Decoration postscript

Here are a few more pics from mom's Christmas decorations. The angels are closeup views of the larger orchestra pictured below. Sorry it has taken so long to post-- on dial-up it took more than ten minutes per picture for uploading!

A Christmas sampler

Happy Day, everyone! I hope it's a wonderful Christmas for those celebrating, and for those whose day has already come and gone, happy recovering! We're off to spend the day at my brother's, but in the meantime here are a few pics of the decorations at mom's. Merry, Happy!

a new look!

I've been frustrated by some things on the orginal template I was using on the blog, so decided to make a change. For starters, I can now include links, which I wasn't able to do before. Now if only someone would let me know how to establish a counter... Give me a few days to figure all of this out!

A few weeks ago when I was in St. Louis Kathy and I joined two other friends for breakfast one morning. Listed on the blackboard of daily specials was "Eggs Jesus." Hmm. Turns out you're supposed to pronounce Jesus according to the Latin, but if that's the case, why wasn't "eggs" in Latin? So we proceeded to pronounce the special according to the English, reverently, of course! I also decided that, as a priest, I should honor the savior by ordering his special. Here's the description, the delivered breakfast, and a picture of the fabulous four (our nickname of old): (l --> r) Me, Kathy, Maureen and Barb. Hey, what are blogs for if you can't post about the minutae of the day?

busy day at the ranch!

Except for a few undetermined addresses, Christmas cards and letters are finally done! Australia and New Zealand friends, sorry yours got sent so late, but with any luck they'll arrive during the 12 days, so they'll still count, LOL. Also got a card order completed and sent on its way, as well as got state sales tax computed and paid. We've made chocolate dipped peppermint sticks and oreo bark and put together gift baskets for a couple of friends and our neighbors/landlord and lady (whom we can no longer refer to as the milkmaid since she's stopped milking the goats!). Tonight we're having dinner with my last seminarian and his family, which should be too much fun with their five kids!

As for a photo...

How about this one from our visit to the Atlanta Botanical Garden last month? I love this frog!

Hope these last days leading up to Christmas aren't too crazy for everyone!

who can resist this wee one?

She is just too precious, and I haven't even had the privilege of meeting her in person yet. Here are a few more pics of our dear Ella Noelle.

And let's not forgot our Katie!

(and can I just say that I can't stand the way this blog host is so inadequate when it comes to formatting entries with photos!)

it's a girl!

Kathy's new grandchild, Katie's new sister, and Carrie and Dave's new daughter, Ella Noelle, came into the world on Tuesday at 4:14 PM, pink and punchy! Here she is!

back at the ranch!

We're back from our weekend in St. Louis, where I visited with my friend Kathy and Ken spent some time visiting with relatives in the area, some of whom he hadn't seen in about 30 years! Kathy begins her chemo treatment today, so for all you pray'ers out there, please keep her in yours! It will be a megadose, the first of four given once a month. She is in remarkably good spirits, and was getting around better than when I saw her last. We were able to get out to do some errands, join some friends for breakfast on Saturday (pics from that in a separate post), and I helped with odds and ends kind of projects, as well as with getting presents wrapped for her.

We had the treat of Katie overnight on Saturday (see pics!), and she is as adorable as ever. Kathy had gotten her a snowsuit that she tried on, and looked quite a bit like a marshmallow! She's a wee thing, ordinarily. I'll ask that you indulge me in one Katie story. We had put her to bed at her usual time, turned out lights and retreated to adult territory, but she had had a long nap that afternoon and wasn't quite ready to call it a day. Via the monitor from her room we could hear her chatter and her attempts to draw us back to play with her. "Let's read another book!" she'd try. Or, "Katie has a poopey diaper" (that little ploy worked once, LOL). But we couldn't contain our giggles when she tried, in a sing-songey voice (you'll have to imagine the inflection on the basis of my attempts to emphasize syllables), "GIgi, GRANtee, everybody... HellOOOOOooooo." It was just too cute. I wish I could remember some of the other dear things that she said, but such is my addled brain this morning!

Now it's back to the grind to complete a few more projects before Christmas. Hope it's a great day for one and all!

Christmas Chapel

Ken has wanted to take a Christmas picture of the two of us to send to people, so this morning we "dressed up" and headed over to All Saints Chapel on the campus of the University of the South to get a picture. We had been there on Sunday and it was beautifully decorated for their legendary Service of Lessons and Carols. It was the perfect place for our picture (I wish I looked a bit more that way myself--omg, the weight gain shows!), and to get some pictures of the chapel interior itself. There was a woman in the church who was straightening up, and she offered to take us up into the bell tower, too, so we took advantage of her gracious offer! That's a picture of Ken at the keyboard. I've also included some pictures from inside the church, so feast your eyes!

Today is slipping away and I've gotten almost nothing accomplished that I had planned to do. Forgot a chiropractic appointment this morning, so there goes an hour of the afternoon while I scoot over there to make that up. Eek! Gues I have my work cut out for me this afternoon when I get back.

Hope y'all are having a good day/week!

A manic monday

Don't ask me why, but for some reason I'm particularly chipper this morning! Have lots to do to get organized for a wee road trip. Our clergy women are gathering for dinner tonight in Nashville, so I'm headed up for that, and will spend the night. I have a little shopping to do en route to get the few remaining things on my list, so will have a meandering ride. Tuesday I'm detouring to Lebanon (my old haunt) to meet with the owner of the coffee/bake shop who wants to use my cards with her gift baskets, then will join one of my dear friends for lunch before heading home.

Yesterday the newest batch of photos arrived for the latest additions to my photo card choices. One of them is included here. I'm also posting the pics I took of the pyracantha at our farm in SC. Mom wanted some cards using one of them, but can't remember which one. Okay Mom, door number 1, 2, or 3?


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A good day!

Hey y'all! First, Ken says thanks to everyone who offered bday wishes. The best part of his day was when his son call from that-place-over-there. It meant the world to him, and of course any time we hear his voice we know he's safe, and I toss up a silent Alleluia.
Christmas-wrapping central is beginning to wind down here. It isn't that we're particularly efficient getting this done, we just can't afford to yield the space to all these packages! As I type this all gifts are wrapped, five packages were shipped a couple of days ago, three more boxes are sitting by the door to go out tomorrow, and the rest will soon follow, or will be delivered in person. Phew! There are a handful of things on order that ought to be here within the next week, and I have one or two things still to buy, but we're in very good shape. Now I have the time to enjoy doing some baking, and we finally got the Christmas CD's out and had them playing today while I wrapped and packed.
I'm including a picture from our Thanksgiving travels--a cross on a tombstone at Magnolia Cemetery in Augusta, GA. My great-grandparents are buried there, and we took a driving tour in hopes of finding the family plot, but the place was just too big for that kind of luck to come our way. I have a picture taken of their gravestones about 20 years ago that might be helpful visually, but I think our best bet is to contact the office and get specifics. Some other trip, maybe in the spring. I'm also including a few more orchids.

It's been beautiful here today, and brisk. Finally feels like late fall! Hope your day has been pleasing to you!