Smarty Child

I'm listening to The Carpenters' "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" and Hannah heard the chorus, "What do you get when you fall in love?", and answered, "A RING!!". She then told me that when you fall in love, the man gets a woman a ring and marries her, like her Daddy did her Momma. What a smart child!!

A Happy Christmas!!

I wasn't really excited about Christmas this year - the Bah, Humbugs sorta bit me at the last moment. But we've had a wonderful time the past couple of days.

Monday, all seven of Mom's children were together at my sister's home. We usually all get together once or twice a year, so it's something special. There was lots of wonderful food, everyone got to visit, and we had a very interesting gift exchange, thanks to Ryan's Mimi! Everyone laughed so hard and got confused, but in the end, we all got really great gifts. The brothers brought their instruments, as did a couple of the grands. We all sat in a big circle and sang Christmas carols before opening gifts, which is nice. I video'd part of it. I have to remember not to sing next year, though! LOL

Yesterday, the newlyweds opened their home to us for the McCleskey Annual Christmas gathering. We did a non-traditional Christmas lunch of lasagna & salad. We prepared the food, then had our gift exchange. For the first time, we drew names, which was a hit.

After lunch, we played games and Poppi, his Queen and his offspring came down and spent the evening. It was really nice to see them on Christmas - first time in a long time! Peter had to work, but came to pick me up and brought me home in the early evening and I fell asleep in my comfy chair for a couple of hours.

I got wonderful gifts this year!

I got the coolest popcorn bowl set from Amy - they're stoneware and look similar to the popcorn buckets at the movies. There's a large bowl and 4 smaller ones. She included popcorn, butter flavored oil, Lawry's salt and two popcorn seasonings. What a great gift!

For several years, my sisters and I have made a tradition of giving each other "sister gifts". It's so much fun to put thought into something unique to give them. Beth gave me the cutest wristlet bag and a yummy candle. Kathryn gave us all beautiful dark red hurricane vases. Lori gave us the cutest notepad cubes with matching pencils.

At our gathering yesterday, Flora gave me a gown that was on my wish list and the coolest Maxine mini calendar.

Faith & David gave me the coolest ornaments. One's a silver cross with blue jewels and the other is mercury glass. Now I need to find the perfect place for them. Who needs a tree? LOL

Lori gave me a really neat perpetual calendar to go on my desk.

Mom gave me some MUCH needed cookie sheets and two cookbooks, one is from the Mast side of her family - I absolutely love Amish cookbooks, so I can't wait to sit down and read it from cover to cover. She also passed out wall calendars from the Mast General Store in Asheville, NC. They're really awesome, as they're not just a calendar, but are also an almanac!!

My sweet darling gave me 3 lovely gowns and an awesome MP3 player!! Needless to say, I've been loading music on my laptop today, and am going to load the MP3 player later on today. :) I'm so excited! I've been wanting one for several years now, so I'm tickled pink.

Meg, Greg & Hannah gave me a gift certificate for an online scrappy store, so I'm looking forward to shopping while they've got their Holiday sales going on.

So this year has been a really good one. All the gatherings were peaceful, happy ones, and we've got memories that will last through the year!!

How was YOUR Christmas??

*Smiles*

All Done...

This year is the one to break my record of wrapping gifts at the last moment. As of just a few minutes ago, all our gifts are wrapped and in bins, ready to take to the family gatherings we're scheduled to attend. It feels great, and now I can breathe and relax.

Can you tell I'm happy??

*Smiles*

Torture

Sometimes you just don't appreciate a good thing until you're not allowed to have it for a while! The doctor's got me scheduled for a test on Thursday, and in preparation for that, I'm not allowed to take any Nexium for five days. Not only that, but any sort of heartburn remedy is banned, as well.

So far it hasn't been too terribly bad, but today, I can feel the pressure and the slow, steady ache at the top of my stomach. It's not bad at the moment, but I can almost guarantee that by the time I leave the doctor's office on Thursday, my menu will be limited to applesauce, jello & clear soup. Ugh!! We'll probably stop off and pick up some inexpensive remedy so I can take it as soon as the test is over.

So those of you who can, please pray that I'll be able to make the next few days without too much misery. After being on proton pump inhibitors of one sort or another since about 1993, my body's not too happy to have to go cold turkey like this. I can do it, but your prayers would be greatly appreciated.

*Smiles*

Underappreciated

For a couple of years now, I've been totally trying NOT to like John Mayer's music. I had in my mind that he's just some young pop star and his music is bubblegum pop. Well, tonight I finally sat down and listened to an entire album, and I think my attitude toward his music has changed.

My sweetheart loves "Waiting On The World To Change", and since I'd put the album on my laptop, I thought I'd play it for him tonight. Well, apparently my media player has a mind of its own, so it just kept playing. And I let it.

This guy has true talent for songwriting and his voice has that smoky, husky quality that just makes me want to listen. I love some of the less radio friendly songs. I guess now I'm going to have to start downloading his music.

I thought my music tastes were extremely eclectic, but now I have to add him to my playlist. If you haven't listened to him, you might like it if you try it. :)

*Smiles*

Just for Gennie

I got a phone call from a good friend this evening, and she happened to mention that I needed to update here. So Gennie, this one's for you!

A lot has happened in the past few weeks. I've had quite a few doctor's appointments, and good things are in the works there. Peter's working quite a bit still, and we are no longer keeping Val and Monkey. I'm sad about that, and miss them something fierce, but hopefully they're happy.

We've finally started to get the Christmas spirit. We pulled out a few things to decorate the living room, which is nice. Guess I need to pull the autumn leaves window clings off and find some snowflakes or something to decorate the front door with. I've been doing most of my shopping online this season, just hoping everything is delivered in time. Got my fingers & toes crossed on that one. Now I just need to get busy wrapping stuff instead of leaving it for the last minute.

This weekend is our annual Yoder Family Cookie Day. Not sure what kind of cookies I'm going to be making, but Paula Deen has a cool cookie that I'm thinking of adapting to my own. It involves sugar cookie dough and Thin Mints cookies, but I think I'll just use Andes mints instead. Nothing like biting into a cookie filled with yummy minty chocolatey goodness. :)

Hannah's spending the night tonight, which is always fun for me. It's nice to have some companionship while my sweetheart's working. She's so much fun and keeps me laughing!

So that's about all that's going on in our little corner of bliss. What's happening in your neck of the woods?

*Smile*