Baby It's Cold Outside!

Yep, it sure is cold outside.  According to the temperature on my computer, at 2:43 p.m., it's 5 degrees above zero!  That ain't no heat wave!!!  Supposed to be like that for the next few days.  Oh goody!  Get out those heavy coats, hats and gloves!  Winter is here in Iowa.

I'm sitting in my living room with a Christmas tree with lights only!  Finally got all the decorations off (they still have to be put into their boxes) and this poor bare tree!  Hopefully I'll figure out how to get the tree apart.  Barb bought it for me in November and put it together.  She was going to be here this weekend to help put everything away but . . . she's in California!  She forgot she had a conference and vacation time coming.  I got everything down okay, and putting the boxes away won't be a problem, but I'm not sure about getting the tree itself put into it's box.  We'll see, we'll just have to see!  

When Christmas is over all the color leaves your home.  I rearranged furniture already.  My new TV and fireplace don't take up near the amount of room the old entertainment center did.  Glad we got rid of that without any problems.

Did I tell you how we did that?  The evening we exchanged gifts with  my family, my children decided that the new TV needed to be put on the wall and the fireplace put into place.  That meant removing the entertainment center from the living room.  About 11:30 that evening Barb & Jim removed it from the room.  Jim put it on Craig's List as FREE and they put a sign on it out in front of my building.  It was supposed to rain so I found a tarp and Jim and I covered as much of the center as we could in the rain!  When I got up Saturday morning I was really hoping to look out and find the entertainment center gone but . . . that didn't happen!  We continued our preparations for Christmas lunch with Glee, Ron & their family.  Actually the girls made breakfast, Jim & Mandy put a fantastic crockpot full of chili together and I took care of other things.  Before Glee, Ron and the boys got here Barb told me the good news . . . . someone had picked up the entertainment center.  Thank goodness!!  Now we didn't have to figure out how to get it into Karsten's truck and off the front lawn!!!   Jim took it off Craig's List and that was one less thing to worry about!  Wished everything would go that smoothly!!

Anyway, I'm still sitting here with a naked Christmas tree.  One box of ornaments are in their respective boxes and one more to go.  Then it's just odds and ends that I have to find a home for.  Every year I say I'm going to separate things into living room, kitchen, den/spare bedroom, bathroom, etc., but it never quite works out that way.  I get to the point where I just want to get it done and put away.  And I just better get to that.  

Until another time . . .  

Merry Christmas #2

Merry Christmas #2!  My children came to my house on Friday, December 14 to celebrate Christmas with me.  Saturday the rest of the family was coming to help celebrate the season.  We got some great pictures and had a whole lot of fun!!  Our (my sister and I), grandchildren got along so well.  We weren't sure that this would happen, but it did and it was so much fun watching them.  Glee asked Jackson if he remembered Charlotte and his answer was, yep!  Or something original like that.  Jackson cracks me up with some of the things he says, like someone mentioned his tie (like  your tie Jackson) and he said it was built-in!  Heaven help all of us as he gets older!!!  Gotta love that boy.

Pictures . . . . 

The little ones love to have books read to them and Barb was elected to do the job.

The grandchildren (and I do mean grand)!

Barbie, Jim, Beth & Mike (the Davis/Sass kiddos).

Glee, Beth, Tristan, Karsten, Jackson, Mike & Ron.  The Sass/Foels Family.

If Barb can read to the little ones, Tristan can read to Oliver.  Oliver really looks interested in what's going on!

Airplane ride for Charlotte.  Jackson's waiting his turn!

Barb's turn to open her present!

Attack Barb!!  Tristan & Charlotte did a great job of it!!

Would you believe all 4 of those little kids got into the Pak 'n Store!  They had a ball!

Jim's turn to have his picture taken with the tree.  His kid really love him!  Can't you tell???

Oliver got a hold of  Barb's tongs!

Glee & Beth share a picture!

Jim & his son.

See Oliver, this is how to play with this!!!  Oliver would rather say 'hi' to the camera.

Mandy & her kiddos!!! 

Me and my grandson!

Mike got a new cap! 

Mandy brought crafts for the kids to work on. 

Everybody got into the act.  They made great looking Christmas wreaths!

Oliver loves boxes . . . should got him a few for Christmas!

The Foels connection, plus Uncle Mike.

One more shot!

Oliver likes the pictures in the book Tristan is reading!!

Present for Oliver!

Read more stories Barbie!  Read some more!

 That's some of our pictures of Christmas 2012.  Won't be long and the little ones, won't be little anymore.  Jackson is 5, Charlotte is 3, Tristan is 2 and Oliver is the baby at 1.  By next year there will be all kinds of changes in each of them.  I'm sure Oliver will be right in the middle of anything that the Mag 3 decide to try.  They sure had fun together.  Let's do it again next year!!!

 

Merry Christmas!

Barbie with Ollie & Charlotte -- two cute little kiddos!

 

Charlotte enjoyed helping Oliver open his gifts!  Isn't he the perfect Christmas elf???

Oliver got new shoes!!!

Charlotte was threatening me with a feather duster wearing her dad's new hat!!!

Oliver's favorite thing to say was 'dog' and he's checking out a box with dogs all over it! 

Gotta love this little boy.

I got a new TV.  Wow!  What a great gift!

Petey, Odie, Jim, Charlotte, Oliver & Mandy.  Not the greatest picture, but it's the whole family minus Boomer & Milo!  What a Christmas!

Mandy with her gift card to Penney's from Barbie!!  She's one happy shopper!

Grandma got Charlotte a new wii game with the princesses!!!

Mandy with her precious baby boy!

My new TV and fireplace.  Barb got me the fireplace, what a cool gift!

Look what you got Oliver!!!

I got a snowman vest from Barb!  How appropriate as I dearly love snowmen!!

Merry Christmas all!  In more ways than one!  As I sit here creating this particular blog it's snowing and blowing outside.  Fortunately for me, it's nice and warm here inside!  According to the news, we are experiencing blizzard conditions.  Got a call this morning (before 6 a.m.) from my boss telling me we were closing the offices and Head Start centers for today.  I called the local radio stations and gave them the information so my job is completed for the day.  From my patio doors it doesn't look that bad out there and one of the guys I talked to at one of the radio stations said he didn't think it was that bad out . . . he had driven in from Platteville and it wasn't bad.  But it does sound like the winds will be picking up and there will be lots of drifting and more snow coming!  Welcome to winter Iowa!!!  In town it doesn't look as bad as if you are out in the country.  They are giving a road condition report right now and the map looks pretty sick!  For those of you that have to go out, be careful out there driving. 

We celebrated our family Christmas last weekend.  What fun!  It was my turn to host the gathering.  My children and grandchildren came Friday night.  What a joy to spend some time with my grandchildren.  We decided to open gifts from my immediate family on Friday night after they all arrived here.  Jim and Mandy brought their dogs (Odie and Petey) along too.  Odie had an accident earlier in the week and their dogsitter backed out on them.  Plus Jim wasn't sure anyone else would be able to give Odie his meds.  Odie had been run over by a car earlier in the week.  He didn't look real healthy when they got here.  Petey was ready to go!!  But Petey is always ready to go.  What an active dog!  We got everything upstairs and the dogs settled down nicely and joined us for gift opening. 

Time out from gift opening to read a story.

Open your gift Daddy!

What do you want? 

The Davis Family, minus Odie.  Petey is one big dog!!!

This should not surprise anyone, but when putting these pictures on I, as usual, put them in the wrong order, etc. so finally decided to just put them on as you see them and call this a collage of our family Christmas.  We had a great time.  Petey and Odie were wonderful.  They were so well behaved.  Jim may not agree with me as on Friday night he had an awful time getting Odie to take his medicine but eventually he got it down his throat.  There was a marked difference in Odie's health from the time they arrived to when they went home.  I'm happy to report that Odie is doing great and back to his normal self.  (1.21.13).  I'm a little late in getting these finished but here they are!!!!

More to follow on the next edition.  The rest of the family . . . .