Ho Ho Ho, it's all over but the payments

Christmas has come and gone, and all that' s left is a distant memory and the future payment of those credit card bills. I am glad it is all over, too much food, so much visiting, it is tiring. Bill and I went to Dona's for Christmas Eve, as did the rest of the family. It was fun as always, Steve and Jeanie were doing as well as could be expected after their home was destroyed, they are picking up the pieces. We had breakfast at Dona's and then Jeannie and I went Christmas shopping, it's Christmas eve, and she still wasn't done!! I enjoyed being with her though. She is such a sweetheart.

Christmas day Bill and I went to mom's, along with Kent. Darren and Mindy showed up about 4:00, so we had a short visit. Shelley was working and Preston went to Minnesota to visit the inlaws. I heard from the both of them too, so Christmas trudged on and was finally over. I don't mean to sound like "Bah , humbug", but it seems that the season just stresses everyone out somuch and then when it is over, everyone goes into that January slump, I need to move to Florida!

Those silly girls....all except for you mom, you're not silly!

Oh, I SO wish I was having a Christmas Party.....would these not be just the most perfect plates and napkins??? Mooning Santas!.....that is just SO ME!

Yesterday, Dec. 21, that first day of winter.....
Mom and I ate lunch at Applebee's, went shopping at Walmart and finished our scrapbooking page for Shelley's birthday. We had coffee and watched our new Clay Aiken Christmas cd, It was a fun day with mom, as always....hugs...

Today Lydia and Rhiannon called me and wanted me to meet them for lunch!
Those silly girls!!....said they missed me and were hungry for banana splits!!
It was nice to see them, guess they are anxious for Spring and the ice cream shoppe! We had such a fun time, laughing at the Mexican cook in the chinese restaurant!.......What's up with that????

Red Hatter's Christmas Party

Dec. 14th......(why do I have to keep putting the date in here?? Where is my date thingy?)
Mom and I finally got around to joining the Red Hat Society. We knew several of the ladies anyway, which was a plus. We went to Ryan's in Mt. Vernon for our Christmas Party. My everyone was all decked out in their finest Red Hat attire! The tables were decorated just beautifully with a Red Hat place mat (which we got to keep), Red Hat Bears that played "Girls just want to have fun", and lots of Red, purple and pink items. It was such fun! We all have a decorated cloth gift bag with lots of fun Red Hat stuff in it! These ladies were just hilarious and it was a good thing we were in the closed party room, because we were loud. One of the workers was a cute young man, who just loves the Red Hat Ladies. He especially liked this lady in the picture!...I think he was just buckin' for a big tip, but he was very cute and charming and made us all laugh! We had a gift exchange! It was wild. You got to choose a gift and open it, but if someone after you wanted your gift you had to give it to them and then YOU had to go choose another wrapped package from the table. At first I thought..."What fun is that?", but it WAS fun and funny too! We all ended up with fun things anyway. I can't wait until next month to see what happens next........so stay tuned for "The Red Hats Ride Again"...

Chuck Berry's still got it...............

Dec. 14th we had tickets to see Chuck Berry at his St. Louis nightclub "Blueberry Hill". with all of the upset with the fire and taking care of family members during the last few days. I had just about given up the idea of going. As luck would have it, all was taken care of (at least for Wed.) by 5:30. Bill and I changed our clothes and took off for the city.

Let me just say that Chuck has still got it!....it was a fantastic performance, he sang all of the great old rock and roll songs from the 50's and 60's and alot of wonderful blues. At the age of 79, he was still dancing across the stage and even did his famous "duck" walk. In fact, the room he always performs in is called the "Duck Room" and is lined with ducks of all sorts!. It is a small, intimate venue and I loved it. Bill and I needed some cheering up after the last few days, it was just unbelievable being in the same room with a great Icon like Chuck Berry. I am so glad we made it to hear him sing. He is such a pro and played that guitar like it was his oldest and dearest best friend. What an amazing entertainer!

It was really dark, and they sign said "No photoes", so I had to be careful and couldn't adjust my lighting, but wanted one just to remember the night.

The second picture was when they performed the last song, which was Johnny B. Good and some girls from the audience came up and danced on stage......in face we were all dancing anyway.....how could you not?

I have no words.....

Since I can't get the date thing to work on this blogger thing, I will just have to type the date in my post.

On Dec. 13th my Brother-in-law and Sister-in-law, Steve and Jeannie Halterman had a terrible fire at their house.
The fire was just horrible, and the loss of their little dog was the worst blow of all. My BIL drives a semi-truck and is on the road allot, he was talking to my SIL on the cell phone when she drove in the drive and saw the house on fire. Can you imagine??? He was in CA. He flew home from Albuquerque, NM and Bill picked him up at the airport. We were all at the house yesterday when he saw it for the first time. He cried, but then, we all went inside and there were some things that they could save. I can't see how they can save the house, but that is what they are talking about. Two bedrooms upstairs only had smoke damage and there were some things inside cabinets that were still OK. They lost their computers and everything that went with that. The top floor fell into the basement, it is just a horrible thing. They are spending the day with adjusters and insurance people today. My BIL/SIL are deeply religious and they kept saying how thankful they were for every little item we found that could be saved. It was so amazing, a true Christian spirit between the two of them. It just made me want to cry hearing them talk like that , so positive. If it wasn't for their little dog, I think they would have taken it all much better, if that is possible. I think it will be ok, eventually. They were offered a free house to live in for as long as they want by one of their church members, so I think they are going to do that for now.

We are going tomorrow to help them clean after all of the insurance people are done with them. Hopefully things will go up hill from here, so everyone please keep them in your prayers.

I titled this post: I have no words, but it appears that I do....I guess I should have called it "I haven't the RIGHT words", because I don't.

25 years later.....

Today is the 25th anniversary of the death of our beloved Beatle, John Lennon.
It's hard to believe it has been that long since this terrible tragedy changed music history forever. I have often wondered what beautiful pieces of music he would have given the world, had he lived. A horrible loss, not just of his life, but the loss of the creative genius that he was.

John Lennon and the Beatles rose to fame during my teen years, continuing on through my life until that fateful night in December, 1980. I remember the night like it was yesterday, watching Monday night football, then the horrible news broadcast to the world....I remember getting on the phone and calling a friend, it affected all of us of a certain age..we cried together.

Forward to today. There is now a plaque in Central Park across from the very brownstone where he was living and where he was shot by a crazed fan. The plaque is flush with the ground and just says "Imagine" on it with some etching around the edge. As I am typing this, there is a huge crowd standing in "Strawberry Fields" (the area around this memorial plaque), singing Beatles songs from long ago. It is very heart-wrenching and it hurts to watch it, but a heart-felt tribute to John Lennon.

I chose the above picture because it was taken the same day he was murdered. John and Yoko had a photo shoot with the famous photographer, Annie Lebovitz, that very day.. How interesting and prophetic that this was the last picture of John Lennon when he was alive...and how "John and Yoko-ish", that it would be John in the Nude and Yoko completely clothed in black with her hair swirling around them. I would have expected nothing less of them.

So this is MY small tribute to John Lennon on this day in early December, with snow flying outside my windows and John Lennon music playing on my computer,
John...we miss you still.

Beam me up Scottie, never saw that one comin'

Thanksgiving has come and gone and we are on our way to ..Ho Ho Ho….Christmas. So, what has happened since our wonderful vacation?

We have gotten back into our normal pattern of life. It seemed weird once we got back home, we were so used to being on the go and everyday had been an adventure, ….things seemed mundane. It was good to be home though, back to our own bed, coffee in front of the tv watching the business news, feeding the chickens and letting Sally run in the early morning.

Mom and I went to Mt. Vernon last week and had a chocolate latte at the Rend Lake College coffee shop. It was a snowy, cold day, so we enjoyed it so much, sitting in the warmth of the coffee shop while watching the flakes swirl around outside the plate glass windows.

Danielle came and stayed for a couple of days before heading west towards home. She is officially out of the military now and is looking forward to starting a new life in Wyoming. Mom came up for supper and we had a really nice time. Danie, please keep in touch, we love ya.

Last weekend Bill and I went to Fairview Heights to the mall. It was fun walking among the shoppers with all of their packages and the Christmas music playing throughout the building.

Sunday morning there was snow on the ground when we woke up, not much, probably about an inch. I went to let the chickens out and the first one ran out and then stopped dead in his tracks, looked at the snow and ran back into the coop! Crazy birds, they get wigged out about everything.

This week mom and I had lunch with Teresa. I will be glad when she is finished with school, maybe we can go shopping and get in some mischief like the good old days.
Mom and I decorated our red hats for the Red Hat Society. I heard from the “Queen Mom”, Rhae Alvis today. We are old friends from school and were co-workers many years ago. We will go to the Christmas party next week and become members officially. Sounds like such fun.

Preston called to tell me that my other grandbaby is also a boy! I told him I was so excited, and couldn’t wait for both new babies to get here. He, Amanda and family had a great time at Disney World last week. Preston couldn’t stop talking about the trip, reminded me of when he was a little boy…kind of pulled at my heart strings for a minute.
I am glad Amanda has made him so happy and now he's about to embark on a new journey, being a dad. We love you all so much!

Shelley called today. She is doing fine also, She and Cary have finally got moved into their new home. They had read the blog about all of our vacation stops and events. Cary just had to let me know I made a fetching wench!!.. He is such a hoot! Shelley was her cheerful, happy self as always. She is just waiting for baby Garrett to be born.

So today we winterized the chicken coop and put a heat lamp in there…hope there are no singed feathers in the a.m.
So that is a quick rundown of the last few weeks since we got home.

Let me just leave you with this little tidbit:

Mr. Sulu is gay…..beam me up, Scottie…I never saw that one coming!
(It's ok, Georga, you're still my hero!)