Red Sky at Night....

This is not the post I'd planned for tonight. While you wait for me to finish my Christmas decorating, enjoy the sunset I got a glimpse of on my way into town this evening.

As always, click on the pictures to see them full size.

And yep, some I took while driving down the road again....if you see me crashed in the ditch somewhere sometime, hide your laughter as you rescue me please!

Deck the Halls (part 1)

This afternoon I began the task of digging out all the Christmas decorations from the guest bedroom closet and assembling the Christmas tree. Each year as I pull out box after box, I ask myself, "where did all this stuff come from and why do I put this much stuff out every year???" But, I love Christmas and I love having all the decorations up. It's the getting them up and taking them down I could do without! I usually do most of the decorating myself. Heather has always lost interest very quickly so I usually pull out her special ornaments and let her hang those, and do the same for Marty's ornaments and hang the rest myself. They seem to like it that way. They enjoy hanging the Christmas lights together outside.

This year we aren't even planning to be here for Christmas, but I'm decorating anyway. I enjoy the house decorated for Christmas and I love driving down the driveway after work and seeing the outside all lit up too. A few years ago Marty set everything on a timer so it would all be on when I arrived home.

I'm very sentimental and have a few ornaments that to me are treasures. My oldest ornament on the tree is one I can remember hanging every year since I was a little girl. It's one my Nana made me and most of the glitter has since fallen off and the decoupaged pictures can hardly be seen any more. But I can't bear to throw it away.

There is a whole set of wooden ornaments painted to look like baby toys. Those ornaments are the ones I gave Marty as a gift the Christmas we found out I was pregnant with Heather. We still hang them every year.

Most of Heather's ornaments are ballerinas, dancers, or ballet shoe ornaments. I still buy her a new ballerina ornament every year, even though she isn't in ballet anymore.

A large portion of my ornaments are Santa Clause ornaments. I tend to buy myself a new Santa face for the tree each year. I also have a collection of Santa figurines, most of which have been gifts. The first picture above is the newest Santa ornament I recently purchased.

Although I have not had time to make gifts the past couple of years, that is normally what I do. A few years ago I purchased several unpainted wooden sleds from the Dollar Tree and painted them and gave them as gifts. Here is one I kept.

Call me crazy, but last year I decorated a second tree in the dining room and will do the same this year. My kitchen and dining room are decorated with apples and gingerbread men and I now have enough gingerbread and apple ornaments to decorate a tree just with them. So, that's what I did, and plan to do again. It's a smaller tree and not as full so won't take as long to do. Tonight I'm too tired to finish the decorating, so it will wait until tomorrow evening. I'm anxious for Marty and Heather to get to work on the outside lights too! Marty has become a pretty good sport about all the Christmas decorations, as long as I wait until after Thanksgiving to put anything out. I agree!

Here is the finished tree, all lit up tonight.

To be continued...

Life in the Woods

Marty happened to look out the window of the back door this morning and saw a doe wandering around the woods at the edge of the yard. Soon after, a buck started following her around. As she meandered through the woods toward the front yard, the buck followed but came much closer to the house. Marty told me to come look so I grabbed the camera and went to another window. When the deer came close enough I went out to the back deck for a closer shot. It was COLD outside and I had no shoes on!!! Small price to pay for pictures, right? After several clicks he noticed me and ran toward the front of the house. I went back through the house and watched out the front windows to see where he would go. He stopped at the edge of the yard, still close enough to get some good pictures so I went outside again. Only problem was, I still was without shoes and there's no roof over the front deck and the wet porch was like ice on my feet! Still, I clicked away until Marty brought me a pair of shoes to slip on. Here are the pictures I got. Mabye sometime today my feet will be warm again! :0)

Let the Christmas Festivities Begin

It does not seem possible that Christmas is just over a month away! I was not one who braved the malls and shopping centers the day after Thanksgiving. Instead, to kick off the Christmas season we, along with Erica and her kiddos, went out for dinner last night and headed to San Marcos to "Santa's Ranch" to see Christmas lights.

I love the tunnel of lights we drove through.

This carousel is very pretty and I knew Riley would just love it.




Another tunnel of lights.

And of course I love all the lighted gingerbread men everywhere!

The scene inside the car! Say "cheese" for Erica!



Every year near the top of a small hill are these lighted crosses.

I couldn't fit all 3 wisemen in one picture from where the car was.



After looking at the lights we drove over to the outlet mall to meet Jason so he could say hi to his family. He has to work the entire weekend, poor guy! Sorry you couldn't join us Jason!

Awwww....aren't they sweet?

Thanks Erica, Mathew, Cam and Riley for joining us in what has become an annual tradition for our family!



Erica has posted more pictures from our evening over here.

Thanksgiving Day

What a wonderful Thanksgiving Day we had! My day began with a phone call from my mom wishing us a Happy Thanksgiving. I love to hear from her, but boy did she make me wish I were in Missouri!

After baking my requested pumpkin roll, sweet potatoes, cooking the mashed potatoes and thawing the pecan pie, we headed to San Atonio to Mike and Debbie's for dinner. The smells coming from her kitchen when we arrived made my mouth water! We were joined by my mother in law and father in law, Billie and Freddie and Freddie's parents Jean and Tom, as well as Freddie's brother Robert.

Before we ate, Debbie let me take her brand new car for a spin!!!

My mother in law Billie has a thing about people who continuously open an oven door to check the food. So....Debbie and I purposely opened it over and over! ha ha!

Can you just smell Billie's famous hot rolls as she pulls them from the oven???? YUM!



Marty and Mike messing with the wishbone.

Me with my sister in law Debbie. Debbie, I so enjoyed cutting up with you all day!!!

My brother in law Mike.
(Debbie, I know how much you like this picture so here you go...drool away! )

Heather and my niece Cheyenne parked in front of the video game!

My nephew Chris and his fiancee Cil. Congratulations guys!!!

Me and Marty.

Marty, Mike and Debbie playing on the computer. Our evening was spent cutting up, burning cd's, surfing the net, and checking out blogs.






Even though the twins don't look alike, Debbie and I noticed today they have the same lines between their eyes when they are intently focused on something or mad. I don't have a clue what they were so intently focused upon here!






My nephew Tony comes out of hiding long enough to find a snack and see what the guys are looking at.







Cheyenne and Heather got along the whole day and I snuck upstairs to grab a quick picture of them hanging out.

Hope everyone had as an enjoyable Thanksgiving as we did!!!