Decorations

Its time to take the decorations down. Its supposed to be 50 degrees today so a good day to take down the wreaths and stuff outside. The inside is coming down too. I put the decorations up early due to a party I had the beginning of December, so they have been up long enough. Hopefully I can get someone to come and take it all down to the basement.
My New Year celebration will be as it has been for many years. A vodka gimlet, shrimp cocktail, pickled herring, and Lipton onion soup dip. Then to bed at 10:30 only to be awakened at midnight by the fireworks and guns going off.
Happy New Year to  all.

Was it Merry?

Wow, what a day it was yesterday. Karrie came early to go to Church with me and then Bible study. We came home and started our appetizers and corn casserole. Then Roy came and we opened Christmas presents. Two of  my favorites is a battery operated drill and a Keurig coffee pot. Had my first cups of coffee  this morning, quick and good.
Went to my sisters for dinner, had plenty of appetizers and cocktails, followed by ravioli and sausage and meatballs. That was followed by a rib roast, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and corn casserole. For dessert there was home made tiramisu, an assortment of cookies and a store bought strawberry cheese cake. After dinner we started opening presents, unfortunately one of the Wood twins got sick and sort of put a crimp in the festivities. Their whole family have been passing this intestinal virus from one to the other. Theresa, Matt, and Maddie stayed home because they were sick, but sent Elizabeth, Anna and Megan. So we opened presents in a rush so that their grandpa could take the sickie home.  When every one else was gone, we[my sister's family and Karrie, Roy and I] exchanged our gifts to each other.  Then home to relax and go to bed.

ps. Check "Mom whats cooking" blog for a new crabmeat appetizer that Lee made.

Am I?

Am I becoming my mother-in-law? She had to go to the grocery store every day and I keep forgetting to get stuff and find myself at the grocery store every day and sometimes twice in one day. Yesterday I needed vanilla instant pudding and bought the cook kind, so back to the store I went. Today I realized that I used all of my eggs baking and back to the store again. I hope I have everything I need and don't have to go out again.
Presents are all wrapped, thanks to Karrie coming out on Sunday to wrap my gifts. Today I had a few odd ones to wrap and so I am done.
My sister, Lee is hosting Christmas dinner so all I have to bring is an appetizer and a side. I'm making mushroom squares that I haven't made in years. Will post the recipe if they turn out as good as I remember them. I'm also bringing a corn casserole. I bought all the stuff to make it for the LWML Christmas party, but Marge told me she was making it and it was already in the oven. So now I have 4 cans of corn to use up.

Its a Wonderful Life

Last night I attended the live radio broadcast of Its a Wonderful Life at the Rialto theater in Joliet. It was put on and broadcast by WJOL. It was a fun evening as the audience was asked to participate with cheering and jeering as requested by cue cards. My nephew, Brad who works at WJOL  had a part in it. We had great seats in the fourth row thanks to Tom, my b-i-l. I took these pictures without flash as taking pictures is not allowed. Throughout the broadcast the cast wandered on and off the stage and threw the old script pages on the floor. They had an old maintenance man coming on stage to pick up some of the mess that added to the humor. Mary and George were played by professionals and the rest of the cast work for WJOL and its affiliates. The Rialto is a grand old theater that has been renovated, just beautiful.

All Done

The repairs to Baby Jesus are finished and ready to be returned to the stable. His hand has been reattached and the crack in his neck repaired. Hope this latest fix lasts.

Guess Who is Visiting??

Yep, Baby Jesus has dropped in for some repairs to his wrist. I fixed it a few years back with bondo, but that didn't hold. I now used an epoxy putty; put his hand back on and fixed the crack in his neck and then will have to sand, paint and finish it with a polyurethane. He will be ready to be on display by Christmas.
A group from Church went carolling today and I didn't go. I'm making lemon squares for tomorrow's LWML lunch and had to change my plans for making a corn casserole. One of my friends said she was making that and it was in the oven. So now I will make a half order of fried rice[last time I made it, there was quite a bit left, thus the half order]. I'm also cooking a swiss steak in the crock pot, it smells delicious.
I am done carving Christmas ornaments, so now I can start on some new stuff. I think I carved  thirty something of the cowboy santas.

Christmas Party

We had our Bible study Christmas party last night. A few people were unable to attend, but it still was fun. My friend Pauline, the potter gave me this beautiful coffee cup along with a loaf of her homemade cinnamon bread, yum.

Miscellaneous Posts

I finally got around to taking pictures of the 2011 ornament.  Its a cowboy Santa.

I bought my first amaryllis and I think I planted it too early, and I thought it was red. But beautiful it is. 

And here is a picture of the luminaria bags, with Christian symbols cut into the bags. Becky writes devotions for each day of Advent which relates to the symbol of that day.