Pre-Holiday Cleaning

Our Boise Thanksgiving was a real treat, but now we're back home and into the pre-Christmas rush of "Things That Must Be Done". First on my list: clean the carpet. We're hosting a Graceful Dinner this Saturday, not to mention family who will be here for Christmas, and the carpet was looking awful, really awful. As soon as we got home Sunday evening, I had DH retrieve the carpet cleaner from the office and I got busy moving furniture Monday morning. By Monday evening the carpet was looking MUCH better, though I was still pulling dirt out. No small city family does ground-in dirt better than mine, I'm absolutely convinced. Of course, there are a lot of us tramping around the house.

O.k. carpets are clean (mostly) and furniture goes back in, albeit in a slightly different configuration. This year instead of putting the Christmas tree in the window, I'm trying it in the corner by the fireplace, necessitating moving the couch and flanking tables and causing great upheaval in DH's pile of stuff in his corner of the living room. I'm not sure where it's all going to go, but I really need to have it gone.

Today I'm moving the cleaning machine on down the room to begin getting rid of some piles in the kitchen. Luckily I did a pre-emptive strike a couple of weeks ago, so it's not quite as bad was it could be. Good thing cuz I really gotta bake a batch of bread and attempt to do some laundry today too - and do something with my American Heritage Girls today - ack!

How are you doing with your Christmas shopping? Me? Well, I have started, but there's much more to do. Monday I did let my mouse do a little bit of browsing and we found a few gifts to order as well as my very favorite Christmas coffee - Gloria Jean's Mocha Merrimint!

Last year Gloria Jean didn't make this Paulson family holiday staple, and Christmas morning just wasn't the same. My sister-in-law and I both wrote the company about our utter disappointment, and now it's back!! Yay!! I'm sure our sorrowful letters melted the hearts at Gloria Jean's. :) I tried a couple of substitutes, but none compared. So I've ordered a nice supply of this, plus some other GJ offerings. . . can't wait till my order arrives!!

Hardanger makes such wonderful Christmas ornaments and I've started stitching a few. The smocking guild luncheon is this Saturday and I've really gotta find a lightning needle to get something made up in a hurry, as my current stitching has been for other uses.


Winter is creeping up on us here in the Mid-Columbia, but the pot of geraniums near my front door is bravely putting out a little color for me in spite of the cold December nights.

Lazy Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. It's a time to reflect on the good things, to give thanks, to gather with loved ones, and for me, a chance to slow down and rest. We spend the long Thanksgiving holiday in Boise with DH's brother and my sister and their families. Our boys stay with their Paulson cousins, DH, Kirsten and I stay in an inexpensive hotel room we find on Priceline. We sleep in, take the morning very easy, sip coffee, watch the Macy's parade and leave for the house around noon. The rest of the day is spent chatting, perhaps stitching, watching football, doing a little shopping, but mostly just relaxing. Repeat the next day (minus parade) and the next day. :)

Mmmmm, lovely.

Tonight we're changing up the action. Tonight is the BSU vs. Nevada-Reno football game. Jim, Geoff, Kip and a friend went out into the cold, rainy night to tailgate and watch the game down at Bronco Stadium. The rest of us are going out to Meridian to watch the game on the big screen tv at my sister's house. It's warm there, and they have snacks ready for us.

Hope the Broncos give us a lot to cheer about tonight!!

And I hope you have had as nice a Thanksgiving as I have had.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is Good; His love endures forever.
Psalm 106:1

Just a Little Test

I've downloaded a little program for my Droid phone so I can blog on the go. Consider this a test.

Enjoy the photo of one of my silly Story Hour boys.

Slippage

Each day that goes by mocks me and my to-do list. As soon as one task is crossed off, another two or three take its place in an ever-expanding game of whack-a-mole!! And thus it is that the days slip away and nothing is written here on my lonely little blog.

Some stitching has been accomplished in the last couple of weeks, mostly in the creating of six tiny hardanger Christmas ornaments which were sold at my church's silent auction last Friday.

Here is an in-progress snap of the ornaments, shown with my apologies for the poor quality. Unfortunately I failed to get a photo of the finished ornies, but they were quite well received at the auction, as was my Cinnamon Swirl Bread. :)

The photo above was taken with my new Motorola Droid cell phone, and you can see that I'm having to relearn another gadget with various degrees of success! While the iPhones we previously used worked mostly fine for me, with dropped calls now and then, they were an abyssmal failure for our business partners who had no service at all in their home and the guys had nothing, or next-to-no service, at the office. Verizon's service is much better here in the Tri-Cities and I am enjoying the excellent screen resolution when I read blogs on the Droid. My biggest complaint is that Bejewelled is not available yet, but I'm sure time will resolve that issue. :)

The new year has started for American Heritage Girls (rather like Girl Scouts) and this year I am teaching the Pioneer class, five girls mostly in 7th grade. About half of our troop participated in the Veterans Day parade in West Richland, where the wind was blowing, but at least the sun was shining too. We've also just completed a food drive for our local 2nd Harvest food bank and I snapped a pick of the girls after they had helped to load up the mini-van.

This fall I have also taken on the role of Story Hour leader/story teller. Story Hour is a preschool Bible program that runs in conjunction with the ladies Bible study on Friday mornings. I really enjoy being with preschoolers and this has given me the opportunity to get out my Betty Lukens felt set once again, and the children seem to be fascinated with this low-tech story delivery system, lol!

Well, I'd better wrap this up for now - it's time to bake another batch of bread for the family. I hope to be able to get around to visit with you on your blog sometime soon!

A Thousand Thank Yous

Our dear Anne surprised me with a beautiful RAK over the weekend! I was shocked to open the mailbox and see a squishy package from Australia, just in time for trick-or-treat - and what a TREAT!

Gotta love the chocolate for the sweet tooth and hot cocoa for the coming cold days, as well as the lovely skeins of floss in my favorite blue colors.

But the real sweetness is the beaded scissor fob, one of Anne's special creations, in blue, of course. We share a love for the blues. :)

Anne, you're one special lady, very much beloved by me and all the x-s bloggers! Thank you for your amazing kindness and generosity. Your friendship is the best gift of all. Hugs!!