Christmas at Our House

Christmas Dinner - Not nearly the dinner we're used to having. Usually we have to put the grand kids at their own table cause the main table is full of our kids and their significant others. Although we miss em dearly, we realize they have their own lives to live and we carry on. Simple but still excellent - thanks all to Cathy for her skill in the kitchen. I've even started gaining too much weight and plan on starting a bit of a diet ---after the holidays, that is. We truly hope all of our family and friends have a safe and happy Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year.

Its beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

Well our furnace is fixed. They came yesterday afternoon and installed th new part just in time for the cold weather that we are expecting. They still think that it will snow on Christmas day. Its really nice to have the whole house warm again. I couldn't get my crafts finished because the other rooms were so cold. And working out in the main area with the cats getting into everything forget it! Still have more sewing to do for the new grandaughter. I see her on the web cam all the time. She sure is a chubby little thing with lotz of hair. She will be 2 months old on the 27th and I am dying to see her and hold her! Sigh!

Got my baking finished today. We only have 2 close neighbors so I baked chocolate chip cookies and lemon bars and made them a couple of towels and crocheted little Christmas stocking ornaments and a small Victorisn Christmas tree. After the holidays there will be no more sweets in the house! Ha! We plan to diet!

Made all the cats a little cat nip toy even the stray that is outside. Hope they will all tire themselves out tonight and stop running around the house. They get pretty noisey almost like having kids in the house! Ha!

Its hard to believe that Christmas is less than 3 days away. It came up on me so fast this year. Last year we were getting ready for the move to TN. Don't want to move for a long, long time!

Well its time to make my delivery of the goody bag. Hope everyone has a wonderfull Christmas and New Years.

White Christmas

Weather man is predicting snow on Christmas day and one other day. Its going to feel like Christmas this year!

We finally got in the hot tub tonight after it being to cold and then we had the snow. Sure felt good. Its about 33 degree's right now may go down into the 20's tonight. We are still waiting for the heating/airconditoning guy to call and tell us he got the part for the heating system. We had to close off the other 3 rooms so the wall heater could at least keep the chill off somewhat. Our bedroom and bathroom are cold though. Thank heavens for electric blankets! I have to wait to take a shower in the morning after it warms up somewhat.

The kids and grandchildren got their packages in time. I was just waiting for the Penneys package to get there and that was delivered yesterday. My daughter will have to wrap up the stuff for the girls. I had sent 2 other boxes of wrapped stuff. Didn't do much this year everything seems to cost so much so we had to cut back.

This year has really flown by its hard to believe we have been here nearly a year (Jan.). Best move we ever made.

Hope everyone has a wonderfull Christmas and New Years.

First Dusting of Snow

A little early (Dec 16th) but who cares, it's our first snow. Only a dusting but we're hoping for a white Christmas.

White Stuff

Well the weather has taken a turn for winter. Its suppose to start raining tonight and turn to snow. Suppose to get 1-2 inches. If it does snow, will put a picture on the blog for those of you that haven't seen snow in awhile. My grandaughters can't wait to see snow. Hope they do fly up in Jan. better chance of some snow then.

This has not been a fun weekend. Last night we discovered that the furnace wasn't working when it was 65 degree's in the house and the thermastate was set on 70! There is a separate unit on the wall in the dining room that we fired off last night (it doesn't heat the whole house) and our bedroom was cold. Brrrr! Luckily, we have an electric blanket on the bed. The guy came today and checked it out and said that the maker of the unit extended the warrenty from 5 to 10 years on the unit because of some part that rusts out (now the part is being made of stainless still instead of galvanized steel). Well the 10 years is up sept of next year thank God. So instead of $1,100 repair its $350! Merry Christmas! So he has to order the part which should come by Thurs. so I guess we will wear extra clothing etc. till then. We have propane heat and I don't know if this other unit will use up the propane faster than if we used the regular furnace. And to think I wanted to remove this extra unit that is attached to the wall in the dining area! Definately will stay now. Guess the former owner put this in case there was a power outage or something so they would still have heat. They do have ice storms up here. We may want to invest in a couple of electric heaters!

We are ready for Christmas but its so weird being alone at Christmas. Its always been the kids and later the grandchildren. I have been baking cookies to give to our neigbor. I had to bake extra today as Chuck was eating up the cookies! Ha! I made lemon bars, peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip and pumpkin bread. I made a batch of what was suppose to be peanut butter cookies and forgot to put in the peanut butter! Guess it was a Sr. moment! Smile! Chuck is eating them says they are like sugar cookies just have brown sugar as well as white sugar in them. Today is a good day for soup so I made a big pot of vegetable beef soup and a pot of beef stew. I can freeze whats left of the vegetable soup for another time. We will probably eat soup tomorrow as well. Its hard to get used to cooking for two after cooking for 5 or more all the time!

Foggy Top Tennessee

The weather here has been kinda crazy lately. It maybe in the 30's when we first get up and by late morning it's in the 50's. Then within a couple of hours we're on our way back to the 30's. Sometimes it's drizzling rain, then sometimes it may be spitting snow. Can't seem to make up its mind. At any rate we spent yesterday in Cookeville Christmas shopping. Finally got it all done so now we can relax and let the holidays roll on. Shopping doesn't seem to be as much fun as it used to. What's up with that? Seems like the holidays just keep getting more commercialized and it's all about money. Oh, well! Life goes on.

Jim's House

Chuck and I finally finished boarding up Jim's stall. It took a couple of days to get it done. Rough cut lumber is kinda heavy and, this being red oak, sometimes it's hard to drive a nail into. We cut windows in the east and south sides to let in sunlight. Jim uses them to keep an eye on us, especially at feeding time. There's a full size door opening on the north side and the eight inch deep sawdust floor helps keep it warm inside. In the future, we intend to finish the 24' x 60' farrow shed that his stall is attached to. Chuck has to level out the roof from the inside by lifting the rafters a bit. Once that's done, we'll put on a new steel roof, then finish the outside with the same rough cut lumber that is on Jim's stall. The building already had electric/water and a sewer line installed, we just need to finish it out. All in due time as the money comes available.