Monday, December 20, 2010

A Charlie Brown Christmas tree

Well to all of our family and friends.
This year we had gotten our tree later than usual, due to trips and, well as we all know, a busy life. Better late than never.
So we got our 7' tree (yay) and a beautiful wreath for the front door. (decorated this year, with a beautiful bow and decorations, thank you David for spoiling us)
So to continue, everyone knows that you have to let the tree "relax" before you decorate it, we of course did, for a few hours. When we began to get everything ready to begin decorations, lo & behold, the bottom was full an beautiful, just the way the ferrets love it to play on, however, right about the middle of the tree it looked as if someone had chopped away all the branches, then an ok top. So I said "I can fill it in with lights and such, it just needs some TLC"
So I began putting on our 300 light string, filling in all the gaps & so on. Being very excited to turn on the lights and see how it looks before putting on garland, and ornaments. So I plug it in and guess what?????????????????, only 1/2 of the lights work. I tried a couple of different lights to see if they would light up, all to no avail. I took off all the lights, all the while, still being cheery, having 2 more sets of lights, we had enough. I plugged them in first to see if they would light. what do you think happened?? No lights. and of course it's too late to go buy any this late at night.
Next day (Sunday) We ran to CVS, because the Sunday before Christmas is not the day you want to go into any big stores, deals or not deals, neither Dave or I like crowds. So we bought this 18 foot string of lights, should have been enough right????? Wrong again. So at this point, I think we both thought we were just going to have an expensive ferret toy.
Back to the store. Wouldn't you know it, they had no more of those lights. So we had to go to a different store. They had many lights. (I got 2 long sets just to be on the safe side.) Finally I had enough lights to go around the whole tree. (Whew) Next garland and decorations. Of course there is one decoration that goes on before the garland and that is David's and my first ornament together, a precious moments one, that says "our first Christmas 2006". David put his Santa clause topper on the tree, and my fiber-optic Angel goes on just below it, symbolizing how we took our 2 households & 2 lives and turned them into one.

Our tree is up and is beautiful, our stockings are hung by the chimney with care.
We wish all of you a Very Merry Christmas.

By all means please comment or let us know what your Christmas set up was.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Christmas In St. Marys

Been awhile since I've blogged, and many things have happened.
For now I just want to tell you about David's and my christmas with Shannon, Braeden, and Justin.
We left of a Wed night, and we drove the new challenger. It ran quite smooth, and we didn't run into any snow, until we hit Scranton, PA. David happened to be driving, when all of a sudden, it was like a white out, we had just missed our exit where we usually stay for the night, so we took the next one, and stayed at a hotel called "The Clarion Inn" All I can tell you is that it was very very nice, and it was cheaper than where we usually stayed, so Hey, now we have a new place to stay.
We got up the next morning, and got on our way. Still no snow, "whew", our luck was still holding.
We drove quite quickly and drove the other 4 hours of the trip. Of course we had to make a pit stop in Dubois, because I had to have lunch at Long John Silvers, and the closet one to us here is about 45 min to an hour away. I smiled when we reached our final destination. We got into the hotel, and I had already gotten 2 messages from Shannon (oldest daughter) asking where we were. I messaged her once we got all the gifts in the room for the 3 of them. Apparently Our Grandson, Braeden, could not wait until to see us. So we just rested a few moments, to regain our bearings again, and we were off again, back into the car and drove the short distance to Shannon's house. We knocked and up the stairs we went. At the bottom of the stairs we were greeted by the dog, "Cloe", and at the top of the stairs, I was greeted with the sweetest smile and the biggest hug ever. It just about brought tears to my eyes.
So since we, David & I, did not want any gifts for Christmas this year, we asked Shannon to cook a home cooked meal for us, and that would be our gift. We had Roast, potatoes, gravy, beans, peas, cream corn, and rolls. EVERYTHING was perfectly delicious.
After dinner, we just sat down to visit, and next thing we know Braeden is bringing over David's present and says "Here Dave, it's a cup" LOL Shannon of course said, "Braeden, your not supposed to tell him what it is", So he then brought over my gift, and said, "here Gramma I'm not allowed to tell you it's a cup." We all just laughed. David and I opened our gifts. Braeden drew pictures to put in the cups. They are awesome. The next day we had brunch with some family, Aunts, Molly & Carol, Cousin Jan, Shannon, Braeden, Justin, niece Crystal & my great niece Pyper.
After Brunch, Braeden wanted to go with David & I, without mommy hanging around. It was the first time she has let us take him, again another milestone. (awesome) that night. (Fri.) we went back to Shannon's house for opening presents and pizza party. fun fun fun..... We had gotten Braeden a cardboard clubhouse, that you color. It was pretty cool, although the adults had more fun coloring than the kids... LOL Someone said that it's because Adults have a sense of finishing the job...Crystal, Shad & Pyper came to visit also.
Saturday Morning was nice, we slept in.... (YAY) We went to visit with my best friend Stacy & her family.
We had dinner, Shepherds Pie & Lasagna, yummy. Then we played the new game Mad Gab. It was sooooooooooooo much fun.. I believe Dave, Shannon & I made the best team. on the last game, Shannon and I guessed 12 of them in 30 seconds. sooooooooooooo much fun.

Sunday morning we hooked up for breakfast with my nephew, Jamie, his girlfriend, and 2 boys.
Nice visit, and we headed off back home. 7 & 1/2 hours later we arrived home. The cat and ferrets were still alive and happy to see us.
Until next time. Post a comment if you wish..
~Nancie~