Happy New Year

I will be back soon with some posts about the past two busy weeks.  Lots of activities and fun.

It has been 21 degrees the past two mornings. Snow is predicted for tonight ! ! ! 

I hope all of you are looking forward to the New Year with enthusiasm and excitement. I know I am.

Sunday Joy

Last Sunday was such a nice day. The church looked beautiful with all the holiday decor. It was really stunning and my photos don't come close to revealing how special it is.

The Christmas poinsettias are a tradition and very enjoyable each year. And the lovely Christmas tree certainly did not disappoint!

It was not only the last Sunday of Advent but was also the Christmas Pageant which is mostly portrayed by children.  I think each year it is better than the past. For a small country church I think it is very impressive what this little church can accomplish so much in so many different areas of fellowship and service.

Following church worship and fellowship we went out for Brunch to the place where we enjoy wonderful food. They prepare the most delicious Eggs Benedict.  All of the Christmas decorations made it look so beautiful and festive.

It is a very pleasant setting which overlooks the golf course.

And, let's not forget about Lily. She is having a great Christmas and getting more spoiled each day.

I hope you are enjoying the Holiday season.

Christmas Snippets Of My Home

Enjoy your day. 

Huge Surprise

This Christmas bouquet is gorgeous! WOW, I was so surprised when I opened the front door yesterday. My high school friend and husband that I have been reacquainted with this year sent them to me. They live in New York and I am hoping to visit them this coming year. Read more about this delightful reunion with my Special Friend.

I have been so busy as most of us are at this time of year. But, all of this is shadowed with the intense shoulder/arm pain that I continue to experience. I will be seeing the doctor again, soon.

We have been enjoying lots of activities which I will try to blog about in the near future when I am more comfortable. The computer use continues to be a painful activity as well as baking, cooking and most anything that requires use of my right arm. Boo-Hoo! One nice thing is that we are having a lot of fun and have a calender that is full enough of activities for our comfort.

Thank you again FRIEND for the lovely Christmas bouquet. I will post more photos as the huge lilies open.

I hope all of you are Enjoying the Holidays.

Joy To The World

Have a Wonderful Day.

The Christmas Party

It was a great time. All of the photos that I took at the party did not turn out very well. However, I took this photo quickly with a timer before we left the house. So I thought I would make a collage with some of the photos of the Christmas tree.

And, here is the tree. I hesitate to say finished because it seems as though every year I'm moving something around on it up until the time I take it down. A little crazy, don't ya think?

Remember, the photos will enlarge with "a click" if you would like to see the christmas ornaments more closely.

Well, I have had some very busy days and I think it would be good if tomorrow I don't push myself so hard. There is always so much more that I want to do but the body does not see it that way.

Wishing you many holidays filled with lots of fun.

It's Time To Do It

And, I did it! I am very tired but happy. I don't usually do this project in one day. But, I just kept going until it was finished. And, it is a good feeling. Because I am so accustomed to doing projects by myself and I can do them faster that way, I surprised MSM with the tree when he came over in the evening. He was really surprised and he liked it a lot even though it is kind of "girlie" with lots of pink, silver, gold, angels, santas, hearts and stars to name a few. There are many ornaments from different places I have visited like Paris, England, Victoria, British Columbia, Oregon, San Francisco and on and on.

I have had this tree for a very long time and it takes a lot of time to assemble before you even start to put the lights on. I like it because it has little pine cones and the tips of each branch have what looks like snow. After putting the poll together each branch has to be placed in the poll.  Some of you may remember this kind of artificial tree. The box says it is a Pasadena Fir and it is 6 1/2 feet tall which works very well in my small living room.

 

I like to put lots of lights on the tree. Because of my back and shoulder discomfort, this year I tried something different when placing the lights. So I would not have to do so much reaching, bending and stooping I placed the lights as I assembled the tree. It was sure worth it to take the top portion off and start over at the bottom with the lights.

In the tree box I found a note that I had written to myself about positioning the branches. It said, "For added interest place some the the longer branches closer to top and shorter ones toward bottom. This gives the tree a more natural look" . And that is what I did and I like!

The tree can use a little "tweaking" here and there so I will post the final display when I do a little more "tweaking".

 

I guess Lily worked so hard today that she couldn't keep her eyes open after plopping herself down on the chair. I guess she was even too tired to jump up on the back of the chair where she usually likes to sleep. It is very infrequent that she will sleep on the seat of this nice big chair. She is so precious to me!

I hope you have had a Festive Day.

Christmas Shoes

As I went to the closet this morning to decide what pair of shoes I would wear to church, this video came to mine. And, I thought I would share it with all of you. If you have not seen it before you may find it very poignant as I did.

It was almost Christmas time
There I stood in another line
Trying to buy that last gift or two
I'm really in the Christmas mood
Standing right in front of me
Was a little boy waiting anxiously
Pacing around like little boys do
And in his hands he held
A pair of shoes


And his clothes were worn and old
He was dirty from head to toe
And when it came his time to pay
I couldn't believe what I heard him say


Sir I wanna buy these shoes for my Momma please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry Sir?
Daddy says there's not much time
You see, she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes will make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful
If Momma meets Jesus, tonight.


They counted pennies for what seem like years
And cashier says son there's not enough here
He searches is pockets franticly
And he turned and he looked at me
And he said Momma made Christmas good at our house
Most years she just did without
Tell me Sir
What am I gonna do?
Some how I've got to buy her these Christmas shoes


So I layed the money down
I just had to help him out
And I'll never forget
The look on his face
When he said Mamma's gonna look so great.


Sir I wanna buy these shoes, for my Momma please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry Sir?
Daddy says there's not much time
You see, she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes will make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful,
If Momma meets Jesus tonight.


I knew I caught a glimpse of heavens love as he thanked me and ran out.
I know that God had sent that little boy to remind me
What Christmas is all about


Sir I wanna buy these shoes for my Momma please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry Sir?
Daddy says there's not much time
You see she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes will make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful
If Mamma meets Jesus tonight


I want her to look beautiful
If Mamma meets Jesus tonight

Let's try not to forget those less fortunate as us.

Glitz And Glamor

Even if my house isn't decorated like I would like it to be, yet, I will be decorated. This is the jewelry that I am going to wear with my new silver sweater. I have had the pin since the early 1980's and always receive comments when I wear it. This past year I was able to get matching earrings from ebay and I was thrilled. The ensemble is stunningly brilliant and I think they will look nice on the silver sweater. I like to think of it as perhaps understated elegance. I like it much better than multicolored brilliance on the silver sweater. This is Kirks Folly Jewelry and the snowflake earrings are a perfect match to the snowflake in the pin. How lucky was I to find them?

 

And, these cherished bracelets from my Granddaughter will also be a great addition to the Kirks Folly.

I am so pleased with my new sweater.

 

This Christmas jewelry by Eisenberg Ice Jewelry was another possibility. I'll just have to wear them another time during the holidays.

I hope you are having a Wonderful Weekend.

Where Did It Go?

The YEAR, that is! It seems as though it wasn't all that long ago that I was putting Christmas decorations away. And, now it is already time to get them out and start decorating the house. It is such a wonderful time of the year. Even when my life has been much more difficult and challenging, I have always loved the holidays. It takes me back to a time when there were many around the Christmas dinner table and all of the hubbub associated with the holiday season. The following photo is from my wall calender in my kitchen. I love the little red wagon, and of course, I love My Little Red Wagon.

 

This is a SPECIAL Day. It is December 1st and that means that I am going to have some special holiday cheer everyday made possible by a very special friend who ordered an Advent Calender for me from Jacquie Lawson's E-cards. 

 

This is the description from the website of this delightful calendar.  "Our new digital Advent Calendar will bring a little joy to every day in the run-up to Christmas. Each day a new animation appears, building up a delightful Christmas scene featuring the trademark jacquielawson.com quirky humor, delicate artistic style, and delightful Christmassy music. All your best-loved characters from the e-cards are featured in different animations: Chudleigh and Bertie, Fluff the kitten, the musical teddy bears ... as well as a few new characters you haven't seen before, like Santa's cheeky elf!"

NOW, LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY SPECIAL FRIEND. First of all, she is one of my many blessing I have received this year. I met her many years ago when I was in High School. I was a bridesmaid in her wedding and following both of our marriages we enjoyed time together as married couples and subsequently with little children. As so many of us have experienced, we loose touch with people and often think of them and say to ourselves "how did that happen" and we go on with our lives which are very busy and sometimes all consuming just getting from one day to the next.

During the past few years with the aid of the Internet, I have attempted to locate her to no avail. And, "lo and behold" a couple months ago I received an email with the subject saying "- - - - - - would like to know how you are". What a huge surprise and a joyous moment ! ! !

We both have thoroughly enjoyed getting reacquainted by phone and the internet. We live on opposite coasts. I live in California and she lives in New York! However, modern technology makes it very easy to share our lives and friendship. It is Wonderful.

I hope you have some Nice Surprises today.

A Day In Sacramento

What a busy day. This is the day that I have been waiting for - a visit with the Orthopedic Shoulder Specialist in Sacramento, CA.

On our way, we stopped for an early lunch at The Virgin Sturgeon on the American River. Even though the sun was not shinning brightly it was very pleasant and the ambiance of this funky little restaurant was great. I have been to this place a couple times in the past during the summer. At this time of the year the propane stove is burning and the patrons sit as close to it as they can. This is opposite to the summer time when everyone wants to sit at the windows edge to enjoy watching all the boats going by. Our table was in front of the stove as we were there when they opened at 11:30 AM. We both ordered the Smoked Salmon Salad with red onion, dried cranberries, glazed walnuts and a honey mustard dressing. Delicious!

Then, it was time to go to my medical appointment. The doctor was "working me in" between surgeries he was performing at the hospital across the street. Shoulder e-rays were taken prior to seeing the doctor so he could assess them as well as the MRI that I hand carried to the appointment. He reviewed everything with us on the monitor and explained that all of the bones looked good with no cracks or chips. His assessment of the MRI was consistent with the local orthopedic doctor. The short and long of it is: 1-minimize pain, 2-strengthen arm muscles by daily physical therapy, 3-return in three weeks for review of anticipated progress.

I had a choice of going to Physical Therapy in my home town or have his physical therapist provide instruction for a home program. I was so glad that I chose to have his staff provide instruction. It was very thorough. The greatest part was the new approach to Physical Therapy, at least from my perspective. In time past, PT was referenced as "pain and torture". Not so, anymore. All exercises are to be stopped when pain level increases. The focus is to increase strength in my arm to support the shoulder mechanisms. 

In three weeks, we will know more and surgery may be discussed. But, all conservative treatment will be used before seriously considering surgery because surgical repair may not be possible because of the extent of the tendon tear across the top of my shoulder. It may not be possible to reconnect the tendon because of the length of the tear. The MRI is quite startling! Overall, I am so happy that I went to this doctor. He and his whole office were excellent - friendly, knowledgeable and efficient.

I am optimistic and look forward to starting my home exercise program.

  
Since Arden Fair Mall was nearby, we stopped in to do a little shopping for a holiday blouse for me to wear with a long black skirt to a Holiday Party next week. After being drawn to a "little number in Nordstroms, costing $1, 365.00" every thing I looked at thereafter seemed like a real bargain! In another store I was able to get not one but two blouses that I really like and they were 40% off. Now, that is my kind of shopping. That was the only thing I needed or wanted. It was a very good day and we had a lot of fun.

Wishing you a Fabulous Day.

 

  

Who's There?

And, they thought we were just some big kids out Trick or Treating!

I just received these pictures of us taken on Halloween night arriving at a party in the neighborhood near the home of MSM. Costumes were optional and boy oh boy did we surprise them. And, I was very surprised when MSM said that he wanted to "go in costume".  Actually, I do not think I can remember the last time I dressed in Halloween costume. Actually, I don't think I can say I was in costume. It is more accurate to say that I put a mask (that I have had for years) on my face and a witches hat on my head!

We had such a fun time. I don't think I will ever forget how much MSM was laughing as we walked hand in hand in the neighborhood to the party.

I hope you are having a Fun Filled Day - everyday.



It Was Cold And It Is Still Cold

This is what it looked like 15 minutes north of my home where MSM lives. I took these photos at his home Friday morning. The snow looked beautiful but it was a challenge when trying to get up or down the driveway.

The driveway has been cleared several times already with these storms. But, sometimes you just have to get out the shovel and get to it.

Thanksgiving Day was very nice and we were in a lot of snow on that day also. We were in a home that is back in the forest and the road that is beyond the county maintained portion has to be cleared by the home owners. So, it was important to head back home before night fall.  

This amount of snow is very unusual for this area. Usually, the snow melts before the next storm. But now the snow is starting to pile up. I am sure glad that my home is at a lower elevation. There is a big difference in the amount of snowfall between 2100 feet and 3000 feet elevation even though it is only a few miles in travel distance. 

I hope you had a Great Thanksgiving and that you are enjoying leftovers and staying warm.