Lots of creatures must visit our house at night, but we don't usually see them.

I do recognize the deer tracks on the right though.

Here is a picture of what Jill calls our Park.

I took this from our living room window. God has blessed us with so much beauty.

Texas daughter and grand-daughter are on their way back to TX now.    I'm lonesome.  They came on Thurs. and were going to leave yesterday, but found out the plane was delayed.  Not only that, it was overbooked so they stayed an extra day.  I had some pics of grand-daughter that didn't turn out good at all, and completely forgot to take any of either the 3 of us, or the 2 of us.  I do have a few birthday party ones, which I will share now, and explain at the end of this post.

The first one is most of the Jan. B.D. people. Youngest son is in New York so couldn't be here. I mailed him some chocolate chip cookies.

The 3 of us were born on the same day, Jan. 7th.

We took turn opening presents. Of course the 4 year old got to go first. Her momma helped her. There were 30 of us here. Wow! For lunch we had pizza. One of my grand-daughters came over the day before, and baked 2 pound cakes (under my supervision.) It is a very easy recipe.......2 sticks real butter, 2 cups white sugar, 5 eggs, 2 cups flour, 1 Tbsp. real vanilla. Undoubtedly loaded with cholesterol, but so good. I usually bake mine in like a bundt cake pan, but it's lower on the sides. We also had ice cream, and soda pop, which I don't usually have, but pizza seems to require at least root beer. We always do pizza for the Jan. birthdays so I don't have to cook. This year, because of all the illness going around, I put the candles on individual slices of cake. That way if anyone was sick, only their piece of cake got germs on it. As far as we know, we were all healthy! Amazing!

Today is my 77th birthday.  I'm not going to consider myself old until I'm 80, and then  I might.  Is that OK?  My great -grand-daughter is 4 today, and one of my daughters is.........let me see.......she was born in 1973, so that makes her..........wait a minute, let me find a pencil and a piece of paper.  Hmm.........42, she's 42!

Youngest son will be 31 on Tues.  He wanted chocolate chip cookies for his birthday, so I made enough today for him and some of his friends.  We'll have our big birthday party on Sunday, if the weather isn't too bad.   He won't come for it, as he was just here for Christmas, and it's a long drive from NY.  Another son who lives here in town also has a Jan. birthday, so there will be 4 of us birthday people.  Tex. daughter and grand-daughter plan to fly here tomorrow and stay until Mon.  Meanwhile, we have temps below freezing and snow most of the day today.  Yuck.  I have not been outside today, and don't plan on going out tomorrow.  Hate to think what our heating bill will be.   With Mother being 97, and hubby still getting over his heart and lung problems, we have to keep the house warm enough.  We have geothermal heat and AC, but it still costs quite a bit.

I have a new library book which I plan to start reading tonight.  Didn't have cake today, but I ate enough of the cookies that I don't feel deprived.  Hope all of you are doing well, and staying warm and dry.

Good Morning.

I know that the internet can be used for evil.  It can also be used for good.  This morning as I read Psalms about God's love, I was reminded of that song "The Love of God."  I could remember the first 2 verses but not the last one.  So I decided to look it up.  Then instead of looking up the words I decided to listen to it.  You Tube has a lot of different people singing it.  I listened to George Beverly Shea.  Such a blessing!  He lived to be 104!  Then I saw a picture of Ethel Waters on the side, so I listened to her singing His Eye is on the Sparrow back in 1975.  Anotherblessing!   I still don't know the words to the 3rd verse.  I'm going to look them up now.  Maybe I'll be able to post them?  I'll try.                                                                                            P.S.  Not sure how to post the words here, but did discover I know the first and last verses, but didn't quite remember the 2nd verse.

When I was little we went to the Rose Parade many times.  When I was real little, I'm told we went to my uncle's appliance store which was on Colorado Blvd. and watched it from the store windows.  Later when I was a bit older, my dad took us kids in the back of his pick-up truck.  We lived in Long Beach, and this was before freeways.  He knew all the back roads, and he usually drove too fast.  He'd wait until the parade started, and then he would drive to the far end of the parade route, back up down a side street and park in the middle of the road.   We would stand up in the back of the truck so we could see over the heads of the crowd.  We always left right after the last float so Dad could avoid the traffic leaving and going to the Rose Bowl Game.  We never went to the game.  As I think about it, I'm amazed that my mother allowed this.  She knew what a crazy driver Daddy was.  She even let us ride in the truck bed when he took us up to Sequoia.  If you have ever been on the road to Sequoia you would be amazed too.  I would be terrified to do that now.  I would even be scared to do it in a car.  And I don't think I could ever drive it myself.  I wonder if they've improved that road since then?  It didn't even have guard-rails or anything in those days.  Well, we survived, obviously.

Hubby watches/listens/ sleeps....to the financial news network often.  Today I heard a new term used..........  "bubblicious effects."  I don't even know how to spell it, let alone know what it means (or care.)  Bubble-icious?  It's a crazy world we're living in.

These are wreaths the kids made before Christmas. They're made of paper plates, which you can probably tell by looking. They're very easy to make.

Hubby with his new shirt from oldest daughter, and his new scarf......crocheted by youngest daughter. Youngest son is sitting on the couch.

My mother ordered 2 of these million dollar blankets. Hubby got the other one.

People were practically waiting in line for their turn to hold Baby. She was good. I don't think she cried once.  Every baby should have a big family to hold and love them.  I expect her mama wishes we loved her enough to go and hold her in the middle of the night.  Smile.

I have other manger scenes, but this is my favorite one. Probably because we had one like it when I was little. I don't think my parents could afford a better one. It's made of cardboard. I ordered it on-line a couple of years ago, and paid too much for it. Nostalgia, you know.
I love the lights and colors of Christmas. Youngest son made the reindeer when he was in elementary school. It held candy at one time. Our living room has lots of windows so lights are reflected everywhere. It's really pretty. I'll leave most of the decorations up for a week or so. We plan to have our January family birthday party Jan.11th, so I'll probably put the tree and decorations away before then, and see if I can find or buy some birthday decorations. 5 of us have Jan. birthdays. One of the middle daughters was born on my birthday..Jan. 7th. So was a great-grand-daughter. Oldest and youngest sons both have Jan. birthdays too.

Before and After

Oldest and Youngest

Most Active and Most Inactive

Miscellaneous
These two girls woke up their mama at 3 am, 5, and 6:30. All 3 of them conked out on the couch for awhile. The only way the little ornery one will stay still for a picture is if she's making a face.

A Five-Generation Picture.

Youngest Son Holding his Newest Niece

Have you ever noticed how often the word joy is mentioned in the Bible?  Also there is rejoice, be of good cheer, hope, praise.  All positive words.  I don't think the word happy is used at all, or merry.  Blessed and blessings are throughout the Bible.  Happiness is dependent on the circumstances.  Joy is in spite of circumstances.  All this to say that I wish you all a BLESSED AND JOYFUL  (Joy-filled)  CHRISTMAS!

And now, I'd better go get ready for the day (after I have a cup of coffee.)

Merry Christmas to all my Xanga friends!

I was thinking today of Christmas as a time of unity.  First, unity among Christians.  Then unity with others.  Hannakuh and Kwanzaa are celebrated during that time, and everybody seems to celebrate the New Year, even atheists.  I usually tell people Merry Christmas, as we live in an area where most people say they are Christians.  If you don't know what else to say, you can always say "Happy Holidays."

I said that most people in our area say they are Christians.  There shouldn't be, but there often is a difference between so-called Christians, and those who really are followers of Jesus.  Even those of us who do follow Jesus, often stray off His path, so don't expect Christians to be perfect.  We aren't.  We would like to be, we have good intentions, but we often fail.  The good thing is that when we ask him to forgive us, He does, and gets us back on track again.

I remember when we were in Africa.  Once we had unexpected guests on Christmas Day.  It was a couple who were staying with the Catholic priest to fix his well.  They were from Bulgaria.  The husband was the head of the Communist party in his county back home.  (This was in 1969,)  When he was out of the room the wife told us that her husband didn't believe in God, but she did.  They brought presents for our children, and chocolates for us.  They spoke French but no Sango, and no English, and of course, we didn't understand their language.  Our French was very poor, and their's wasn't much better, so we tried to converse, but mostly we just sat and smiled at each other.  Christian missionaries, and Bulgarian Communists on Christmas Day in the middle of Africa celebrating and enjoying each other's company.  It felt a little weird, but it also felt good.