An Award

Zaroga over at Zarogna's Nook was so nice to give me this sweet award.


"This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

It's hard to choose just eight. I enjoy visiting all my blogging friends:)

I am passing this award on to:

Lois at Walking on Sunshine
Lisa at Pockets of Time
Donette at Our Corner of the World
Elena over at Elena's Garden
Lara Gisela
CeeKay at Thinkin' of Home
Julieann at My Daily Life as a Wife and Mother
Susan at Sincerely Susie Homemaker

This Baby Changes Everything

"For today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."


Merry Christmas from our house to yours.

Dreaming Of A White Christmas? ---No Problem

Looking out my back door to the deck this morning reveals the results of our December snowfall... so far.

We have received approximately 35" of snow since December 1st, and another 12 inches is forecast for the next two days.



No, we do not live in Alaska:) We are in South Central Wisconsin.



It is very beautiful, but also this amount of snow along with the -25 degree wind chills this weekend have been very dangerous for travel.

We have a large fleet of snowplows and salt trucks working our highways and streets daily. This is truly our tax dollars hard at work.

God bless those drivers who get out in this terrible weather to make our travel safer!

Please be praying for all those who are out on the roads trying to get to Christmas destinations.

We have three sons and families traveling home Tuesday and Wednesday from Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Milwaukee.

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas.

Show and Tell Friday - Seeing Santa ....Remember When?

I am joining in on Kelli's Show and Tell Friday. Visit her blog and enjoy all the treasures being shared.

I have been visiting Christmas past in my December posts, so I thought I would continue today with this photo from 1986.



Do you have any memories of being afraid of seeing Santa in person? I mean there he was right in front of you -- the Big Guy himself! And he's looking at you and saying something...to YOU!
You've see pictures of him, not too scary... but this is different -- that bright red suit and all his white hair and beard-- a bit overwhelming.


In this picture: (On the left starting with the shortest on up)- Christian (2), Tim (2),Daniel (6), Nathan (10). (On the right)- Ben (4) - And Santa is holding Kent (newborn)


The older boys are okay with Santa, but look at the two-year-olds- Tim and Christian.
They look just a little leery of Santa. When Santa talks, they listen:) Little Christian's hand up to his mouth gives a glimpse of how they both might feel... Santa is a little scary.

This photo was taken at the annual "Breakfast with Santa" put on by the Rotary Club. This was the beginning of many years of the annual date with Santa for our kids and their cousins. Several more cousins would be added to the ranks in the next few years.

Also at this Santa Breakfast, were the Shriner Clowns, who walked around greeting the children and making balloon animals and swords for them. Tim is holding one of those coveted balloon swords. We wouldn't leave until all the boys had one.
These boys are now young men and they will tell you today how cool those swords were!

Santa was okay too:)

I hope this Christmas brings love and sweet memories for you. Merry Christmas to you and your family.

Show and Tell Friday - More Christmas Past

I am joining in on Kelli's Show and Tell Friday. Visit her blog and enjoy all the treasures being shared.

This is a picture of me at age 7-almost 8 and in second grade. I remember being very happy to receive this doll from Santa on Christmas morning. You could "feed" this doll from a bottle and what I didn't know was that it would then "wet" in it's diaper.

Some other things I noticed in this picture is my brother, Steve, (on the right) playing with his new tractor-- and a set of checkers/dominoes on the left that one of us received. The little rocking horse and bear in the background were for my, then, baby brother Wayne. He would have been almost 2 years old.

I remember that bear was around during our childhood for a long time and the rocking horse was enjoyed by several more children since Wayne was born fourth of seven siblings.

Can you see in the background by the tv the stocking (a real sock) stuffed with an orange and candy and other little things still attached to the chair? We didn't have a fireplace so we hung them on a kitchen chair that we brought in by the tree on Christmas Eve:)




I also was given this new dress and shoes. I was so excited about these shoes because you could wear the strap down like a Mary Jane shoe or slip it back over the back of the shoe and it became a slip-on.

I think this Christmas sticks in my memory because after posing for this picture with my new dress and shoes on, I went back into the living room and played with my doll some more. My dad brought me the bottle filled with water to feed her. And of course, I was quite surprised when all of a sudden my dress was wet! I still remember how my dad enjoyed my surprise:)


Do you have any special Christmas gifts that you remember from your childhood? I hope they bring a smile to your face like taking this walk back into time has for me.

Merry Christmas!

Show and Tell Friday- Christmas Past - Rootin' Tootin' Cowboys

I am joining in on Kelli's Show and Tell Friday. Visit her blog and enjoy all the treasures being shared.


I was looking through an album of scanned pictures that our son Ben had gathered and sent me. I came across these pretty cute cowboys that I wanted to show you.

This is a childhood picture of my handsome husband ready to save the wild West... or maybe his neighborhood. This treasured photo, taken in the 1950's, came from his mother's album.


Travel a generation later and here are two of his sons having the same kind of fun in 1984. This photo was gleaned from my mother's album.

Daniel, on the left, is 4 yrs. old here and Ben is 2 yrs. old. Daniel is now the daddy of a year old son and Ben is going to be daddy to a daughter in March.



Missing here is a picture, that I know is also in my mom's albums. One of my older brother in a cowboy outfit, and me dressed as a cowgirl on Christmas morning at about this same age. Our aunt had sent the outfits to us from Texas.

So giddy-up and yippy ky-yi-aaa. See you later, partna'! Hope you are enjoying Christmas memories too!

Snow on the Pumpkin

Good morning! We awoke to a couple of inches of snow today. A "smidgen" compared to counties east of here--some with 8 or more inches of snowfall. I'd love to show you the snow-capped pumpkin on our deck that Nathan and Kristen brought over for our lively resident squirrel family to feed on. I'd love to show you that, but the memory card failed in my camera last week and we haven't replaced it yet. So you will have to use your imagination today:)

We had a wonderful family gathering on Thanksgiving. All of our family was here except our son and daughter-in-law, Ben and Lisa who live in Pittsburgh. We look forward to seeing them at Christmas! They are about four months away from becoming first-time parents to our first grand-daughter Sophia. Yes, she is already named:) I'll save the rest of her beautiful name to share with you when she is born. Ben and Lisa hosted their first Thanksgiving in their home with friends from the university that Ben attends.

At our house on Thursday were Amanda (our high school senior), Jonathan-(home from college in Milwaukee),Daniel and Jess and little Sam (from Milwaukee), Nathan and Kristen (Sun Prairie), Tim (Madison), and three of Tim's friends from Madison- Rachel (Northern Ireland), Kierstie (whose parents are missionaries in Indonesia), and Chelsea (Michigan).

Our Thanksgiving meal was in the evening, which gave plenty of time for conversations in the living room, watching movies downstairs in the family room by fireplace, and working together in the kitchen. Nathan brought his, now famous, homemade pumpkin pies. Jess made a delicious veggie bake and a spinach and strawberry salad, and her great bean dip. Kristen brought cranberry sauce and also helped with various projects in the kitchen including putting the green bean casserole together. Rachel, Kierstie and Chelsea brought delicious pumpkin bread!

Daniel was a tremendous help with carrying things for me- and saving me lots of steps. He also peeled ten pounds of potatoes with his dad. The turkey turned out tender and juicy- and we had quite a feast!:) Almost ran out of room on the island for all the serving dishes. We are thankful for our blessings.

I have to add my love and appreciation for Tim, who spent several hours getting the house ready for Thursday. We had been working with purging storage and clothing for Goodwill and he helped clear that away and make the space in our family room livable again:) Thanks Tim!! Amanda and Jonathan also helped in sprucing up the place.

This was Sam's first time joining us at the table for a meal. I had the privilege of sitting by him and enjoying his ever-expanding vocabulary. I wish I had a picture of that:)

We have been pulling out the left-overs all weekend. I love cooking for one day and not cooking for three:) But we are ready to move on--although if you have a good turkey soup recipe, let me know--I froze the turkey bones and want to try it.

I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving and as we prepare in this new month to celebrate our Savior coming to earth to give us eternal life-- I pray that we keep this gratitude in our hearts for our blessings, and what He did for us and does for us each day.

Merry Christmas