrow will be my last day.  And I'm ready!  

We did spend Monday and Tuesday of this week in McCall visiting with Bruder Bear and family.  Niece Jennifer from Oklahoma with her two boys and nephew JR and wife Mariah, along with their two boys were all there, too.  They were camping, but we choose to stay in a hotel.  :-)  Ann and Daniel went along with us as Ann loves to get together with her cousins and Daniel and Jenny's oldest are just eighteen days apart in age.  We had a great time of visiting, meeting JR's baby Wes for the first time, and celebrating his son Bennett's second birthday. And even though camping, Karen came up with fabulous meals.  She's amazing!

I'm well along on my new counted cross stitch picture and I'm enjoying it so much.  Here's a shot of where I was a couple of days ago.

I'm down a couple more lines of text as of today but I'm too lazy right now to take another photo and upload it.  

This is all for now as I'm going to join Dan out on the deck.  It's smoky from all the fires around us, but not bad enough for us to miss a night out there just relaxing and reading.  ♥

Sunshine and Snow

A Facebook friend posted this little hummer this morning and it's a perfect fit for this day--we woke up to high winds and snow.  

The sun is out now, but it's still windy and cold. It's a shoes, socks, t-shirt and cozy shirt over the t-shirt, coffee in hand kind of day.  They predicted that we might lose power, but thankfully that did not happen although we have friends on a rural power company and they did lose power late yesterday afternoon.  Of course the problem for them, and also for us when it happens, is that they also lost access to water because they have their own well.  They have horses and she said that fortunately the horse trough was full so they could grab bucketsful and at least make their toilets flush.

  

We've been enjoying watching the Gonzaga Zags basketball team in the March Madness playoffs. Ann and her gang have come over for several of the games which has made for some fun parties, especially when "our" team wins!  We have high hopes for Tuesday night's game!

Bruder Bear and Karen are due to arrive Wednesday for an overnighter on their way to daughter Kirsten's house for Easter so we have more fun in store.  Thankfully we did a good house cleaning last week so no pressure to get it done now.  Ann, Eric and boys will be here for Easter dinner on Sunday.  We'll have our usual ham/salads/pies picnic.  Yum!

So that's the latest from here at the resort.  The quilt has seen quite a bit of progress and I'll do an update soon, but it will most likely be April by then.  ♥

Phones

Waaay back in the last century, when I was young, as in a child, homes had one centrally located black phone, usually in the kitchen, which was attached to the wall.  I did know a family or two who had a desk phone, also located near, if not in, the kitchen.  The handset was attached to the base by a cord, so the user was limited to a few square feet around the phone when using it. Pulling up a kitchen chair or stool while conversing was helpful in long conversations.  And long distance? Only for special occasions or emergencies.  

I remember our first cordless phone, probably fifteen or so years into our marriage.  Oh the convenience!  I could wander, sit on the sofa, stir the soup.  Amazing!!  And then we got an answering machine! (This was before all the pesky robo-calls and what we call "spam" calls. . .) 

And now?  Most everyone is getting rid of those "land lines" and going to cell phones.  Talk about portable!  Anywhere we go, not just at home. Voice mail, texting, and even the internet at our fingertips! Even calls across the globe! Things the little girl at 5491 could never have imagined.  

Which brings me to this Christmas.  Dan and I both got new phones.  Apple iPhones.  We've been Android for years, thanks to Keaton and Eric gifting us with their phones when they upgraded some years ago.  They were getting old, though, and some apps were super slow in loading.  Eric kept saying we needed new phones but Dan and I waffled, not wanting to have to make decisions on what to buy.  So, Ann and Eric took matters into their own hands and moved us into a new age. Thankfully they both have iPhones now and were able to set us up, even to transferring all our info from old phones to new.  

So, I am the proud owner of a beautiful new white iPhone.  Knowing us well, they picked a simple model and we're adjusting pretty quickly.  When I can't figure something out, I've learned to say, "Hey Siri, how do I . . . " and she leads me to the answer.  Amazing!!

Here is my new toy. 

I ordered a clear case with shiny red edges so I could see that pretty white back which I love.  ♥

And the Tree Comes Down

Yes, I mean the Christmas tree.  We don't usually put up the tree until a week or less before Christmas although all the rest of the house is decorated.  I love the lights in the dark days of the end of December and the beginning of January when we need cheering after the hubbub of the holidays. 

So, today was the day.  I said goodbye to the tree last night and thanked it for being such a lovely one. Longtime readers will know that I always do that.  And it was a beautiful tree although its shape was quite a different one.  Not so tall and quite wide, although it is taller than it looks.  

It was perfect for hanging lots of ornaments, but not for garlands.  It would have looked like a balloon with ruffles.  It was a very sturdy tree and took even heavy ornaments well.  We had our usual mishmash of elegant and goofy.  Treasured and just fun.  Some go back to Dan's and my childhood and then our first years of marriage and ones the kids made when very small, like a red walnut with just a few lingering pieces of glitter. See, treasures!  

It's been the perfect day to take it down--blue sky and sunshine.  We opened the slider and as Dan cut off the branches, I carried them across the deck and tossed them over the side.  We vacuumed up the fallen needles and now he's watching the Packers play football and I'm about to take a little nap.  ♥

Big Day!

Yes, January 9th is a big day in our family.  Dan's and my anniversary and Daniel's birthday.  We're invited to Ann and Eric's tonight to celebrate our 49th and Daniel's 10th.  Yum, bring on the cake!

Here's a little reminder of the day D was born.  

Such a precious bundle, just like his brothers and cousin.  I cried when I realized they'd named him after Dan.  We had no idea.  

January 9th is a day filled with joy!  ♥

Merry Christmas!!

We've had a lovely day! After stockings (after eight a.m. for all but Daniel), we had a leisurely present opening as we ate our breakfast casserole, sipped coffee and visited.  Such fun! 

The rest of the day was spent snacking and playing with our new toys and napping.  We watched Home Alone I tonight at Daniel's request as he'd only seen it once before, two Christmases ago.  Some mentioned they weren't going to watch it again, but were later found to be in the audience.  :-)

And now it's almost ten-thirty.  Daniel is sound asleep; Eric, Cam and Keat are playing a game Cam got, and Ann and Dan are reading.  Perfect!

Merry Christmas to one and all!  

Success!

We did it!! Our Buche de Noel is a success!  

The recipe called for rosemary leaves but we have the real thing thanks to Papa Dan and his trees! Even a pine cone! Ann and I are so excited and proud of ourselves because last night we almost decided not to try it.  We're so glad we did.  

The table is set and the tree is waiting.  

Have a blessed Christmas! ♥

Buche de Noel

Ann and I decided to try to make a Buche de Noel for our Christmas Eve dinner.  We found a recipe from the Pioneer Woman and tonight we began. We read and reread the recipe. Then we pulled out bowls (many), mixers (two), and measuring cups and spoons.  Oh, and a fine mesh strainer to sift with.  There are many parts to making a Buche de Noel.

Ann separated the eggs and worked with the yolks while I did the whites.

Then we sifted, mixed and poured.

And finally baked!  

And part of the resulting mess--just keeping it real!

We forgot to take any more pictures as we rolled and filled.  We were too busy trying not to make any mistakes!  Tomorrow we'll make the frosting and cut and assemble. Hopefully we'll have more pictures to share then! ♥

We're Almost There!

Tomorrow is the official start of our Christmas celebrations.  Our intown gang will arrive in time for dinner (Papa Murphy's pizza) and we'll all settle in.  The presents are wrapped but are downstairs because while the tree is in, somehow it hasn't been decorated yet! I have a little more baking to do (the carolers came Saturday night and I passed out the Puddin' Head Gingerbread so we're down to just a few, which will never do).  

Ann and I are going to attempt to make a Buche de Noel or Yule Log tomorrow night for our Christmas Eve dinner.  Here's hoping! 

Here are a couple more pictures of Christmas decorations.  First up is the downstairs guest bath, just a little holiday fun in the corner of the counter.

The little "candle light" flickers and is so cute! A gift from a family back in my teaching days.

And here is a corner of my laundry room.  A lovely green chest of drawers purchased before Matt was born and painted and antiqued by me (anybody remember those antiquing days?).  

I made the gingerbread boy on the wall probably forty years ago and he's still so cute.  The little wooden doll in the corner was painted and dressed by me, but the doll itself was made by my friend Cyndie's husband, John.  The round box held Starbucks goodies, again from a family back in my teaching days.  The goodies are long gone, but the box was too cute to throw away.  It makes a perfect decoration.

And last, here's the dresser in the downstairs guest room, just waiting for its occupants' arrival tomorrow.

I love that old rocker in the corner.  It was a wedding present to Dan's grandparents back in 1911.  I think the original seat cover was leather, but we had it redone when it came to us in 1985. ♥ 

Cookies

It was the Christmas of l963 that Mom and I baked and baked and baked. Some out-of-town friends of Mom and Dad's dropped by one day and the wife brought a plate of Christmas treats. Hmmm, perhaps we could make some of our own was a thought that came to my mind.  Meanwhile, Mom picked up the latest issues of Woman's Day and Family Circle, inexpensive but good magazines available at the grocery store.  The Woman's Day always had a tear-out section of recipes and this month's was, of course, Christmas cookies.  Right into the palms of my hands! I was a freshman in high school and old enough to handle recipes on my own.

As far back as I could remember there had been a Dormeyer stand mixer just like the one pictured below in the cupboard over the stove.  

I don't remember it ever being used.  When I asked Mom about it she said it didn't work.  Then why did we have it? No answer.  However, we were about to embark on some heavy duty baking, so Mom borrowed a hand mixer from our neighbor, Goldie, and we went to work.  (Dad gave Mom a hand mixer for Christmas that year so we didn't have to borrow ever again.)

Mom and I continued this tradition for the next few years.  I don't remember if I baked when I came home from college on Christmas break, but I know Mom pretty much gave it up.  She did, however, turn into a manic fudge maker.  As I've mentioned, she was never much of a baker, and she loved chocolate, so fudge was a natural for her.  Pans and pans of it, which she shared with the neighbors.  

I made some white candy-coated pretzels last night and today I made another batch of cookies--frosted soft vanilla sugar cookies. The recipe comes from the Six Sisters and can be found here. I discovered the recipe last year and loved the ease of it.  Dan loves frosted sugar cookies but I confess to being too lazy to make them if I have to roll and cut. 

A cookie decorator I'm not, but the Christmas sprinkles make them look festive. They're yummy, trust me.  ♥

Christmas Thoughts, or More Pondering

Just got back from Sunday night Bible study with Pastor and realized my fingers smelled like smoked steelhead.  "Huh?" you say?  Yes, one of the men loves to fish and he brought a plate of very delicious smoked fish. The funny thing is, he doesn't like fish, but he loves to fish. And so he shares, and we all got an early Christmas gift.  

In all my talking about decorating and baking, I don't mean to leave out the reason our family celebrates Christmas.  It's because it's the time people in the early church chose to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  Yes, it's tied into old pagan celebrations, but that's not what we emphasize. No one knows for certain when Jesus was born, but born he was, so we celebrate the most important birth in the history of the world.  And we do it with joy. 

It's not just about the gift giving and the cookies and the decorations, though they add to the joy. It's about loving those around us as God chose to love us.  

I have a cousin in Norway, Kristen, who is a children's pastor at her local church.  Sometimes we think Christmas is an American holiday, but of course it's not; it's for believers everywhere. She put up pictures today of taking her little daughter, Mathea, to the woods to talk, lay in the snow and look up at the trees.

Here's one of her photos. Isn't it beautiful? 

Look up! For the Lord draws nigh!  ♥

Ponderings

First let me say that my oven is clean again!  I did it last night in case the baking bug bit again today (it didn't).  It's shiny and beautiful once more. Which makes me ponder why, in the twenty-one years I've owned this stove, I've only used the self-clean three times and two of those were in the past month.  And don't kid yourself that it was shiny clean all those years!  

Ponder Two: Kathy and Hallie both commented on my last post about family recipes and asked if we had any.  None. I think I've mentioned this before, but my mom's dad came from Norway in 1906 when he was twenty years old.  I don't think recipes were something he would have brought with him.  (Smile)  He married Grandma in 1920 when he was thirty-four and she was twenty. Very common for male immigrants as they worked to establish themselves before beginning a family. Grandma was half Russian (mother) and half German (father).  So why were there no recipes in mom's collection from Great-Grandma or Grandma? I think they were both instinctive cooks and didn't bother with recipes.

Ponder Three: Christmas traditions.  I grew up with very few.  The Christmas tree was about the only Christmas decoration we had with the exception of displaying Christmas cards as they came in.  (Back in the fifties and sixties, everyone pretty much sent cards, even people right in town that you were likely to see on your way to get the mail.)  I'm sure the fact that both my parents grew up during the depression had a lot to do with the lack of Christmas traditions in their young lives, and carried over into my young life. 

But we all know Christmas traditions are alive and well at my house.  So where did it all come from? I'll tell you.  From my long-time pal Kathy's house. Buddies since kindergarten, I was often in her house during all seasons, but at Christmastime, her house was positively magical.  A huge tree, covered with amazing handcrafted ornaments. Christmas cookies and candies.  The list goes on. I loved every glimpse of it and when I got my own home, began to do the same. 

Enough of the pondering. No photos today because how do you take a picture of pondering? A furrowed brow?  A quizzical pucker?  Nah! ♥

And the Snow Came Softly Down

The view at dusk this evening

They had forecast snow for today and they were right.  I woke up to hear my phone signal a text and found one from Ann saying too much ice, no school today. Apparently there was black ice everywhere.  Dan said he had trouble even in the gravel while getting the paper when he got up. And it was starting to snow.  A day to spend in the kitchen for certain as the snow continued to fall. At first I thought I would begin on my Christmas cookie baking, but then I remembered a recipe I've been wanting to try.

A little back story:  When my brother and I were kids, as in grade school, my mom, who was not a baker, would very occasionally make a sweet roll she called orange kuchen rolls. Oh, were they ever good! For whatever reason, she only made them during a short season of a year or two. They had a crunchy topping of butter, sugar and grated orange peel and the bottoms were gooey with the same ingredients.  

When we were cleaning out my parents' house, one of the things I searched for was that recipe. As I looked, John came in and asked if I'd found a recipe for "those orange rolls Mom made when we were little." He'd never forgotten them, either!  I never did find it.  I searched the internet and came up empty.  I looked through her old cookbooks. Nothing.  And then one day this past year, I was looking through her Electric Bread cookbook which I had kept and spotted a picture that looked like those orange rolls I remembered. The recipe was called Orange Kisses, and from the description, sounded like it came from the same era Mom made hers.  

Today was the day.  I texted John and told him my plan to try and began.  I did use my Zojirushi bread machine to make the dough and then finished up in the oven.  I seemed to remember that Mom made hers in an angel food cake pan, so I dug out mine and used it.  That was mistake number two.

Mistake number one you ask?  Well, I've used the same brand of yeast for ever and a day.  It's Saf-Instant Red and it's great stuff.  I opened a new package about the time the virus became known and everyone was buying up all the flour and yeast in the land.  And a strange thing happened the first time I used it.  My bread rose twice as high. What? So I tried again, with the same results.  High is nice, too high, not so much. As a result, since then I've used half the amount of yeast a recipe calls for.  Until today.  Um hum, I used the full amount and my dough was very soft and puffy.  

Back to the pan.  The  butter and sugar/orange peel mix leaked out the bottom of the pan, all over the oven I just cleaned a few weeks ago. 

I know what I'll be doing tomorrow!  Running the self-clean program again!  

Meanwhile, the rolls.  The verdict?  I think I've found the right recipe! I'm so excited! I just ate one, and despite the "fluffiness" of it, the taste seemed to be what I remembered, with the crunchy top and the gooey bottom.  Bruder Bear will be thrilled!

I made supper in the crockpot, potatoes, carrots and hamburger in white sauce, but I just may eat my way through these rolls instead.  Oh, and about the yeast.  I think it's been a gift to me that it's, for some reason, double strength, because it has been impossible to find these last ten months.  I've made all our bread and I still have so much yeast left. I'm thankful. ♥

Cards and This 'n That

Today was Christmas card day.  As in getting them ready to send.  It finally dawned on me that if I was going to do the cards, I needed to get busy and write the official Christmas letter.  I down at my computer and then moaned to Dan, "What is there to write about in this crazy year?" He immediately rattled off several things.  "Wait!" I said. "Write that stuff down for me!"  He did, and using his notes, I got one written. I told him thank you.  (:

Here's the scene this afternoon (and yes, those are Susan Winget cards):

I got them all done and they are ready to go into the mailbox tomorrow morning.  Yay! 

After I posted yesterday's blog of the kitchen, I realized that the little angel garland didn't really show up in the cookbook cupboard photo so I took a closeup of them today.  They are so adorable and were handmade by Carol Galloway, a very talented artist from Cavendish.

And one more photo from the kitchen, on the wall just to the right of the angels.  Another gift from Bruder Bear and Karen, along with a small Santa ornament from my Secret Santa one year when I was teaching.  

And that's the rest of my kitchen.  ♥

Christmas in the Kitchen

I seem to spend a lot of time in my kitchen.  Dan has never eaten cold cereal so a hot breakfast it is each day.  From the start of the day until evening, I am probably in the kitchen more than another other room in the house, unless I'm on a sewing mission.  Decorating my kitchen happens with each season, but never so much as for Christmas.  These are new photos, but may be very similar to ones I've posted in past years.

The cookbook cupboard Dan made me some years ago is my favorite spot of all.  The Jim Shore trees and Santa just make the top and were gifts from Ann at past Christmases.  

The broom is many years old, probably dated, but I still love it.  I made it probably forty years ago. The calendar is a Susan Winget one, the same artist who did the illustrations for the book in my Bear Corner pictured a few days ago.  The snowman platter was a gift from Bruder Bear and Karen, and under it, if you click on the photo to enlarge it, is a garland of little angels, a gift from Susan Boehne, a teacher friend of mine.  The wooden mitten on the door knob was made by Cyndie McCabe, another long-time friend and former neighbor.  I get the best gifts! 

These little snowmen, perched by my sink, were also a gift, made by a former assistant principal at the school where I taught.  So cute!

And on the wall in the breakfast nook is a quilt I made from a Country Threads pattern, called Uncle Santa, also many years old.  

Even my stove gets a little decorating.  I put my lovely dark green Staub dutch oven on the back burner, put an appliqued towel on the oven handle, and park an adorable snowman timer next to it.  Those red spatulas in the utensil crock fit right in, too!

And last, here is the breakfast nook table.  

You can see Uncle Santa on the wall, and on the table is a runner I made for Mom and Dad and brought home after we cleared out their house. The sleigh centerpiece was made by a friend the first year we moved back to town, so it's been on that table since Christmas of 1985.  Tradition!!  ♥

A Little Nativity Scene Story

Last year I was looking at a picture of a country house decorated for Christmas and something on one of the walls caught my attention.  It was a rustic nativity scene and I loved it.  The picture was rather dark, but I thought the lines of it could be seen well enough for Dan to try making one.  I showed him the picture and he loved it, too, and said he'd try. Of course, he was successful and here's a closeup.

And here's where it is in our house, over the stairway to the basement.

We showed it to Ann and she, too, loved it, so Dan made one for her. The other night, we got a text from her with the following message and photo: "Daniel put his precious peanut baby Jesus in the manger!"

It was the baby Jesus from a nativity scene he had make in Sunday School a few years ago. He'd made a manger from popsicle sticks and baby Jesus from a peanut wrapped with felt. Ann had put it with her big nativity scene because she loved it so much, but then Daniel noticed that Mary was holding baby Jesus, so he couldn't be in the manger, too.  Ann was working in the kitchen and didn't see what he was doing, but later when she passed by the one on the wall, she spotted the little baby in the manger.  

Here's a closeup:

It's just the sweetest thing and makes this Grammy's heart melt.  Merry Christmas! ♥

Sunday

It's Sunday and while it was fogged in early, the day has emerged with a beautiful blue sky and sunshine.  When we arrived at church, someone or more probably several someones, had chalked the parking lot and the walkway into the foyer with the names of God.  One after another they emerged into view as we walked forward.  Mighty One, Counselor, King of Kings, and on and on they went! It was amazing and inspiring. No one claimed responsibility, so I guess it was a Christmas gift to us all.

And speaking of Christmas, last evening Ann and Eric posted this picture, which I shamelessly stole, of the tree they cut yesterday.  It's gorgeous!!

You can see the closed pocket door behind it. Their house has a circle in it so no worries that they can't get into the kitchen. :-)  I love seeing Daniel standing on the arm of the chair, balancing himself on the ceiling, to hang a high ornament. As Eric said, it needed a bit of encouragement to fit through the door, but they love it!  ♥

Early December Saturday

What is it about Saturdays?  Even when you don't work, Saturdays are special.  I sort of slept in, eight-thirty, which was lovely.  After breakfast we began plotting our projects for the day.  For me, that meant serious Christmas shopping so I could cross it off my list.  After conferring with Ann and Dan, I achieved success. Decisions were made and the items were ordered.  Yay!!

Then to the basement to store decoration boxes (Dan), and finish basement decorating (me).  As we worked on those things, boxes of things from my parents' house--files, photos, etc.--surfaced and we were able to do a little sorting and consolidating and shredding.  Another yay!

This afternoon Ann and family came to get their Christmas tree from Papa's Tree Farm in our lower backyard.  Such fun!  Such a huge tree!! They used our pickup to drive around to pick it up so the boys all decided a ride in the back was called for.

I didn't get a picture of the tree in the back of the truck because they left the back way.  I hear they had to pull a pocket door closed from the living room to the kitchen to create a corner big enough for the tree.  It sure made for a fun afternoon! ♥