It is going to be quick . . .

It has been a glorious time since I last posted.

We had a wonderful "Christmas Gathering" Thursday before Christmas. It was an open house for friends, family and neighbors and we will do it again as it was a wonderful evening.

Christmas weekend was filled will good food, fun gifts, and lots of family love.

I am enjoying my new iPod. Weston was here yesterday and today and he is much better at "Angry Bird" than I could possibly be. Amazing as he is 6 and has never played it before. I have found some great quilting apps and really love one I downloaded for play cribbage. I love cribbage and Bob is not a card playing kind of guy.

Get ready for the New Year! We are heading to a neighborhood party tomorrow evening after we have dinner with Mom. Have a wonderful and safe New Years!

Saturday again . . .

The roof is finished. Finally - no more pounding to replace the shingles. It is a shake shingle roof and it has been over 3 weeks. First they have to scrape off the old shingles - very noisy work. Then they have to staple a couple layers of stuff and then they nail down the shingles. Ahhhh - now it is quiet!

I have wanted to post the "before, middle, and done" pictures of the kitchen. This may be as close as I get. You can go back to here to see the "before and middle" pictures from last summer. We have ordered the new lights and the new stools but they are not in yet so we are waiting. Knowing me, however, I doubt I will ever take the time to clear the counters again.

It has been an interesting week here. We decided to have a Christmas Open House this coming Thursday evening so we are busy getting lots stuff done. It has been fun getting ready, but crazy work as well. I am going to get some of the appetizers from Costco and then make four or five as well. We are excited!

We have also decided that we are going to head to Palm Springs for our winter trip this year rather than Arizona. We found a really good deal on an RV lot at a very nice park in Palm Springs so we will be there in March for sure. We had planned to get away for longer than last year when we were gone 6 weeks, but we need to be flexible and see how things are going here with family stuff.

Mom came home on Monday and she has rebounded quickly from being tired from the trip. I am not totally sure why she decided to come home after only a week in Arizona with my sister rather than staying the month or more she originally planned. Who knows?

The first cute picture is Walker with his new friend, "Baby Bunny". He is so funny with his stuffed animals. Weston didn't ever have any interest in any special little stuffed animal friends. Walker has a whole zoo full. He has "Cow" (the most important one), and "Monkey" and "Wolf" and now "Baby Bunny" and those are just the ones here. Baby Bunny is usually in the arms of the big rabbit that covers the vacuum, but he spied it and decided he needed it in his flock when he is here. And here is Weston, getting all grown up. He is really enjoying kindergarten. Grandpa taught him how to draw the continuous 5 point star and he loved it. We bake and decorate sugar cookies each time he comes out.

Saturday stuff . . .

I have been doing some work again with "Art and Stitch". It is digitizing software for creating designs for quilting machine robots and embroidery machines. The company owners and developers have free webinars every few months and the one last Sunday was about the combining of patterns from the library, adding pearls, and then some refined editing. I had our grandsons here and may have missed a few steps, but here is a project using what I learned that I finished last night. I will test it out on my IQ in a couple days.

Then my mom called from Arizona and she is coming back to cold Montana on Monday - not sure what the issues are but she assured me it is not a health issue. We will be glad to have her back for Christmas, but I know she was looking forward to a month of warmer weather and some good time with my sister her daughter, Mom's granddaughter. I hope everything is okay.

Off to Arizona . . .

Not me - but my mom. She flew out mid-day today to spend a couple months with my sister in Chandler. I know she will enjoy the much warmer weather and the family fun. I am hoping she might stay until the end of February when her great-granddaughter gets married, but she wasn't sure she wanted to be gone that long.

I took her out to the airport here and she went through security like a trooper. She had checked a bag and was carrying on her laptop, overnight bag and her purse.

Mom is 90 and moved over here from Missoula last summer. She had been living in a senior living facility with her own apartment. She wanted to live on her own again and so she bought a nice condo here. I think she is liking it okay, but I know the trip to AZ will be a treat for her. My sister is driving her and her granddaughter (sister's daughter) to Disney Land for a few days later in the week. They will have a good time.

She has good genes - hope I have inherited them.

December 1 . . .

I ate lemon pie this evening for supper. It was my dad's favorite food in the world - not just his favorite dessert - but his favorite of all foods. Dad died two years ago tonight and I eat lemon pie each December 1 to honor his life, his humor, his wisdom, and his love. Thank you, Dad.