Year in Review and Wishes for the New Year

It’s New Year’s Day and time to look ahead to a fresh new year. Before we do that, though, let’s take a look back at 2011. I have a lot of pictures to share, and I didn’t get Christmas cards or a letter done, so if you don’t mind...

January found us moving Jessica and Bradley into their own home about 15 miles away after living with us for over a year. Jessica found out in late November 2010 that she and her boyfriend were expecting a baby, so they started building their new life together. We have enjoyed getting to know Scott and he’s an amazing partner for Jessica as well as father to Bradley.

I still kept Brad during the day while Jess worked full-time. I must’ve blinked, because all of a sudden, he grew from a baby to toddler.

  

   

At the end of April, I left my early morning job in preparation for caring for Bradley and the new grandboy we were expecting. It took a few weeks for me to sleep past 4 a.m., but it’s all good now.

In May, our son Nick was hospitalized suddenly after becoming quite ill. He’s doing great and living a healthier lifestyle now.  He was able to join us for Halloween this year, in costume even. Don’t ask who he was supposed to be – just a generic character from a video game – I can’t be more specific than that…

Greg and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary in May, and I turned 50 in July. We celebrated by attending the  Bob Seger concert in Omaha. It was a great show! 

I’d like to say I’m none the worse for wear at 50 years old, but in May I fell down the deck steps, landing on my knee, and I’ve been hobbling about ever since. That, combined with the arthritis, has slowed me down a bit.

The injury kept me in my chair for a few weeks, and I wanted to be productive, so I dug out my crochet needle, invested in some yarn, and turned on YouTube for instruction. Many hours spent over several weeks found me with a pile of dishcloths for Christmas gifts, a blanket for Silas, and some winter scarves. My nephew Wyatt saw the yarn and things I was working on, and asked me to teach him, so with a few quick crochet lessons, he was on his way.

We had a fun week in June when my nieces from Sioux City visited. Tay got to go to Vacation Bible School with Randy’s kids, Reese and Brad became friends, and we enjoyed a day at the zoo.

The last day of July, at 3:26 in the morning, Jess and Scott welcomed their baby boy, Silas Paul. He’s our sweet love-bug.

    

 

In September, Jessica, the boys, and I went to Sioux City for a visit. One of the fun things we did was visit at the shop where Alan works. Bradley saw all the motorcycles in the window, yelled “GO!” and ran to the door. He wanted to sit on every bike, and was thrilled when Uncle Alan finally let him on one.

Bradley had his second birthday at the end of September. He’s a big fan of Cat in the Hat, so Jess constructed a giant hat for his cake.

Halloween was our usual fun time with Randy’s family joining us for a quick supper then trick or treating. The weather was awesome and it didn’t take Bradley long to figure out the whole “trick or treat” scheme!

In November, Jess and Scott put a bid on a house here in Benedict, and closed on it a few days before Christmas. They moved enough things to be in their house for the holiday, and the past few days have been spent painting, packing and unpacking boxes, and getting settled into their new home.

That pretty much sums up the past year for us. What do we look forward to in 2012? We know we’ll enjoy those grandboys who live just down the street from us now. They grow so fast and we don’t want to miss a minute of it. I have a list of craft/sewing/decorating projects to tackle. Greg plans to build a covered patio in the backyard. (He’ll be building lots more things if I can give him part of my list, but I’ll have to be sneaky…)

We are incredibly blessed with a happy healthy family and more, and we thank God daily. We wish you many blessings also in 2012, and if the world doesn’t end on December 21 like the Mayans say it will, we’ll try to get real Christmas cards done!

A Little Touch of Christmas

Here we are, almost halfway through December and the Holiday Season is in full swing. I can’t say I’ve been feeling it much, but I have done some crafty things here and there.

The one I’m showing you tonight is this: 

It’s a decorated glass block. I have several of these blocks out in the garage, gathered a few years ago when lighting and decorating them was the “in” craft on the internet. I finally got around to doing something with one, but I love it so much, I will do more.

First I used a 1/2” ceramic drill bit to put a hole in the back of the block. Now they do sell blocks at the craft store with holes already in them, but this one is heavy and durable and it was in the garage… It took a few days for the inside of the block to dry out after I rinsed the debris from drilling. This is not a quick project.

I used clear silicone caulk to adhere the flat marbles and a few pieces of red stained glass. The pattern just sort of happened as I played around with the marbles and glass. I think it sort of looks like a poinsettia. The caulk needs a few hours to dry, then just pop in some Christmas lights and there you have it.

Hopefully during this week I’ll be able to share a few more Christmas touches around the house (there are only a few). In the meantime, I wish you a wonderful rest-of-the-holiday-season!

Bradley’s First Christmas

Well Bradley’s first Christmas was definitely an adventure as far as the blizzard went. He was pretty laid  back about all the excitement, though. Jess is blessed to have such a good baby who takes the routine changes in stride.

He’s three months old today, oblivious to the gifts and celebrating, so the excitement of his first Christmas was ours. We actually didn’t go overboard with gifts this year, but cannot wait for next year – Grammy already has plans for a sled, and a wagon, and toys, and…

He’s pretty happy here while we wait for Grampy to wake up and join us to open presents:

Santa brought a Glo Worm that plays music. Santa said he was really impressed with it in the store, smiling and laughing. Here at home he was a bit puzzled…

It ended up that a nap was preferable to present opening…

Uncle Nick’s gift of a new bouncy seat turned out to be most useful for that.

My Tree on the Avenue

For the past few years the local library has offered their “Avenue of Trees” event for the holidays. They invite the public to bring decorated Christmas trees for display in the building from the weekend after Thanksgiving until the weekend after New Year’s.  Each year a growing number of individuals and groups bring trees of every size, color, and theme,  and turn that library into a Christmas forest!

The first year of the event, I think it was 2006, I was still at Head Start and we put together a small tree with crayon bundles and small wooden alphabet blocks as ornaments. It was simple and sweet and a good way to advertise for us.

The next year I took Grace to the library one day, not remembering about the trees, and she was entranced. She would have been just almost 3 and we spent a long time going from tree to tree, touching what was allowed.

This year I decided to take a tree of my own. My theme is “In Loving Memory” and I made ornaments with photos of loved ones who have passed on – my parents, my brother Arlan, all of our grandparents, and some of the great-grandparents.

The ornaments are photos sandwiched between two pieces of microscope glass, then soldered around the outside. While soldering, I attached a jump ring to the top so the ornament could be hung with a ribbon.

This is the wedding photo of Greg’s grandparents, Fred and Myrtle Wolfe:

My dad’s high school senior photo:

Mom when she was 15:

There are only 10 soldered ornaments and it’s a 4-ish foot tree, so I filled in with plastic silver ornaments and silver/white wired ribbon. A small plastic topper and some white fleece around the base finished it off.

I’ve had several compliments on the tree and a woman from Exeter called the last week wondering about the ornaments and where I got those frames. She said if I ever want to make her a dozen or so, give her a call. :o)

My tree is in the foyer of the library, and time was short the day it was set up, so I’ve not been to see the rest of the Avenue for this year. Perhaps this week? The twins will be here for the afternoon on Thursday, so maybe we’ll stop in after preschool and take a look. If so, I’ll share our favorites with you!

Happy S'mores Day!

That's what I'm calling today, S'mores Day, since we didn't bbq or have fireworks here, but we did light up the fire pit and toast some marshmallows.
Jessi was kinda crabby about having her photo taken...

Here's Greg, putting marshmallows in the fire. Yeah, I need some longer toasting sticks. These metal skewers from the kitchen were a tad too short.

The fire pit was Greg's birthday gift from last year. We've only used it a couple of times, but I look forward to crisp Autumn nights outside next the fire.

Nick made his s'more with a York Peppermint Patty instead of a Hershey's bar. He said it was "very delicious".

I know my marshmallows were toasted golden brown, crispy on the outside, melted on the inside, and just perfect. Even though it was a cool, cloudy, and sometimes rainy day, both my kids were here, and that's the best way to spend any day for me - the s'mores were just a bonus!

Independence Day

No big plans for us. We're just enjoying a day off work, puttering around the house and yard.

We wish you a safe and happy 4th of July!!

Easter wishes

Wishing you all a wonderful Easter holiday full of worship, celebration, family togetherness, and lots of chocolate! (Except for Sara and Angela - I don't wish you any chocolate. :o) )

The flowers

For the past few years, Greg has sent me a sweet floral arrangement for Valentine's Day. Delivery was bungled a bit yesterday by the florist, but I did finally get my flowers at the theater after I got to work. Customers commented on what a sweet husband I must have. Of course I agreed. :o)

My Valentines

Happy Heart Day to everyone. I wish you much laughter and love in your life.

My Valentine's tree

Each year after Christmas I leave up a small tree for a few months. During January it is decorated with the crocheted snowflakes Mom made for me, and some other snowflake/men ornaments. In February it is adorned with hearts, in March and April it gets Springtime and Easter decoration. I don't have lots of these decorations, but try to add a little to each theme every year.

Here is the Valentine's tree this year. A few of the ornaments were gifts from some friends I've met through an email list.

The cross-stitched hearts are from Grandma & Grandpa Regier's 50th anniversary celebration. We stitched a heart for each family member with their name and birthdate on the back, then hung them from a tree. Grandma kept that tree in her living room, then each time a new member joined the family, another heart was added. When Grandma moved to the nursing home, each family got their hearts. I have my family's and Arlan's, and they make decorating for this "Hallmark holiday" a little more meaningful.
These ornaments are the reason I learned to do counted cross-stitch. Aunt Kathy got the patterns, and each family made their own hearts. Mom had moved to California by then, so it was up to me to make them for our family. I wasn't happy, thinking counted cross-stitch was going to be tedious and difficult. Turns out I loved it and cross-stitch became my biggest hobby for many years.